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Stem cells produce insulin
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radiation destroying the bone marrow and the lining of tissues and organs such as the intestine and lung. In these five mice, researchers discovered that descendants of the introduced stem cell had not only become blood and marrow cells but also cells in the lining of the lung, intestinal tract and skin. DM
Novel proteins, novel amino acids Expanding the limited set of 20 amino acids may lead to the generation of proteins with novel properties. Two papers published in the 20 April edition of Science indicate how to accomplish the incorporation of novel amino acids into proteins. The paper by Volker Döring et al., describes the production of mutants of Escherichia coli that incorrectly charge tRNA–valine with cysteine. More than 20% of the valine in cellular proteins in such a mutant organism could be replaced with another amino acid, aminobutyrate, which is similar in shape to cysteine, but is not used in the construction of proteins. The other paper, by Lei Wang et al., describes the construction of a unique tRNA–aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase pair, that, when introduced into E. coli, leads to the in vivo incorporation of the synthetic amino acid O–methyl–L–tyrosine. Using this approach, it is possible to introduce novel amino acids into proteins at any position of interest. DM
New NIH institute The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has confirmed it is to establish a new National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (BioMedNet, 10 May). Its brief will be to fund more basic engineering and imaging research but will overlap with other NIH centres. It has been allocated an initial budget of US$ 40m for 2002, when it will award its first grants. MJD
Stem cells produce insulin Nadya Lumelsky et al. (Science, 18 May) report on the generation of cells expressing insulin and other pancreatic endocrine hormones from mouse embryonic stem cells. Amazingly, the cells form structures similar to normal pancreatic islets that are associated with insulin production. When injected into diabetic mice, the insulinproducing cells undergo rapid
TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.19 No.7 July 2001
vascularization and maintain a clustered, islet-like organization. DM
Patent bounty hunters Patent ‘busting’ is big business and modern-day bounty hunters are sought by a new company, BountyQuest (Boston, MA, USA), to scour the scientific literature for papers that can be used to challenge granted patents in court (New Scientist, 8 May). The company recently rewarded a computer science graduate with US$ 10 000 after he found a paper that is being used to challenge a patent held by Incyte Genomics (St. Louis, MO, USA). MJD
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charge with nothing hidden in the small print. Ensembl have had double the number of hits since the publication of the human genome and those who do use the database are enthusiastic about it but only ~10.25% of the researchers questioned use Ensemble regularly and only 37% download bioinformatics research tools. SB
Cheesy microbe sequence
European biotechnology market The European biotechnology sector is gaining momentum but has yet to reach the value of the US market. A report by accountants Ernst and Young (Chemistry and Industry, 7 May) puts the value of the 105 publicly-quoted European biotechnology firms at US$ 75b at the end of 2000 which is more than double the value for 1999. Figures for the same period in the USA are a market value of US$ 376b, an increase of 156% on the previous year. MJD
HUGO supports gene therapy The Human Genome Organization’s (HUGO) ethics committee has advised that trials of human gene therapy should continue despite the risks. Reporting at the ‘Human Genome’ meeting in Edinburgh, UK (April), committee members emphasized the need for distinction between the use of gene modification techniques in gene therapy, which can be justified, and in deliberate genetic trait enhancement, which it deemed ethically unacceptable. MJD
Researchers are paying unnecessarily The results of a recent Wellcome Trust survey show that only 50% of biomedical researchers who use genome databases are familiar with the services provided by freely accessible databases. The web-based database Ensembl (http://www.Ensembl.org) covers 90% of known human genes and provides automatic annotation of gene sequences. Public databases in Europe, Japan and the USA also provide genome data free of
Alexander Bolotin et al. (Genome Research, May) report the genome sequence of Lactococcus lactis strain IL1403. The microbe is a commonly-used cheese starter and is the first of its kind to be sequenced. The genome contains 2 365 589 base pairs and encodes 2310 proteins, including 293 proteincoding genes belonging to six prophages and 43 insertion sequence elements. Interestingly, the genomic sequence has revealed new possibilities for fermentation pathways and aerobic respiration. Perhaps not so surprising is that this work was done in France. DM
Mapping kidney development How does a complex organ like a kidney develop? An insight into the step-by-step process of development is reported in PNAS, 1 May. The researchers, lead by Sanjay Nigam, employed microarrays of 8740 genes to study the development of rat kidneys. Five discrete patterns of gene expression were observed. The pattern of expression is largely understandable, however, there were some surprises. For example, one group of genes that were highly-expressed in the early embryonic kidney have a large role in protein translation and DNA replication. Another group contained genes that steadily increased in relative levels of expression throughout development, including many genes involved in energy metabolism and transport. DM
http://tibtech.trends.com 0167-7799/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
radiation destroying the bone marrow and the lining of tissues and organs such as the intestine and lung. In these five mice, researchers discovered that descendants of the introduced stem cell had not only become blood and marrow cells but also cells in the lining of the lung, intestinal tract and skin. DM
Novel proteins, novel amino acids Expanding the limited set of 20 amino acids may lead to the generation of proteins with novel properties. Two papers published in the 20 April edition of Science indicate how to accomplish the incorporation of novel amino acids into proteins. The paper by Volker Döring et al., describes the production of mutants of Escherichia coli that incorrectly charge tRNA–valine with cysteine. More than 20% of the valine in cellular proteins in such a mutant organism could be replaced with another amino acid, aminobutyrate, which is similar in shape to cysteine, but is not used in the construction of proteins. The other paper, by Lei Wang et al., describes the construction of a unique tRNA–aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase pair, that, when introduced into E. coli, leads to the in vivo incorporation of the synthetic amino acid O–methyl–L–tyrosine. Using this approach, it is possible to introduce novel amino acids into proteins at any position of interest. DM
New NIH institute The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has confirmed it is to establish a new National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (BioMedNet, 10 May). Its brief will be to fund more basic engineering and imaging research but will overlap with other NIH centres. It has been allocated an initial budget of US$ 40m for 2002, when it will award its first grants. MJD
Stem cells produce insulin Nadya Lumelsky et al. (Science, 18 May) report on the generation of cells expressing insulin and other pancreatic endocrine hormones from mouse embryonic stem cells. Amazingly, the cells form structures similar to normal pancreatic islets that are associated with insulin production. When injected into diabetic mice, the insulinproducing cells undergo rapid
TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.19 No.7 July 2001
vascularization and maintain a clustered, islet-like organization. DM
Patent bounty hunters Patent ‘busting’ is big business and modern-day bounty hunters are sought by a new company, BountyQuest (Boston, MA, USA), to scour the scientific literature for papers that can be used to challenge granted patents in court (New Scientist, 8 May). The company recently rewarded a computer science graduate with US$ 10 000 after he found a paper that is being used to challenge a patent held by Incyte Genomics (St. Louis, MO, USA). MJD
245
charge with nothing hidden in the small print. Ensembl have had double the number of hits since the publication of the human genome and those who do use the database are enthusiastic about it but only ~10.25% of the researchers questioned use Ensemble regularly and only 37% download bioinformatics research tools. SB
Cheesy microbe sequence
European biotechnology market The European biotechnology sector is gaining momentum but has yet to reach the value of the US market. A report by accountants Ernst and Young (Chemistry and Industry, 7 May) puts the value of the 105 publicly-quoted European biotechnology firms at US$ 75b at the end of 2000 which is more than double the value for 1999. Figures for the same period in the USA are a market value of US$ 376b, an increase of 156% on the previous year. MJD
HUGO supports gene therapy The Human Genome Organization’s (HUGO) ethics committee has advised that trials of human gene therapy should continue despite the risks. Reporting at the ‘Human Genome’ meeting in Edinburgh, UK (April), committee members emphasized the need for distinction between the use of gene modification techniques in gene therapy, which can be justified, and in deliberate genetic trait enhancement, which it deemed ethically unacceptable. MJD
Researchers are paying unnecessarily The results of a recent Wellcome Trust survey show that only 50% of biomedical researchers who use genome databases are familiar with the services provided by freely accessible databases. The web-based database Ensembl (http://www.Ensembl.org) covers 90% of known human genes and provides automatic annotation of gene sequences. Public databases in Europe, Japan and the USA also provide genome data free of
Alexander Bolotin et al. (Genome Research, May) report the genome sequence of Lactococcus lactis strain IL1403. The microbe is a commonly-used cheese starter and is the first of its kind to be sequenced. The genome contains 2 365 589 base pairs and encodes 2310 proteins, including 293 proteincoding genes belonging to six prophages and 43 insertion sequence elements. Interestingly, the genomic sequence has revealed new possibilities for fermentation pathways and aerobic respiration. Perhaps not so surprising is that this work was done in France. DM
Mapping kidney development How does a complex organ like a kidney develop? An insight into the step-by-step process of development is reported in PNAS, 1 May. The researchers, lead by Sanjay Nigam, employed microarrays of 8740 genes to study the development of rat kidneys. Five discrete patterns of gene expression were observed. The pattern of expression is largely understandable, however, there were some surprises. For example, one group of genes that were highly-expressed in the early embryonic kidney have a large role in protein translation and DNA replication. Another group contained genes that steadily increased in relative levels of expression throughout development, including many genes involved in energy metabolism and transport. DM
http://tibtech.trends.com 0167-7799/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.