Applied Genetics News articles from January 2002

Applied Genetics News archives from January 2002

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK The Year That Was.
January 1, 2002... The year 2000 looked to be a hard act to follow, with the sequencing of the human genome as the marquee event. The year 2001 had no such gaudy achievement, but progress was made on many fronts. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms within the...

BASIC SCIENCE: Single Cell Signals to Multiple Cells.
January 1, 2002... In analyzing single-celled choanoflagellates, Sean Carroll and Nicole King, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, discovered that the organisms have a receptor tyrosine kinase, the first that has been found in a single-celled organism....

Is p53 Involved in Early Aging?
January 1, 2002... Is too much of the tumor suppressor p53 a bad thing? The p53 protein halts cell division when DNA is damaged and either promotes repairs of the DNA damage or triggers cell death. Stuart D. Tyner et al report, in Nature (415, 45-53, 2002),...

Silencing Proteins for Chromosome Copying.
January 1, 2002... Researchers in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (One Cyclotron Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720; Tel: 510/486-6467, Fax: 510/4865/6457) Life Sciences Division, led by Paul Kauffman, have discovered that two yeast proteins, previously known for...

Call it SET7.
January 1, 2002... A new cellular protein, called SET7, involved in controlling gene expression was discovered by Yi Zhang, assistant professor of biochemistry, and his team at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Medicine. A report of the...

Stickleback Gene Map Created.
January 1, 2002... In the December 20, 2001, issue of the journal Nature, David M. Kingsley, Catherine L. Peichel and their colleagues at Stanford, the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire and the University of British Columbia, report the creation of a genetic...

Functional Genomics Microarray Employed.
January 1, 2002... Scientists from Johns Hopkins (5601 Loch Raven Blvd. #507, Baltimore, MD 212390-2905; Tel: 410/532-4646) and Rosetta Inpharmatics, Inc. (12040 115th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034; Tel: 425/820-8900, Fax: 425/821-5354; Website: www.rii.com) have...

Obsessive Grooming Mutants Created.
January 1, 2002... A homeobox (Hox) gene involved in setting up the mammalian body plan also appears to control grooming behavior in mice. Researchers, led by Mario R. Capeche and Joy M. Greer at the University of Utah School of Medicine, knocked out the Hoxb8...

GENE THERAPY: mda-7 is Doubly Dangerous to Cancer.
January 1, 2002... Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (301 Congress Ave., Suite 1850, Austin, TX 78701; Tel: 512/320-5010, Fax: 512/320-4166) claims that mda-7 gene therapy is a double threat to cancer cells, in that it acts both as a cytokine and as an apoptosis...

CLONING: Knock-Out Pig Cloned.
January 1, 2002... Researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Immerge BioTherapeutics, Inc., a joint venture between BioTransplant (Building 75, Third Avenue, Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA 02120; Tel: 617/241-5200, Fax: 617/241-8780) and...

CELL THERAPY: Designer Factor Inhibits Fat Formation.
January 1, 2002... Scientists from Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (501 Canal Blvd., Suite A100; Tel: 510/970-6000, Fax: 510/236-8951; Website: www.sangamo.com) and Pfizer (235 East 42nd St., New York, NY 10017; Tel: 212/573-2323, Fax: 212/573-7851) have published...

Automated Myocyte Manufacture.
January 1, 2002... U.S. Patent No. 6,261,832, entitled "Automated Cell Processor," was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to Cell Transplants International, LLC, a company owned by U.S. inventor Peter K. Law. An international patent entitled,...

ANTIBODIES: Yeast Display Tech Bought by Abbott.
January 1, 2002... Abbott Laboratories (100 Abbott Park Rd., Abbott Park, IL 60064; Tel: 847/937-6100, Fax: 847/937-1511; Website: www.abbott.com) has obtained the worldwide exclusive license to yeast display technology from the University of Illinois (UI)...

VACCINES: Cancer Vaccine Uses p53 Gene.
January 1, 2002... Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (301 Congress Ave., Suite 1850, Austin, TX 78701; Tel: 512/320-5010, Fax: 512/320-4166) released the results of preclinical studies that evaluate the potential of its p53 gene therapeutic, INGN 201, as an...

AG-BIO: A. tumefacians Sequence Completed.
January 1, 2002... A combined public and private team of microbiologists has completed sequencing the genome of the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens, as reported in the December 14 issue of Science. A. tumefaciens has become an essential tool for...

Fungus to Fumigate Produce.
January 1, 2002... Aside from mushrooms, fungi are widely disdained by the agriculture industry. AgraQuest, Inc. (1530 Drew Ave., Davis, CA 95616; Tel: 530/750-0150), however, wants to put a fungus to work. Muscodor albus and related strains are endophytic...

How Salt Gets Into Plants.
January 1, 2002... High salt levels found in one-third of the world's cropland causes reduced yields and poor growing conditions. Now, a team of Purdue University researchers have discovered the gene product responsible for allowing salt to enter plants. The...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Australian Antisense Venture Created.
January 1, 2002... Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (2292 Faraday Ave., Carlsbad, CA 92008; Tel: 760/931-9200, Fax: 760/931-9639) and Circadian Technologies, Ltd., an Australian biotechnology commercialization firm, have created a new company, Antisense Therapeutics,...

Trio Tackles Breast Cancer.
January 1, 2002... Oxford GlycoSciences, Plc (The Quadrant, Abingdon Science Park, Abingdon OX14 3YS, Oxford, U.K.; Tel: +44 (0) 1235 543200, Fax: +44 (0) 1235 554701; Website: www.ogs.com), Medarex (1545 Route 22 East, Annandale, NJ 08801-0953; Tel:...

CALENDAR.
January 1, 2002... January 23-27, 2002, Molecular Imaging in Cancer: Linking Biology, Function and Clinical Applications In Vivo, Lake Buena Vista, FL. Contact: American Association for Cancer Research; Tel: 215/440-9300, Fax: 215/315-9165. January 28-29,...