JHM Science e-Newsletter
Vol. 3, No. 23, Dec. 12, 2003
This is the twice-per-month electronic newsletter for basic, preclinical and translational research news related to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Please forward freely. Direct comments or questions to Joanna Downer, PhD, in the Office of Corporate Communications (4-5105, jdowner1@jhmi.edu).
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IN THIS ISSUE:
+ Researchers Map Interactions of Fruit Fly Proteins
+ Scientists Discover How Brain Draws Picture of World
+ Chromosomes Are "Nibbled" Before They Fuse
NEWS BRIEFS:
New Academic Division Established in Singapore
University-Wide Conflict of Interest Training Deadline Dec. 31
Get Your 2003 W-2 Delivered Online
CORRECTION: Link for Chromosome 1 Research
AWARDS AND HONORS:
Brady Wins Dews Award for Lifetime Achievement
Arceci Elected Fellow of AAAS
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11/6/03
Researchers Map Interactions of Fruit Fly Proteins
A Johns Hopkins researcher played a leading role in creating a landmark map that details the way proteins interact within fruit fly cells. The paper was published online in Science on Nov. 6 and appears in the Dec. 5 print issue.
Earlier research had provided a list of the 14,000 fruit fly genes and the proteins they produce within the insect's cells. To find out which proteins expressed by fruit flies genes interact with others, the research team used the two-hybrid method, in which they "mated" specific types of yeast cells.
In each experiment, a yeast cell carrying just one fruit fly protein was mixed with yeast cells carrying about 10,000 other fruit fly proteins. By examining the offspring that survived this "marriage," the researchers could determine which proteins interacted with one another. The experiment was repeated 10,000 times to generate enough data to produce the interaction map.
The large research team included people who conducted lab experiments, others who organized massive amounts of data and still others -- including Hopkins' Joel Bader, a specialist in computational biology and assistant professor of biomedical engineering -- who analyzed that data. Bader started the work several years ago while director of bioinformatics at CuraGen Corp. in New Haven, CT.
More Info
Science Dec 5 2003;302(5651):1727-1736.
11/25/03
Scientists Discover How Brain Draws Picture of World
By conducting experiments with robots and humans, Johns Hopkins scientists have created a new computer model that accurately reflects how the brain uses experience to improve motor control. The researchers' work is described in the November issue of PLoS Biology.
"Now we have a much better idea of how the brain uses information from a variety of sources to create a model of the world around us, and how errors modify that model and change subsequent movements," says Reza Shadmehr, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering. "We don't just know how to control objects around us, we have to learn how."
In the researchers' experiments, volunteers grasped the end of a robot arm that precisely tracked their attempts to overcome resistance to reach a target, a stopping point 10 centimeters away. To provide the spatial information necessary for the brain to create a model, or map, of forces expected in the "world" of the experiment, subjects started from one of three positions -- left, center or right -- separated by as little as half a centimeter up to 12 centimeters. The researchers discovered that if the starting positions were too close together, the brain didn't draw appropriate conclusions about where to expect forces.
The scientists then developed a new computer model of how the brain learns to create its map of the world. The new computer model matches observations from this and all previous experiments, and Shadmehr says it's the first to show that the brain multiplies, rather than adds, electrical signals from nerve cells that convey the arm's position and velocity. Subsequent experiments with volunteers proved the models' predictions correct, too.
More Info
PLoS Biology Nov 2003;1(2):209-220.
Chromosomes Are "Nibbled" Before They Fuse
Overturning 60 years of scientific presumption, new evidence from Johns Hopkins scientists shows that enzymes nibble away at chromosomes when the chromosomes' protective tips, called telomeres, get too short.
Cells usually die if their telomeres get too short, but if they don't, the unprotected ends drag the chromosomes through an ugly assortment of fusions that lead to rearrangements, deletions and insertions that scramble the cell's genetic material and can lead to cancer. Until now, scientists had presumed that the fusions were the first thing to happen when telomeres stop protecting the chromosomes.
Writing in the December issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Greider and Hopkins graduate student Jennifer Hackett describe experiments with yeast which revealed that instead of just fusing end-to-end, chromosomes whose telomeres are too short are first nibbled by exonucleases -- enzymes that normally clean up broken chromosomes.
"Fusion happens, but it's not the primary mechanism that triggers gene loss after telomeres get too short," says Carol Greider, PhD, the Daniel Nathans, MD, Professor and the director of molecular biology and genetics. "Instead, exonuclease activity causes the bulk of immediate gene loss."
More Info
Mol Cell Biol 2003;23:8450-8461.
New Academic Division Established in Singapore -- Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore have established the Johns Hopkins Medicine Division of Biomedical Sciences in Singapore. The division will include 12 full-time Johns Hopkins faculty to be based in Singapore to lead training and research initiatives focused on life science disciplines such as immunology, cancer biology and experimental therapeutics.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2003/11_20_03.html
University-Wide Conflict of Interest Training Deadline Dec. 31 -- All University faculty, staff, researchers, students, trainees and administrators (including administrative assistants) must complete the "Conflict of Interest and Commitment" online training module by Dec. 31. The training module is at https://secure.lwservers.net .
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/faculty_staff/policies/facultypolicies/coi_training_module.html
Get Your 2003 W-2 Delivered Online -- Beginning this year, you can register to receive your W-2 online instead of getting a paper copy in the mail. If you register, you will receive e-mail notification when your W-2 is available, along with instructions for accessing it via the Web. A confirmation e-mail will also be received when you enroll for online delivery. If you choose not to receive your W-2 online, it will be mailed directly to your home address this year instead of being delivered with the January 31 paycheck.
http://www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/news/leadershipcorner/2003/121203.cfm
Brady Wins Dews Award for Lifetime Achievement -- Joseph Brady, PhD, is the second recipient of the P. B. Dews Award for Research in Behavioral Pharmacology, sponsored by the Division of Behavioral Pharmacology of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The biennial Dews Award, established in 2000, recognizes outstanding lifetime achievements in research, teaching and professional service in the field of behavioral pharmacology. The first recipient was William H. Morse in 2002. Brady's award will be presented in a ceremony during ASPET's annual meeting in Washington, DC, in April 2004. He will present a lecture April 19.
Brady received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1951. In 1967 he left the Walter Reed Institute of Research in Washington to found Johns Hopkins' Division of Behavioral Biology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He also established the department's Behavioral Medicine Clinic and launched the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit. He is currently a professor of behavioral biology and holds a joint appointment in neuroscience.
Arceci Elected Fellow of AAAS -- Robert Arceci, MD, director of pediatric oncology, was recently elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He will be honored at a ceremony on Feb. 14, 2004, in Seattle, for his advances in elucidating the pathogenesis of pediatric acute leukemias and in improving their treatment.
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