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Britian's embryo cloning law passed
News & Comment
TRENDS in Neurosciences Vol.24 No.4 April 2001
201
In Brief
Britian’s embryo cloning law passed Amidst much debate, limited cloning of human embryos is now allowed in the UK. The previous Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990 stipulated that human embryos be used only for research into fertility or birth defects. Britain’s House of Lords decided in January to pass an order approved by the House of Commons in December to also allow embryonic stem cells in disease research. Opponents of the law, which include right-to-life groups, religious leaders and even the European Parliament, consider this ruling a dangerous move towards full human cloning, although Britain’s health minister Lord Hunt has indicated that additional legislature will ensure that full human cloning remains illegal.
First transgenic primate
Scientists at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center have produced a rhesus monkey that carries the gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP). A January 12 Science article demonstrates how the technique – which has been widely used in mice – can now also potentially be used for behavioral and neurodegenerative research in which rodent models are inadequate. Because of technical and ethical considerations, however, it is highly unlikely that the procedure will be attempted in human primates. Only half of 224 oocytes injected developed into embryos, and of 20 GFPembryos transferred, five pregnancies resulted. In addition to the viable transgenic monkey, a set of GFP-twins was miscarried and two healthy monkeys did not contain the
transgene. Scientists do not yet know whether the live transgenic monkeys cells will express GFP, although tissues in the miscarried twins did glow under fluorescent light.
Novel protein both a kinase and a channel
rhythm, and without phosphorylation hamsters show a similarly accelerated cycle. This study, one of the first to link a single gene to a complex human behavior, appears in the January 12 Science.
Monkeys, cats and dogs
Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School have cloned a new bifunctional protein, called transient receptor protein-phospholipase Cinteracting kinase (TRP-PLIK). It is a member of family of Ca2+ channels, but is unique because it also contains an alpha kinase whose activity is essential for the function of the channel. The full report is published in a January issue of Science.
Itch pathways uncovered An itch-specific neural pathway has been found with the recent discovery of a subclass of spinothalamic tract (STT) neurons. Researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, had previously identified low velocity, primary afferent Cfibers in humans that respond to histamine in a manner that parallels the sensations of itch, but are mechanically and thermally insensitive. Now, in the January issue of Nat. Neurosci., the same researchers report that a subset of lamina I STT neurons projecting to the lateral thalamus have the same stimulus profile. Taken together, these studies indicate that, similar to most cutaneous sensory modalities, itch sensations are carried by stimulus-specific peripheral and central pathways.
Human sleep discoveries A rare condition called familial advanced sleep-phase syndrome (FASPS) has helped University of Utah researchers prove that a human homologue of a circadian clock gene is indeed involved in regulation of sleep–wake cycles. Patients with FASPS have internal clocks that run faster and they tend to wake up four hours early. One large FASPS family has been found to have a single base-pair mutation in a copy of a gene known as hPer2, which abolishes the phosphorylation of the resultant protein by casein kinase Ie. Phosphorylation of PER2 proteins in hamsters has been shown to be crucial for a normal 24-hour circadian
How do we recognize such different-looking things, for example, apples, bananas, pizza and soup, all to be food? In an effort to understand the cognitive operations that allow one to group diverse objects into meaningful categories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have trained monkeys to distinguish between computer-generated images of cats and dogs, and recorded from neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The monkeys reliably categorized the two animals, as well as ‘morphed’ combinations, so even an image 60% cat and 40% dog was reported to be a cat. Furthermore, PFC ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ neurons responded selectively only to images fitting into ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ categories, and with the same strength regardless of what percentage of the image matched the category. This suggests the activity of the PFC neurons reflect complex categorization of images, rather than more simple processing of their physical characteristics. The report is published in the January 12 issue of Science.
Apoptotic gene cloned A C. elegans gene required for the engulfment of cells undergoing
http://tins.trends.com 0166-2236/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
TRENDS in Neurosciences Vol.24 No.4 April 2001
201
In Brief
Britian’s embryo cloning law passed Amidst much debate, limited cloning of human embryos is now allowed in the UK. The previous Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990 stipulated that human embryos be used only for research into fertility or birth defects. Britain’s House of Lords decided in January to pass an order approved by the House of Commons in December to also allow embryonic stem cells in disease research. Opponents of the law, which include right-to-life groups, religious leaders and even the European Parliament, consider this ruling a dangerous move towards full human cloning, although Britain’s health minister Lord Hunt has indicated that additional legislature will ensure that full human cloning remains illegal.
First transgenic primate
Scientists at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center have produced a rhesus monkey that carries the gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP). A January 12 Science article demonstrates how the technique – which has been widely used in mice – can now also potentially be used for behavioral and neurodegenerative research in which rodent models are inadequate. Because of technical and ethical considerations, however, it is highly unlikely that the procedure will be attempted in human primates. Only half of 224 oocytes injected developed into embryos, and of 20 GFPembryos transferred, five pregnancies resulted. In addition to the viable transgenic monkey, a set of GFP-twins was miscarried and two healthy monkeys did not contain the
transgene. Scientists do not yet know whether the live transgenic monkeys cells will express GFP, although tissues in the miscarried twins did glow under fluorescent light.
Novel protein both a kinase and a channel
rhythm, and without phosphorylation hamsters show a similarly accelerated cycle. This study, one of the first to link a single gene to a complex human behavior, appears in the January 12 Science.
Monkeys, cats and dogs
Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School have cloned a new bifunctional protein, called transient receptor protein-phospholipase Cinteracting kinase (TRP-PLIK). It is a member of family of Ca2+ channels, but is unique because it also contains an alpha kinase whose activity is essential for the function of the channel. The full report is published in a January issue of Science.
Itch pathways uncovered An itch-specific neural pathway has been found with the recent discovery of a subclass of spinothalamic tract (STT) neurons. Researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, had previously identified low velocity, primary afferent Cfibers in humans that respond to histamine in a manner that parallels the sensations of itch, but are mechanically and thermally insensitive. Now, in the January issue of Nat. Neurosci., the same researchers report that a subset of lamina I STT neurons projecting to the lateral thalamus have the same stimulus profile. Taken together, these studies indicate that, similar to most cutaneous sensory modalities, itch sensations are carried by stimulus-specific peripheral and central pathways.
Human sleep discoveries A rare condition called familial advanced sleep-phase syndrome (FASPS) has helped University of Utah researchers prove that a human homologue of a circadian clock gene is indeed involved in regulation of sleep–wake cycles. Patients with FASPS have internal clocks that run faster and they tend to wake up four hours early. One large FASPS family has been found to have a single base-pair mutation in a copy of a gene known as hPer2, which abolishes the phosphorylation of the resultant protein by casein kinase Ie. Phosphorylation of PER2 proteins in hamsters has been shown to be crucial for a normal 24-hour circadian
How do we recognize such different-looking things, for example, apples, bananas, pizza and soup, all to be food? In an effort to understand the cognitive operations that allow one to group diverse objects into meaningful categories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have trained monkeys to distinguish between computer-generated images of cats and dogs, and recorded from neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The monkeys reliably categorized the two animals, as well as ‘morphed’ combinations, so even an image 60% cat and 40% dog was reported to be a cat. Furthermore, PFC ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ neurons responded selectively only to images fitting into ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ categories, and with the same strength regardless of what percentage of the image matched the category. This suggests the activity of the PFC neurons reflect complex categorization of images, rather than more simple processing of their physical characteristics. The report is published in the January 12 issue of Science.
Apoptotic gene cloned A C. elegans gene required for the engulfment of cells undergoing
http://tins.trends.com 0166-2236/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.