Signaling news
Here we present recent news items specially selected from Nature, Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology.
October 2002
2002:
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News
Suspicions intensify over elusive European Academy of Sciences
An investigation by Nature has established that the European Academy of Sciences may not be all that it seems.
Nature (31 October 2002)
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Mosquito researchers deny plotting secret biowarfare test
The USA recently admitted to conducting, in 1965, biological-warfare tests using mosquitoes. This concession has revived the issue of a much larger, but aborted research project in India.
Nature (31 October 2002)
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MIT gets plugged in for global data archive
The Massachusettes Institute of Technology looks set to transform the way in which academics publish and archive raw data.
Nature (31 October 2002)
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Universities face cash shortfall as stock-market slide hits charities
With stocks now staggering towards their third consecutive yearly loss, shock waves are going through labs that depend on philanthropic donations.
Nature (24 October 2002)
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Super-enzyme patents get their day in court
A ruling that will determine whether cheaper imitations of the popular SuperScript enzyme could become more readily available is expected within the next few months.
Nature (24 October 2002)
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Malta provides loophole for breast-cancer screen
Synergene, which was set up in Malta in 2000, claims to have found a loophole in Myriad's patents, and says that it will launch a diagnostic test for breast cancer next January.
Nature (24 October 2002)
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Medical funding group calls for clamp-down on hype
Researchers who talk to the press prematurely about unpublished research could soon face harsher sanctions than the odd disapproving glance from a colleague.
Nature (24 October 2002)
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Japan's innovators take patent deals to court
These days more and more peeved Japanese innovators are opting to call in lawyers if they believe their employers have stolen their ideas.
Nature (17 October 2002)
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Words but no cash for US agencies
The US NSF got some good news when a House committee proposed a 13% increase in its funding for the 2003 fiscal year — but, the big question is when a gridlocked Congress will get around to passing any budget at all.
Nature (17 October 2002)
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Top London colleges consider merger to form research giant
London's two largest research institutions — University College London and Imperial College — have revealed that they are considering plans to merge.
Nature (17 October 2002)
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Structured approach bags chemistry prize
Three researchers who developed key tools to study biomolecules have been rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Nature (17 October 2002)
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Regulators split on gene therapy as patient shows signs of cancer
The revelation that experimental gene therapy may have given a child a cancer-like illness has provoked diverse regulatory responses around the world.
Nature (10 October 2002)
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Call for clinical-trial reform leaves critics unmoved
Medical watchdog groups in the United States say they are becoming frustrated that reforms of the clinical-research system have failed to materialize, despite repeated calls for tougher regulation.
Nature (10 October 2002)
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Winning universities set out to fulfil Japan's plans for excellence
Japan's education ministry has named the first 113 centres of excellence to be set up at the nation's universities.
Nature (10 October 2002)
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Worm cast in starring role for Nobel prize
A humble nematode has wormed its way into the affections of the scientific community and helped to secure this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Nature (10 October 2002)
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Weak leadership threatens anti-malaria drive
A major global initiative that aims to halve the world's malaria burden by 2010 will fail unless it is speedily revamped, according to the scheme's first major external evaluation.
Nature (3 October 2002)
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Traditional owners 'should be paid'
Traditional knowledge can provide cheap leads for pharmaceutical companies looking for new drugs. Now a model law could help to ensure that the indigenous communities involved are properly rewarded.
Nature (3 October 2002)
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Skepticism surrounds diabetes xenograft experiment
The news that a team of researchers has 'cured' a patient with Type 1 diabetes using pig islet cells transplanted within a prototype device has roused the diabetes, transplant and xenotransplantation communities.
Nature Medicine (October 2002)
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Company pushes broad-ranging patent claim
Close attention is being paid to a legal case brought by Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Harvard University and the Whitehead Institute, in which they claim to have a patent covering "all future inventions that will be made or discovered that operate on the biological principle" of the NF-κB pathway.
Nature Medicine (October 2002)
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Video complicates stem-cell debate
Having established a ban on human cloning, the Australian government has now turned its attention to legislation regarding embryonic stem-cell therapeutic research.
Nature Medicine (October 2002)
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Judah Folkman
Judah Folkman talks to Nature Medicine about how his theories and findings have been challenged ever since he began research, and the reasons why he continues in the face of continual confrontation.
Nature Medicine (October 2002)
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News in brief
Haplotype mappers set their sights on genetic diseases
| Senate move starts run up for triple jump in NIH budget
| Fast-track plan to double NSF funding hits the buffers
| FDA gives green light to immunodeficiency gene-therapy trials
| Lion drops drug discovery
| Chiron patent invalidated
News Features
Neuroscience: Addicted
"When you are addicted, there is no euphoria when you shoot up," explains Christian. "You only want heroin. Food and sex are not interesting. You are capable of being aroused, but you have no desire." Can neuroscientists explain why addicts feel this way? Alison Abbott investigates.
Nature (31 October 2002)
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What difference does a genome make?
The malaria parasite's genome should provide a wealth of new scientific opportunities. But this may heighten tensions over how best to spend the scant resources allocated to malaria research and control. Declan Butler reports.
Nature (3 October 2002)
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