Biotechnology News Archive 9/99 - 03/00
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03/23/00
DNA doesn't link Jefferson, Woodson
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - A DNA test has again failed to link a descendant of Monticello slave Tom Woodson to Thomas Jefferson, according to a retired pathologist who performed the test. Woodson's descendants claim he was the son of the third president and slave Sally Hemings. Eugene A. Foster, a former pathologist, conducted the DNA test on the Rev. Thomas Woodson of Dayton, Ohio, a descendant of Tom Woodson's third son. The analysis did not find a match with the Jefferson family Y chromosome, which passes unchanged from son to son. Previous DNA tests by Foster showed similar results with other descendants of Tom Woodson, and linked the Jefferson family's Y chromosome to descendants of Eston Hemings, the youngest son of Sally Hemings.

03/31/00
Research: Genetic errors cause aging
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hair turning gray? Skin wrinkling? Muscles weaker? The inevitable signs of aging may be caused by a failure of quality control in your chromosomes and genes, a new study says. Dr. Richard A. Lerner and his team at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. compared the effects of aging on 6,000 genes and found that 61 key genes went through dramatic changes from the age 9 to 90. It is these changes, he said in an interview that cause the dramatic symptoms of aging. "There are checkpoint genes that have to do with quality control in a cell," said Lerner. "These genes decide after a cell divides if it is good enough to live or not."

03/28/00
Scientists find weight-gain gene
NEW YORK (AP) - Scientists have created strains of mice that can chow down on a high-fat diet without getting chubby. The researchers say their secret - a single gene - might lead to a new obesity treatment for people. In its normal form, the gene, called HMGIC, apparently helps mice make more cells to store fat when they have been eating a fatty diet, researchers said. But the mice in the experiment had a defective version of the gene. They apparently failed to create storage cells in response to the high-fat diet, and so avoided putting on weight, the researchers said in the April issue of the journal Nature Genetics.

03/10/00
Microbe may cause toxic runoff
WASHINGTON (AP) - A super bug that eats iron and can thrive in the equivalent of battery acid may be a major culprit in causing toxic metal and acid runoff from a California mine, researchers say. Katrina J. Edwards, a geomicrobiologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the previously-unknown microbe lives on left over iron-rich minerals and sulfide in a California mine. It gives off sulfuric acid, a chemical that leaches heavy metals and causes deadly concentrations of acid-metal pollution in mine runoff. Edwards said that researchers gathering samples 1,500 feet down in the mine had to wear protective clothing and occasionally suffered burns when water where the microbe lived was splashed onto bare skin.

03/07/00
Smarter baby milk formula sought
WASHINGTON (AP) - Enriching bottle formula with two essential fatty acids found in mother's milk can cause a significant improvement in the mental development of babies, a new study says. The supplemented formula does not assure intellectual genius, said researchers at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas, but the study does show that adding the fatty acids to bottled formula can closely mimic the effect of mother's milk on brain development. Experts said the study, published in the journal Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, is important because it is the first to compare formula supplemented with the fatty acids with formula without the additions. Earlier studies compared straight formula with mother's milk.

03/02/00
Gene experiment helps hemophiliacs
(AP) - Amid controversy over the risks of gene therapy, scientists reported that an experimental gene-replacement procedure appears to improve blood clotting in hemophiliacs without triggering complications. Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Stanford University cautioned that their success in treating hemophilia B, a relatively rare form of the illness, was encouraging but preliminary. Just three patients participated in the experiment, in which researchers injected patients with a healthy gene to stimulate production of a blood-clotting protein. An expanded trial with more patients and higher doses is under way. If the method continues to work, it would be one of the few successful genetic treatments of any disease since the approach was introduced a decade ago.

03/01/00
FDA approves testosterone gel
WASHINGTON (AP) - Men who suffer low testosterone until now have been treated with hormone shots or testosterone patches. Tuesday, the government approved a new option - testosterone gel. Manufacturer Unimed Pharmaceuticals called AndroGel, a clear gel rubbed into the skin, an "easy, effective, invisible alternative" to current testosterone therapy. But prescription-only AndroGel must be used carefully, cautioned the Food and Drug Administration. Men rub AndroGel into the skin of the abdomen or shoulders - not the genital area - where it absorbs into the bloodstream. Men must be careful not to spread the gel from their hands or bodies to women, especially pregnant women because testosterone can harm a developing fetus, the FDA said. So they should wash their hands immediately after applying, and "do not allow other persons to contact your skin where you have applied AndroGel, especially pregnant or nursing women," an FDA patient-instruction leaflet warns.

02/28/00
Gene therapy may heal some injuries
WASHINGTON (AP) - An injection of a therapeutic gene may someday help to heal an athlete's badly damaged muscle, fractured leg or blown-out knee, researchers say. In lab animals, gene therapy has knit together broken bones and made injured muscles grow stronger. Preliminary human trials already have begun, and experts believe these experimental findings will develop into treatments. "I think the chances are extraordinarily high," said Dr. R. Rodney Howell, a University of Miami School of Medicine professor who is president of the American College of Medical Genetics, a professional group. "It's going to take a while, but I think the chances are overwhelming it will work." Therapies may start to show potential for sports injuries in 2 to 5 years, researchers say.

02/23/00
Office admits genetic patent error
BERLIN (AP) - The European Patent Office admitted Tuesday it made a mistake in granting a patent that critics claim would allow genetic manipulation of human organs and cells. Facing protests from European governments and environmentalists, the Munich-based Patent Office said that the patent for research at Scotland's University of Edinburgh was flawed. The patent mistakenly omitted one term, "non-human," which would make clear the approval does not apply to humans. The environmental group Greenpeace, which discovered the mistake and led protests outside the Patent Office Tuesday, said the omission could be misinterpreted and used to support genetic cloning.

02/23/00
Office admits genetic patent error
BERLIN (AP) - The European Patent Office admitted Tuesday it made a mistake in granting a patent that critics claim would allow genetic manipulation of human organs and cells. Facing protests from European governments and environmentalists, the Munich-based Patent Office said that the patent for research at Scotland's University of Edinburgh was flawed. The patent mistakenly omitted one term, "non-human," which would make clear the approval does not apply to humans. The environmental group Greenpeace, which discovered the mistake and led protests outside the Patent Office Tuesday, said the omission could be misinterpreted and used to support genetic cloning.

02/22/00
Algae may be key to hydrogen fuel
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hydrogen may be an ideal fuel when the supply of oil and natural gas runs out, but the problem has been finding a way to produce it cheaply. Scientists now say the answer may be an ordinary pond scum. Green algae, a simple plant that grows all over the world, has the unique ability to convert water and sunlight into hydrogen gas, researchers said Monday at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Now scientists have found a new way to force the algae to make hydrogen gas on demand, a process that could lead to an almost limitless supply of fuel that burns without pollution and produces only water as a waste product.

02/21/00
Tightened biotech crop regs urged
WASHINGTON (AP) - Government officials say they are considering recommendations by a panel of scientists for more testing and monitoring of genetically engineered crops to ensure they aren't killing butterflies and other harmless insects. The panel, which advises the Environmental Protection Agency, says the crops should be tested on a wider variety of insects than the four species currently done and that EPA should require more data from seed companies on the impact of crops in the field. About 30% of the corn grown in the U.S. last year was genetically altered to produce its own toxin, known as Bt, that kills the European corn borer, a major pest. Concerns were raised about the corn last spring when a Cornell University study said its pollen could be harmful to the monarch butterfly.

02/14/00
FDA investigates gene experiment
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Food and Drug Administration is trying to determine if a small group of children dying from cancer might have been accidentally exposed to the AIDS virus in a gene therapy experiment. Suggestions that the children were exposed to HIV are highly questionable, FDA officials stressed Friday. In fact, the FDA called initial contamination testing of the gene-based medicine so tenuous that it would not have alarmed the children's families by telling them until confirmatory tests now under way settle the issue. But St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston said they had to notify families this week before newspaper reports of the probe.

02/14/00
Gov't to test Kennewick Man's DNA
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Federal researchers will try to extract DNA from the bones of Kennewick Man in an effort to learn the racial ancestry of the 9,000-year-old remains. The U.S. Department of the Interior last month classified the bones as Native American. But the DNA tests may help conclusively bury theories that the bones are of European or African ancestry, said Francis McManamon, chief archaeologist for the National Park Service. The DNA tests may also show whether Kennewick Man is an ancestor of any modern Indian tribes, he said. Some DNA data found in Indians is not found in people of European or African ancestry. But representatives of the Umatilla Indians in northern Oregon, who claim the bones as an ancestor and want them reburied immediately, are outraged by the proposed tests.

02/09/00
Genetic discrimination ban sought
WASHINGTON (AP) - Responding to fears that advances in medical research could be abused by employers and others, President Clinton barred federal agencies Tuesday from discriminating against their employees on the basis of genetic tests. Clinton expressed his amazement at the rapid progress science has made in understanding human genetics and said it is time to consider the consequences. "This extraordinary march of human understanding imposes on us a profound responsibility to make sure that the age of discovery can continue to reflect our most cherished values," he told an American Association for the Advancement of Science audience. "We must protect our citizens' privacy - the bulwark of personal liberty, the safeguard of individual creativity."

02/03/00
Accusations in gene therapy death
WASHINGTON (AP) - The father of a teen-ager who died after being injected with experimental genes said he and his son were not informed of the true risks and the serious side effects that could be caused by the treatment. Paul L. Gelsinger of Tucson, Ariz., said that before he let his son participate in a gene therapy experiment, he was not told that a monkey had died in a similar experiment and that another patient had had serious side effects. Gelsinger's son, 18-year-old Jesse, died at the University of Pennsylvania in September after being injected with genes designed to correct an inherited liver disease. Jesse was recruited for the experiment because he was born with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency syndrome, a liver disorder.

02/03/00
DNA chips used to identify cancer
(AP) - A new technology that uses computers to rapidly monitor the activity of thousands of genes in cancer cells is giving scientists the ability to more precisely diagnose cancer. That kind of detailed information should one day let doctors classify tumors with more precision, helping them tailor treatments to each patient, scientists say. Currently, doctors diagnose cancer by looking at tissue under the microscope for certain biological changes and by doing other tests. The new technique, however, goes beyond those methods to look at the activity of many tumor genes. "You could think of it as a new kind of microscope" that looks at gene activity instead of the visible structure of cells and tissues, said Dr. Patrick Brown, an associate biochemistry professor at Stanford.

01/27/00
Farmers seek genetic crop controls
MONTREAL (AP) - Small-scale farmers from around the world came to Montreal Wednesday to ask for regulations limiting what they call "genetic pollution" - genetically modified crops spreading their altered genes into the environment around them. "The problem is totally out of control," said Canadian farmer Hart Haiden. He said that in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, genes from genetically engineered canola plants have already spread to unaltered varieties. And because European countries may ban imports of genetically engineered canola, that may shut Canada out of a major market. Representatives from around the world are meeting in Montreal this week to negotiate the Biosafety Protocol, a set of rules that would protect the environment from damage caused by the spread of genetically engineered crops.

01/27/00
Gene identified in spinal cord injuries
(AP) - Scientists have identified a gene that prevents the brain and spinal cord from rewiring themselves after an injury, pointing the way to new treatments that might someday help paralyzed "Superman" star Christopher Reeve and 250,000 Americans like him. Dubbed "Nogo" because of its inhibiting effect, the gene produces a protein that prevents nerve-cell connections in the central nervous system from regenerating after they are cut. Experiments in rats showed that when the protein is blocked, the spinal cord can repair itself. Neurologists hailed the work as a landmark step. But they cautioned that other factors may also inhibit nerve regrowth.

01/20/00
Study probes cross-pollination
ORONO, Maine (AP) - Researchers hope a study showing very little cross-pollination between genetically engineered and natural corn plants will ease fears that altered crops could taint conventionally grown crops. A study done at the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension farm showed a small amount of cross-pollination with nearby conventional plants and no cross-pollination with conventional plants that are farther away from the altered ones, said James Jemison, an agronomist. "This will give farmers information they can definitely use," Jemison said. The study was launched after a group calling itself "Seeds of Resistance" destroyed about 1,000 stalks of genetically engineered corn being used for a herbicide study last August.

01/20/00
Biotech products face major rifts
TORONTO (AP) - What would happen if a genetically modified crop, such as corn made resistant to a certain pest, spread its seed through cross-pollination to mix with unaltered plants? Might such tampering with the building blocks of life disrupt nature's fragile food chain? Hasten the extinction of species? Unleash a biological time bomb? No one really knows the possible ramifications, and that is the problem facing hundreds of government ministers, environmentalists and other delegates converging on Montreal to try to agree on regulating trade of genetically engineered plants and animals.

01/16/00
Biotech rice could solve problem
WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists have genetically engineered a type of rice that could end vitamin A deficiency in the developing world, a problem that is a common cause of blindness and other health problems in millions of children. The researchers at a Swiss laboratory spliced three genes into the rice to make it rich in beta carotene, the source of vitamin A, according to a report on their findings appearing Friday in Science magazine. The new crop, dubbed "golden rice" because of the hue the beta carotene gives it, is not expected to be available to farmers for several years. Also, scientists still have to determine if the altered rice loses any of the original rice's nutritional value. Nonetheless, the International Rice Research Institute already is working on breeding the new trait into popular varieties.

01/14/00
Update: Genetically identical monkeys made
ATLANTA (AP) - Researchers using a technique called embryo splitting hope to grow genetically identical rhesus monkeys in the laboratory - a breakthrough that would enable experiments such as growing new organs from stem cells to be tested on monkeys rather than mice. Monkeys are closer to human biology. The technique has so far produced only one living rhesus monkey, a female named Tetra, but Professor Gerald Schatten said that four more twinned infants are on the way. Schatten, a researcher at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, said the goal is to produce identical monkeys that could be used to perfect new therapies for human disease. The study appears Friday in the journal Science. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine objected to the technique, saying monkeys suffer in research labs.

01/10/00
Scientists seek to expand cloning
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) - Researchers working on cattle cloning aren't just trying to produce a better steak. Eventually, they hope animal cloning will provide new sources of medicines and organs, reduce birth defects and help feed people in poor countries. The University of Georgia and the Georgia Research Alliance, which is responsible for attracting world-class scientists to the state, have persuaded a leading expert to conduct cloning research in Athens. Steve Stice and his staff will focus initially on cloning genetically superior cattle. More consistent cattle would provide higher-quality beef for consumers. Later, the team wants to become the first to successfully clone a pig.

01/05/00
Gene in women may have cancer link
WASHINGTON (AP) - A gene that is more active in women than in men may explain why women smokers are more than twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men smokers, researchers say. Researchers studying the genetic structure of lung tissue cells removed from both men and women found a gene linked to abnormal growth of lung cells is much more active in women. "Women are more likely to develop lung cancer after less smoking exposure than are men," said Sharon P. Shriver, a Pennsylvania State University biologist. "Also a nonsmoker who develops lung cancer is three times more likely to be female than male. Our study may provide an explanation for this." The study showed that the action of a specific gene increased lung cancer risk in both women and men smokers, but the risk was 12 times higher for women smokers with the active gene and only 2.4 times higher for men smokers who had the active gene, said Shriver.

12/29/99
Bug engineered to eat toxic waste
(AP) - The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans already holds the title as the world's toughest organism: It can survive an atomic blast. Now scientists have bioengineered it into a "superbug" that can digest the toxic leftovers of the nuclear age. Government geneticists said they inserted genes from another form of bacteria into Deinococcus, producing a superbug that transforms toxic mercury compounds commonly found at nuclear weapons production sites into less harmful forms. The scientists said the development shows how bacteria can be customized to attack the heavy metals, radioactive wastes and other substances that pollute the soil and groundwater at nuclear sites. The superbug works in laboratory experiments but has not been tested in the field. Details of the research were published in the January issue of the scientific journal Nature Biotechnology.

12/27/99
Zebrafish may be toxin detectors
CINCINNATI (AP) - Glowing zebrafish could be used to identify pollutants in drinking water supplies if a research project under way at the University of Cincinnati proves successful. The glow comes from firefly genes inserted into the DNA of zebrafish. The fish light up when exposed to PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, which are known to cause cancer in humans. Using the zebrafish would cost less and take less time than testing the water with equipment or taking samples of mud or fish that then would have to be tested, Dr. Daniel Nebert said.

12/21/99
Slow plant growth method said found
WASHINGTON (AP) - Don't throw away the lawnmower yet, but scientists have found out a way to stunt the growth of grass and other plants and keep them greener longer by tinkering with a single gene. It could be a dream come true for suburbanites weary of the weekly mowing ritual. The gene regulates production of a steroid hormone that causes plants to grow, much the same way similar steroids work in animals. Scientists have now succeeded in manipulating the gene to create dwarf versions of standard plant species, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A tobacco plant that would normally grow 6 feet tall was engineered to mature at 12 inches.

12/21/99
Mad cow, brain disease said linked
WASHINGTON (AP) - A laboratory experiment gives powerful new evidence that an infectious protein that causes mad cow disease also causes a new type of fatal human brain disease that has killed 51 people in Europe. The study, appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, makes clear that people in Britain who developed a new type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease could have gotten it from eating meat from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the so-called mad cow disease. The brain disease has not been found in America. Experts said the study also suggests the infectious protein, called prion, that causes the diseases can move more easily between species more easily than once believed.

12/20/99
DNA may solve 200-year-old mystery
PARIS (AP) - More than 200 years ago, a young boy, his body ravaged by scabies and sprouting ugly tumors, died in a Paris prison. Some mourned the death of the French king, others said the child was just another victim of the French Revolution. This death was only the beginning of a tale of intrigue revolving around the mysterious fate of Louis XVII, heir to the throne. Now a French historian hopes a DNA study of the preserved heart of the boy who died in the prison can resolve one of France's most enduring mysteries. Louis XVII's parents, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, were guillotined in 1793 during the French Revolution. He was imprisoned with his teen-age sister in a fortified monastery in Paris, where he died at age 10 of tuberculosis in 1795. Or did he? Even before Louis XVII's alleged death, rumors were rife that he had been spirited away from the prison and that another child had been substituted in his place.

12/16/99
Scientists decode plant chromosomes
(AP) - Scientists have decoded the DNA of a complete plant chromosome for the first time, a milestone in understanding the deepest secrets of the plant kingdom and a step toward developing improved crops. Researchers unraveled the genetic structure of two chromosomes from Arabidopsis thaliana, a member of the mustard family. That meant identifying millions of building blocks that make up the chromosomes. Arabidopsis has long been a favorite subject for the study of plant genetics, because its genome - the complete collection of its DNA - is relatively small. It is also an ideal model for gaining insights into 180,000 other flowering plants, including corn, wheat and rice. Two research teams published the results of their work in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

12/14/99
Protesters rally vs. 'Frankenfoods'
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Demonstrators rallied Monday to protest a government hearing on the safety of what opponents call "Frankenfoods" - food created by altering genes to increase yields or to improve its flavor, shelf life and appearance. More than 1,000 people rallied at noon in front of Oakland's federal building to make speeches about what they felt was a lack of regulation of genetically modified foods by the Food and Drug Administration. Inside the building, leading food experts discussed the issue with the FDA. "Genetic contamination is forever," said organic farmer Laura Trent, whose sign read, "Get your pig gene out of my tomato." "No scientist has proven it safe, and most people don't even know it's happening."

12/14/99
Embryo transfer spurs rare wildcat
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A typical house cat gave birth to a rare African wildcat after scientists pulled off what they called the unprecedented feat of transferring a frozen embryo between species. Researchers at the Audubon Institute Center for Research of Endangered Species said the advancement could bolster endangered species or even be used to resurrect entire species. The house cat, Cayenne, acts towards her kitten like any typical feline mother: protecting her, nursing her and objecting loudly when her offspring is picked up. And the baby wildcat, named Jazz, nurses off her surrogate mother. Jazz was born Nov. 24, about 70 days after scientists had taken sperm from a male African wildcat named Sid and the egg of a female named Sheena and implanted the embryo in the domestic cat.

12/09/99
Gene therapy yields bigger pigs
WASHINGTON (AP) - Someday hogs may not have to eat like pigs. Scientists say they've found a way to genetically alter young hogs so they grow 40% faster and larger than normal swine - on 25% less feed. The technology would be a boon for livestock farmers by lowering their costs, and it eventually could even be used to treat children with growth problems and to prevent muscle deterioration in AIDS and cancer patients, the researchers say. The technology stimulates release of the animal's own growth hormones. The technology could be used in humans as a less-expensive, more natural alternative to injecting AIDS patients with growth hormones, a treatment that costs as much as $20,000 a year. A drug could be administered to switch patients' hormone secretions off and on.

12/09/99
Patent for DNA analysis invalid
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An important patent for DNA analysis owned by biotechnology giant Hoffman-La Roche was obtained by deliberately misleading the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is invalid, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Vaughn Walker upheld a challenge by Promega Corp., which argued that scientists got the patent in 1990 by misrepresenting their experiments. The patented substance is called Taq DNA Polymerase. Developed from bacteria, it allows molecular biologists to use the replication process known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, much more quickly and cheaply than previous methods developed in the 1980s. The ruling will be appealed, said Melinda Griffith, general counsel of Hoffman-LaRoche subsidiary Roche Molecular Systems in Pleasanton.

12/07/99
Iceland's gene pool making waves
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Within weeks an Icelandic company plans to begin collecting DNA samples from Iceland's 270,000 citizens and linking the genetic profiles with their health records and family trees. The database it plans to build would offer an unprecedented chance to discover genetic links to disease - and an unprecedented danger to privacy, doctors and researchers attending a packed meeting of the American Society of Hematology said Sunday. Although people's genetic profiles, health histories and family trees will be linked, their identities will be encrypted by clinics and hospitals before the information reaches the company, said Dr. Kari Stefansson, founder and CEO of Decode Genetics, the Reykyavik company which will develop the database.

12/03/99
Correction: Death blamed on gene therapy
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - In a setback for one of the most exciting fields of medical research, investigators confirmed that a young man who died during a gene therapy experiment in September was killed by the treatment. The preliminary report on the death of Jesse Gelsinger of Tucson, Ariz., found that an infusion of corrective genes, encased in a weakened cold virus, triggered an extreme immune-system reaction that caused multiple organ failure, said James M. Wilson, director of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Human Gene Therapy. Gelsinger, 18, is believed to be the first person to die as a direct result of gene therapy. The case has stirred debate over using patients in gene-therapy experiments who are not close to death.

12/02/99
Human chromosome nearly mapped
(AP) - For the first time, scientists have mapped virtually an entire human chromosome, one of the chains of molecules that bear the genetic recipe for human life. The achievement announced Wednesday is an important step for the $3 billion Human Genome Project, which is attempting to detail the tens of thousands of genes that carry instructions for everything in a human - from brain function to hair color to foot size. "This is the first time that we've had a complete chapter in the human instruction book, and that's pretty amazing," said Francis Collins, who chairs the international project from the National Institutes of Health. In laying out the chemical instructions for life, scientists believe they are in the early stages of revolutionizing the study of human development and medicine.

12/02/99
Company to cut Lou Gehrig's drug
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Pennsylvania company says it can no longer afford to provide sufferers of Lou Gehrig's disease with an experimental drug that many believe prolongs life, prompting fear and anger as patients scramble to find alternatives. Cephalon Inc., of West Chester, Pa., began notifying 159 patients last week that their last shipment of the experimental drug Myotrophin will arrive in December. It is the latest development in an emotional three-year controversy over Myotrophin - a drug patients clamor for even though its maker has never proved to the Food and Drug Administration that the medicine is effective. "They have taken away life," was the reaction from Kyle Hahn of Trenton, Ohio.

12/02/99
Human route out of Africa suggested
(AP) - Scientists examining hereditary material in cells suggest that modern humans followed a migration wave from Africa to Asia more than 50,000 years ago after an earlier exodus to the Mediterranean and Greece. Blood samples of people from east Africa and India showed close genetic similarities that indicate a common African ancestor, according to a research team from the University of Padua in Italy. The Italian study is reported in the December issue of the journal Nature Genetics. The researchers examined mitochondria, units outside of the cell's nucleus that act as a cell's energy source. They have their own genetic material - passed only by the mother from generation to generation - which lets scientists trace ancestry between geographically distant human populations.

11/19/99
Scientists make pain relief stides
WASHINGTON (AP) - A biological "smart bomb" that combines a natural protein with a toxin is able to permanently block chronic pain without the side effects common to narcotic pain drugs, researchers report. In laboratory studies using rats, researchers at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis report they have identified nerve cells that cause chronic pain and devised a drug that knocks out those cells without affecting other nerve signals. The Society for Neuroscience estimates that about 100 million Americans endure chronic pain.

11/19/99
Researchers map out tough bug genes
WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers have mapped out the complete gene pattern of one of the toughest bacteria known - a bug that may be used to clean up atomic radiation wastes and spills. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, researchers report the complete sequencing of the genes in a bacteria called Deinococcus radiodurans, an organism that is able to survive and thrive in environments of extreme heat, cold, poison and radiation. Michael J. Daly, a co-author of the study, said that having the complete genetic sequence "is like turning on a light" in a dark room for scientists who are trying to find ways to clean up polluted and radioactive dump sites.

11/18/99
Researchers extend lifespan of mice
(AP) - The strongest evidence yet that aging in mammals is controlled by a genetic switch has been found by Italian scientists who engineered mice to live longer by boosting their resistance to the damage oxygen can do to cells. The researchers at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan extended the lifespan of the mice up to 35% by breeding them without a gene that produces a protein vulnerable to so-called cell oxidation. Equally important, the mice suffered no apparent side effects. Other scientists called the study a major step forward in understanding the aging process. The study was published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

11/15/99
Scientists find retardation clues
LONDON (AP) - British scientists say they have discovered that a subtle genetic abnormality could be an important cause of unexplained cases of mental retardation in children. Defective genes already are known to be involved in severe learning impairment but, in as many as 70% of cases, it is a mystery why children are mentally handicapped. Many cases are assumed to be due to problems that occurred in the womb or in early childhood. But research reported in this week's issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal, found that some children with unexplainable retardation have minuscule abnormalities in the way their DNA is arranged at the ends of their chromosomes.

11/15/99
Human genome rivals may unite
NEW YORK (AP) - The public and private rivals racing to decode the human genetic blueprint are discussing collaborating on the effort, The New York Times reported Sunday. An international public consortium is competing with a privately funded effort by Rockville, Md.-based Celera Genomics. Genes discovered by the federal researchers are released immediately into the public domain, but those discovered by the private enterprise can be patented for exclusive use. While discussions have been held, the public consortium's policy on immediately releasing its data would be hard to change, said Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health's arm of the project. The institutes and the Wellcome Trust of London are the principal members of the public consortium.

11/15/99
Study: Gene flaw may promote cancer
NEW YORK (AP) - Scientists have identified an inherited genetic mutation that may make people more vulnerable to colon cancer, possibly playing a role in up to 9% of cases diagnosed each year in the United States. If confirmed, the work might someday help doctors identify patients who should be tracked especially closely for early signs of the disease. The mutation apparently promotes cancer by hindering a process that keeps cell growth under control, said Dr. Kenneth Offit of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He and colleagues present the work in Monday's issue of the journal Cancer Research.

11/09/99
New drug may lower blood pressure
ATLANTA (AP) - A new, experimental class of drugs appears to be the most potent ever at reducing high blood pressure. Doctors said Monday that the first of these medicines to reach large-scale testing outperformed two mainstays of blood pressure control, a top-selling ACE inhibitor and a calcium-channel blocker. The new medicines are called vasopeptidase inhibitors. Several are in development, but the furthest along is Bristol-Myers Squibb's Vanlev, known generically as omapatrilat. Researchers released results of Vanlev's testing Monday at a company-sponsored session held in conjunction with an American Heart Association meeting in Atlanta.

11/08/99
Experiments done with heart valves
ATLANTA (AP) - In search of better spare parts, scientists for the first time have grown heart valves from scratch in a test tube, then shown they work like nature's own - at least in animals, researchers said Sunday. The approach, called tissue engineering, is intended to create a fresh source of heart valves to replace those that wear out or are faulty from birth. Using the recipient's own cells, researchers hope to construct valves that will grow as the recipient does and work without blood-thinning drugs. So far, the experiments have been conducted on lambs with the valves grown at Children's Hospital in Boston by Dr. Simon Hoerstrup, who described the results at the annual scientific meeting of the American Heart Association.

11/04/99
Altered corn safe for some monarchs
ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) - Genetically altered corn may not pose as widespread a threat to monarch butterflies as previously thought, researchers say. However, current research on the corn's toxicity is not yet extensive enough to determine any conclusive impact on the monarch, said Richard Hellmich, a U.S. Agriculture Department researcher at Iowa State University. Scientists released 17 separate studies Tuesday in response to a May report by Cornell University that linked deaths of monarch larvae with pollen from genetically-altered Bt corn. The corn, which contains a bacteria that kills certain insect pests, is one of the most widely planted genetically-modified crops in the U.S.

11/04/99
Deaths from gene studies unreported
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two researchers trying to grow new blood vessels around blocked ones failed to report to the National Institutes of Health that six people died during their gene therapy studies. Ronald Crystal of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan and Jeffrey Isner of Tufts University in Boston told The Washington Post in Wednesday's editions that they believe the six patients died from underlying illnesses and not from the gene therapy. The FDA ordered Schering-Plough Corp. to temporarily halt new enrollments in two gene therapy studies last week after a teen-ager in a similar experiment died Sept. 16. The researchers in the blood vessel study said they did report the deaths to the FDA, which doesn't release the information.

11/02/99
Study: Protein aids bypass patients
DALLAS (AP) - Heart bypass patients who received a protein that promotes the growth of new blood vessels had less chest pain and better blood flow than those who underwent surgery alone, a study found. The study, published in Tuesday's issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, is the latest to show the apparent benefits of angiogenesis, the creation of new blood vessels. Widespread use of angiogenesis proteins, also known as growth factor, to combat heart disease is still years away, but experts say the study might provide a glimpse of future treatments. The proteins are naturally produced by the body but can be grown in laboratories.

11/02/99
Drugs may halt transplant rejection
WASHINGTON (AP) - Immune cells that spring into action to defend the body are weakened by a new combination of drugs used in lab tests on mice. Many of the cells commit a form of programmed suicide. The finding may prove important in preventing organ transplant rejections. In the experiments, researchers in Boston and Philadelphia found the combination of drugs affected T-cells activated to attack outside invaders, preventing them from multiplying. Many cells then died in a process called apoptosis. Blocking the activated cells that attack the transplant, without shutting down the rest of the immune system, allows the body to tolerate the transplant and still defend itself against germs, explained Dr. Laurence A. Turka of the University of Pennsylvania.

10/29/99
Chromosome history researched
WASHINGTON (AP) - The difference between women and men all started 300 million years ago when an ordinary chromosome took the first evolutionary step toward the X and Y chromosomes that now determine the gender of humans, researchers say. Bruce Lane of the University of Chicago and Dr. David Page of the Whitehead Institute report that they traced the mutation history of the X and Y chromosomes to a common chromosome that started changing long before humans came along. The researchers traced the history of the gender genes by reconstructing mutations that make the X chromosome different from the Y chromosome. From this, they were able to estimate when the chromosomes were last identical, some 240 million to 320 million years ago.

10/29/99
Study: Protein blocks cell division
WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers at Harvard Medical School have found the first of a new class of proteins that block cell division. The discovery eventually could lead to a new type of cancer drug. In a study to be published Friday in the journal Science, Harvard scientist Tim Mitchison and Stuart Schrieber describe discovery of a molecule that disrupts a key step in the process of cell division. The compound, called monastrol, blocks cell division in a different way from many of the current cancer drugs, the researchers said. Mitchison said in a statement that the discovery "represents a potential starting point for developing better chemotherapeutics" against cancer.

10/28/99
Britain extends modified food study
LONDON (AP) - Britain said that it wants to extend planting trials of genetically modified food for another three years. The government-sponsored trials are designed to test whether the crops pose any threat to the environment. None of the food may be grown commercially until all testing is complete and the government is satisfied the crops are safe. The United States already has approved 50 varieties of genetically modified crops. Britain, which has yet to approve one, oversaw a test growing of crops in 10 large-scale fields across the country this year to gather information about their safety.

10/28/99
Scientists decipher immunity genes
(AP) - Scientists have deciphered a part of the human genetic code that plays a key role in the body's immune system, an accomplishment that could lead to improvements in organ transplants as well as in fighting disease. The researchers identified the 3.6 million building blocks of DNA in the major histocompatibility complex, or MHC. Genes in the complex help immune system cells work together to fight off disease and recognize the body's own tissue as friend and not foe. Now that the entire sequence is known, transplant centers might eventually be able to find donor organs that more closely match the recipient's genetic code. That might reduce the risk of organ rejection.

10/27/99
Gene-testing panel wants feedback
WASHINGTON (AP) - A government-appointed panel wants to hear what average Americans have to say about the promise and drawbacks of genetic testing. Gene tests that promise to predict a person's future health already are being sold to Americans for hundreds of dollars apiece. But just because a test is available does not mean doctors know how best to use it - who should get it, when, and just what the results mean. In addition, there is little regulation to ensure the accuracy of most gene tests offered today, even though mistakes can be life-altering. An Illinois woman, for example, had her ovaries surgically removed before discovering the company that had told her she had a cancer-causing gene mutation actually had made a mistake - she was not at increased risk after all.

10/26/99
Mutant genes, leukemia studied
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Adults who have certain mutant genes are far less likely to develop a form of leukemia than those with normal genes, according to a study released Monday. The mutant genes metabolize folic acid and apparently pump higher-than-normal amounts of the vitamin into DNA production, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Acute lymphocytic leukemia, which destroys bone marrow, is often fatal and accounts for 10% of adult leukemia. Researchers found that people with two mutant genes were more than five times less likely to develop the leukemia. Even those with only one of the mutant genes were three to four times less likely to get the cancer, the study found.

10/25/99
Possible Alzheimer's enzyme found
WASHINGTON (AP) - An enzyme that is thought to be part of the Alzheimer's disease process may have been isolated by California researchers, a discovery that could lead to new drugs for the brain-destroying disease. Researchers reported Friday in the journal Science that they have found an enzyme called beta-secretase that has been linked to the formation of beta-amyloid, a protein that kills neurons in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The enzyme works by cutting beta-amyloid from another compound called amyloid precursor protein, or APP. Researchers believe that identifying the correct enzyme could lead to drugs that would block beta-amyloid formation.

10/25/99
Researchers fight E. coli
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - In the effort to keep the deadly microbe E. coli out of meat, one short-term tactic that shows promise involves a simple change of diet. Last year, researchers at Cornell University found that E. coli in a grain-fed cow's digestive tract are resistant to strong acid like that in the human stomach. But when the cow's diet was switched to hay, the bacteria became acid-sensitive, so they would die if eaten by a person. If cattle are switched to a hay diet about five days before slaughter, E. coli in fresh feces that might contaminate the carcasses would be less likely to cause human illness, said James Russell, a USDA microbiologist and professor at Cornell University. However, once manure is outside the cow and exposed to oxygen for a while, the E. coli become acid-resistant and thus able to cause illness, no matter what the cow was fed, he said.

10/22/99
Mammoth removed from ice in Siberia
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - A woolly mammoth preserved in ice has been excavated in Siberia and airlifted by helicopter to a cave where it will be kept frozen and studied by scientists. The scientists, including Northern Arizona University mammoth expert Larry Agenbroad, recently excavated the nearly perfectly preserved adult male mammoth from the permafrost. The mammoth was found in 1997 by a 9-year-old nomadic reindeer herder. By studying its teeth, scientists determined the 11-foot-tall mammoth to have been 47 years old. The lifespan of a mammoth is about 60 years. Besides analyzing dirt, pollen, and even its stomach contents, a primary task is to extract DNA for cloning.

10/22/99
Scientists near DNA breakthrough
LONDON (AP) - An international team of researchers says it is on the verge of unraveling for the first time the genetic pattern of a human chromosome - a milestone toward what experts call one of the most important scientific accomplishments ever. The team, involving British, U.S. and Japanese scientists, is part of a worldwide collaboration known as the Human Genome Project, which aims to reveal the structure of the estimated 100,000 genes in human DNA. That will help scientists better understand what can go wrong in the body and how to fix it. The group investigating chromosome 22 - the second smallest of the 24 kinds of chromosomes that carry human DNA - is putting the finishing touches on its work and plans to submit it for publication in the journal Nature later this year.

10/20/99
Glaxo: Migraine gene nearly found
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Glaxo Wellcome PLC said Tuesday it is close to identifying the human genes that may cause migraines, adult-onset diabetes and psoriasis. The company hopes identifying the genes will help develop medicines to prevent or treat the illnesses, although no discoveries of such genes have been translated into medicines yet. "The research we are reporting does not mean that we can provide cures for the diseases overnight, but it certainly provides us with a much better understanding of the genes involved," Dr. Allen Roses, the drug maker's co-director of exploratory science, said Tuesday. "In the very near future, we hope to understand which gene or genes make some people susceptible to these common but debilitating diseases."

10/15/99
Altered potatoes study debated
LONDON (AP) - Research claiming to provide evidence that rats developed tissue damage after being fed genetically altered potatoes has finally been published, renewing a fierce debate over the safety of such modified foods. Some hailed the publication as a vindication of the researchers' claims, first aired in an interview on British television last year. But others argued the study was deeply flawed and that publication gave it a credibility it doesn't deserve. The editor of the Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal that published the findings in this week's issue, felt compelled to write a commentary defending his decision.

10/12/99
FDA suspends gene therapy studies
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has ordered Schering-Plough Corp. to temporarily halt two gene therapy studies because the research is designed similarly to a Pennsylvania experiment in which a teen-ager died last month. No one yet knows what killed Jesse Gelsinger, 18, of Tucson, Ariz. Just four days before his death, University of Pennsylvania scientists had placed healthy genes in his liver to combat a rare metabolic disease. Penn's study has been halted while scientists there, along with federal regulators, try to determine what went wrong. The Food and Drug Administration decision late Friday halts two separate experiments by Schering-Plough to try gene therapy as a treatment for liver cancer and for colorectal cancer that spreads to the liver.

10/06/99
Scientists decry altered food hype
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumer resistance to genetically engineered foods threatens to slow the development of crops with wide potential for improving health and nutrition, a panel of scientists said Tuesday. "I hate to see a knee-jerk reaction and fear take away these possibilities," Michael Thomashow, a plant scientist at Michigan State University, told the House Science Committee's subcommittee on basic research. Crops are in development that would be more nutritious than current varieties - rice enhanced with beta carotene, for example - or engineered to contain vaccines that would inoculate people in developing countries against disease. But scientists and farmers have been surprised by a public backlash to genetic engineering, primarily in Europe and Asia.

10/06/99
Gene-altered vein used in bypass
BOSTON (AP) - Harvard Medical School researchers have genetically altered the blood vessel used in heart bypass surgery in a quest to keep it from re-clogging, and they said Tuesday the first few patients treated have shown a significantly lower incidence of relapse. Failure of heart bypass surgery is a big problem: Up to 30% of bypass patients have their heart arteries re-clog badly in just a year. Few patients survive 10 years without needing retreatment, and high-risk patients - such as those who already have undergone repeat surgery - re-clog at even greater rates. The question is how to make bypasses last longer.

10/04/99
Rabbit discovery spurs research
BOSTON (AP) - The biggest thing in cancer is this little four-word sentence: Tumors make blood vessels. It is not as obvious as it sounds. For a long time, doctors assumed that spreading cancer makes do with the blood supply already in place. But no. Now they know that cancer grows its own. This biologic insight has turned out to be among the precious few that opens an entirely new strategy for controlling a human ill. In the past two or three years, the discovery has become the starting point for the most studied, the most tested, and absolutely the most talked about endeavor in all of cancer research. If it leads where scientists hope then it should be possible to stop cancerous tumors by blocking their ability to launch the fresh blood vessels needed for survival.

10/04/99
Professor hopes to clone mammoth
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - It sounds like a movie plot come to life: A Northern Arizona University geologist aims to excavate and clone a woolly mammoth from DNA. Larry Agenbroad concedes that cloning the animal is unlikely. Still, he says biologists remain optimistic and he is excited about the project. Agenbroad is part of an international team of scientists whose first task is to cut the cloning candidate - the likes of which roamed the earth about field. The adult male mammoth, estimated to be about 40 years old when it became frozen, was found by a 9-year-old nomadic reindeer herder in 1997. It's been named Jarkov, after the boy's family.

10/01/99
French locate seizure gene
(AP) - French scientists have identified a gene associated with the kind of brain seizure that killed Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner. Faulty copies of the gene, known as CCM1, are responsible for the development of tangled blood vessels in the brain known as cavernous angiomas, according to a study by three laboratories in Paris. The abnormality is found in one in every 40 Americans and the condition is inherited in half of the cases. In most cases, these tangles remain quite small for many years, making them hard to find even with sophisticated imaging equipment and risky to remove. Eventually, the tangles swell and engulf more of the brain. Without surgery, they trigger seizures, paralysis and potentially fatal strokes, often with little warning.

9/24/99
Gene mutation, disease linked
WASHINGTON (AP) - A gene mutation already linked to cancer has been shown in laboratory studies to also cause the immune system to attack the kidneys and other organs. In mouse studies, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center found that a single mutation in a gene called PTEN is enough to trigger cancer and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, senior author of a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, said PTEN is normally present in pairs in each cell and its function is to kill abnormal cells that could develop into cancer.

9/24/99
Possible help for muscle diseases
BOSTON (AP) - Bone marrow transplants could restore strength to patients with muscular dystrophy and other muscle-wasting diseases, researchers said. Researchers at Children's Hospital who infused muscular dystrophy-weakened mice with bone marrow cells taken from healthy mice found that the cells generated healthy muscle cells. Those healthy cells then traveled through the blood stream and to some extent restored the mice's ravaged skeletal muscles, according to lead researchers Richard Mulligan and Louis Kunkel of Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The findings are important because adults may have a reservoir of these cells in their bodies that have the potential to generate other types of cells, said a biologist.

9/24/99
Gene that controls cell size found
WASHINGTON (AP) - The laboratory fruit flies are shaped right and have perfectly formed cells, but they are about half the size of normal flies because of gene manipulation. Researchers at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel Switzerland report in the journal Science that fruit flies missing a single gene, called dS6K, develop more slowly and grow to adults that are only about 46% the size of normal fruit flies. The study, to be published Friday, shows that the dS6K gene controls the size of cells in the body. Flies that lack the gene had the normal number of cells, but each cell was about a third the size of similar cells in normal flies.

9/22/99
FDA approves new antibiotic
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government Tuesday approved a long-needed new weapon against the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria: Synercid, the first alternative in 30 years to the antibiotic of last resort. The new drug comes at a critical time, as doctors are warning that more and more germs are developing resistance to that "silver bullet" antibiotic, vancomycin. Indeed, the need was so great that the Food and Drug Administration for the past year has allowed hundreds of patients at risk of death from drug-resistant germs to be treated with Synercid under a special emergency program, while the agency decided whether the drug was safe and effective enough for broad sale.

9/21/99
Fear over chemical-resistant lice
ATLANTA (AP) - Some parents and educators are scratching their heads along with their school-aged children, trying to figure out why it seems so difficult to kill head lice. Some fear the tiny bloodsuckers are becoming resistant to commonly used over-the-counter chemicals. "A lot of anecdotal information leads us to believe that there is that possibility," said Sue Partridge of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Parasitic Diseases. "It is becoming a great concern to CDC and researchers throughout the United States." An estimated 10 million Americans are infested with lice each year. Pre-school and elementary age children are infested most often. Neither school districts nor federal or local health officials track live infections or outbreaks because the creatures don't carry disease and are viewed mainly as a nuisance. But a Harvard University study released last week found some head lice, taken from 75 infected children, were not susceptible to permethrin, the active ingredient in one of the most popular pediculicides. ###

9/21/99
Accuracy for gene tests unregulated
WASHINGTON (AP) - A gene test concluded Nancy Seeger was at greatly increased risk of getting breast and ovarian cancer, so the Illinois woman, who had watched cancer kill her mother and aunt, had her ovaries removed. Eight months later, Seeger got more devastating news: The company that tested her genes had made a mistake - she didn't have the cancerous genetic defect after all. Gene tests that promise to predict a person's future health are being sold to Americans, for hundreds of dollars apiece, with a seldom-mentioned caveat: No one regulates the accuracy of most of those tests, even though mistakes can be life-altering.

9/20/99
Schering AG to buy Diatide for about $100 million
NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - German drug maker Schering AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SCHG.F) on Monday said it would buy New Hampshire biotech company Diatide Inc (Nasdaq:DITI - news) for about $100 million, with the goal of becoming active in the radiopharmaceuticals business.

9/20/99
NASA fishing with high-tech bait
(AP) - NASA scientists are preparing to do a little high-tech fishing at Yellowstone National Park, the world's headquarters for hot springs and geothermal vents. Beginning Monday, they will lower miniature digital cameras baited with insects and leaves into the near-boiling springs in hopes of attracting larger microbes that might thrive in extreme environments. If they find primitive, multi-celled creatures, it would refute conventional wisdom that only single-celled organisms, such as bacteria, can survive under such hostile conditions. Also, It's good practice for more ambitious future missions to search for life on Mars, Jupiter's moons and other, more distant locations in the solar system. ###

9/16/99
Obese child offers genetic link
(AP) - For the first time, injections of the hormone leptin have been shown to curb appetite and induce weight loss in a human, a new study says. Scientists caused a stir four years ago when they announced that leptin could evoke weight loss in mice, but until now a direct role in human obesity had not been confirmed. The findings by doctors at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, England, provide important clues as researchers try to decipher the genetic and environmental factors in obesity. The study published in Thursday's edition of The New England Journal of Medicine involved a severely overweight 9-year-old girl who suffered from a rare genetic defect. While the girl's condition is uncommon, the researchers believe the findings have implications for the general population.

9/16/99
Brain buildup causes addiction
(AP) - Cocaine may be one of the toughest addictions to cure because it triggers a buildup of a protein that persists in the brain and stimulates genes that intensify the craving for the drug, new research suggests. Scientists at the Yale School of Medicine were able to isolate the long-lived protein, called Delta-FosB, and show that it triggered addiction when released to a specific area of the brains of genetically engineered mice. The protein isn't produced in the brain until addicts have used cocaine several times, or even for several years. But once the buildup begins, the need for the drug becomes overpowering and the user's behavior becomes increasingly compulsive.

9/14/99
Genetic experiment reverses brain aging
WASHINGTON (AP) - Aged brains have been restored to youthful vigor in a gene therapy experiment with monkeys that may soon be tested in humans with Alzheimer's disease, researchers report. Scientists hope the treatment will reinvigorate thinking and memory. "To our surprise, this technique nearly completely reversed" the effects of aging on a group of key brain cells that had shrunk in elderly Rhesus monkeys, said Dr. Mark H. Tuszynski of the University of California, San Diego. Tuszynski is senior author of a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The studies reinforce a new understanding of how the brain ages and suggest that neurons in the older brain don't die at first, but go into shrunken atrophy, he said.

9/13/99
Altered crops new U.S. farmer worry
WASHINGTON (AP) - Already battered by low corn and soybean prices, farmers now fear the loss of overseas markets for the genetically altered crops that now make up a hefty percentage of U.S. production. Europeans were the first to balk at buying biotech crops, which wary Britons have dubbed "Frankenfoods." Now the baby-food makers Gerber and H.J. Heinz are turning them down, as are two Japanese brewers. In Mexico, a major tortilla maker is avoiding altered corn. One U.S. processor has announced plans to pay a premium for conventional grain, while another company has told its suppliers to start separately storing conventional and biotech grain.

9/13/99
Caffeine-Free Coffee Bean Sought
HONOLULU (AP) - The future of caffeine-free coffee is taking shape in petri dishes at the University of Hawaii, where scientists are growing plants that will produce beans without the buzz. But don't expect to drink a genetically engineered double-mocha decaf anytime soon. The first plants won't be available to commercial growers before 2003, with the first caffeine-free cups of java to be sold in 2006, according to John Stiles, assistant professor of plant physiology. The university, in conjunction with Integrated Coffee Technologies, now is field-testing caffeine-free plants. The first commercial crop will produce about 250,000 pounds, enough coffee for several million cups, said Stiles.

9/9/99
Peacocks cooperate to spread genes
(AP) - Groups of peacocks strut their stuff in hopes of attracting the finest peahens, but only a few lucky guys will find a willing mate in the wild kingdom's equivalent of a singles bar. Scientists have long wondered why the unsuccessful peacocks stick around the same group year after year when the hens tend to select the same few males each breeding season. Research published Thursday in the journal Nature suggests a sound evolutionary reason: Many of the bird buddies within individual groups are brothers. By working together, the brothers are increasing the odds that their genes will be passed to another generation

9/7/99
Study says creatine builds muscle
WASHINGTON (AP) - New research gives biological support to athletes' perceptions that they get stronger when they take creatine. The 12-week study found that muscle fibers change in athletes who use creatine, and these athletes can lift more weight than athletes who don't. The athletes may be getting a training edge from the supplement's ability to let muscles keep drawing energy, the study said. "You are being able to increase the intensity of the individual training session," researcher Jeff S. Volek of Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., said. "Over 12 weeks, those extra couple of reps every workout add up."

9/5/99
Study: Dolly not a total clone
NEW YORK (AP) - A study confirms what scientists had always thought about Dolly the sheep: If you want to be really picky, you can say she's not completely identical genetically to the ewe she was cloned from. No need to rewrite the textbooks: The finding doesn't change Dolly's status as the first animal to be cloned from an adult mammal. When most people think about genes, they think of the DNA in the nucleus of the cell. The genes there control a wide variety of characteristics like eye color. And for this DNA, Dolly is indeed a clone. But cells contain a much smaller amount of DNA outside the nucleus, in features called mitochondria. The mitochondria are the power plants of cells, and their DNA, called mtDNA, controls their functioning.

9/2/99
Scientists create smarter mice
(AP) - Scientists have genetically engineered smarter mice, pointing the way to a brave new world in which parents could - in theory, at least - create baby Einsteins. The breakthrough could also lead someday to drugs for treating Alzheimer's and stroke. By inserting an extra gene, researchers produced a strain of mice that excelled in a range of tasks, such as recognizing a Lego piece they had encountered before, learning the location of a hidden underwater platform and recognizing signs that they were about to receive a mild shock. The mice - nicknamed "Doogie" after the boy genius in the TV show "Doogie Howser, M.D." - carried their enhanced intelligence into adulthood, when learning ability and memory naturally taper off, and passed it on to their offspring.

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