Cell Biology 1: Protein Components Identified in RNA Splicer Cell Biology 2: How Does Nucleus Tell Signals Apart? It's in the Timing Tissue Engineering: Mammalian Teeth Regrown in Lab Global Environment: Report Documents Health Effect of Biodiversity Diversity: HMS Minority Faculty Development Program Named Federal Center of Excellence Neurology: New Center to Focus on Nervous System Repair The Autumn Bookshelf: Recent Books by Faculty of HMS, HSDM, and HSPH   Learning the Patient's Perspective   Cell Death Signals May Model Future Cancer Drugs HIV Transmission from Mother to Child Boosted by Vitamin A Stem Cell Types Share Key Genetics Program Drug Promising for Complication of Stem Cell Transplants   New Appointments to Full Professorships HSPH Alum Rides "Race of Remembrance" Scott Professorship Highlights Care of Children Reception Held for Incoming Minority Students Honors and Advances News Briefs In Memoriam: Robert Gould Sanford Palay William Quinby Douglas Richardson David Tapper J. Gordon Scannell   'Fat Bias': A Barrier to the Treatment of Obese Patients Front Page

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT Report Documents Health Effect of Biodiversity On a walk in the woods to admire New England's famous fall colors, someone might face a higher risk of contracting Lyme disease if there were too few predators roaming the woods to check the population of white-footed mice, the main host for this most common of vector-borne diseases in the U.S. Five hundred species of cone snails harboring as many as 50,000 different toxins may be lost as sources for future therapies or research tools because of disappearing coral reefs. New York City avoided a hefty rate increase for a proposed $5 to 8 billion filtration plant to improve its deteriorating water supply by instead spending $1.5 billion on land and watershed protection to preserve the natural filtration of the city's water source in the Catskills. Eric Chivian is editor of a 56-page report on the importance of biodiversity for human health. (Photo by Graham Ramsay) These are a few examples from a new report cataloguing the connections between biodiversity and human health. The interim executive summary will be presented at the United Nations in late October, following the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, that ended earlier this month. It will be the first product to be rolled out from a project called "Biodiversity: Its Importance to Human Health," headed by Eric Chivian at the HMS Center for Health and the Global Environment. The project involves 60 scientists from around the world and is believed to be the first systematic, comprehensive analysis of the full human health consequences of species loss and ecosystem disruption. It will grow into a trade book by the same name, published by Oxford University Press, at the end of 2003. The full technical report will be ready by the end of 2004. The project is conducted under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP). The report is divided into seven chapters, researched and written by seven different groups of international experts. The chapters review the current state of biodiversity, the ways that ecosystems support human health, medicines derived from natural sources, the role of species in medical research, the dynamics of ecosystem disruption and human infectious diseases, the role of biodiversity in world food production, and policy options for protecting biodiversity. The idea for the project germinated 10 years ago at the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The summit focused on global climate change and biodiversity loss. It resulted in U.N. conventions organized to evaluate the projected global impacts in both areas. Though the international medical and public health community was investigating climate change, there was no parallel effort for biodiversity. To address this need, three years ago, Chivian proposed that the center coordinate an international scientific effort to compile what was known about how other species contribute to human health. UNEP and WHO backed the project. The unexpected connections documented in the summary include the story about how a burning Malaysian rain forest led to a disease caused by the Nipah virus, fatal to half of those who contracted it. The smoke, it turns out, interfered with blossom pollination and caused a poor wild fruit crop. As a result, fruit bats left the forest and began to feed on fruit trees growing on pig farms instead, dropping their Nipah virus-containing feces into pig enclosures. The exposed pigs amplified the virus and transmitted it to humans. Chivian hopes the project will be a wake-up call. Species are disappearing from the planet at a rate estimated to rival the mass extinction 65 millions years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs. "People aren't comprehending the magnitude and the urgency of the biodiversity crisis in a personal way, and they're not motivated to protect other species," he said. "We hope this report helps policymakers and the public understand that their health depends on the health of other species and motivates them to do everything in their power to protect biodiversity." --Carol Cruzan Morton