October 1997

Since January of this year, graduate students at Virginia Tech have faced an experience unlike any encountered by their peers in other universities. They must submit their master's degree theses or doctoral dissertations in formats capable of being posted on the World Wide Web. "What we're doing is putting theses and dissertations in our library in an electronic format so that they can be found in a search," explains John Eaton, associate vice provost for graduate studies at Virginia Tech. "We'

The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation honored three medical researchers at an awards luncheon on September 26 in New York. According to a foundation official, the 1997 award winners represent the distinct approaches and scientific perspectives that must combine in the fight against disease. Victor A. McKusick, a professor of genetics at Johns Hopkins University, was given the Special Achievement in Medical Science Award; Mark S. Ptashne, the Ludwig Professor of Molecular Biology at the Mem

'GREAT SHOCK': The June 1997 death of Karen Wetterhahn from an accident that had occurred months earlier stunned the scientific community. Like any profession, life science research has dangers, but fortunately, deaths are rare. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported only six fatalities in biological and life sciences, and 17 fatalities in all natural sciences, for 1994, the most recent year for which data are available. So when Dartmouth College chemist Karen Wetter

Efforts are under way to develop a vaccine against one of the world's deadliest illnesses, cervical cancer. Along with a number of university research laboratories, at least a half-dozen biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are beginning clinical trials or are in preclinical development of such drugs. Efficacy in humans remains to be firmly established, but if the vaccines progress to later-phase trials, challenging jobs for immunologists, microbiologists, and biochemists will multiply. "

Two incorrect citations were given in the Notebook section of the Sept. 29, 1997, issue of The Scientist (page 34). In the story headlined "Nuclear Mass," the correct citation to the study by H. Paulson et al. is Neuron, 19:333-44, 1997. In the story headlined "Presinilin Problems," the correct citation to the study by J. Li et al. is Cell, 90:917-27, 1997. In the article "Political Controversy Puts Ag Biotech In Spotlight" (J. Kling, The Scientist, Sept. 29, 1997, page 1), an incorrect stateme

Thank you very much for your article in the Sept. 1, 1997, issue of The Scientist concerning summer undergraduate research participation (SURP) programs [E. Russo, page 1]. Over the course of the past seven years, we have hosted more than 200 students on our campus as part of our own SURP program. We find that a very high percentage of these young men and women proceed on to graduate or professional schools, many at our own institution (nearly 20 percent on average). We shamelessly admit that w

The advice recently given to aspiring authors (T.W. Durso, "Editors' Advice To Rejected Authors: Just Try, Try Again," The Scientist, Sept. 15, 1997, page 13) fosters an imperfect status quo. It fails to address those really troublesome problems that are particularly the bane of any newcomer to a field. Intentionally or not, Durso's article puts the onus subtly but firmly on authors to meet publishers' criteria, as though there are well-defined standards that may be met reliably by careful comp

Affecting more than 2 million Americans, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains an enigma. The chronic swelling and pain brought about by RA can be debilitating in severe cases, and, as is true of most autoimmune diseases, the mechanisms and risk factors that influence onset are poorly understood. But long-suffering patients and eager biotech companies need not give up hope; recent insights into the autoimmune response and a new project that aims to ferret out genetic risks for the disease promise t

Edited by: Stephen P. Hoffert S.A. Kliewer, J.M. Lenhard, T.M. Willson, I. Patel, D.C. Morris, J.M. Lehmann, "A prostaglandin J2 metabolite binds peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and promotes adipocyte differentiation," Cell, 83:813-9, 1995. (Cited in more than 100 papers through September 1997) Comments by Jüergen M. Lehmann, Glaxo Wellcome Inc. Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, N.C. More than 15 million people in the United States suffer from non-insulin d

Edited by: Stephen P. Hoffert M.R. Knowles, K.W. Hohneker, Z. Zhou, J.C. Olson, T.L. Noah, P. Hu, M.W. Leigh, J.F. Engelhardt, L.J. Edwards, K.R. Jones, M. Grossman, J.M. Wilson, L.G. Johnson, R.C. Boucher, "A controlled study of adenoviral-vector-mediated gene transfer in the nasal epithelium of patients with cystic fibrosis," New England Journal of Medicine, 333:823-31, 1995. (Cited in more than 100 papers through September 1997) Comments by Richard C. Boucher, University of North Carolina Cy

Researchers who choose to conduct their careers at four-year liberal arts colleges maintain that it's entirely possible for them to be productive scientists, contrary to popular belief. But to be productive they must overcome many obstacles, including heavy teaching loads, the absence of graduate students and postdocs, difficulty in being competitive in obtaining grant support, and lack of daily contact with colleagues in closely related fields. Additionally, they often must suffer the slings a

LigoChem, a company based in Fairfield New Jersey, has introduced ProCipitate for the rapid and efficient isolation of nucleic acids. Based on patented Polymer Bridging Network technology, ProCipitate is one of a family of reagents with unique properties: Electropherosequence data of BAC DNA prepared by the TIGR ProCipitate Filterplate (TPF) method. Good quality DNA is consistently obtained with this method, which, using ABD BigDye Terminator sequencing chemistry -- yields high signal strength

Light Tight: The MultiImageTM Light Cabinet From Alpha Innotech Alpha Innotech Corporation (San Leandro, Calif.) recently introduced a new chemiluminescence and fluorescence imaging system. The ChemiImager(TM) 4000 is designed to document, analyze, and archive gels, membranes, films, chemiluminescent samples, and plates in a matter of minutes. Cool Camera: the ChemiImagerTM 4000 From Alpha Innotech At the heart of the ChemiImager 4000 is a thermoelectrically cooled CCD (charge-coupled device)

Transgenomic, (Santa Clara, Calif.) founded this year, recently debuted its WaveTM DNA Fragment Analysis System at the 17th International Congress of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in San Francisco. The Wave is a high-resolution DNA and RNA analysis system employing a proprietary high-resolution chromatographic matrix (HRMTM) in a column-based format. According to Brian Perry, Vice President, Marketing and Molecular Biology, Research and Development, "The Wave System is configured to be a d

Date: October 27, 1997 Comparison chart Chart 2 For years, peptides were the purview of immunologists and endocrinologists, but with the development of combinatorial chemistry and phage display libraries, the demand for peptides has skyrocketed. So too has the number of companies that provide custom peptide services. Once the bailiwick of a handful of companies, the field has burgeoned to close to 40 companies. The playing field is divided into at least two sectors: those companies with lon

Date: October 27, 1997 Comparison Chart Chart 2 The physiologic function of the immune system is simplistically viewed as a method to specifically respond and eliminate an initiating antigen. This process is mediated by a network of specialized cells and depends upon a pathway involving recognition, activation, differentiation and response of lymphocytes. This simplistic view is significantly more complicated when one is examining the biological nature of this response in greater detail. No

Chart 1 Chart 2 Chart 3 Chart 4 Chart 5 Within the last few years, research into signal transduction compounds and pathways has exploded, leading to a growing number of companies that sell antibodies for signal transduction. Whereas in the past, laboratories had to produce their own antibodies-or gain access to them through a network of contacts-dozens of companies now have commercially available signal transduction antibodies. This vast supply of antibodies has made it possible for researche

"You're supposed to have a ringing in your ears. That's what echo-location is all about."

Manufactured by ChemLab (United Kingdom), Tubee's provide sample identification of microcentrifuge tubes, cryovials, test tubes, chromatography samples, and other low-volume laboratory tubes and disposables. These smear-resistant labels have a strong, permanent label adhesive applied to both rectangles and dots, and are suitable for use at low temperatures up to 80°C, making them ideal for both freezer and incubator applications. Tubee's need no special marking device. The Dot Pack cont

Table of Contents Priviledged Information The Appeal of Creation Hungry for Life Petit Moues Model Women in Trials Keep on Smiling New-Look FDA? The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an insider trading complaint against a Columbia University professor on September 28. The complaint names Dale J. Lange, a professor of neurology at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, and six others for trading in Cephalon Inc. securities prior to the West Chester, Pa.-base

Over the past 15 years, the federal government has put increasing pressure on its R&D laboratories to demonstrate the economic effectiveness of their research programs. The labs have been notoriously resistant to these pressures, citing the intangible nature of science as a key reason for not documenting the monetary impacts of laboratory technology transfer. In an article I recently published with Albert N. Link, a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (M.

Randy D. Krauss Donald A. DeRosa The quality of science education in the United States has been the subject of much debate in the last decade. Recent reform at the national level has resulted in a collegial effort between members of the scientific and education communities. Project 2061 and the National Science Education Standards are two of the outcomes generated through the involvement of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Research Council, respectively