ScienceCache
Vol. 196
March 3, 2005
WASP GENOME TO COME UNDER SCRUTINY THANKS TO ROCHESTER GENETICIST
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) announced this week
that it will undertake sequencing the genome of a parasitic wasp recommend
by John H. Werren, professor of biology. The institute, part of the National
Institutes of Health, completed sequencing the human genome in 2003,
and has since expanded its efforts to sequencing other organisms relevant
to human health and basic science. Only organisms likely to yield the
greatest scientific merit are selected. Though only a handful of creatures
have been selected so far, Werren led the effort to convince NIH to sequence
the genome of the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Parasitic wasps
are an extremely important group of insects, because they are natural
enemies of other insect pests that transmit disease and destroy crops.
The Nasonia wasp is a natural enemy of houseflies, and its relatives
are natural enemies of ticks, mites, roaches and other arthropods. In
the United States, the use of such wasps in agriculture as a biological
control of crop-damaging insects saves approximately $20 billion annually.
The wasp will also serve as a good comparison for the honeybee genome,
which has already been sequenced. “Nasonia is emerging as a model
for genetics of complex traits, development, and evolution,” says
Werren. “A full genome sequence will allow scientists to use these
insects to explore the cloning of specific genes affecting human health
and basic biology.”
Full story
WHEN THE BRAIN, NOT THE EARS, GOES HARD OF HEARING
Problems with the brain – not just the ears – cause a great
deal of the age-related hearing loss in older people. Researchers are
finding more and more subtle problems in the way our brain processes
information as we age, so much so that an older person whose ears are
in fine shape may have trouble hearing because of an aging brain. In
addition to earlier findings of a specific type of “timing” problem
that limits our hearing as we age, the group is now finding increasing
evidence of a “feedback” problem in the brain that diminishes
our ability to hear. “Traditionally, scientists studying hearing
problems started looking at the ear,” says Robert D. Frisina, professor
of otolaryngology. “But we are finding patients with normal ears
who still have trouble understanding a conversation. There are many people
who have good inner ears who just don’t hear well. That’s
because their brains are aging.” Frisina is part of a group of
researchers at the International Center for Hearing and Speech Research
that is recognized as a leader in research in age-related hearing loss.
The center includes scientists from the National Technical Institute
for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology and neuroscientists
from the university. They discussed their most recent results on the
aging brain’s plummeting ability to organize the information our
ears record last month at the annual meeting of the Association for Research
in Otolaryngology.
Full story
ANTI-CANCER VACCINE WITH ROOTS IN ROCHESTER MOVES FORWARD
A vaccine to prevent a type of cancer that kills more than 250,000 women
around the globe every year is expected to become available within a
year or two, thanks in large part to technology developed by a trio of
virologists at the medical center. Vaccines that prevent cervical cancer
are in the final stages of testing in studies by two companies, Merck
and Co. and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Last month the two pharmaceutical
giants agreed on a settlement involving patents and royalties related
to the vaccines, clearing the way for continued development of their
products. The vaccine targets a group of viruses known as human papillomaviruses
(HPV), which cause 12,000 cases of cervical cancer in women in the United
States annually. About 4,500 women in the nation die of the disease every
year. The toll is much worse in other parts of the world, where Pap smears
to detect the disease in its earliest stages are not widely available.
In some parts of the world, cervical cancer is the leading cause of death
by cancer in women. Research done more than a decade ago by Richard Reichman,
William Bonnez, and Robert Rose is key to the technology; the team’s
VLPs, or virus-like particles, have become VIPs in the world of infectious
disease. After discovering that the body produces antibodies that could
neutralize the virus, the scientists figured out how to make harmless
virus-like particles to trigger the same immune response. They did this
by putting an HPV gene into insect cells using a virus called baculovirus,
which infects insects; the HPV gene then produces particles that mimic
the shape of real HPV particles.
Full story
STRONG TRANSPLANT CARDIOLOGISTS STUDY EXERCISE AND HEART FAILURE
Transplant cardiologists with the Strong Health Program in Heart Failure
and Transplantation are part of a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
study that will consider whether patients living with heart failure may
improve their health and extend their life by exercising. The $37 million
heart failure trial, called HF-ACTION, will be conducted at more than
50 medical centers in the United States, Canada and Europe. Strong Memorial
Hospital is the only upstate New York site to participate. The five-year
study, coordinated by Duke University Medical Center, will consider 3,000
patients living with heart failure. It is the first large-scale trial
designed to determine whether exercise can reduce mortality for patients
with heart failure, and also whether it can reduce hospital admissions.
Smaller studies have shown exercise has a positive effect on heart failure
patients’ health, including improving daily physical activity,
and reducing depression and harmful hormone levels. Yet no study before
HF-ACTION has considered the effect exercise may have on mortality. Strong’s
participation is being led by Leway Chen, senior transplant cardiologist,
and Thomas Rocco, chief of cardiology at Highland Hospital.
Full story
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