The Scientist articles from September 2005

The Scientist archives from September 2005

Let's talk about this.(Editorial; science discourse)
September 26, 2005... How do scientists communicate, with one another and with the public? Is discussion becoming polarized, oversimplified or exaggerated? I've had cause to wonder, and my thoughts were jogged on a recent flight during which I read Yale's alumni...

Animal extremists get company delisted?(Notebook)
September 26, 2005... On the morning of September 7, Brian Cass, chief executive of contract research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences, was standing in an anteroom of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) chatting to officials, waiting to go onto the floor of the...

Journals in the arms race.(NOTEBOOK)
September 26, 2005... Last month, a group of 16 physicians, scientists and representatives of anti-arms trade groups accused The Lancet of being "connected to the profits of the global arms trade." In a letter to the 182-year old journal, which has repeatedly...

The biologist as a fuel cell.(Notebook)
September 26, 2005... Larry Rome is a professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania who studies how frogs and fish move. His latest project, however, is more of an engineering feat: A backpack that scavenges energy from its wearers as they walk. Rome's...

Can biomaker initiatives stay on target? Collaboration seems the way forward, if only pharma can pull it off.(Cover Story)
September 26, 2005... Biomarkers are changing disease screening and treatment: PSA for prostate cancer, for example, and HER2 for breast cancer. With broader biomarker applications in their sights, pharmaceutical companies and academics are striving to...

How to build a cancer sensor system: team science will power the next steps in discovery.(Vision)
September 26, 2005... A Boeing engineer tells me that a modern airplane has about 10,000 sensors constantly recording information, not only to inform pilots about the plane's performance but also to forecast mechanical problems that can be corrected during routine...

Rethinking clinical proteomics: after setback, biomarker researchers continue to debate the use of mass spectrometry in diagnostics.
September 26, 2005... For a while it looked as it proteomics' next frontier was the clinic, if one was to believe the hype surrounding a 2002 study from US Food and Drug Administration scientist Emanuel Petricoin III and National Cancer Institute scientist Lance...

Chemical genomics collaborations heat up: Scott Diamond is hooked into a network bringing small molecules to academia.
September 26, 2005... The National Institutes of Health has placed the heft of a large academic collaboration, on par in scale with the Human Genome Project, behind a task usually performed by pharmaceutical companies. When it hunched its Molecular Libraries...

And then there was Y: how the afterthought to the human Genome project broke the chromosomal mold.(Hot Papers)
September 26, 2005... The Y chromosome gets no respect. Regarded as a genetic junkyard with little to offer but sex, genomes have commonly rolled off the presses without a nod to Y. Then there's the matter of decay. Without a recombination partner, genetic insults...

Is telomerase moonlighting.(Brief Article)
September 26, 2005... The debate continues as to whether telomerase's only function is to promote telomere extension. In recent years evidence has suggested that the enzyme promotes cancer development and might have roles other than synthesizing telomere repeats....

HCV replicates with help from microRNA.(hepatitis C virus )(Brief Article)
September 26, 2005... California researchers have found a previously unrecognized role for microRNAs: aiding and abeting hepatitis C virus in the liver. Peter Sarnow and colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine found that a liver-specific microRNA...

Embryonic stem lines unstable.(Brief Article)
September 26, 2005... Human embryonic stem cells appear to accrue genomic changes that could make them unusable therapeutically when cultured at length. Anirban Maitra of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues in Sweden, Canada, Singapore, and...

A live-animal test for BSE? A US lab and a Canadian company both claim new live-animal assay for prion disorder.
September 26, 2005... The discovery of even a single case of mad cow disease can be economically devastating. Since May 2003, three cases of the prion disease have been found in Canadian cattle, prompting 34 countries to slam their doors to Canadian beef. Though...

Buyer's guide to gel documentation systems: from standard to high end requirements, there's a system to fit every lab.
September 26, 2005... Researcher Willy Walter of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has fairly typical gel-documentation needs: "We take pictures of ethidium bromide-stained agarose gels using a UV transilluminator and of yeast colonies under white light." If,...

What's new in mass spectrometry? Companies release a slew of new technologies at the annual industry conference.(Tools & Tech)
September 26, 2005... Last summer got off to a hot start at the June 2005 American Society for Mass Spectrometry meeting in San Antonio, Texas. With new product releases ranging from labeling reagents for quantitative proteomics to breakthrough hybrid mass...

Digital chemotaxis: Chicago scientists develop agent-based computational model for Escherichia coli.(Tools & Tech)
September 26, 2005... A new, single-cell computational model developed by scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory borrows a technique used in the social sciences to digitally study how random molecular events within a cell influence...

Getting to the root of inventory problems: BioRoot BioReagent LIMS offers Web-based reagent management.(Tools & Tech)
September 26, 2005... Molecular biologist David Nix, director of BioRoot Bioinformatics (www.bioroot.org), says he is appalled by inadequate inventory tracking in academic and government biotech labs. "It's just outrageous. Saving one plasmid from being misplaced...

An ACE in the hole for cellular therapies: Isolagen's automated cellular expansion system promises efficient large-scale cell production.(Tools & Tech)
September 26, 2005... Take some ceils from a patient, grow them in a laboratory for a few weeks, and then inject them back into the same patient. That's the basis for autologous cellular therapy, a rapidly developing field that promises to revolutionize the...

The corn next door: can organic and biotech crops coexist?
September 26, 2005... In 2000, public officials in Boulder County, Colo., were faced with calls from organic farmers, environmentalists, and others to ban genetically modified (GM) crops. GM opponents worried that pollen drifting from transgenic corn fields could...

When bad news strikes: your company suffers a setback. Now what?
September 26, 2005... In March, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego-based biotech company, suffered a series of setbacks that prompted company executives to scramble to control the fallout and preserve its reputation. First, accounting issues prompted a delay in...

Lights ... camera ... action! 3-D animations allow researchers, and everyone else, to visualize biology.(Vision)
September 26, 2005... Complex systems beg simplification. From cave paintings to napkin doodles to holographic imagery, humans have an intrinsic need to understand concepts by recreating them visually, and to couch them in terms that others with different levels...

Patent changes looming in United States: a bill in Congress is creating a showdown between the biotech and computer industries.(BioBusiness)
September 26, 2005... Legislation described as "the most comprehensive change to US patent law" in more than 50 years is pitting research universities and the life sciences industry against the computer and financial services industries. The Patent Reform Act of...

Cell culture.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Cell Signaling: * Pre-screened HUVEC, HMVEC for VEGF-R2 activated signaling. Primary Cells: * HUVEC, HMVEC, HEK, HEM, etc. > 60 normal human and animal cell types * Large lots and matching cell sets * Optimized and...

Tissue P[O.sub.2] & blood perfusion monitoring.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Single and multi-channel simultaneous measurement of tissue oxygenation, blood perfusion (Laser Doppler) and temperature from one sensor. State-of-the-art fiber-optic micro-probes featuring; basic [sub.p][O.sub.2] measurement,...

Fluorophore conjugate preparation kits.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... QUICK EASY 1 hour to get conjugates All processes in a single filtration tube RELIABLE High recovery of conjugates Just mix the reagent & target molecule, and use it for your experiment. Reaction time is just 10 minutes. Various...

Pefachrome[R] peptide substrates.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... The Pefachrome[R] Series of chromogenic and fluorogenic peptide substrates from Pentapharm are highly selective for enzymes involved in Hemostasis. Included are substrates for t-PA, Thrombin, Plasmin, and Factor Xa. Substrates are available...

Intuitive software for molecular biologists.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... PREMIER Biosoft International is dedicated to producing cutting edge intuitive software for molecular biologists. The product line includes AlleleID, designed to address the challenges of bacterial identification and taxa discrimination,...

Is your science pretty?(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Has your research produced imagery worth sharing? Let us share it with your colleagues--and you may win a new iPod! Some or all of the images submitted will be posted in a gallery on WPI's Web site, and the winning image will grace the cover...

Gilson Pipetting Aid--rapid & safe pipetting.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Gilson Pipetting Aid is a device that Fits to glass (or plastic) measuring-pipettes. Glass pipettes are often used to transfer dangerous liquids or hazardous samples. Gilson Pipetting Aid is specially designed for use in research laboratories...

New pipette for problem liquids.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Designed to the highest standards, Microman[R] is intended For pipetting problem liquids such as viscous, dense, volatile or radio labeled compounds. Microman uses capillary-piston and has no air-to-liquid interface for a contamination-free...

Gilson's new electronic repetitive pipette.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Gilson Repetman[R] is an ergonomically designed, battery-operated, repetitive pipette with automatic syringe size identification of Gilson positive-displacement Repet-Tips. It allows continuous volume adjustment From 1 [micro]l to 50 ml...

Pipetman[R] Ultra--advanced pipetting at your fingertips.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Pipetman Ultra is a fully adjustable, air-displacement pipette with a patented multifunctional electronic display. It is the latest member of the Pipetman[R] Family, sharing many of the same characteristics: robustness, accuracy and...

Gilson Pipetman[R] Ultra Starter Kit.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... Get off to an ultra accurate start with Gilson's new Starter Kit, which includes three Pipetman[R] Ultra pipettes, two corresponding certified quality Diamond[R] Tip racks to cover an entire volume range From 2 [micro]L to 1000 [micro]L, plus...

Gilson's new ultra-flat magnetic stirrer.(Guide)
September 26, 2005... LabStir is a brand new Gilson product that provides laboratories with an ultra-flat stirrer for better quality mixing, thanks to its alternating stirring mode. LabStir can accommodate containers up to 9 cm (3-54 in.) in diameter and volumes...

Infection international: David Russell's interests have evolved from Eimeria to Leishmania and, finally, to tuberculosis.(Reverse Transcript)
September 26, 2005... As an undergraduate at St. Andrews University in Scotland, David Russell fell in love with infection. "It's just something that caught my imagination," says Russell, now a professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at Cornell...

Combating malevolence.(Editorial)(Editorial)
September 12, 2005... Whatever the entertainment and artistic merits of the movie "The Constant Gardener," released at the end of last month, the pharmaceutical industry could do without it. A bit of a departure for John Le Carre, the author of the book the...

How to improve peer review at NIH: a revamped process will engender innovative research.(Opinion; National Institutes of Health)
September 12, 2005... Peer reviewers for the National Institutes of Health are faced with the impossible. They are asked to evaluate applications that are too complex and too long in an amount of time that is too short. The process requires them to provide a score...

Dalai drama at SfN.(Notebook; Society for Neuroscience)
September 12, 2005... The Dalai Lama is known for supporting peace, as his 1989 Nobel Peace Prize attests. But he is finding himself at the center of a skirmish over his invitation to speak at this November's Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting in Washington,...

The man who'd prove all studies wrong.(Notebook)
September 12, 2005... On the phone, John Ioannidis comes across much more cheerfully than you might expect from a man who has made a career out of pointing out the more questionable aspects of others' research endeavors. But perhaps he has good reasons to be...

Best of the blogs.(Upfront; science)
September 12, 2005... Have you been reading The Scientist's blogs? If not, here's what you've been missing: * The stocks of companies whose compounds are being discussed at ASCO--the American Society for Clinical Oncology--begin rising more than two weeks...

The inchoate science of consciousness: new approaches could help quantify the mind-body gap.(Vision)(Cover Story)
September 12, 2005... A new scientific field is being born, one that seeks to understand which organisms have subjective states, what purpose they might serve, and how distinct states of consciousness come about. Here, the Holy Grail is to provide a satisfactory,...

Revelations from the unconscious: can vegetative and minimally conscious states expose the cerebral substrates of awareness?
September 12, 2005... Political, ethical, and family conflicts catapulted Terri Schiavo's case to international prominence earlier this year. But a month after the Florida woman's death, a parallel case that generated fewer headlines actually provided greater...

Integrin signaling at a crossroads: are clinicians getting ahead of basic science in the rush to harness the power of integrins?(Research)
September 12, 2005... Integrins serve as the cell's conduit to the outside world, sensing the external environment and passing on instructions: differentiate or not, adhere or move on, live or die. Their roles in controlling cell behavior, coupled with their...

Polarity pathways make a connection: studies piece together conserved signals for orientation and migration.(Hot Papers; cells)
September 12, 2005... Before a cell can do its job, it needs to get oriented. Cells must determine their purpose in life, tell their tops from their bottoms, and quite literally find their place amidst a confusing array of physical and chemical signals. Cell...

Interdisciplinary research.(research papers)
September 12, 2005... These papers were selected from multiple disciplines from the Faculty of 1000, a Web-based literature awareness tool (www.facultyof1000.com). J. Lu et al., "MicroRNA expression profiles classify human cancers," Nature, 435:834-8, June 9,...

Models for HCV.
September 12, 2005... Without a sufficient cell culture system, researchers have had little success designing and testing drugs for the treatment of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Now, a recent paper describes an HCV genome that was isolated from a patient with...

Insects may have complex immunity.(Brief Article)
September 12, 2005... Insect immunity may display hitherto unsuspected molecular complexity. Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston investigated whether Dscam--a gene made famous by its prolific alternative splicing--plays a role in immune response. "The...

Your database is talking; is anybody listening? Biological linguists develop new ontologies for richer, and cross-database searches.(Technology)
September 12, 2005... During most of the 1990s, a linguistic chasm divided the worlds of flies, worms, mice, and other model organisms. People in one world remained largely ignorant about related genes and proteins being studied in the others, in part because each...

How does your virus grow? As scientists develop culture methods for three important human viruses, what have we learned in the process?(Technology)
September 12, 2005... Researchers at Chiron made virology history in 1987 when they discovered the hepatitis C virus (HCV), not by isolating viral particles, but by cloning and sequencing its genome. Subsequently, scientists developed tests for HCV infection and...

Cloning without restriction: with recombinase-mediated cloning systems, worry about inconvenient or absent restriction sites becomes a thing of the past.(Technology)
September 12, 2005... Cloning DNA fragments using restriction enzymes is like flying from Seattle to New York via Phoenix. You arrive at your destination, but it takes longer than necessary to get there. Restriction sites, like airline hubs, aren't always where...

Fluorophores under glass: Cornell researcher invents new silica-based fluorescent tags.(Tools & Tech)
September 12, 2005... What is 30 times brighter than fluorescent markers, impervious to photo-bleaching, and won't leach heavy metals and other toxins into biological samples? Why, Cornell dots, of course--Ulrich Wiesner's attempt to make a cheaper, safer, and...

e-nose sniffs out cancer, and more: new study suggests electronic nose as effective as traditional lung cancer diagnostic.(Tools & Tech)
September 12, 2005... Most gas sensors, such as the carbon monoxide detectors found in many homes, monitor for the presence of a single volatile compound. Electronic noses, or e-noses, combine several non-specific gas sensors, which together produce distinct...

The inside scoop: insider trading isn't always illegal--here's how to tell the difference.(BioBusiness)
September 12, 2005... The US Securities and Exchange Commission recently launched a formal investigation into possible insider trading at the Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology firm Biogen Idec. In March, Thomas Bucknum, the company's chief counsel, resigned...

Spinning lemons into lemonade: the growing trend of spin-outs helps companies cash out on underappreciated assets.(BioBusiness)
September 12, 2005... Before 2001, the company now known as Biovitrum was a group of workers with roots in Pharmacia Corp.'s Swedish research division, which was deemed redundant after Pharmacia merged with Upjohn in 1995. But there was intellectual property and...

E-file the FDA: three-quarters of new drug applications are now submitted electronically, and companies are already reaping benefits.(BioBusiness)
September 12, 2005... Not too long ago, filing a new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration could mean sending four 48-foot trucks stuffed with 100,000 pages of documentation off to the agency's headquarters in Rockville, Md. "I saw several of...

Fighting back against terror: tactics of researchers and extremists change as attacks against animal labs rise.(BioBusiness)
September 12, 2005... After two pipe bombs damaged their buildings in 2003, and after employees had been repeatedly harassed at their homes by animal rights activists wielding bullhorns and sirens, Chiron Corp. decided enough was enough. The Emeryville, Calif.,...

The scientist's annual life sciences salary survey: salaries are up, particularly in certain regions and in particular specialties. Where do you fit in?(Salary Survey)
September 12, 2005... It's been a good year for salaries in the life sciences: Median salaries have gone up by 3.8% since last year, surpassing the consumer price index rise of 3.2% from July 2004. The top earners live in Boston, Mass.--which this year replaced...

Stem cell derived neuron integration and characterization kit.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... Chemicon's Stem Cell Derived Neuron Integration and Characterization kit (Cat. No. NS140) is a novel, broadly encompassing kit for the localization and analysis of ES cell-derived neuron integration into adult CNS tissue. This kit allows...

Lab equipment marketplace.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... Find online auctions and classified ads for scientific equipment at LabX. * 100,000+ items for sale * Over 250 categories including: Microscopes, Spectrophotometers Glassware, HPLC, GC, GCMS And so much more... Need equipment?...

Free posters: lineage markers & cytokines.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... The 2005 eBioscience catalog features products such as IL-23, Foxp3, DC-Sign, Nanog, TLRs and TrueBlot, a simple to use IgG detection for IP/WB to reduce interference by heavy and light Ig chains. Posters available: TLR, Costimulation, Th1...

Chemicon--your cancer research solution.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... Chemicon offers a comprehensive line of antibodies and kits for cancer research. * Antibodies to Tumor Markers and Oncoproteins * Apoptosis Detection Kits * Cell Based Assays * CpG Methylation Detection Kits *...

Pre-owned lab equipment.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... * Savings of up to 80% off manuf. list * Remanufactured with warranty * Turn unwanted equipment into cash * Get more for your budget whether buying or selling, or if you just want a quote PEGASUS SCIENTIFIC, INC (800)...

NanoFil[TM]--sub-microliter injection system.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... A new micro syringe designed for mouse injection, offering the smallest metal needle in the world (110 micron OD). Unique design allows a variety of tips to be used, making application possibilities endless. Nanoliter injections can be...

Cell culture.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... Cell Signaling: * Pre-screened HUVEC, HMVEC for VEGF-R2 activated signaling. Primary Cells: * HUVEC, HMVEC, HEK, HEM, etc. > 60 normal human and animal cell types * Large lots and matching cell sets * Optimized and...

An automated method to monitor cell behavior.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... ECIS[TM] Electric Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing is a powerful new method to study cell behavior in tissue culture. The approach provides real time, quantitative measurements of: * Cell Morphology * Endothelial Cell...

Lab-on-a-slide solutions for biomicroscopy.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... [micro]-Slides are a new family of flow-through devices for the functional analysis/imaging of living cells. Require small volumes of media and allow fast and convenient exchange of fluids. Comprised highest quality optical plastic for use...

Assay designs' [beta]-catenin TiterZyme[R] immunoassay kit.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... Assay Designs' total [beta]-catenin TiterZyme[R] immunoassay kit provides quantitative measurement of [beta]-catenin in cell lysates. The Wnt/ [beta]-catenin pathway is currently being looked at as a possible drug target for a number of...

Scanner densitometry software.(Guide)
September 12, 2005... UN-SCAN-IT gel software turns any scanner into an accurate and inexpensive densitometer... and allows you to automatically determine band densities, relative concentrations, band locations, molecular weight values, etc. for nearly all types...

Simulate cloning experiments and draw elegant maps!(Guide)
September 12, 2005... Simulate cloning experiments and design exceptional quality graphics with SimVector. Plan Gateway[R], TA and restriction cloning experiments and publish them. Check the frame of your constructs and find the protein sequence using the ORF...

Hair, the call of the wild: a cellular and structural biologist finds links between biophysics and ecology.(Closing Bell)
September 12, 2005... Jack London once said that he would "rather be ashes than dust." The distinction between the two might be difficult to make by naked eye, but a scanning electron microscope could reveal a world of difference. So says John Weisel, a University...