ScienceCache
Vol. 145
August 21, 2003
LOCAL ASTRONOMERS' WORK TO LAUNCH MONDAY, SAYS NASA
SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility and final installment of
NASA's Great Observatory series that includes the Hubble and Chandra
telescopes, is scheduled to launch Monday, Aug. 25 at 1:35:39 a.m. from
Cape Canaveral in Florida. The critical infrared "eyes" of
the telescope were designed in part by physics and astronomy professors
Judith Pipher, William Forrest, and Dan Watson, a team that has been
among the world leaders in opening the infrared window to the universe.
While the launch has been delayed several times since December 2001,
next week’s event looks promising, as the launch team has fueled
the second stage of SIRTF’s Delta rocket – a milestone never
reached before. The $458 million instrument will provide the clearest
view ever of the universe in infrared light -- a wavelength of light
that is invisible to the naked eye as well as most telescopes. Even specially
built telescopes have a difficult time seeing infrared objects in space
since Earth's atmosphere blocks most infrared light, leaving astronomers
blind to regions of space that may actually be teeming with celestial
objects. The ignition of fledgling stars, the evolution of solar systems
and activity within the most distant galaxies are among the events SIRTF
is specially designed to witness. Forrest and Pipher were the first U.S.
astronomers to turn an infrared array toward the skies: In 1983 they
mounted a prototype infrared detector onto the university telescope in
the small observatory on top of the Wilmot Building on campus, taking
the first-ever telescopic infrared pictures of the moon. The Rochester
contingent is part of a nationwide team of scientists from more than
a dozen academic institutions and aerospace companies; the project is
led by the SIRTF Science Center at the Caltech-NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif. SIRTF will be placed in orbit around the Sun.
Full story
HOW AIDS DESTROYS IMMUNITY: HIV GENE MAKES A HUMAN GENE TURN BAD
A human gene named ATR normally protects people by preventing the replication
of cells damaged by radiation or toxic chemicals. Now, a team that includes
Baek Kim, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, has discovered
how a gene in the AIDS virus hijacks the human gene and turns it into
a weapon that prevents reproduction of immune-system white blood cells,
leaving AIDS patients vulnerable to deadly infections and cancer. Researchers
already knew that an HIV gene named vpr led to the depletion of immune-system
white blood cells named CD4+ lymphocytes. The new study suggests vpr
does that by activating the ATR gene, which is found in white blood cells
and all human cells. The ATR gene’s normal job is to detect genetic
damage to cells caused by radiation, toxic chemicals and chemotherapy,
and to stop the damaged cells from replicating until they can repair
themselves. Researchers found evidence that the vpr gene – one
of nine genes in the AIDS virus – exploits this normal repair process
to stop vital white blood cells from replicating, thus disabling the
immune system. The new study “puts us a big step closer to understanding
how HIV [human immunodeficiency virus] dismantles the immune system,” says
molecular biologist Vicente Planelles, whose team at the University of
Rochester did the bulk of the research before he moved to the University
of Utah School of Medicine last year. The findings were published last
month in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Full story
WILMOT RESEARCHERS STUDY A COMBINATION TREATMENT FOR LYMPHOMA
Oncologists and people with lymphoma have been singing the praises of
Rituxan to treat the disease. In the last five years, Rituxan has become
a standard treatment for people with lymphoma – cancer of the lymphatic
system – and it destroys cancer cells without the debilitating
side effects of traditional chemotherapy. Now researchers at the James
P. Wilmot Cancer Center have joined a national effort to find a companion
to Rituxan that could broaden its effectiveness in combating disease.
They are combining Rituxan with another antibody, called IDEC-114, to
treat people with relapsed follicular lymphoma. “This combination
shows promise in the few patients that have been treated with it already,
with minimal side effects. We are anxious to offer this novel therapy
to Rochester area patients,” says Jonathan Friedberg, M.D., of
the Wilmot Cancer Center Lymphoma Program. Preliminary research has shown
this combination can prompt disease regression and may work better than
Rituxan alone. The Wilmot Cancer Center is one of 14 sites in the United
States offering the therapy. The study is one of a series of research
studies launched by the newly formed Lymphoma Program at the Wilmot Cancer
Center; in the past 18 months, three nationally recognized lymphoma specialists
have joined the program.
Full story
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