Notebook

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 hiring a chancellor, garnered applause when he concluded his remarks by saying: "I need to say that I'm a product of the New York public school system. . . . I had a great education, and I hope the New York public schools survive all the troubles they're having." NO, THANKS: Barry Marshall had a good reason to name the bacterium he discovered after himself. Don Wiley, another basic research award corecipient who, like Strominger, is a professor at Harvard University, noted: "Since we have a very small child, it turns out that this is the first time we've been able to get away in about a year, and last night was the first good night's sleep." The afternoon's most humorous personal anecdote came from clinical research award recipient Barry Marshall. Recalling his discovery that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori causes peptic ulcers, Marshall noted: "One of the questions I often [am asked] is, 'Dr. Marshall, why didn't you name this bacteria after yourself?'" The answer, he told the audience, is that "early on, we did actually believe that Helicobacter pylori was a sexually transmitted disease." Last month, National Institutes of Health officials received an anonymous call reporting that smallpox virus might be stored in the laboratory freezers of Carleton Gajdusek, according to the Washington Post (J. Gillis, Sept. 23, 1995, page B5). Gajdusek, a 1976 Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine, heads the Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies at the health agency. Dangerous pathogens, including many viruses, are commonly stored in NIH labs, of course. But wild smallpox is thought to have been vanquished by modern vaccines, and closely guarded samples are supposed to exist in only two laboratories in the world, one in Moscow and one at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta (K.Y. Kreeger, The Scientist, Nov. 14, 1994, page 1). After killing an estimated 100 million people in recorded history, the last case of smallpox was reported in Somalia in 1977. NIH safety officials responded to the telephone tip with an unannounced visit to Gajdusek's lab, took control of about 20 freezers, and have been going through the contents to check for smallpox virus samples. "These allegations are categorically false," said Gajdusek in a statement. "No work has ever been done on this substance in the laboratory in NIH. No samples of this substance are or ever have been stored in the laboratory freezers." Last month the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) announced its 1996 grants program for biomedical research in gerontology and geriatrics. The grants support pilot research projects in the basic biological mechanisms of aging; the role of the aging process in disease; the epidemiology of certain age-related disorders; and the nature of such age-related conditions as arthritis. The program targets early-stage investigators to enable them to accumulate the preliminary data necessary for major grants. AFAR anticipates that up to 25 grants of $40,000 each will be awarded next year. The deadline for completed applications is December 15. For more information, contact AFAR, 1414 Avenue of the Americas, 18th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10019; (212) 752-2327. Fax: (212) 832-2298. The Public Broadcasting Service, based in Alexandria, Va., is hosting an hour-long, live, interactive video-conference on the subject of melanoma on November 15, at noon. Designed to educate health professionals, such as physicians and nurses involved in treating melanoma patients, the program will feature a panel of experts who will discuss the latest clinical trial data regarding the use of interferon adjuvant therapy in post-surgical, high-risk melanomas, as well as guidelines for patient management. Jeffrey Abrams, a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, will be the moderator; presenters include John Kirkwood of the division of medical oncology at Montefiore University Hospital in Pittsburgh and Sandra Donnelly, an R.N. from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In addition to an on-air discussion, participants will have the opportunity to call in or fax questions to the panel. For information on registration and how to access this conference via satellite, contact: PBS Adult Learning Satellite Service, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698; (800)-257- 2578. Fax: (703) 739-8495 or (703) 739-0775. What can make a heart look like heart and yet feel like a rubber ball (besides love)? It's a new tissue and organ preservation technique called silyophilization. Developed by Peter Ocello, an anatomical preparator at Michigan State University, the preservation process involves freeze-drying tissue, and replacing its lost fluids with a silicone polymer. The result is a real piece of tissue or organ that can be carried around without fear of damage or toxicity. The advantages of this new technique over previous ones is that the process does not shrink or distort the specimen in any way, and that the silicone is nontoxic. Ocello demonstrated the process and products at a joint meeting of the American and British Associations of Clinical Anatomists, held July 17-22 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The products have high potential for use in medical and veterinary classrooms. The National Research Council will award approximately 20 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships for Minorities, a program designed to support minority Ph.D.'s for a year of study and research at an institution of their choice. The foundation provides a $25,000 stipend, $3,000 for travel and relocation, a $2,000 cost-of-research allowance, and a $2,500 employing-institution allowance. The award is for full-time research and is not restricted to universities. Appropriate institutions include museums, libraries, national laboratories, centers for advanced study, and nonprofit research institutions. Native American Indians, Alaskan Natives, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Ricans who are United States citizens or nationals and have earned a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree after Jan. 5, 1989, and before Jan. 5, 1996- when applications are due -- are eligible for the awards, to be made April 1996. Awards will be granted in the behavioral and social sciences, humanities, engineering, mathematics, physical or life sciences, or interdisciplinary studies. For more information, contact: Fellowship Office, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Ave., Washington, D.C. 20418; (202) 334-2860. E-mail: infofell@nas.edu. JOINING UP: Ron Unterman heads BIO's new section. Environmental biotechnology now has the same status as its biomedical and pharmaceutical counterparts in the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). The Washington, D.C.-based group announced at its fall conference last month that it has created a new section to represent the 46 environmental biotech firms within its 560-company membership. According to a BIO statement, because of the proposed activities of the new section, environmental biotech companies will now "have a more powerful voice in Washington." Representatives from the section aim to lobby Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies that govern the use of biotechnological methods for environmental cleanup. Ron Unterman, vice president of technology at Envirogen Inc., an environmental biotech firm located in Lawrenceville, N.J., is the chairman of the new section. For researchers attempting to use fewer laboratory animals, adopt less-invasive research methods, or replace animal use with nonanimal techniques, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has published a booklet providing information on how to apply for grants and awards for such projects. The booklet lists fundingsources - including animal protection organizations, other charities, industry, universities, and governments -- in 15 countries. The booklet, called "Three R [for reduction, refinement, and replacement] Alternatives, An International Directory of Funding Sources," was compiled by Amelia Tarzi, former director of the Lasker Center for Humane Alternatives, and F. Barbara Orlans, senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. For information, contact the ASPCA, 424 E. 92nd St., New York, N.Y. 10128-6804; (212) 876-7700; Fax: (212) 348-3031. A number of abundantly available raw minerals-or even cement-could be used to combat the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide responsible for the so-called greenhouse effect, thought to be slowly raising global temperatures, according to a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist. Klaus Lackner, a fluid dynamics researcher at the lab, says the key could be to chemically combine the carbon dioxide with magnesium oxide or calcium oxide to form stable limestone, dolomite, or magnesite. These reactions already occur naturally, locking away large amounts of carbon dioxide over time-eons, in fact, too much time to be very helpful. Lackner suggests several ways to speed up the reactions to rates comparable to those at which industrial society is creating excess carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. For example, carbon dioxide from a coal-burning plant could be pumped into pulverized, heated rock. The resulting carbonation would create a carbon-dioxide-binding mineral, which could then be used to fill the holes from which the rock was originally taken. The substantial energy released by the process could be used to heat the rock to keep the reactions going, Lackner notes. Or carbon dioxide could be pumped into underground deposits of porous magnesium- or calcium-bearing rock for reaction there, although the injection wells might be prone to clogging. Another more expensive, but more chemically efficient, approach would be to leach magnesium and calcium from mineral deposits using hydrochloric acid, recycling the acid for continuous use. Lackner acknowledges that the costs of producing electricity with such exotic carbon-dioxide scrubbers would be about double current levels. However, he notes, economic and political pressures to reduce global warming could increase to a point where the costs become acceptable. Perhaps the time has come for a cost-benefit analysis to compare Lackner's ideas with other high-tech proposals to counter the greenhouse effect -- such as one recent suggestion to fertilize the sea with iron to encourage carbon-devouring algae blooms. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #20, pg.30 , October 16, 1995) (Copyright © The Scientist, Inc.)

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