GENOMICS:
Cancer Atlas Extends Map of Glioblastoma
A study led by Matthew Meyerson and Lynda Chin has yielded the first results
of a broad-based project called The Cancer Genome Atlas. The findings, published
online Sept. 4 in Nature, give substance to the project’s aim
of systematizing the discovery of genetic defects in cancer cells and cataloging
them. The project members expect the atlas to become a valuable reference for
scientists that will accelerate the development of new therapies and diagnostics.
To make the atlas data available to as many researchers as possible, the atlas
team has created a public data repository. The Atlas Research Network posts the
findings in real time and provides them freely to the public, particularly, the
thousands of scientists in the cancer research community.
INFECTIOUS
DISEASES: Battle of Bugs in Roundworm Gives Insight to Infection Fighting
That microbes attack one another is well known—penicillin is an
ingenious weapon released by a species of fungus to kill nearby bacteria.
It now appears that a highly resistant strain of bacteria, in an effort
to gain the upper hand, prevents its fungal competitor from achieving
virulence. Anton Peleg (right), Eleftherios Mylonakis, and colleagues
observed this cross-kingdom battle playing out in a living worm host
between Acinetobacter baumannii, a rising and resistant species
of bacteria, and the infamous fungus Candida albicans. The findings
appeared online Sept. 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
IMMUNOLOGY:
TB Takeover Tactic Uncovered
Tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest bacterial infection, invades
and spreads in the lungs by dismantling a tough cellular shrink wrap
that would otherwise entomb the bacteria in a dying immune cell. The
discovery of the molecular underpinnings of the bacteria’s evasion
of apoptosis, reported by Heinz Remold and his colleagues, helps lay
the scientific foundation for understanding the molecular processes
of disease and designing more effective vaccines. In their discovery
of the mechanism subverted by Mycobacterium tuberculosis,
the researchers identified a fundamental aspect of the final stages
of apoptotic cell death.
Copyright 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College