Applied Genetics News articles from March 2000

Applied Genetics News archives from March 2000

BASIC RESEARCH: Harbinger of Death Travels to Nucleus.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... A protein that is part of the cell's suicide machinery may act as a "messenger of death" that translocates to the cell's nucleus to turn on the execution machinery. Researchers led by Howard Hughes investigator H. Robert Horvitz at MIT...

Fragment Serves as Nuclear Messenger.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Proteolytic processing of the membrane-bound protein Notch releases a messenger molecule that determines a cell's developmental fate, according to researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO), led by Raphael...

Sugar Structures Promote Metastases.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Breast cancers in knock-out mice lacking a carbohydrate transferase were much less likely to metastasize than in their normal counterparts, according to research performed by Jim Dennis and his colleagues at University of Toronto and Mt. Sinai...

Mast Cells Linked to Multiple Sclerosis.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have uncovered a connection between mast cells and the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), an auto- immune disease that attacks the central nervous system. Extensive research has already...

BIOMANUFACTURING: Chloroplasts Make Human Proteins.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Jeffrey Staub and his team at Monsanto (800 N. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63167, Tel: 314/694-1000, Fax: 314/694-7625, Website: www.monsanto.com) have succeeded in turning chloroplasts, the photosynthetic organelles of plants, into...

GENOMICS: Patents Filed on 10,000 Sequences.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Athersys, Inc. (11000 Cedar Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106; Tel: 216/231-9911, Fax: 216/231-0905; Email: ksgarvey@athersys.com, Website: www.athersys.com) filed United States Patent applications covering more than 10,000 gene sequences identified...

Interleukin-1 Variants Linked to Alzheimer's.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Research groups in Italy and in the United States have demonstrated independently, and by different methods, that people who possess specific variations of the gene that produces interleukin-1 are predisposed to develop Alzheimer's,...

Panning for Gold in Them Thar' Genomes.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Diversa Corp. (10665 Sorrento Valley Rd., San Diego, CA 92121; Tel: 858/453- 7020, Fax: 858/453-7032) has been issued U.S. Patent 6,030,779 relating to sequence-based gene discovery from the environment, which the company refers to as "genomic...

Hot Spots Lead to Deletions.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Focusing on specific sites on of chromosome 22 with repetitive sequences of DNA, researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found direct evidence that these sites are unstable areas where the chromosome is prone to rearrangements...

Newfound Plumbs Newfoundland Genes.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Gemini Holdings plc (162 Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 OGH, U.K., Tel: +44(0)1223 435300, Fax: +44(0)1223 43501, Website: www.gemini-research.co.uk, Email: info@gemini-research.co.uk) has signed an agreement with Lineage Biomedical, Inc. (St....

Analyzing HGSI's Gene Collection.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (HGSI, 9410 Key West Ave., Rockville, MD 20850; Tel: 301/309-8504, Fax: 301/309-8512) and Compugen Ltd. (72 Pinchas Rosen St., Tel Aviv, Israel; Tel: 3-765-8585, Fax: 3-765-8555; Email: info@cgen.com, Website:...

GENE THERAPY: Naked Gene Delivery Service.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Vical, Inc. (9373 Towne Centre Dr., Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92121; Tel: 619/453-9900, Fax: 619/453-5885), Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (9410 Key West Ave., Rockville, MD 20850; Tel: 301/309-8504, Fax: 301/309-8512), and its majority owned...

CLONING: Dumb Human Pet Tricks.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... The March issue of Wired carries a story about a Texas A&M team that plans to clone pets. First in line is Missiplicity, the beloved canine companion of an anonymous billionaire who is putting up the research funds. An offshoot of the Texas...

CELL THERAPY: Stem Cells Reverse Diabetes in Mice.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Researchers from Ixion Biotechnology (13709 Progress Blvd., Box 13, Suite N-111, Alachua, FL 32615; Tel: 904/418-1428, Fax: 904/418-1583; Email: info@ixion- biotech.com, Website: www.ixion-biotech.com) and the University of Florida were able...

Growing a Bladder Replacement.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Reprogenesis, Inc. (21 Erie St., Cambridge, MA, 02139-4260; Tel: 617/499-2928) has in-licensed exclusive rights to an organ regeneration technology and a tissue engineering bladder substitute product from Children's Hospital (Boston), a...

ANTISENSE: Isis Promulgates Patent Plethora.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Isis Pharmaceuticals (2292 Faraday Ave., Carlsbad, CA 92008; Tel: 760/931-9200, Fax: 760/931-9639) has received a U.S. patent covering human RNase H1. Additionally, the company has been granted 20 patents in the last two months for inhibitors...

ENZYMES: Ribonuclease Kills Lymphoma Cells.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Immunomedics, Inc. (300 American Rd., Morris Plains, NJ 07950; Tel: 973/605- 8200, Fax: 973/605-8282; Website: www.immunomedics.com) reported that its research collaboration with government scientists at the Frederick Cancer Research and...

Serine Racemase Is a Drug Target.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (6611 Tributary St., Baltimore, MD 21224; Tel: 410/631-6300, Fax: 410/631-6338; Website: www.guilfordpharm.com) has licensed a discovery from the Johns Hopkins University relating to the enzyme serine racemase...

HORMONES AND CYTOKINES: IL-1 Antagonist Linked to Coronary Disease.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... An article in the Journal of Experimental Medicine by Gordon Duff, Martin Nicklin, and colleagues at the University of Sheffield (U.K.) demonstrates that deletion of the gene for an antagonist of the receptor for interleukin-1 (IL- 1ra) in...

Anti-Angiogenic Agents Abound.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Several developments relating to anti-angiogenic factors were recently announced: GenVec, Inc. (65 W. Watkins Mill Rd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878; Tel: 240/632-0740, Fax: 240/632-0736) has obtained exclusive rights to the Pigment Epithelium-...

VACCINES AND ANTI-INFECTIVES : How HIV Invades Us.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Dutch and American research teams may have discovered how the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) first enters the body through mucosal surfaces such as the rectum, cervix, and uterus. The findings suggest that HIV enters the body by attaching...

INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY : Bacteria Make Good Employees.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Bacteria with specific talents are being put to work in industry. Some are being used in bioremediation projects, such as cleaning up oil and industrial waste, and some are employed in the mining industry. EnSolve Biosystems, Inc. (3209...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Three Boston Biotech Companies to Merge.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Creative BioMolecules, Inc. (45 South St., Hopkinton, MA 01748; Tel: 508/782- 1100, Fax: 508/435-0992; Website: www. creativebio.com), Ontogeny, Inc. (45 Moulton St., Cambridge, MA 02138; Tel: 617/876-0086, Fax: 617/876-0866; Website:...

ValiGene, Kimeragen to Form ValiGen.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... ValiGene (Tour Neptune 92086, Paris-La-D_fense, France; Tel: +33 1 47 67 66 00, Fax: +33 1 49 06 07 15; Website: www.valigene.com) and Kimeragen, Inc. (300 Pheasant Run, Newtown, PA 18940; Tel: 215/504-4444, Fax: 215/504-4545) will merge to...

AG-BIO: Leaf Life Is Extended.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Senesco Technologies, Inc. (34 Chambers St., Princeton, NJ 08542; Tel: 609/252- 0680, Fax: 609/252-0049; Email: info@senesco.com, Website: www.senesco.com) has been able to significantly delay natural leaf senescence in Arabidopsis thaliana...

Tracking the Tastiest Pigs.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Destron Fearing Corp. (490 Villaume Ave., South St. Paul, MN 55075-2445; Tel: 651/455-1621, Fax: 651/455-0413; Website: www.destronfearing.com) has entered into a three-year agreement with Triumph Pork Group LLC. The agreement makes Destron...

CALENDAR.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... March 26-30, 2000, Bio 2000 - International Biotechnology Meeting and Exhibition, Boston, MA. Contact: Biotechnology Industry Organization, BIO 2000/Galaxy, P.O. Box 790352, Baltimore, MD 21279-0532; Fax: 301/694-5124. March 29-31, 2000,...