Focus | November 7, 2003

IMMUNOLOGY: Method Hones Tolerance of Tissue Transplants
Immune-suppressant therapies may prevent rejection of transplanted tissues, but they also raise the risk of deadly infection. Now, Xin Xiao Zheng (on left) and Terry Strom report an alternative method for achieving immune tolerance. Their therapy allows the immune response to proceed, but then skews it so tissue-protecting T cells vastly outnumber tissue-killing T cells. Mice receiving this treatment before and after a transplant did not reject the tissue and reacted normally to later immune challenges. The data is published in the October Immunity.

ACHIEVEMENTS: HSPH Deans Host State of the School Address and Forum
Barry Bloom (right) and James Ware presented this year's HSPH State of the School address on Oct. 23. Topics included the possible relocation of HSPH to Allston; the School's research, including that on the epidemic of obesity; and the naming of the School as a national preparedness center for training responders to terrorism and natural disasters.

xxx ENDOCRINOLOGY: Protein Pegged to Onset of Puberty
Puberty dawns when the brain's hypothalamus sends out marked pulses of gonadotropin-releasing hormone. After years of study, reproductive biologists still have not pinpointed how the hypothalamus transmits this puberty-inducing signal. In the Oct. 23 New England Journal of Medicine, (from left) William Crowley, James Acierno, Stephanie Seminara, and their colleagues report identifying a gene, GPR54, that appears to play a critical role in getting the message out.

li huei tsai PATHOLOGY: Mouse Model of Alzheimer's May Clarify Brain Degeneration
In the Oct. 30 Neuron, Li-Huei Tsai and colleagues describe the first animal model that may enable researchers to track a certain protein linked to Alzheimer's disease. The protein, cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5), and one of its regulators, appear to team up in causing nerve cell death. But the mechanism has been impossible to study in a living animal.