Notebook

Contents PATHOGENIC NECKTIES TWENTY-TWENTY VISION PROGRESS IN PARKINSON'S OLD BONES MARS ATTACKS FORECASTING CANCER FASHION CONTAGION: Roger Freeman and his pathogen-inspired silk ties, shown here with images of syphilis and herpes. PATHOGENIC NECKTIES: The late musician and artist Jerry Garcia may have some microscopic competitors in the necktie business. At the American Society for Microbiology annual meeting in Atlanta May 17-21, a company called Health Media International sold Contagious Wearables--silk ties and scarves imprinted with images of such old-time pathogens as malaria, cholera, and measles; newer entrants such as hantavirus and HIV; and a host of sexually transmitted disease agents. Each tie or scarf comes with a description of the pathogen, and 10 percent of the proceeds is donated to organizations that deal with infectious diseases, says Roger Freeman, a dentist who took over the business when it was failing in midwestern department stores. Contagious Wearables debuted on the scientific circuit at the American Public Health Association annual meeting last November in Indianapolis--and quickly sold out. The display at ASM was the scene of some interesting encounters. One woman couldn't decide whether to give her father syphilis or gonorrhea for Father's Day. An attendee fond of eukaryotes exclaimed, "What, no yeast?" Yet another was plagued by the absence of tuberculosis. Says Freeman, "The most exciting visit was when one of the original discoverers of Ebola virus came by and started yelling, 'This is what we found in 1977!'" when they spied a tie festooned with the hooklike virus. Contagious Wearables will no doubt appear many other life science conferences. TWENTY-TWENTY VISION: A committee of scientists from the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) recently looked to the year 2020 and saw a revolution in the making. They report that more than 50 years of steady public investment in basic research has U.S. researchers poised to change our understanding of many diseases, and continued funding could transform the practice of medicine just two decades into the new millennium. Discoveries in cellular and molecular physiology and human genetics have helped scientists develop noninvasive diagnostic techniques and brought them closer to being able to treat and prevent dreaded diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, the committee notes. FASEB initiated the conference among representatives from 14 affiliated societies in biology to determine what benefit could come to the public from increased government spending on biomedical research. Recent discussions in the U.S. Congress have focused on doubling funding to the National Institutes of Health within the next five years (B. Agnew, The Scientist, 12(6):1, March 16, 1998). "The public is being asked to invest unprecedented amounts of funds into biomedical research and FASEB thought that it was a valid question to ask what return the public could expect from this massive investment," says Lawrence S. Goldstein, a professor of pharmacology at the University of California-San Diego and chair of the FASEB conference. "Well, the consensus is that we can expect nothing less than a complete revolution in our understanding of many illnesses." The group suggested several key areas of development to meet goals set for 2020. Along with increased funding from NIH, the group noted that continued scientific progress depended on improved interdisciplinary cooperation, the development of previously unpromising areas of research, and support for young scientists still in school or beginning careers in research. PROGRESS IN PARKINSON'S Bovine brain cells someday may be used to treat Parkinson's disease in humans. While Parkinson's patients are helped with human fetal cells, strict federal restrictions apply, forcing scientists to explore other sources, such as pigs. A team from the University of Colorado Medical School at Denver, University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Worcester, Mass., turned to calves--they transplanted dopamine-producing fetal calf neurons into the brains of Parkinsonian rats (W.M. Zawada et al., Nature Medicine, 4:569-73, 1998). The rats' performance on a behavioral test improved compared to mock controls up to two months after transplantation. Moreover, the number of surviving dopamine neurons was correlated with behavioral improvement. Of equal significance was the fact that the transplanted brain cells were also transgenic. The donor calf fetuses were clones (Ála Dolly) obtained from eggs whose nuclei had been replaced with those from cultured fetal fibroblast cells transformed with the bacterial gene lacZ. While lacZ was used as a marker to see if the strategy would work, future efforts will use neurons transgenic for more important traits--for example, human proteins to make the cells immunologically acceptable to Parkinson's patients, assuring greater success and avoiding costly immunosuppressive drugs. According to Steven Stice, chief scientific officer for Advanced Cell Technology, "The ability to combine cloning with transgenics really enhances our capacity to produce genetically modified cells, organs, and animals for biomedical applications." Indeed, his group is applying the technology in other ways, including creating BSE-resistant cattle and growing specific cells and tissues from embryonic stem cells. Alan C. Walker OLD BONES: Biology and anthropology have intersected to give scientists evidence of the most ancient upright-walking human ancestors yet. Fossils found in Africa indicate evidence of bipedal hominids as early as 4.1 to 4.2 million years ago (M.G. Leakey et al., Nature, 393:62-6, 1998). Previous studies of nearby bones showed that the ape-like creatures walked on two feet 500,000 years later (M.G. Leakey et al., Nature, 376:565-71, 1995). The discrepancy, reports co-author Carol Ward, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, existed because the earlier studies used fossils lower in the geologic sequence. The new fossils were located higher in the geologic timeline and weren't used previously, because techniques in 1995 did not allow for accurate dating of material. The structure of the tibia in this higher layer indicates that the creature walked upright--at about the same time when some molecular biologists think there was an evolutionary split from other primates. Contends Ward: "This is the strongest evidence yet that this is the adaptation that set us apart from our ape relatives." Alan C. Walker, professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State University, notes that some of the fossils seem more evolved than others. For example, a wrist bone found among the new fossils more closely resembles a chimpanzee's, while the tibia more closely looks like a human's. MARS ATTACKS The debate continues over the source of carbon-containing deposits in the grapefruit-sized meteorite ALH84001. At the American Society for Microbiology annual meeting in Atlanta May 17-22, David McKay, a geologist at the Johnson Space Center, defended the possible biotic origin of the meteorite matter, reported nearly two years ago (D. McKay et al., Science, 273:924-7, 1996). Then Jeffrey Bada, a professor of marine chemistry at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, further probed the significance of hexagonal magnetite grains found within polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on ALH84001, which resemble grains that earthly bacteria produce. McKay pointed out that newly discovered tiny terrestrial bacteria counter the criticism that hypothesized Martian nanobacteria are too small. "Where is it written that Martian bugs have to be identical to Earth bugs?" he said. But Bada's major objection was the validity of considering PAHs, which he said are so ubiquitous that "their molecular architecture can't reveal if they are abiotic or biotic, extraterrestrial or terrestrial. We should look for what we know is in life, the amino acids, not the PAHs." But the spectrum of amino acids in the meteorite resembles that in the ice of Allan Hills, Antarctica, where ALH84001 landed 13,000 years ago (J. Bada, Science, 279:362-365, 1998). "Meteorites are like sponges, they soak up all sorts of stuff," Bada added. The two researchers wholeheartedly agreed that answers can only come from expeditions to the red planet. FORECASTING CANCER: DIANON Systems Inc. in Stratford, Conn., announced in May that it will make a new test for the APC gene available to people of Ashkenazic, or Eastern European, Jewish descent. The test from DIANON is based on the discovery by a Johns Hopkins Oncology Center research team of a mutated gene that predisposes some Ashkenazi Jews to colorectal cancer. In the study, the investigators found the mutation in 6 percent of Ashkenazi Jews and in 28 percent of those with a family history of colorectal cancer (S.J. Laken et al., Nature Genetics, 17[1]: 79-83, 1997). The study has given researchers significant new insights into heritable factors for colorectal cancer. Of the 130,000 cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in the United States each year, about 15 percent are suspected to have a hereditary component. Because it is not yet known if the mutation is present in the population at large, DIANON will offer the test only to people of Ashkenazic descent. Steven L. Gersen says the APC gene test is not expected to generate the same controversy that developed soon after the introduction of genetic tests for breast cancer. In some cases, women with positive test results elected to have radical mastectomies, a disputed preventative measure against the disease. Gersen says DIANON has taken measures to assure that reactions to the APC gene test are less extreme. "Where colorectal cancer is concerned, the potential for radical preventative measures by the patient is less likely," he explains. "A positive test would mean that you and your physician probably should discuss more frequent colonoscopies." A major part of the testing package includes educational and counseling literature for the patient and doctor on what reasonable action should be taken given a broad spectrum of test results. "One of the ways of allaying people's fears about disease is to give them information that they can use," Gersen says. "Unfortunately, a lot of companies in our field just do testing. We feel that we have a greater responsibility to patients and we need to help them and their doctors make informed choices."

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

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