The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, a breakthrough that provoked headlines around the world a decade ago, is to abandon the cloning technique he pioneered to create her. Prof Ian Wilmut’s decision to turn his back on ‘therapeutic cloning’, just days after US researchers announced a breakthrough in the cloning of primates, will send shockwaves through the scientific establishment. He and his team made headlines around the world in 1997 when they unveiled Dolly, born July of the year before. But now he has decided not to pursue a licence to clone human embryos, which he was awarded just two years ago, as part of a drive to find new treatments for the devastating degenerative condition, Motor Neuron disease. Prof Wilmut, who works at Edinburgh University, believes a rival method pioneered in Japan has better potential for making human embryonic cells which can be used to grow a patient’s own cells and tissues for a vast range of treatments, from treating strokes to heart attacks and Parkinson’s, and will be less controversial than the Dolly method, known as ‘nuclear transfer.’ His announcement could mark the beginning of the end for therapeutic cloning, on which […]
CAMBRIDGE, MA — Bolstering disintegrating neural connections may help boost brainpower in Alzheimer’s disease patients, MIT researchers and colleagues will report in the Nov. 8 issue of Neuron. The researchers zeroed in on the enzymes that manipulate a key scaffolding protein for synapses, the connections through which brain cells communicate. Synapses are weakened and lost in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. ‘We identified a major underlying mechanism through which synapses are strengthened and maintained,’ said Morgan H. Sheng, Menicon Professor of Neuroscience at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. ‘The enzymes involved could be good targets for potential drug treatments.’ A protein called postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95) is a key building block of synapses. Like the steel girders in a building, it acts as a scaffold around which other components are assembled. ‘The more PSD-95 molecules, the bigger and stronger the synapse,’ said co-author Myung Jong Kim, a Picower research scientist. Previous research had shown that mice genetically altered to have less PSD-95 experienced learning and memory problems. In the current study, the researchers identified for the first time the enzymes that work behind the scenes on PSD-95, adding a phosphate group […]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has decided to keep the chamber in session over the Thanksgiving break to block President Bush from making any unsavory recess appointments while Senators are out of town. In a statement inserted in the record Friday, the Majority Leader said he will hold the Senate in a series of pro forma or nonvoting sessions to prevent the controversial practice. In the statement, Reid argued that nominations need to get on track, and that Bush has not met the Democrats ‘halfway’ in agreeing to Democratically backed nominees to ‘important commissions.’ ‘While an election year looms, significant progress can still be made on nominations,’ Reid said. ‘I am committed to making that progress if the President will meet me halfway. ‘But that progress can’t be made if the President seeks controversial recess appointments and fails to make Democratic appointments to important commissions.’ Senate sources said Reid made the decision after he was unable to strike a deal with White House officials that would have allowed swift consideration of several key Democratic picks for the executive branch. In his statement, Reid points to the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Nuclear […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The malls are full, the cars are fast, the fashions are sharp — conspicuous consumption is king as Saudis enjoy the benefits of oil at almost $100 a barrel. Little more than a dusty desert outpost three decades ago, Riyadh is a boom town where even a stock market crash last year and a spike in inflation over recent months have failed to halt the orgy of conspicuous consumption. ‘Saudis actually like to enjoy life. With restaurants they know very well what they are eating since they travel abroad so much,’ says Tony, manager of a recently-opened upmarket restaurant in the heart of the shopping district. ‘Business is very good. If it wasn’t, our chain wouldn’t be opening more restaurants in Riyadh and other cities.’ On the crowded balcony, the chatter of unveiled young women almost drowns out the din of traffic on the street below in the Arabian peninsula’s largest city, with four million people. It’s late into the evening but Saudis are out in force early in the week, dining in the city’s eateries and clogging its palm-lined boulevards with gas-guzzling four-wheel drives. Ever since oil moved […]
Scientists at MIT, collaborating with an industrial team, are creating a proton-shooting system that could revolutionize radiation therapy for cancer. The goal is to get the system installed at major hospitals to supplement, or even replace, the conventional radiation therapy now based on x-rays. The fundamental idea is to harness the cell-killing power of protons — the naked nuclei of hydrogen atoms — to knock off cancer cells before the cells kill the patient. Worldwide, the use of radiation treatment now depends mostly on beams of x-rays, which do kill cancer cells but can also harm many normal cells that are in the way. What the researchers envision — and what they’re now creating — is a room-size atomic accelerator costing far less than the existing proton-beam accelerators that shoot subatomic particles into tumors, while minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues. They expect to have their first hospital system up and running in late 2007. Physicist Timothy Antaya, a technical supervisor in MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was deeply involved in developing the new system and is now working to make it a reality. He argues it ‘could change the primary method of radiation treatment’ as […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
