Focus | April 22, 2005


Contents Immunology At the Podium Neurosurgery Medical Education Research Briefs Bulletin Forum Related Sites WebWeekly Lab Works StudenTalk Harvard Medical School
	April 22, 2005 IMMUNOLOGY: Body Builds Defense Against Pneumococcus Without Antibodies The key to defeating Streptococcus pneumoniae is traditionally thought to be antibodies, and antibodies are the weapon used by current pneumococcal vaccines. But a new study led by Richard Malley (on left) and Marc Lipsitch suggests that the natural process of keeping the bacterium from colonizing the surface of nasal passages may be independent of antibodies. The finding, published in the March 29 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, points to new ways of designing vaccines against pneumococcus that may be practical for the developing world, where one million children die of pneumococcal infection every year.
	AT THE PODIUM: Race Complicates Views on Genes and Medicine A conference titled “Race, Genetics, and Medicine: New Information, Enduring Questions” held at Harvard University examined the scientific and political risks—and perhaps benefits—of bringing the concept of race into the lab and the clinic. Disagreement among the speakers was lively. One of them, David Altshuler, maintained that the purpose of searching for genetic risk factors within varying ethnic groups is to uncover the mechanisms of disease, not to develop race-based medicine or any sort of individualized therapy.
	NEUROSURGERY: Aggressive Surgery for Low-grade Brain Tumor May Lengthen Life Surgery does not cure low-grade gliomas, a kind of brain tumor, but it is the cornerstone of treatment. Removing as much tumor as is safely possible will extend and improve the lives of afflicted people for years or even decades, doctors believe. Yet that plausible idea turns out to be remarkably difficult to prove. A study in the March 15 Cancer by Elizabeth Claus and Peter Black (right) bolsters the case for aggressive surgery to excise the low-grade cancers.