Cell signaling news
Here we present recent news items specially selected from Nature, Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology.
April 2008
2008:
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January
Other years: 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
News | News in brief | News Features
News
Chemists spin a web of data
A chemist running a computer server from his home is quietly solving one of his colleagues' biggest frustrations by providing the community with an open-access source of chemical information.
Nature News (8 May 2008)
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Medical schools swap pigs for plastic
Doctors used to try out their surgical skills on animals before being allowed to work on patients; now just a handful of US medical schools still have animal labs.
Nature News (8 May 2008)
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Etiology of eating disorders explored as patience for a cure thins
New studies have now started plumbing the biological sources of anorexia and bulimia nervosa — and are also offering hints as to how current and future drugs might target that those pathways.
Nature Medicine 14, 470 (2008)
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Cancer clues fetched from canines
A comparison of tumor tissues now indicates that some cancers bear identical genetic abnormalities and molecular pathogenesis in humans and canines.
Nature Medicine 14, 471 (2008)
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Scaled-up self-experimentation proposed
A British biotech entrepreneur named William Bains is proposing that scientists that self-experiment should form collectives, pooling resources to make their findings more acceptable to the mainstream scientific community.
Nature Medicine 14, 471 (2008)
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Regulators scramble to tighten loopholes after heparin debacle
The recent discovery of a contaminant in batches of the blood-thinning drug heparin has thrown into stark contrast the inadequacies and loopholes in the regulation of manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in China.
Nature Biotechnology 26, 477-478 (2008)
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Inhaled insulin's last gasp?
Clinical programs for inhaled insulin have received several setbacks of late, but in early April the death blow was delivered: Pfizer said it is updating the label of its inhaled insulin product Exubera to reflect an increased incidence of lung cancer cases among former smokers.
Nature Biotechnology 26, 479-480 (2008)
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Courts deny Pfizer access
The legal wrangle between New York-based Pfizer and three prominent medical journals over the release of confidential peer-review documents, the outcome of which directly affects biotechs, ended with the integrity of the peer review process intact.
Nature Biotechnology 26, 480 (2008)
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Doctors accused of doing illegal stem-cell trials
An apparently successful stem-cell treatment in Austria for urinary incontinence is now being questioned after it has emerged that clinical trials for the therapy may have been done illegally.
Nature News (1 May 2008)
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Genetics bill cruises through Senate
The unanimous vote last week by the US Senate to outlaw discrimination against people on the basis of their genetic information is being celebrated by civil-rights groups, which have long campaigned for the safeguards.
Nature News (1 May 2008)
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Programs promise to end PDF paper-chase
Researchers are buzzing about a new type of software that allows them to manage their research paper downloads from online journals much more effectively.
Nature News (1 May 2008)
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News in brief
| Drug firm turns spotlight on basic systems biology
| Sacked whistle-blower demands reinstatement
| Changes for ESAs
| IL-1 trap go-ahead
| International consortium to tackle cancer genomes
| UK government slammed for underfunding research
| Artist cleared over possession of bacteria
News Features
Hungry for sleep
For many years, epidemiologists have linked sleep deprivation to poor health. Now, even as the average amount of shuteye people get continues to diminish, new evidence from biological research helps explain how missing out on sleep might contribute to obesity and diabetes.
Nature Medicine 14, 477-480 (2008)
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The special treatment
The special protocol assessment introduced only six years ago by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to facilitate clinical trials is gaining popularity.
Nature Biotechnology 26, 487-489 (2008)
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Cell biology: The cellular hullabaloo
The inner life of a cell is noisy. Helen Pearson discovers how the resulting randomness makes life more challenging — and richer.
Nature News (8 May 2008)
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Stem cells: The 3-billion-dollar question
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine aims to transform the way stem-cell research is funded, but it must also deliver the medical and economic benefits it promised in order to convince taxpayers to fund it in the first place.
Nature News (1 May 2008)
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