COMMON COLD: A view of the common cold virus, which has 60 sites capable of connecting to ICAM-1 receptors, is depicted in the computer-simulated model. ICAM, THEY SAW Knowing your way around the battlefield is a necessary first step on the road to victory. Just ask researchers at Purdue University. A team of investigators led by Michael G. Rossmann, a professor of biological sciences at Purdue, have successfully mapped in atomic detail the three-dimensional structure of the intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), a receptor cell that binds to rhinovirus, the most common cause of the common cold (J. Bella et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95:4140-45, 1998). Through an understanding of the structure of ICAM-1, scientists hope to discover precisely how the virus enters cells and causes infection, according to Jordi Bella, a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue and lead author of the study. "Right now, we only know ...
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NEW AND IMPROVED: Hoechst Merion Roussel's new research facility (inset) in Bridgewater, N.J. will house activities in biotechnology, automated screening and robotics, computational and medicinal chemistry, molecular modeling, and biophysics. Automated high throughput screening (above) will allow researchers to search huge chemical libraries for promising therapeutic compounds. OPENING DAY AT HOECHST Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR) Inc., based in Frankfurt, Germany, marked the beginning of a new
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