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:
+ One Taste of Growth Protein and Nerve Cells Want More
+ Scientists Suggest Framework for Epigenetics in Common Disease
+ Unraveling the Drama of a Decade of Cancer Research
NEWS BRIEFS:
Annual Scott Lecture Sept. 9
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Dawson Awarded Michael J. Fox Grant
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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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7/23/04
One Taste of Growth Protein and Nerve Cells Want More
Johns Hopkins researchers report that once a growing nerve "tastes" a certain protein, it loses its "appetite" for other proteins and follows the tasty crumbs to reach its final destination. The finding in mice, reported in the July 23 issue of Cell, helps explain how nerves connect to their targets and stop growing once there, a process important for the normal development of mouse and man.
In experiments with mice, postdoctoral fellow Rejji Kuruvilla, PhD, graduate students Larry Zweifel and Natalia Glebova, and their team learned that a protein called NT-3 (neurotrophin-3), produced and distributed at the halfway point, and one called NGF (nerve growth factor), which is expressed at the target organ, both attract the growing ends of a certain type of nerve cell.
However, only NGF can convince the nerve that it "tastes better," an ability that allows the nerve to leave the halfway point, grow to the source of NGF and then stay put, the scientists report.
"The ultimate target expresses a protein that physically changes the approaching nerve cell and makes other growth protein 'competitors' seem less appealing," says David Ginty, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience in Hopkins' Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "We suspect that other nerve cells may be manipulated in a similar fashion by a different series of proteins. We'll be studying that next."
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/07_23_04.html
Cell 23 July 2004:118(2);243-255
http://www.cell.com/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS0092867404005847
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7/8/04
Scientists Suggest Framework for Epigenetics in Common Disease
Writing in the August issue of Trends in Genetics, Johns Hopkins scientists provide a framework for systematically incorporating epigenetic information into traditional genetic studies, something they say will be necessary to understand the genetic and environmental factors behind such common diseases as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Much as the 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 DNA sequences can cause diseases such as cancer, gain or loss of epigenetic marks can, too.
To date, only small, targeted regions of DNA have been analyzed for accompanying epigenetic marks. But the Hopkins researchers say now is the time to begin studying epigenetics on the same mammoth scale used to probe creatures' genetic sequences.
"The kind of 'high-throughput' power needed to create comprehensive epigenetic information doesn't yet exist," says Andrew Feinberg, MD, King Fahd Professor of Medicine and an affiliate of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine. "Developing that technology, and the necessary statistical approaches to analyze the data, will require a major collaborative effort and should be first on the to-do list."
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/07_27_04.html
TIG Aug 2004;20(8):350-358
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2004.06.009
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7/30/04
Unraveling the Drama of a Decade of Cancer Research
Reviewing the last 10 years of cancer research much as they might the production of a play complete with cast members, opening acts and an ever-twisting plot, two of the most cited names in science say that one of the most promising roles that newly discovered cancer genes may perform is in early detection, which likely will be as important as new treatments.
In an editorial review that is the centerpiece of Nature Medicine's 10th anniversary August issue, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists Bert Vogelstein, MD, and Kenneth Kinzler, PhD, suggest that the conquest of cancer is a drama that has lots more acts to come, some of them destined to refocus large parts of the national research effort.
"The best chance of managing these diseases in the next few decades relies on taking advantage of the genes we now know lie at the heart of the process," says Vogelstein. "Cancer already is curable when it's caught early. New methods of detecting cancers, although less dramatic and not as popular, offer very promising approaches for limiting cancer deaths in the future."
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/07_30_04.html
Nat Med Aug 2004:10(8);789-799
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nm/journal/v10/n8/full/nm1087.html
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NEWS BRIEFS:
Annual Scott Lecture Sept. 9 -- Charles Sawyers, MD, director of the Genitourinary Oncology Program Area at the University of California Los Angeles, will deliver the 4th annual William Wallace Scott lecture starting at 8 am, Thursday, Sept. 9, in the Weinberg Auditorium. His talk is entitled "Molecular Studies of Prostate Cancer Progression."
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Dawson Awarded Michael J. Fox Grant -- Ted Dawson, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and neuroscience and co-director of the Program in Neuroregeneration and Repair of Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering, has received one of 10 research grants from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The 10 grants, totaling approximately $2.1 million, are part of the Foundation's "Specification, Patterning and Maintenance of Midbrain Dopaminergic Systems in the Normal and Parkinsonian Brain" initiative. Dawson's project is entitled "Generation and Characterization of Mice with Inducible and Cell-Type Specific Interruption of GDNF Signaling."
http://www.michaeljfox.org/news/article.php?id=106
http://www.academicwebpage.com/neuro_ice/about/education.htm
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--JHMI--
