Notebook

Peace Dividend Slimy Characters Split Personality Move Over, Mickey Hair-Raising Possibilities Hormonal Edge Science, politics, and law intersected in a speech by Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz at a recent Philadelphia fund-raiser for Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science. Dershowitz, whose keynote address followed a talk by Hadassa Degani, head of Weizmann's nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy unit, said Israel's scientific prestige could exceed its current level if the country "didn't have to allocate so many of its resources to war and to peace." Dershowitz asked his audience to imagine the biomedical advances that would result if Israel were able to "beat those swords not into plowshares, but into test tubes and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging machines." A group of microbiologists and geneticists at North Carolina State University and Harvard University are delving into slime as the key to engineering new vaccines. One of the research teams, headed by Harvard's Gerald Pier, is trying to discover the properties of polysaccharide antigen, which they believe is the main ingredient in a slime found in human skin and mucous membranes. The sticky consistency of the slime allows some species of staphylococcus bacteria to adhere to the human body, causing staph infections. The researchers hypothesize that if the slime can be neutralized, it would be a good vaccine for these kinds of illnesses. Meanwhile, a biochemist at the University of Pennsylvania sees saliva as the key to finding new medicines. With funding from two NIH grants, Daniel Malamud is trying to discover the proteins responsible for the slippery liquid's apparent antibacterial characteristics. "This research began with two common observations," he explains. "First, that both people and animals lick their wounds. And second, surgery performed in any part of the rest of the body requires tremendous care and sterilization--but if you bite your cheek, it rarely gets infected." Malamud predicts that the properties of saliva could lead to natural antibacterial compounds: "I'm on the border of science and science fiction." Genpharm International, a Mountain View, Calif.-based biotechnology company, is trying to obtain a patent on Tim-- a transgenic immunodeficient mouse. The mouse has been genetically engineered to lack a working immune system, making it useful for studying muscular dystrophy, malaria, AIDS, and Lyme disease. The patent attorney for Genpharm, Richard Trecartin, says if all goes according to plan, within three or four months Genpharm could be granted only the second animal patent ever issued. The first went to Harvard University in 1988 for the Oncomouse, a rodent genetically created to grow malignant tumors for cancer research. Every cloud has a silver lining, they say: A Merck & Co. Inc. drug called Proscar, used to shrink enlarged prostate glands, might also promote hair growth on bald heads. "The idea stems from several studies in the early 1970s," says Jan Weiner, senior director of public affairs at Merck, "including one of a tribe in the Dominican Republic in which the men have little facial hair, do not develop enlarged prostate, and do not go bald." The tribe is deficient in the enzyme 5alpha-reductase, used by the body to convert testosterone into dihydrotestosterone. Since Proscar inhibits 5alpha-reductase, it may help with male pattern baldness. In male tennis and chess competitors, testosterone levels rise sharply in anticipation of a contest, says Alan Booth, a professor of sociology at Penn State. Immediately after competition, levels of the hormone soar even higher in the victor, while dropping in the loser. Booth says heightened testosterone levels reinforce the will to dominate, which helps competitors win: "A good coach will try to get his player to believe he can win. If a player doesn't believe this, then he won't get the testosterone increase before the match that's important to winning." Although he hasn't worked with female competitors, Booth expects the findings to be the same for them because the rate of increase leads to the dominance behavior, not the actual level of the hormone: "Even though women have only about one-tenth the testosterone levels of men, we have every reason to believe they would behave in the same way."

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

Jun 7, 1992

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