October 1995

SIDEBAR: Alternate Paths to Xenotransplantation The tantalizing possibility of using a potentially unlimited supply of organs from animals to replace damaged human ones -- through xenotransplantation -- has, in just the past few years, jumped the divide from purely academic possibility to big-business likelihood. A half-dozen or so well-supported biotechnology companies have sprung into existence to pursue the creation of transgenic animals -- pigs with human genes, primarily -- or to develop

Sidebar:Projected Efforts of Congressional Budget Resolution on Nondefense R&D for the years 1995 to 2002. Analysts say funding cuts represent a shift in Congress away from traditionally 'reflexive' support for scientific initiatives Senate and House committees surprised many science-minded Americans last month when-after months of rumored cuts-they decided to sustain funding for nondefense medical and basic research through 1996. Few analysts were surprised, however, when the committees began

The Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards officially turn 50 this year and, by almost any measure, have a luster unsurpassed among American awards for biomedical research and second internationally only to the near-twice-as-old Nobel Prizes. The reason is obvious to many members of the jury and previous award winners. NEW ROLE: Lasker laureate Joseph L. Goldstein takes over as jury chair. "No award is better than its recipients," says Joseph L. Goldstein, winner of a Lasker in 1985 and a Nobe

On the 50th anniversary of the establishment of its prestigious Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards, the New York-based Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation added a United States senator to the six biomedical researchers-including five immunologists recognized for the same research subject-it chose to honor for their contributions to the medical sciences and research. The foundation's Public Service Award went to Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, for

A number of new biotechnology companies are developing pigs with human genes that will partially mask the foreignness of their organs to allow them to be transplanted into humans. Others, however, are closely studying the immune-system biochemistries of pigs and humans to find more classical, drug-based approaches to effective xenotransplantation. The first aim in both cases is the same -- to defeat the devastating and nearly immediate hyperacute rejection of pig organs by the human immune sys

Following is contact information for selected publishers of journals related to the life sciences that have CD-ROM products available. Academic Press (Methods in Enzymology, NeuroImage, Virology): (800) 321-5068. American Chemical Society (Biochemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and, soon, Journal of Organic Chemistry): (800) 753-4227. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Journal of Biological Chemistry): (301) 530-7145. American Society for Microbiology

Resolutionon Nondefense R&D for the years 1995 to 2002 (millions of dollars budget authority) Constant Dollars R&D R&D R&D R&D R&D Change AGENCY fy 1995 fy 1996 fy 1997 fy 2002 fy 2002 95-02 est. est. est. est. Total Non- 34,164 29,911 29,261 28,487 22,939 -32.9% Defense R&D Total HHS R&D 11,589 11,342 11,125 11,125 8,958 -22.7% Total NASA R&D 9,875 8,747 8,523 7,863 6,331 -35.9% Total DOE 3,969 3,113 2,874 2,590 2,086 -47.4% Non-Defense R&D Total NSF R&D 2,544 2,320 2,381 2,588 2,084 -18.1% T

Echoing the centuries-old debate among scientists over how to organize and name Earth's species, authors of National Research Council (NRC) reports rating research-doctorate programs have also struggled over the "taxonomy" of disciplines within the biosciences. Allan Cartter, in his 1966 report An Assessment of Quality In Graduate Education (Washington, D.C., American Council on Education), observed that grouping programs within the biological sciences represented a challenge, owing to the vari

Fans, Critics Author: Karen Young Kreeger SIDEBAR: Bioscience Make-Over Top Five Institutions in Biological Sciences Doctorate Program In the last couple of weeks, university public relations departments have been issuing press releases and campus newspapers have been publishing front-page articles extolling how well their graduate programs fared in a long-awaited National Research Council (NRC) report rating doctoral research programs. Scientists, higher-education observers, and university

Programs Author: Karen Young Kreeger (Ranked by scores on a survey of scholarly quality of program faculty among peers. Scores on a scale of 0 to 5*") Rank Institution Score Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 1 University of California, San Francisco 4.84 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.83 Stanford University 4.83 3 University of California, Berkeley 4.81 4 Harvard University 4.80 5 Yale University 4.59 Cell and Developmental Biology 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.86 2 Ro

Flawed System Author: Arthur E. Sowers Scientists who do research in academic environments must pay for this research from grant money obtained through a highly competitive process that starts with the writing of a grant proposal. Although this process can end successfully if a grant proposal is funded, it more often than not ends with a proposal being rejected. It is widely known that over the last 15 years the average chance that a proposal will be funded has declined from about 50 percent

The picture painted in your article "Discouraged Job-Seekers Cite Crisis In Science Career Advice" (R. Finn, The Scientist, May 29, 1995, page 1) about grim employment prospects for the new science Ph.D. may be too optimistic. You pointed out that the number of positions for Ph.D. scientists in United States colleges and universities has declined consistently since 1977. You did not consider the very real possibility that the loss of both tenure-track and temporary faculty positions may acceler

I would like to say, as an associate scientist, that I was very pleased to see an article that gave non-Ph.D. scientists some greatly deserved credit [N. Sankaran, "Scientists Without Ph.D.'s Have Niche To Fill And Room To Grow In Industrial R&D Labs," The Scientist, July 24, 1995, page 1]. The only point of contention I'd like to make is the use of the "T" word -- the word "technician" -- by Gordon Moore in the article. Nothing will rile a B.S.- or M.S.- level scientist more than being called

I have studied the lubrication of animal joints since 1959. Between then and 1975 there were, by my count, two major discoveries. Then the government, principally the National Institutes of Health, greatly increased funding for the discipline. There have been no major discoveries since. Government support must have been misdirected-but why? At the National Science Foundation, program managers decide whom to support, and for this they get specialist advice. But reviewers who understand a scient

Alzheimer's Etiology Author: Robert Finn SIDEBAR: Sources of Information on Alzheimer's Research The annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience has long featured "special interest socials"-low-key, early-evening events typically providing members of particular subfields with an opportunity to listen to brief presentations and network with their colleagues over sips of wine and nibbles of cheese. But at this year's meeting (to be held November 11-16 in San Diego), one of the 24 get-together

Articles by Duke university neurology and neurobiology professor Allen Roses and Dennis Selkoe, a professor of neurology at Harvard University, in the September 1994 issue of the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology thoroughly explore the amyloid and apoE hypotheses: A.D. Roses, "Apolipoprotein E affects the rate of Alzheimer's disease expression: beta-amyloid burden is a secondary consequence dependent on apoE genotype and duration of disease," 53:429-37; D.J. Selkoe, "Alzheim

J.W. Harper, G.R. Adami, N. Wei, K. Keyomarsi, S.J. Elledge, "The p21 Cdk-interacting protein Cip1 is a potent inhibitor of G1 cyclin-dependent kinases," Cell, 75:805-16, 1993. (Cited in nearly 500 publications through September 1995) Comments by Stephen J. Elledge and J. Wade Harper, Baylor College of Medicine "This paper describes the identification and characterization of the first human gene encoding a protein- p21Cip1-which functions to negatively regulate Cdks controlling cell-cycle en

R.M. Bertina, B.P.C. Koeleman, T. Koster, F.R. Rosendaal, R.J. Dirven, H. de Ronde, P.A. van der Velden, P.H. Reitsma, "Mutation in blood coagulation factor V associated with resistance to activated protein C," Nature, 369:64-7, 1994. (Cited in more than 100 publications through September 1995) Comments by Rogier Bertina, University Hospital of Leiden, Netherlands According to Rogier Bertina, a professor of hematology at the University Hospital of Leiden in the Netherlands, this paper "provide

Wave Crested? Author: Robert Finn SIDEBAR: Scientific Journals on CD-ROM When The Scientist last reported on CD-ROM-based scientific journals, the number of titles available in that format had recently surged (F. Hoke, The Scientist, Sept. 19, 1994, page 17). In the year since, there has been only a modest increase in the number of journals in the life sciences available on CD-ROM, and librarians and publishers are expressing skepticism that the number will grow much further, as online public

Contributions To Research, Education In The Field Ho-Leung Fung, 52, chairman of the pharmaceutics department at the University of Buffalo, has been honored with the Takeru and Aya Higuchi Memorial Award from the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology in Japan. Fung was given the $10,000 award last month at the national meeting of the academy, which was held in Kobe. LEGACY: University of Buffalo's Ho-Leung Fung was honored with an award named for his mentor. The prize is presented

Named Board Chairman At Shaman Pharmaceuticals Author: Franklin Hoke After an abrupt departure in July from his posts as president, chief executive officer, and director of Genentech Inc., G. Kirk Raab, 59, was elected chairman of the smaller Shaman Pharmaceuticals Inc. last month. Both biotechnology companies are based in South San Francisco, Calif. BACK IN THE SADDLE: As board chairman, G. Kirk Raab will advise Shaman Pharmaceuticals' president and CEO, Lisa Conte. Shaman's approach to find

Genome Author: Holly Ahern SIDEBAR: Selected Suppliers of DNA Sequencing Equipment and Supplies Since the Human Genome Project (HGP) was launched five years ago, human geneticists working to decipher the code of nucleotides in the DNA of human cells have enthralled the public with discoveries of numerous genes that are responsible for human diseases, such as cancer-related genes. Different groups of scientists in laboratories all over the world are participating in this project, taking apart t

Still typing bibliographies by hand? Let EndNote do it for you. Join more than 85,000 researchers who use EndNote. Comes with more than 240 journal styles. EndLink comes with 140 filters to import from online services and CD-ROMs. Windows or Macintosh. NILES & ASSOCIATES, Inc. (800) 554-3049 FAX (510) 559-8683 e-mail info@niles.com Instrument Catalog The new, free 1995-1996 Cole-Parmer instrument catalog contains over 1700 full-color pages and features more than 40,000 products covering scient

Recipients of scientific awards generally give fairly predictable acceptance speeches, expressing gratitude to their families, their institutions, their colleagues, and their funding agencies. But at the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards luncheon in New York on September 29 (see story on page 1), some honorees departed from the usual format to add a personal note. Basic research award corecipient Jack Strominger, perhaps alluding to the New York City Board of Education's difficulty in hiri

JOHN T. BRUER, president, James S. McDonnell Foundation, St. Louis "THE SCIENTIST is a very good source for finding out what researchers are doing, looking at trends in funding, and understanding policy developments." John T. Bruer's work centers on improving educational outcomes with cognitive science. By developing research-based classroom interventions, Bruer offers policymakers and educators a tool to change the way students learn. His book, Schools for Thought: A Science of Learning in