Cell signaling news
Here we present recent news items specially selected from Nature, Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology.
May 2004
2004:
December |
November |
October |
September |
August |
July |
June |
May |
April |
March |
February |
January
Other years: 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008
News | News in brief | News Features
News
Clinicians win fight to overturn patent for breast-cancer gene
A European patent that gave a company in Utah the exclusive right to perform diagnostic tests for a breast-cancer gene has been revoked.
Nature (27 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Tissue survey raises spectre of 'second wave' of vCJD
Britain's epidemic of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) could be worse than current death rates predict, a survey of a marker for the condition in body tissue suggests.
Nature (27 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Microbiology gaining ground after lean years
Of the thousands of microbes known to science, 99% have yet to be cultured in a dish. But unless they can be grown in the laboratory, there is little hope that their physiology or behaviour will ever be well understood.
Nature (27 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Japan announces follow-up to human genome project
Japan is launching the Genome Network, a five-year, ¥15-billion (US$130-million) initiative that will attempt to build on the human genome project and systematically study the function of all human genes.
Nature (27 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Pop science pulls in public as café culture goes global
The Vitenskapskafeen in Oslo is so popular that people happily sit on the floor once the seats are taken. The focus of each of these popular gatherings, called Cafés Scientifique, is informal scientific debate.
Nature (27 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Britain opens first repository to speed work on stem cells
Embryonic stem-cell research in Britain is expected to gain impetus from the opening on 19 May of a purpose-built stem-cell bank, just north of London.
Nature (27 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Panel slated for leniency over study of NIH consulting roles
A special panel that investigated conflict-of-interest practices at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) got a chilly reception on Capitol Hill last week. Law-makers and their staffs made it clear that the biomedical agency will be dogged by the issue for many months to come.
Nature (20 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Software company bans competitive users
Chemists who have been banned from using a leading software package because they use competing products have taken their fight online.
Nature (20 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Charging plan casts a shadow on Japan's light beam
At the moment, it's free – but academic researchers may soon have to pay to use one of the world's most powerful synchrotrons.
Nature (20 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Germany backs genome networks to tackle diseases
Germany has confirmed funding for more than 300 post-genomic research projects aimed at finding therapeutic targets for common diseases, including cancer and neurological disorders.
Nature (20 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Britain plans laws to restrain animal-rights activists
The British government has committed itself to legislation that will specifically target crimes committed by animal-rights activists. But early indications are that the law will fail to satisfy research lobby groups.
Nature (20 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Bush pressured as Nancy Reagan pleads for stem-cell research
Almost three years after President Bush laid down a policy restricting the use of public funds in embryonic stem-cell research, calls are growing for the White House to revisit the rules.
Nature (13 May 2004)
| Full Text |
South Africa names head of science ministry
An applied mathematician has been appointed minister of science and technology in the new South African government – and has pledged to start bringing more young people into science.
Nature (13 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Researchers fear break-up of UK medical institute
Scientists at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) at Mill Hill in north London are worried that their institute could soon be split up.
Nature (13 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Scientists complain government cash is no rise in real terms
The Australian government has announced a A$5.3-billion (US$3.7-billion), seven-year investment package aimed at boosting science and innovation.
Nature (13 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Icelandic database shelved as court judges privacy in peril
Iceland's supreme court has ruled that the transfer of a dead patient's health data to a proposed genetic database would infringe the privacy rights of the man's descendants.
Nature (13 May 2004)
| Full Text |
NIH urged to rewrite rules on consultancies
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) looks set to changes its employment rules to address criticism about conflicts of interest among its senior staff.
Nature (13 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Korea's stem-cell stars dogged by suspicion of ethical breach
When a South Korean team announced that it had derived stem cells from a cloned human embryo, its achievement was heralded as an important step on the road to 'therapeutic cloning'. But the research is now clouded by nagging questions about the source of the key resource for the experiment: human egg cells.
Nature (6 May 2004)
| Full Text |
BioShield defence programme set to fund anthrax vaccine
A US government programme to bolster public defences against bioterrorism will soon give out its first grants—despite complaints from the biotechnology industry that the programme is not working as intended.
Nature (6 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Top job at NSF on hold until after US elections
Prospects are fading that a director for the US National Science Foundation (NSF) will be named any time this year, officials familiar with the search say.
Nature (6 May 2004)
| Full Text |
AIDS drug price hike prompts calls for intervention
The National Institutes of Health has been asked to step in and halt the spiralling cost of AIDS medications in the United States.
Nature (6 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Fatal fruit bat virus sparks epidemics in southern Asia
Television cameras may be few and far between in rural areas of Bangladesh, south Asia's poorest nation. But killer human viruses are recurrent there, and are quietly wreaking havoc.
Nature (6 May 2004)
| Full Text |
China launches new molecular medicine institute
China is set to launch a new Institute of Molecular Medicine in partnership with an existing institute of the same name at the University of California in San Diego. The new institute will focus initially on translational research in cardiovascular science and metabolic diseases.
Nature Medicine (May 2004)
| Full Text |
Outsourcing clinical trials to India rash and risky, critics warn
Contract research organizations (CROs), which compete with each other to provide clinical trial services for pharmaceutical companies, are mushrooming across India. US companies are acquiring Indian CROs and turning them into hubs of their clinical research activities. These are just a few signs of the next trend in India—outsourcing of clinical trials.
Nature Medicine (May 2004)
| Full Text |
Puerto Rico takes on clinical cancer research
With an $18 million, five-year grant from the US National Cancer Institute, and initial annual funding of $4 million for 10 years from the local government, the island of Puerto Rico is gearing up to build a comprehensive cancer center.
Nature Medicine (May 2004)
| Full Text |
Despite hype, not all statins are the same, experts say
Statins do more than prevent heart attacks—that much is clear. But scientists are just beginning to unravel the drugs' panoply of effects.
Nature Medicine (May 2004)
| Full Text |
Europe urged to step up applied cardiovascular research
Cardiovascular research in Europe urgently needs funds for continent-wide applied research projects, more than 100 researchers argued at a conference in Brussels in March.
Nature Medicine (May 2004)
| Full Text |
US NIH draft guidelines threaten diagnostics sector
The US NIH introduced draft guidelines on March 5 that suggest that patents covering diagnostics should be licensed on a nonexclusive basis and that universities should not patent genomic technologies if significant research and development is unnecessary to get a product to market.
Nature Biotechnology (May 2004)
| Full Text |
News in brief
Homeopathy group loses lawsuit against TV science show
| Money doubled to reform lab animal use in Britain
| AIDS-vaccine firm needled by stock-exchange rules
| US changes rules to speed up approval of AIDS drug cocktails
| CERN supports drive for free access to data
| Engineer takes control at Italy's research body
| Popularizer Greenfield is blackballed by peers
| Reinstated cancer chief is sacked again
| Scientific groups support open access to papers
| International system to track clinical trials launched
| US Treasury reverses publishing embargo
| EU visa for scientists
| Big Japanese merger
| HGS's Haseltine steps down
| 1st EU biogeneric delayed
| Chemical genomics in Germany
| Drug fast-track in Japan
| Benitec sues RNAi firms
| Klug to head Israeli center
News Features
Striking back
Stroke has disabled millions of people, stealing their ability to walk or communicate. Can future victims be helped by treatments that stimulate the growth of new brain cells?
Nature (27 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Giardia: Not so special, after all?
The parasite Giardia was thought to represent a throwback to the earliest days of advanced cellular life. But biologists are now arguing over its true status.
Nature (20 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Psychedelic drugs: The ups and downs of ecstasy
The clubbers' drug is now being studied as a treatment for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Erika Check charts its rocky road from the psychedelic underground to the psychiatric clinic.
Nature (13 May 2004)
| Full Text |
Stem-cell research: Crunch time for Korea's cloners
A team in Seoul has stolen a march with its work towards human therapeutic cloning. The researchers have been féted, but an ethical controversy may threaten their work.
Nature (6 May 2004)
| Full Text |
The heart of the matter
Can hematopoietic stem cells transform into muscle and heal damaged hearts? Clinical trials are already under way, but the hypothesis remains a matter of hearty debate.
Nature Medicine (May 2004)
| Full Text |
Profile: Christine Seidman
Many scientists master either basic research or clinical practice, but a career combining the two is not for the faint-hearted. With her unique approach to research, Christine Seidman blazed a trail in cardiovascular science.
Nature (May 2004)
| Full Text |
|
