Applied Genetics News articles from February 2002

Applied Genetics News archives from February 2002

BASIC SCIENCE: Third Photoreceptor for Circadian Rhythms.
February 1, 2002... Brown University (Providence, RI) researchers, led by neuroscientist Dave Berson, have found a new cell in the eyes of rats that acts as a photoreceptor and sets the body's circadian clock. The new cell resides deeper in the retina than the...

Bacterial Sense of Touch.
February 1, 2002... Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) biologists Karen Otto and Thomas Silhavy found a mechanism bacteria use to sense when they have touched a solid surface, which sets into motion the process for building a film. Their study of E. coli...

Down's Syndrome Stem Cells Studied.
February 1, 2002... Writing in the recent issue (January 26, 2002) of the British medical journal The Lancet, a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge, University College London, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison report findings from a genetic...

Silence and Sex in Pink Bread Mold.
February 1, 2002... A new study focused on the sex life of fungus, recently published in Cell, is raising new questions about gene silencing, speciation, and perhaps some facets of human reproduction. Neurospora crassa, also called pink bread mold, contains...

GENOMICS: Gene Defect Causes Heart Enlargement.
February 1, 2002... Scientists from the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) and Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany) have unraveled how a defective gene can cause dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that leads to heart failure, according to a report published in...

Common Variant Injures Hearts.
February 1, 2002... A gene variant found in approximately 20% of the population might explain why some people develop left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), a dangerously enlarged heart, after intensive exercise or as a side effect of high blood pressure, according...

Region Linked to Heart Attacks.
February 1, 2002... In the largest study of its kind to date, an international team led by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin has localized a region of the human genome linked to the development of heart attacks. The same site is linked to coronary...

Plant World's Missing Link.
February 1, 2002... How did modern-day angiosperms (flowering plants) diverge from their closest relatives, the gymnosperms (seed-bearing plants without flowers, such as pine trees with pine cones) about 150 or more million years ago? The humble water lily, Nuphar...

CELL THERAPY: Blood Cells May Treat Hemophilia.
February 1, 2002... University of Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul) researchers have demonstrated that it may be possible to treat hemophilia A through the use of human blood outgrowth endothelial cells, or BOECs, as a vehicle for gene therapy. Lead researcher...

Stem Cells Grow Blood Vessels.
February 1, 2002... Researchers at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul) Stem Cell Institute (SCI) have demonstrated, for the first time, the ability of adult bone marrow stem cells to expand in vitro as endothelial cells (which line blood- and...

VACCINES AND ANTI-INFECTIVES A Universal Cancer Vaccine?
February 1, 2002... In a presentation at the International Society of Preventive Oncology meeting at the Pasteur Institute today, Samuel Bogoch, chairman and cofounder of Cancer Immune, Inc. (36 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02215; Tel: 617/ 536-0850, Fax: 617/ 536-0657;...

Consortium Form to Fight Flavivirus.
February 1, 2002... Novirio Pharmaceuticals (125 Cambridge Park Dr., 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02140; Tel: 617/250-3100, Fax: 617/250-3101; Website: www.novirio.com) has announced the award of Euro 1.9 million from the European Commission to fund a research project...

Plague Vaccine Award from DoD.
February 1, 2002... Plexus Vaccine, Inc. (11770 Bernardo Plaza Ct., 370B, San Diego, CA; Tel: 858/385-9084, Fax: 858/385-9086; Website: www.plexvax.com) was chosen to receive a Department of Defense grant award administered by the Center for the Commercialization...

Vaccine for Hay Fever.
February 1, 2002... University of Melbourne scientists have developed a potential vaccine for that great bane of mankind, hay fever, and other pollen-related allergies. These allergies affect up to 25% of the world's populations, destroying all the joy that spring...

AG-BIO: Poplar Tree Genome to Be Sequenced.
February 1, 2002... Scientists from the Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; Website: www.ornl.gov) and scientists around the world are collaborating to sequence the Populus (poplar) genome. Trees like...

Virulence of Gumboro Studied.
February 1, 2002... Scientists of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI; 15825 Shady Grove Rd., Suite 55, Rockville, MD 21202; Tel: 301/990-4800, Fax: 301/990-4814; Website: www.umbi.umd.edu) and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of...

INDUSTRY NEWS: A Home for High-Quality Rats.
February 1, 2002... The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, MD), has announced the official opening of its Rat House, officially called the Rat Resource and Research Center (RRRC) at the...

FDA Approved 16 Biologicals in 2001.
February 1, 2002... The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 16 new biotechnology based medicines and vaccines in 2001 and well as 8 new indications for previously approved biotech products, according to an analysis by the Biotechnology Industry...

CALENDAR.
February 1, 2002... March 7-10, 2002. The Molecular Genetics of Colon Cancer, Philadelphia, PA. Contact: American Assoc. for Cancer Research; Tel: 215/440-9300, Fax: 215/315-9165; Email: meetings@aacr.org March 7-11, 2002. 6th Gatersleben Research Conference:...