Cell signaling news
Here we present recent news items specially selected from Nature, Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology.
September 2003
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News | News in brief | News Features
News
Gates steps up war on malaria with donation of $168 million
Bill and Melinda Gates, the world's richest couple, are to make the biggest-ever single donation to malaria research.
Nature (25 September 2003)
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SARS triggers biomedical shake-up in China
The SARS epidemic has led to an array of changes in research and public health in China, that are just beginning to make themselves felt.
Nature (25 September 2003)
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Open-access row leads paper to shed authors
A spat between the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and one of the leaders of a movement for open access to the scientific literature has resulted in the journal rejecting a paper on kidney transplants at the last minute — and immediately reaccepting it without the names of four of the original authors.
Nature (25 September 2003)
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DNA lab welcomes Dalai Lama to Tibetan science community
Nyime Norbu, who runs the DNA-sequencing machines at the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research, was greatly moved last week when he met with the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, thousands of miles from their mutual home. What did they discuss? DNA sequencing, of course.
Nature (25 September 2003)
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Drug companies snub antibiotics as pipeline threatens to run dry
Major drug companies are pulling out of antibiotic development – and their timing couldn't be worse, a leading meeting on infectious disease was told this week.
Nature (18 September 2003)
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Software mogul turns to mouse for genetic atlas of the brain
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is contributing $100 million to jump-start an institute in Seattle, Washington, that will seek to unravel the genetics of the mammalian brain.
Nature (18 September 2003)
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Worm genes harnessed to tackle snail fever
Geneticists are taking some early steps towards a fresh strategy to combat 'snail fever', a potentially fatal liver disease that affects more than a million people in China.
Nature (18 September 2003)
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Brain protein project enlists mice in 'dry run'
A major global project to catalogue the proteins in the human brain has been launched with a pilot that will analyse proteins expressed in the mouse brain.
Nature (11 September 2003)
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Young guns shoot to the top in China's research revolution
As older scientists retire and research rapidly expands, a large number of young scientists in China are being thrust into prominent positions.
Nature (11 September 2003)
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Retraction ends furore over cancer vaccine
The authors of a paper, published three-and-a-half years ago in Nature Medicine, that claimed that patients with terminal kidney cancer had been successfully treated with individualized cancer vaccines, have finally retracted their work.
Nature (04 September 2003)
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Peers rally in support of accused scientist
Two leading US scientific organizations have lambasted the government's treatment of an infectious-disease expert who faces multiple criminal charges after mishandling plague samples.
Nature (04 September 2003)
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vCJD epidemic could be first of many, experts warn
The 130 or so people who have thus far become afflicted with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) might represent a 'mini-epidemic' that could be followed by several much larger epidemics in years to come.
Nature Medicine (September 2003)
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Spain approves human embryo research
The Spanish government in July approved a measure that explicitly authorizes the use of frozen embryos to derive new stem cell lines, making it the first Catholic country to allow work on human embryos.
Nature Medicine (September 2003)
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Old debates rekindled as world AIDS rates escalate
Experts in AIDS research, ethics, law and policy quietly met in Geneva mid-July to debate whether sponsors of HIV prevention trials are obligated to provide treatment to people who become infected during the trials.
Nature Medicine (September 2003)
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Biotechs sue Columbia over fourth Axel patent
In July, biotech companies Biogen, Genzyme and Abbott Bioresearch Center filed a joint lawsuit against Columbia University in an attempt to invalidate a gene-splicing technology patent held by Columbia.
Nature Biotechnology (September 2003)
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Lessons from Eprex for biogeneric firms
Dutch scientists have found that aggregates of small molecules (micelles) in the formulation of erythropoietin alpha (EPO), sold as Eprex in Europe, were responsible for an immunogenic reaction that triggered severe side effects.
Nature Biotechnology (September 2003)
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Roche and Igen in shotgun wedding
On July 24, Roche Holding and Igen International ended their seven-year feud over Roche's license to Igen's electrochemiluminescence (ECL) technology, which is used by Roche's diagnostics division.
Nature Biotechnology (September 2003)
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Roche's microarray tests US FDA's diagnostic policy
In what could prove to be a landmark test case for the burgeoning field of microarray diagnostics, the US Food and Drug Administration's division of in vitro diagnostics sent a letter to Roche Diagnostics regarding the marketing of its AmpliChip CYP450.
Nature Biotechnology (September 2003)
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Brussels takes EU states to court over biopatent law
On July 10, the European Commission (EC; Brussels, Belgium) referred eight member states to the European Court of Justice (ECJ; Luxemburg, Luxemburg) for their failure to transpose into national law EU directive 98/44/EC, which aims to clarify the principles of patent law applied to biotechnological inventions.
Nature Biotechnology (September 2003)
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News in brief
Japan's fraudsters face years without grants
| Merger provides stronger voice for British biologists
| Biotech headquarters hit by early morning pipe-bomb explosions
| Biology favoured in Japanese funding plan
| Michigan unveils major life-sciences institute
| Europe trims plans for infectious disease agency
| Structural changes at NIH recommended
| Bush science policy under fire
| Interpol calls for policing of biological research |
News Features
Gene regulation: Switched on to RNA
Shape-shifting RNAs that sense the environment – 'riboswitches' – can alter gene activity. Jonathan Knight reports on a discovery that is explaining some of the mysteries of gene regulation.
Nature (18 September 2003)
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Science and law: Biotechnology at the bar
Science is moving too fast for the legal system to keep up. But lawyers and scientists have a solution — a body that would help courts tackle cases involving the latest research. Nicola Nosengo investigates.
Nature (11 September 2003)
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Drug research: The ups and downs of lithium
Lithium has been used to treat manic depression for decades, and may help combat other brain disorders. So how come no one knows for sure why it works? Helen R. Pilcher reports.
Nature (11 September 2003)
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Gene regulation: RNA to the rescue?
Disease therapies based on a technique for gene silencing called RNA interference are racing towards the clinic. Erika Check investigates molecular medicine's next big thing.
Nature (4 September 2003)
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