Cell signaling news
Here we present recent news items specially selected from Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
December 2008
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News | News in brief | News Features
News
News 2008: The year in which...
Nature reviews the scientific highlights of the past year, from the launch of the 1,000 Genomes Project to the touchdown of the Phoenix Mars Lander on the red planet.
Nature News (18 December 2008)
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Salary for CIRM head despite deficit
The board of California's state stem-cell agency has voted to pay its chairman a salary, even as the state plunges deeper into financial crisis.
Nature News (18 December 2008)
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How genes are silenced
The process of RNA interference (RNAi) has been demystified by a report of the structure of the Argonaute 2 protein bound to a DNA 'guide' and an RNA 'target'.
Nature News (18 December 2008)
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Major biobank launches in America
The US health-care provider Kaiser Permanente has received a grant of US$8.6 million to build a biobank of DNA specimens from 200,000 people enrolled in Kaiser's medical-care plan.
Nature News (18 December 2008)
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Publish in Wikipedia or perish
Authors who submit to RNA Biology will soon be required to prepare a summary of their work, which will be peer-reviewed and published in Wikipedia.
Nature News (17 December 2008)
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Plant hormone study pulled
Nature is retracting a paper that described the identification of protein receptors for abscisic acid (ABA), a key hormone in plant physiology, after reports surfaced that the work could not be replicated.
Nature News (11 December 2008)
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Patent pledge to Indian universities
India's parliament will soon be scrutinizing a bill intended to help publicly funded institutes and universities commercialize their research.
Nature News (11 December 2008)
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India creates funding council for basic science
The Indian government plans to create an independent agency to promote basic research in science and engineering.
Nature News (11 December 2008)
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France cracks down on Iranian scientists
Europe's largest basic-research agency, the CNRS in France, is now vetting not only non-European Union (EU) researchers working on sensitive topics, but also all scientists from Iran regardless of what they work on.
Nature News (11 December 2008)
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Antibody fights AIDS-like disease in monkeys
An antibody treatment that targets a protein called programmed death-1 (PD-1) has rejuvenated the immune systems of SIV-infected macaques, allowing the monkeys to fend off AIDS-like disease symptoms for months.
Nature News (11 December 2008)
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Proposed animal research reforms spark concern in Europe
Proposed reforms to animal research legislation in Europe have been greeted with dismay by scientists, who are warning that the changes could cripple science.
Nature Medicine (December 2008)
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Biomedical sector takes steps to handle harsh financial realities
The financial crisis has not been kind to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors — the Washington DC-based Biotechnology Industry Organization has reported that nearly 100 publicly traded biotech companies have less than six months of cash remaining.
Nature Medicine (December 2008)
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Slow shipping hobbles Chinese science
With few local reagent suppliers, researchers in China rely on deliveries from overseas, which can take weeks or months longer to obtain than in Europe or the United States.
Nature News (4 December 2008)
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Melanoma in mice casts doubt on scarcity of cancer stem cells
A new study suggests that cancer stem cells might be more prevalent than previously thought.
Nature News (4 December 2008)
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Austrian ethics watchdog launched
Austrian universities and leading research institutions have created an Agency for Scientific Integrity in the wake of the misconduct scandals that have shaken the scientific community.
Nature News (4 December 2008)
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European funding plan 'unviable'
Some of Europe's top universities say that the terms of the European Commission's Joint Technology Initiatives make the program too costly for them to take part.
Nature News (4 December 2008)
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Europe to pay royalties for cancer gene
The University of Utah in Salt Lake City has won its battle to keep some European patents on BRCA1, granting patent owners the right to collect royalties on tests carried out on tens of thousands of women across Europe every year.
Nature News (2 December 2008)
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Spain in the dock over research visas
The European Commission is taking Spain to the European Court of Justice for failing to enact into national law the 2005 European Union (EU) directive on scientific visas.
Nature News (2 December 2008)
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End of the line for cannabinoid receptor 1 as an anti-obesity target?
Cannabinoid receptor 1 antagonists were once viewed as promising treatments for obesity, but serious psychiatric side effects have prompted pharmaceutical companies to pull these compounds off the shelves and out of the drug development pipeline.
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (December 2008)
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Targeting apoptosis: selected anticancer strategies
Selectively modulating apoptotic machinery by targeting the extrinsic cell-surface death receptor pathway and the intrinsic BCL-2-dependent pathway remains an important goal for the development of anti-cancer therapeutics.
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (December 2008)
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News in brief
| US bioindustry calls for government bailout
| Vatican formalizes rules on human stem-cell research
| Lectures gain electronic life in Egyptian library
| Institutions to disclose more commercial ties
| UK scientists promised £250 million for training
| German BioPharma awards
| Oslo's cancer leap
| Europe rejects Wisconsin's key stem-cell patent
| UK charity launches assault on deadliest cancers
News Features
2008 Gallery: Images of the year
This gallery showcases some of the year's most eye-catching science, from a close encounter with squid suckers that look like a carnivorous cartoon choir to mathematical forms given shape in purple yarn.
Nature News (18 December 2008)
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News 2008: Prizewinners of the year
Nature News interviews Robert Langer, Beatriz Barbuy and Sumio Iijima about the medals and awards they received in 2008.
Nature News (18 December 2008)
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Cell biology: Stretching the imagination
Squash them, pinch them, twist them, pull them — cells react to physical forces.
Nature News (11 December 2008)
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