Cell signaling news
Here we present recent news items specially selected from Nature, Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology.
February 2008
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News | News in brief | News Features
News
Animal-rights activists invade Europe
A rash of vandalism, intimidation and arson across continental Europe is evidence of a worrying new wave of animal-rights extremism.
Nature News (28 February 2008)
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Revamp for NIH grants
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is considering a series of recommendations designed to speed the grant peer-review process and more evenly distribute the NIH's finite resources.
Nature News (28 February 2008)
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The aftermath of independence
Aleksandar Jovanovic, the vice-rector for science and international relations at the University of Mitrovica, discusses the changes that Kosovo's independence has brought to research and teaching at the university.
Nature News (28 February 2008)
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Neglected diseases get vaccine research boost
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has opened a non-profit research institute in northern Italy to develop vaccines against Salmonella, Shigella and ETEC (enterotoxigenic E. coli) infection, which are prevalent in the developing world.
Nature News (28 February 2008)
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English grants under review
UK university funding will soon be awarded on a citation-based system; some policy experts worry that the switch from the traditional Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) peer-review system could discourage interdisciplinary research and penalize researchers at the start of their careers.
Nature News (28 February 2008)
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An indifference to boundaries
Universities around the world are creating interdisciplinary departments aimed at fostering collaborations and interactions between researchers.
Nature News (21 February 2008)
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Scientists urged to plan for the next US president
Political advisers urge US researchers to take an active role in shaping scientific policy under the next administration by lobbying presidential candidates and generating a list of respected scientists to fill vacant government posts.
Nature News (21 February 2008)
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On the origin of deleterious mutations
The controversy surrounding a report that Americans of European descent have a bigger proportion of 'harmful' gene mutations than Americans of African descent underscores the difficulty in interpreting data from population-genetics studies.
Nature News (21 February 2008)
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Lessons from the dark side
Historian Ulrich Herbert discusses the findings of Germany's seven-year investigation into the role that German scientists and their funding organizations played in supporting Nazi policies during 1933–1945.
Nature News (14 February 2008)
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Small molecule challenges dominance of TNF-α inhibitors
Tamatinib fodium (R788) — the oral rheumatoid arthritis drug that inhibits the Syk cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase — has shown promise in phase 2 clinical trials and is poised to compete favorably with the TNF-α inhibitors that are currently used to treat arthritis.
Nature Biotechnology 26, 143-144 (2008)
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'Normal' genes key to cancer growth
A functional-genomics screen of normal and cancerous human cells has identified dozens of genes that are present in normal cells and seem to be required for the growth and survival of cancer cells.
Nature News (7 February 2008)
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Canada abolishes its national science adviser
The Canadian government is closing its Office of the National Science Advisor and abolishing the top-level science and technology adviser post at the end of March 2008, after just four years of service.
Nature News (31 January 2008)
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Funding freeze shakes Russia's prodigals
Hundreds of young Russian researchers are in financial limbo after an acclaimed Russian Academy of Sciences funding program, designed to help young Russian researchers set up independent groups in their homeland, ran out of money.
Nature News (31 January 2008)
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Reviewer leaked Avandia study to drug firm
A peer reviewer for The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM ) broke confidentiality and leaked a damaging report about the diabetes drug Avandia to the drug's manufacturer weeks ahead of publication.
Nature News (31 January 2008)
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News in brief
| UCLA wins restraining order against activists
| Biosafety lapses cost Texas A&M $1 million
| Florida adopts teaching of evolution in its schools
| No jail for geneticist who posted bacteria to artist
| Systems biologists hatch plan for virtual human
| Medical schools still not declaring financial conflicts
| Harvard adopts opt-out open-access policy
| Illumina unveils genome sequence of African male
| Head of US environmental health agency resigns
| Lab workers exposed to brucellosis by safety tests
| Review article retracted amid plagiarism claims
| Wellcome Trust announces spending bonanza
| Synthetic genome paves the way to artificial life
| France and India to expand scientific collaborations
| OncoMed scores drug deal for $1.4 billion with Glaxo
News Features
Profile: Meet Exhibit I
George Church's Personal Genome Project will sequence 1% of ten volunteers' genomes and will also collect extensive information about the volunteers' phenotypes to study how genes contribute to these physical traits.
Nature News (14 February 2008)
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Scientific publishing: Identity crisis
The identification of a single Chinese scientist's publication record is complicated by the challenges of transliterating Chinese characters for English-language publications and by the use of a few common surnames, which could potentially lead to missed opportunities for Chinese researchers.
Nature News (14 February 2008)
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Stem cells: Stuck in New Jersey
In 2007, New Jersey voters narrowly rejected an initiative that would have funded stem cell research in their state; researchers and politicians are now reflecting on what went wrong in 2007 and strategizing to secure stem cell research funding in 2008.
Nature News (7 February 2008)
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Genome studies: Genetics by numbers
Genome-wide association studies that link single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to disease are becoming increasingly reliable disease markers; however, targeted drug development and follow-on studies are complicated by the lack of an underlying biological mechanism for the associated disease.
Nature News (31 January 2008)
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