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:
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
+ Stem Cells Commit to Future as Fat with One Signal
+ "Mighty Mouse" Gene Works the Same Way in People
+ Hopkins To Found First Center for Comprehensive Study of Epigenetics
+ Researchers: Many Calmodulin Present, But Only One Needed
NEWS BRIEFS:
Dietz Named First McKusick Professor
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Hopkins Hospital Ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report
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Do you have an interesting research finding about one month from publication or presentation? Send manuscripts to Joanna Downer at jdowner1@jhmi.edu or fax to 410-614-8951. Information about awards and honors received by laboratory personnel and others is welcomed also.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
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6/21/04
Stem Cells Commit to Future as Fat with One Signal
In the June 29 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Johns Hopkins researchers report that a protein known as BMP4 tells mouse stem cells to commit to becoming fat cells, or adipocytes.
These stem cells have the ability to become fat, muscle, bone or cartilage, but how they commit to these fates has remained pretty murky. For the past 15 years, researchers have known of only a few fate-directing signals.
"Apart from the muscle- and bone-inducing signals, not much is known about the initial switch from stem cell to committed cell," says Daniel Lane, PhD, professor of biological chemistry. "BMP4 is the first proven fat-cell producing signal for these stem cells."
To see if BMP4 could direct stem cells to become fat in culture dishes, the researchers treated cells with this suspected but not yet proven fat-commitment protein. When pushed a little more, BMP4-treated stem cells uniformly became fat cells. Stem cells not exposed to BMP4 didn't become fat cells when pushed with a "cocktail" of differentiation-inducers, report Qi-Qun Tang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics and biological chemistry, and postdoctoral fellow Tamara Otto, PhD.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/06_21_04.html
PNAS 29 June 2004;101(26):9607-9611 http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/101/26/9607
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6/23/04
"Mighty Mouse" Gene Works the Same Way in People
By studying the genes of a German child born with unusually well developed muscles, an international research team has discovered the first evidence that the gene whose loss makes "mighty mice" also controls muscle growth in people.
Writing in the June 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, German neurologist Markus Schuelke, MD, and the team show that the child's extra-large muscles are due to an inherited mutation that effectively silences the myostatin gene. This is the first evidence that myostatin normally keeps muscle development in check in people, as it does in other animals.
People with muscle-wasting conditions such as muscular dystrophy, and others just wanting to "bulk up," have eagerly followed work on myostatin, hoping for a way to counteract the protein's effects in order to build or rebuild muscle mass. But while research with mice has continued to reveal myostatin's role and the effects of interfering with it, no one knew whether any of the results would be relevant to humans.
"This discovery gives us a great deal of hope that agents already known to block myostatin activity in mice may be able to increase muscle mass in humans, too," says Se-Jin Lee, MD, PhD, professor of molecular biology and genetics in Hopkins' Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences and co-author on the study.
Sequencing the myostatin gene from the baby boy and his mother revealed a single change in the building blocks of the gene's DNA. The change would alter the resulting messenger RNA so dramatically that it likely wouldn't be used at all to make the myostatin protein, notes Kathryn Wagner, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Hopkins. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/06_23_04.html
NEJM 24 June 2004;350(26):2682-2688
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/350/26/2682
And see a related Perspectives in the same issue:
NEJM 24 June 2004:350(26);2642-2644
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/350/26/2642
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6/28/04
Hopkins To Found First Center for Comprehensive Study of Epigenetics
With a $5 million, five-year federal grant, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is establishing what is believed to be the first university-based research center devoted to studying epigenetics, an effort that will set the stage for learning as much about our epigenetics as the Human Genome Project taught about the sequence of building blocks that make up our genes.
Much as our genetic sequence is passed from parent to child, epigenetic "marks" that sit on our genes are also inherited. These "marks," usually small methyl groups, are attached to genes' backbones and convey information, such as identifying which parent the gene came from. The marks also normally turn genes on or off. But just as changes in genes' sequences can cause diseases such as cancer, improper gain or loss of epigenetic marks can, too.
"Epigenetics may be as important in certain conditions, or in contributing to the risk of developing certain conditions, as the genetic sequence is in other cases," says Andrew Feinberg, MD, King Fahd Professor of Medicine and principal investigator of the epigenetics grant. "Epigenetics doesn't underlie all human disease, but we definitely need to develop the technology to figure out when and where epigenetic changes do influence health and disease."
Feinberg will lead the new Center for the Epigenetics of Common Human Disease at Johns Hopkins, which is funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Institute of Mental Health. Through the center's grant, Feinberg and his colleagues at Hopkins and elsewhere will first develop tools to create comprehensive information about epigenetics and then apply that information to the study of autism and bipolar disorder.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/06_28_04.html
http://www.genome.gov/10001771
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4/16/04
Researchers: Many Calmodulin Present, But Only One Needed
In the April 16 issue of Science, Hopkins researchers report a significant discovery about how cells regulate the passage of calcium.
In experiments with human kidney cells, the researchers determined that about 25 copies of a key calcium-binding protein called calmodulin are poised near the doors of each channel through which calcium enters the cell. Despite the large number of calmodulin molecules available, just one is needed to bind calcium and close the channel, the scientists discovered.
In the heart and brain, calcium represents a ubiquitous cellular signal, critical to the organs' proper functions. Understanding how cells control calcium's entrance and exit may reveal new strategies for correcting problems with brain function or heart rhythms.
"For 15 years, researchers have been unable to gauge how many calmodulin molecules are within earshot of each calcium channel," says David Yue, MD, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering. "Our discovery will help us to create better models of how cells regulate calcium."
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/04_16a_04.html
Science 16 April 2004:304(5669);432-435
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/304/5669/432
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NEWS BRIEFS:
Dietz Named First McKusick Professor -- In a ceremony June 29, Harry "Hal" Dietz, MD, was installed as the inaugural Victor A. McKusick Professor of Medicine and Genetics. McKusick, who has spent his entire career at Johns Hopkins, is widely regarded as the father of genetic medicine and pioneered the study of genetic contributors to disease. Dietz has focused a large portion of his research activities on identifying genes that contribute to Marfan syndrome, aortic aneurysm and other vascular disorders. Both are members of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/06_29_04.html
Hopkins Hospital Ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report -- For the 14th consecutive year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has topped U.S. News & World Report's rankings of American hospitals. Hopkins again ranked in the top 10 in 16 of the 17 specialty categories listed. In addition to landing at the top of the honor roll, the Hospital ranked #1 in Gynecology, Otolaryngology and Urology; #2 in Geriatrics, Kidney Disease, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology and Rheumatology; #3 in Cancer, Digestive Disorders, Hormonal Disorders, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Respiratory Disorders; #4 in Heart/Heart Surgery and Orthopedics; and #13 in Rehabilitation.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/07_02_04.html
http://www.usnews.com
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--JHMI--
