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Nature press release for 24 January issue
January 24, 2002[415396] LIFELINES: THIRD TINE OF ANTHRAX`S TOXIC TRIDENT (pp396-402; N&V)
Three poisonous proteins make the anthrax bacteria, Bacillus anthracis, deadly. One shields the other two from the body`s immune system, and another destroys immune-system cells. The third anthrax toxin, called oedema factor (EF), causes fluid accumulation, which can be deadly in its own right.
Following its recent publication of the structure of the first two toxins, this week`s Nature contains a description of the structure of anthrax EF from Andrew Bohm at the Boston Medical Resarch Institute, Massachusetts, Wei-Jen Tang at the University of Chicago, Illinois, and colleagues.
The third tine of anthrax`s toxic trident is harmless until it meets a crucial signalling molecule called calmodulin. The EF–calmodulin complex has a striking enzymatic activity, generating the important cellular signalling molecule cyclic AMP (cAMP). Normally, this is made by a designated cellular enzyme. EF has evolved to do the same job, only far more efficiently and through an entirely different mechanism. cAMP generation is thought to be important for the lethal effect of EF, so this difference provides hope that specific reagents can be developed to target EF and not essential cellular signalling pathways.
EF could also be a weak link, as its structure contains a deep, well defined molecular pocket that could represent an ideal target for future drugs. Bohm, Tang and colleagues "complete our atomic-resolution view of this toxic trinity", says Robert Liddington of the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California, in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
Andrew Bohm tel +1 617 658 7767, e-mail bohm@bbri.org
Wei-Jen Tang tel +1 773 702 4331, e-mail wtang@midway.uchicago.edu
Robert Liddington tel +1 858 646 3136, e-mail rlidding@burnham-inst.org
[415406] PHYSICS: DESKTOP EVENT HORIZON (pp406-409)
An analogue of the event horizon — the rim of a black hole — could be created in the laboratory using stopped light, says a UK physicist in this week`s Nature.
Shining a laser beam into a cold atomic medium can profoundly affect the passage of a second beam: if the frequencies of the laser fields are tuned correctly, the second beam can be slowed or even brought to a standstill. The region in which the velocity falls to zero can be regarded as an optical event horizon, proposes Ulf Leonhardt of the University of St Andrews, UK.
Most intriguing, the formation of such a horizon is predicted to cause the emission of photon pairs, a phenomenon similar to the elusive `Hawking radiation` of real black holes. Hawking radiation should be released when light reaches the event horizon but, masked by other emissions, such radiation has yet to be detected. The laboratory version would have a different type of spectrum, but in principle should be observable.
The experimental device would be "almost table-top sized," says Leonhardt.
CONTACT:
Ulf Leonhardt tel +44 1334 476161 ext 3103, e-mail ulf@st-andrews.ac.uk
[415389] LIFELINES: INBUILT ANTIBIOTICS INSPIRE DRUG DESIGN (pp389-395)
Humans, plants and animals live, by and large, harmoniously with microbes. A review article in this week`s Nature reveals how.
Michael Zasloff of the University of Pennsylvannia School of Medicine, Philadelphia, rounds up the latest findings on the protein fragments that many multicellular organisms use to fend off bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa. These peptides seem to have served a fundamental role in the successful evolution of complex life.
He outlines how such natural antimicrobials, to which little resistance seems to have arisen, are inspiring the design of new antibiotics.
CONTACT:
Michael Zasloff (currently at Georgetown University Medical Centre, Washington, DC) tel +1 202 687 8962, e-mail maz5@georgetown.edu
[415412] PHYSICS: QUANTUM MESS (pp412-416; N&V)
The sea of conducting electrons in conventional superconductors is remarkably uniform at the quantum level — indeed, this is a defining characteristic. But the high-temperature superconductivity found in certain copper oxide compounds is different.
As they report in this week`s Nature, J. C. Davis of the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and colleagues used scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) to take a close look at a quantum fluid at the nanometre scale and got something of a surprise. Instead of the implacable perfection of the conventional superconductor, they found it to be rather messy. The superconducting regions appear to be isolated `islands` in an electronic `sea` with quite different properties. The bulk superconductivity that arises in a sample appears to come from strong interactions between the electrons in the two different regions.
"Studies like these are revealing amazing diversity in the behaviour of these mystery electron systems at the nanoscale," says Jan Zaanen of Leiden University, The Netherlands, in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
J C Davis tel +1 510 642 4505, e-mail jcdavis@socrates.berkeley.edu
Jan Zaanen tel +31 71 527 5506, e-mail jan@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl
[415416] EARTH: CLEAN FORESTS COULD FORCE NITROGEN RETHINK (pp416-419; N&V)
For the past half-century or so, environmental scientists have tried to measure the passage of nitrogen through forests. New research in this week’s Nature suggests that most of these studies have recorded the effects of pollution, rather than the workings of undisturbed ecosystems.
More than three-quarters of the nitrogen in pristine forest streams is in organic form, Steven Perakis and Lars Hedin, of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, found. The duo looked at 100 streams in temperate forests in Chile and Argentina.
In the north, most of the nitrogen washed out of forest ecosystems is in the form of inorganic nitrates. This probably represents excess nitrogen that has come from fertilizers and vehicle emissions.
In an accompanying News and Views article, Nico van Breemen of Wageningen University in The Netherlands describes how the finding will force researchers to rethink their ideas about the cycling of nitrogen between sea, air and land, and the nitrogen budgets of plants.
CONTACT:
Steven Perakis (currently at the US Geological Survey, Corvallis) tel +1 541 737 6082, e-mail sperakis@usgs.gov
Nico van Breemen tel +31 317 484410, e-mail Nico.vanBreemen@BodEco.BenG.WAU.NL
[415436] LIFELINES: GENE SCREEN PREDICTS TUMOUR PROGNOSIS (pp436-442)
A profiling system predicts well the clinical outcome of the most common type of childhood malignant brain tumour (medulloblastoma), report Todd R. Golub of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and colleagues in this week`s Nature.
Little is known about early-childhood central nervous system tumours. Their diagnosis, on the basis of appearance alone, is controversial and patients` response to therapy has to date been difficult to predict. So Golub`s team has developed a classification system based on DNA microarray gene expression data that demonstrates that medulloblastomas are molecularly distinct from other tumours and that sheds some light on why they may occur. "This work illustrates how genomic technologies have the potential to advance treatment towards a more individualised approach to medicine," the researchers conclude.
CONTACT:
Todd R. Golub tel +1 617 632 4903, e-mail golub@genome.wi.mit.edu
[415424] EVOLUTION: GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE (pp424-426)
The way to discourage human selfishness is to make individuals concerned about others` opinion of them, suggest Manfred Milinski and colleagues of the Max Planck Institute of Limnology, Plön, Germany, in Nature this week.
Milinski`s team staged a complex series of social games among students. These revealed that without any specific mechanisms for punishment or reward, the motivation to `do as you would be done by` can be a powerful force for social good. That is, if you build up a reputation for helping people, even unrelated strangers who you are unlikely to meet ever again, people are more likely to cooperate with you.
This sounds like common sense, and it is predicted theoretically, but carefully controlled experiments such as those performed Milinski`s team can show how powerful the effect can be, relative to other factors that influence social behaviour.
CONTACT:
Manfred Milinski tel +49 4522 763 254, e-mail milinski@mpil-ploen.mpg.de
BRAIN: THE M1 IS KEY TO MOTORISTS (DOI: 10.1038/nature712)
Nature is pleased to announce the introduction of regular Advance Online Publication (AOP). Selected papers will be subedited and formatted and then published online as soon as they are ready. Papers published online before they have been allocated to a print issue will be citable via a digital object identifier (DOI) number. Once the paper is published electronically, the DOI can be used to retrieve the abstract and full text from the Nature web site (abstracts are available to everyone, full text only to subscribers) by adding it to the following URL: http://dx.doi.org/ . Embargoes for papers published in this way will lift at the time of electronic publication and will be the same as for the print issue whose press release they share, unless otherwise stated. The following paper therefore has an embargo of 1900 London time / 1400 US Eastern time on Wednesday 23 January. Please note that it will not, however, appear in the 24 January issue of Nature, despite its inclusion on this release.
Next time you`re learning a new tennis stroke, piano scale or dance step, spare a thought for your primary motor cortex or M1. This area of our brain works overtime during the early stages of consolidating a new motor skill, report Mark Hallett of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues.
To pinpoint which brain regions are essential to performing, improving and keeping motor skills, Hallett`s group used low-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to interfere with activity in various brain regions believed to be involved, while volunteers did finger exercises. Their finding that the M1 is central to skill retention "further establishes the area as a critical node in the network for storage and processing of new motor information", Hallett`s group concludes.
CONTACT:
Mark Hallett tel +1 301 496 1561, e-mail hallettm@ninds.nih.gov
[415365] POLICY: TIME TO ACT (pp365-366)
The race to be first to develop an AIDS vaccine could have dire consequences. In a commentary in this week`s Nature, John P. Moore of Cornell University, New York, argues that the competitive mentality of US federal agencies is leading to wasteful duplication of effort.
In addition, despite claims to the contrary, the present generation of US-government-sponsored AIDS-vaccine candidates probably will not prevent populations of countries in the developing world from being devastated by this disease, he argues. The price of failure in a string of trials will be costly, says Moore: the erosion of public confidence in science`s ability to deliver an effective HIV-1 vaccine. Governments in developing countries could lose confidence in the ability of the West to stem the AIDS pandemic before truly effective vaccines have been developed. A more coordinated approach is needed if the situation is to be retrieved, he concludes.
CONTACT:
John P. Moore tel +1 212 746 4462, e-mail jpm2003@med.cornell.edu
[415385] …AND FINALLY: RECONSTITUTED EGGS (p385)
One of the banes of the transplant surgeon is that rare donor organs cannot be frozen and stored for later use — freezing and thawing do too much damage to tissues.
In a Brief Communication to this week`s Nature, however, Roger Gosden of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues describe the successful transplantation in rats of organs after storage in liquid nitrogen.
The organs in question were ovaries with their fallopian tubes attached, and the rats were genetically identical, overcoming the problem of tissue rejection. Although the transplanted ovaries were less efficient after freezing, more than half ovulated normally and one recipient became pregnant.
If it can one day be applied to humans, the procedure would offer an option to women and children who would otherwise be sterilized by chemotherapy. Advances in freezing techniques could also make it possible to store and successfully transplant other organs, the researchers suggest.
CONTACT:
Roger Gosden tel +1 514 842 1231 ext 4747/4735, e-mail gosdenrg@evms.edu
Nature Publishing Group Reference
Humans, plants and animals live, by and large, harmoniously with microbes. A review article in this week`s Nature reveals how.
Michael Zasloff of the University of Pennsylvannia School of Medicine, Philadelphia, rounds up the latest findings on the protein fragments that many multicellular organisms use to fend off bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa. These peptides seem to have served a fundamental role in the successful evolution of complex life.
He outlines how such natural antimicrobials, to which little resistance seems to have arisen, are inspiring the design of new antibiotics.
CONTACT:
Michael Zasloff (currently at Georgetown University Medical Centre, Washington, DC) tel +1 202 687 8962, e-mail maz5@georgetown.edu
[415412] PHYSICS: QUANTUM MESS (pp412-416; N&V)
The sea of conducting electrons in conventional superconductors is remarkably uniform at the quantum level — indeed, this is a defining characteristic. But the high-temperature superconductivity found in certain copper oxide compounds is different.
As they report in this week`s Nature, J. C. Davis of the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and colleagues used scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) to take a close look at a quantum fluid at the nanometre scale and got something of a surprise. Instead of the implacable perfection of the conventional superconductor, they found it to be rather messy. The superconducting regions appear to be isolated `islands` in an electronic `sea` with quite different properties. The bulk superconductivity that arises in a sample appears to come from strong interactions between the electrons in the two different regions.
"Studies like these are revealing amazing diversity in the behaviour of these mystery electron systems at the nanoscale," says Jan Zaanen of Leiden University, The Netherlands, in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
J C Davis tel +1 510 642 4505, e-mail jcdavis@socrates.berkeley.edu
Jan Zaanen tel +31 71 527 5506, e-mail jan@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl
[415416] EARTH: CLEAN FORESTS COULD FORCE NITROGEN RETHINK (pp416-419; N&V)
For the past half-century or so, environmental scientists have tried to measure the passage of nitrogen through forests. New research in this week’s Nature suggests that most of these studies have recorded the effects of pollution, rather than the workings of undisturbed ecosystems.
More than three-quarters of the nitrogen in pristine forest streams is in organic form, Steven Perakis and Lars Hedin, of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, found. The duo looked at 100 streams in temperate forests in Chile and Argentina.
In the north, most of the nitrogen washed out of forest ecosystems is in the form of inorganic nitrates. This probably represents excess nitrogen that has come from fertilizers and vehicle emissions.
In an accompanying News and Views article, Nico van Breemen of Wageningen University in The Netherlands describes how the finding will force researchers to rethink their ideas about the cycling of nitrogen between sea, air and land, and the nitrogen budgets of plants.
CONTACT:
Steven Perakis (currently at the US Geological Survey, Corvallis) tel +1 541 737 6082, e-mail sperakis@usgs.gov
Nico van Breemen tel +31 317 484410, e-mail Nico.vanBreemen@BodEco.BenG.WAU.NL
[415436] LIFELINES: GENE SCREEN PREDICTS TUMOUR PROGNOSIS (pp436-442)
A profiling system predicts well the clinical outcome of the most common type of childhood malignant brain tumour (medulloblastoma), report Todd R. Golub of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and colleagues in this week`s Nature.
Little is known about early-childhood central nervous system tumours. Their diagnosis, on the basis of appearance alone, is controversial and patients` response to therapy has to date been difficult to predict. So Golub`s team has developed a classification system based on DNA microarray gene expression data that demonstrates that medulloblastomas are molecularly distinct from other tumours and that sheds some light on why they may occur. "This work illustrates how genomic technologies have the potential to advance treatment towards a more individualised approach to medicine," the researchers conclude.
CONTACT:
Todd R. Golub tel +1 617 632 4903, e-mail golub@genome.wi.mit.edu
[415424] EVOLUTION: GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE (pp424-426)
The way to discourage human selfishness is to make individuals concerned about others` opinion of them, suggest Manfred Milinski and colleagues of the Max Planck Institute of Limnology, Plön, Germany, in Nature this week.
Milinski`s team staged a complex series of social games among students. These revealed that without any specific mechanisms for punishment or reward, the motivation to `do as you would be done by` can be a powerful force for social good. That is, if you build up a reputation for helping people, even unrelated strangers who you are unlikely to meet ever again, people are more likely to cooperate with you.
This sounds like common sense, and it is predicted theoretically, but carefully controlled experiments such as those performed Milinski`s team can show how powerful the effect can be, relative to other factors that influence social behaviour.
CONTACT:
Manfred Milinski tel +49 4522 763 254, e-mail milinski@mpil-ploen.mpg.de
BRAIN: THE M1 IS KEY TO MOTORISTS (DOI: 10.1038/nature712)
Nature is pleased to announce the introduction of regular Advance Online Publication (AOP). Selected papers will be subedited and formatted and then published online as soon as they are ready. Papers published online before they have been allocated to a print issue will be citable via a digital object identifier (DOI) number. Once the paper is published electronically, the DOI can be used to retrieve the abstract and full text from the Nature web site (abstracts are available to everyone, full text only to subscribers) by adding it to the following URL: http://dx.doi.org/ . Embargoes for papers published in this way will lift at the time of electronic publication and will be the same as for the print issue whose press release they share, unless otherwise stated. The following paper therefore has an embargo of 1900 London time / 1400 US Eastern time on Wednesday 23 January. Please note that it will not, however, appear in the 24 January issue of Nature, despite its inclusion on this release.
Next time you`re learning a new tennis stroke, piano scale or dance step, spare a thought for your primary motor cortex or M1. This area of our brain works overtime during the early stages of consolidating a new motor skill, report Mark Hallett of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues.
To pinpoint which brain regions are essential to performing, improving and keeping motor skills, Hallett`s group used low-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to interfere with activity in various brain regions believed to be involved, while volunteers did finger exercises. Their finding that the M1 is central to skill retention "further establishes the area as a critical node in the network for storage and processing of new motor information", Hallett`s group concludes.
CONTACT:
Mark Hallett tel +1 301 496 1561, e-mail hallettm@ninds.nih.gov
[415365] POLICY: TIME TO ACT (pp365-366)
The race to be first to develop an AIDS vaccine could have dire consequences. In a commentary in this week`s Nature, John P. Moore of Cornell University, New York, argues that the competitive mentality of US federal agencies is leading to wasteful duplication of effort.
In addition, despite claims to the contrary, the present generation of US-government-sponsored AIDS-vaccine candidates probably will not prevent populations of countries in the developing world from being devastated by this disease, he argues. The price of failure in a string of trials will be costly, says Moore: the erosion of public confidence in science`s ability to deliver an effective HIV-1 vaccine. Governments in developing countries could lose confidence in the ability of the West to stem the AIDS pandemic before truly effective vaccines have been developed. A more coordinated approach is needed if the situation is to be retrieved, he concludes.
CONTACT:
John P. Moore tel +1 212 746 4462, e-mail jpm2003@med.cornell.edu
[415385] …AND FINALLY: RECONSTITUTED EGGS (p385)
One of the banes of the transplant surgeon is that rare donor organs cannot be frozen and stored for later use — freezing and thawing do too much damage to tissues.
In a Brief Communication to this week`s Nature, however, Roger Gosden of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues describe the successful transplantation in rats of organs after storage in liquid nitrogen.
The organs in question were ovaries with their fallopian tubes attached, and the rats were genetically identical, overcoming the problem of tissue rejection. Although the transplanted ovaries were less efficient after freezing, more than half ovulated normally and one recipient became pregnant.
If it can one day be applied to humans, the procedure would offer an option to women and children who would otherwise be sterilized by chemotherapy. Advances in freezing techniques could also make it possible to store and successfully transplant other organs, the researchers suggest.
CONTACT:
Roger Gosden tel +1 514 842 1231 ext 4747/4735, e-mail gosdenrg@evms.edu
Nature Publishing Group Reference
Anthrax Current Events and Anthrax News RSSMilestone biodefense publication by Elsevier journal Vaccine
Last week during the 'Vaccines for Biothreats and Emerging and Neglected Diseases Symposium' in Galveston TX, USA, the Elsevier journal Vaccine released a supplement dedicated to vaccines for biodefense.
Cigarettes Harbor Many Bacteria Harmful to Human Health
Cigarettes are "widely contaminated" with bacteria, including some known to cause disease in people, concludes a new international study conducted by a University of Maryland environmental health researcher and microbial ecologists at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.
New explanation for nature's hardiest life form
Got food poisoning? The cause might be bacterial spores, en extremely hardy survival form of bacteria, a nightmare for health care and the food industry and an enigma for scientists.
Better immune defense against anthrax
Scientists discover a gene in anthrax-causing bacteria may help defend against this form of bio-warfare.
Argonne researchers develop method that aims to stabilize antibodies
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have developed a systematic method to improve the stability of antibodies.
Early detection and quick response are key to defense against anthrax attack
A large attack on a major metropolitan area with airborne anthrax could affect more than a million people, necessitating their treatment with powerful antibiotics.
Data published in the New England Journal of Medicine support use of raxibacumab (ABthrax) for the treatment of inhalation anthrax
Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) today announced publication by the New England Journal of Medicine of the results of two pivotal animal efficacy studies, which showed the life-saving potential of the Company's human monoclonal antibody drug raxibacumab.
One secret to how TB sticks with you
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is arguably the world's most successful infectious agent because it knows how to avoid elimination by slowing its own growth to a crawl.
Unexpected discovery can open a new chapter in the fight against tuberculosis
A close relative of the microorganism that causes tuberculosis in humans has been found to form spores.
Genetic switch potential key to new class of antibiotics
Researchers have determined the structure of a key genetic mechanism at work in bacteria, including some that are deadly to humans, in an important step toward the design of a new class of antibiotics.
More Anthrax Current Events and Anthrax News Articles
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Among the Living by Anthrax Pioneering metal band Anthrax, one of the genre's most influential, innovative and respected groups, melded the speed and fury of hardcore punk with the guitars and vocals of heavy metal to help create speed and thrash metal. Now what many consider the group's greatest album, 1987's "Among The Living," has been expanded with bonus tracks and a concert DVD, and digitally remastered for the first time, for the CD+DVD package AMONG THE LIVING (DELUXE EDITION) "Among The Living," originally produced by Eddie Kramer and Anthrax, was the band's third full-length album and featured the lineup of singer Joe Belladonna, lead guitarist Dan Spitz, rhythm guitarist Scott Ian, bassist Frank Bello and drummer Charlie Benante. Building on an underground following with signature tracks such as "I... |
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Among the Living by Anthrax No Description Available No Track Information Available Media Type: CD Artist: ANTHRAX Title: AMONG THE LIVING Street Release Date: 06/04/1990 |
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Caught in a Mosh: BBC Live in Concert by Anthrax CAUGHT IN A MOSH: BBC LIVE IN CONCERT is the official U.S. debut release of the double CD set, which brings together two live performances from the 1987 UK "Among The Living" tour: their sold out Hammersmith Odeon show and their storming performance at the Donnington Festival. |
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Persistence of Time by Anthrax No Description Available No Track Information Available Media Type: CD Artist: ANTHRAX Title: PERSISTENCE OF TIME Street Release Date: 08/21/1990 |
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Spreading the Disease by Anthrax No Description Available No Track Information Available Media Type: CD Artist: ANTHRAX Title: SPREADING THE DISEASE Street Release Date: 06/04/1990 |
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We've Come for You All by Anthrax No Description Available No Track Information Available Media Type: CD Artist: ANTHRAX Title: WE'VE COME FOR YOU ALL Street Release Date: 05/06/2003 |
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State of Euphoria by Anthrax No Description Available. Genre: Popular Music Media Format: Compact Disk Rating: PA Release Date: 6-JUL-1990 |
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Anthrax: Anthrology: No Hit Wonders 1985-1991 by Anthrax |
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