Cell signaling news
Here we present recent news items specially selected from Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
February 2009
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News | News in brief | News Features
News
'Harmless' prion protein linked to Alzheimer's disease
Blocking the interaction between normal prion proteins and amyloid-β peptides in mouse brains halted some of the neurological defects caused by the accumulation of amyloid-β peptides.
Nature News (26 February 2009)
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Stem-cell inaction prompts concern
Legal complexities may underlie President Obama's delay in fulfilling his election pledge to reverse the US ban on stem-cell research.
Nature News (24 February 2009)
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Drug patent plan gets mixed reviews
The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has committed to sharing some of its patents to boost research into neglected diseases and making its drugs available more cheaply in the very poorest countries.
Nature News (23 February 2009)
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Tumours spark stem-cell review
A report claiming that unregulated transplants of human fetal neural stem cells led to tumors in a boy's brain and spinal cord underscores the need for caution as clinical trials involving stem-cell transplantation move forward.
Nature News (19 February 2009)
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Medical research scores big in US stimulus bill
The American Association for the Advancement of Science reports that the US stimulus package that was signed into law contains US$21.5 billion for scientific research and development across all agencies.
Nature News (19 February 2009)
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John Holdren: adviser on science, fish and wine
The US Senate is expected to confirm John Holdren as chief of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where he will lead a staff of about 60 that provides technical advice on daily decisions, budgets and the full range of federal policy.
Nature News (19 February 2009)
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India protects traditional medicines from piracy
European patent examiners can now access India's massive database on traditional remedies in order to ensure that patents are not granted for treatments already used in Indian systems of medicine.
Nature News (19 February 2009)
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MRI modified for better images
A simple change to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines will provide more uniform coverage at higher powers.
Nature News (19 February 2009)
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Swedish authorities embroiled in furore over academic freedom
The Swedish Research Council is wading into an escalating row over academic freedom after a peer-reviewed journal removed a published paper — penned by two Swedish academics — from its website following a threat of legal action from the company whose technology the research criticized.
Nature News (16 February 2009)
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Genome sequencing: the third generation
Genome researchers gathered in Florida on 5 February, to see companies that build 'third generation' sequencing technologies unveil their latest data.
Nature News (12 February 2009)
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Prostate cancer marker found in urine
The concentration of a small molecule found in urine could reveal how advanced a patient's prostate prostate cancer is.
Nature News (12 February 2009)
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Britain hits a hurdle in replacing key animal-pathogen facility
Plans to build a £121-million (US$180-million) animal-pathogen facility in the United Kingdom are likely to have to be scaled back after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) walked away from the project.
Nature News (10 February 2009)
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Avastin-Tarceva combination fails in lung cancer
Combined treatment with an anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody and a small-molecule EGFR inhibitor has failed to improve overall survival in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Nature Biotechnology News (February 2009)
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FDA holds court on post hoc data linking KRAS status to drug response
The pharmaceutical companies Amgen and Imclone Systems have petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC) to shrink the market for their products on the basis of the genetic stratification of their target patient populations.
Nature Biotechnology News (February 2009)
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Mouse study prompts experts to revisit the promise of leptin
A biochemical method of resensitizing mouse brains to the appetite-suppressing effects of leptin could potentially translate into a long-sought leptin-based treatment for obesity in humans.
Nature Medicine News (February 2009)
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French scientists revolt against government reforms
University lecturers and researchers in France began a national strike over a draft decree that would change their job descriptions and procedures for promotion.
Nature News (5 February 2009)
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The lure of the lab
Science and engineering doctoral programs in the United States are seeing a surge in applications for the coming academic year.
Nature News (5 February 2009)
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Hybrid embryos fail to live up to stem-cell hopes
Early-stage human-cow, human-mouse and human-rabbit hybrid embryos fail to grow beyond 16 cells and do not properly express genes thought to be critical for pluripotency.
Nature News (5 February 2009)
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'Experiments of concern' to be vetted online
A website being developed at the University of California at Berkeley will provide biologists with advice about 'dual-use research' or 'experiments of concern'.
Nature News (5 February 2009)
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Cash concerns for Canadian scientists
The Canadian government's stimulus package promises billions of dollars in science infrastructure investments along with significant cuts to major grant-funding programs.
Nature News (5 February 2009)
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2008 FDA drug approvals
Specialty products continued to dominate new drug and biologic approvals in the US in a year in which the evolving regulatory environment also featured heavily.
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (February 2009)
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Deal watch: Bristol-Myers Squibb and Exelixis collaborate on kinase inhibitors
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Exelixis have entered into an agreement to co-develop two kinase inhibitors for oncology.
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (February 2009)
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News in brief
| deCode gets marketing go-ahead in California
| University reforms stall as French protests surge
| Budget crisis drives Harvard to redundancies
| GSK backs patent pool for neglected diseases
| Soundbites from Chicago
| Obama demands rethink of regulatory processes
| Transgenic drug gets green light from the United States
| Biologic approvals in 2008
| FDA goes public-friendly
| EU pushes advanced therapies
| Obama's science team choices bode well for research funding
| HHMI's Med Into Grad Initiative expands
| Roche launches hostile bid for Genentech shares
| Austrian scientists rattled by threat to funding
| New York tops US technology-transfer league
| Novel pharma-academia collaborations continue
News Features
Darwin 200: The other strand
Geneticists look to the human genome to understand human evolution, but it's hard to interpret without considering the inheritance of culture.
Nature News (12 February 2009)
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Research funding: Closing arguments
The battle to keep a lab funded can be long and painful. Nature talks to two researchers who may be close to hanging up their coats.
Nature News (5 February 2009)
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