- Email: [email protected]
Wellcome Trust discourages Celera subscriptions
284
News & Comment
Wellcome Trust discourages Celera subscriptions Following the controversy over publication of the draft human genome sequence earlier this year by Celera Genomics, the Wellcome Trust have added further fuel to the fire by preventing any Wellcome Trust grant funding from being used to subscribe to the human genome data resources produced by Celera. Access to the Celera sequence is available free to academic users on completion of a Public Access Agreement, but there is a restriction on how the data may be used subsequently. Celera also have a subscription-based analysis package, the ‘Celera Discovery System’, that incorporates the human sequence data with genome sequence data from Drosophila and from the recent Celera mouse genome sequence, as well as giving single nucleotide polymorphism information. Having been involved in the funding of the public human genome sequencing effort, principally through funding of the Sanger Centre in Cambridge, UK, it is unsurprising that the Trust would ask its grant awardees to use the public sequence information. The Director of the Wellcome Trust, Mike Dexter, was reported in Nature as saying: ‘There is no evidence that Celera’s database offers any scientific advantage. This is not a ban: we are just trying to get the best value for trust money.’ Wellcome urges its researchers to make themselves aware of the publicly available data before entering into agreements with Celera. D.S.
Changes to NIH graduate student and postdoc positions The NIH has responded to concerns regarding the training of biomedical scientists in the USA by announcing a dramatic and sustained increase in postdoc stipends. National Research Service Award stipends are to rise to $25 000 for graduate students and $45 000 for new postdocs. This represents a massive increase on the current levels of $16 500 and $28 260, respectively. The NIH also said that federal funding should not exceed a total of six years for graduate students and five years for postdocs. A need for an investigation into the impact of such measures before their introduction was also noted. Curbing the tenure of postdocs in this way is seen as a method for combating the much higher numbers of postdocs than available faculty places in the USA. The NIH also said that
TRENDS in Cell Biology Vol.11 No.7 July 2001
they do not intend to reduce the number of PhDs in training in the USA in order not to disrupt current research progress. The package of measures comes in response to a report from the National Academy of Sciences published last year, ‘Addressing the Nation’s Changing Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists’. See: http://grants.nih.gov/training/nas_report/ NIHResponse.htm D.S.
No more monkey business in Europe The Dutch government has decided to end research on chimpanzees at the Biomedical Primate Research Center (BPRC) in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. The BPRC was the last institute to conduct experiments on chimpanzees in Europe. The decision follows the advice of a committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, which reported that it was unnecessary to maintain the animals and suggested that the chimps be retired to sanctuaries. Experiments that require chimpanzees, such as studies of hepatitis C vaccine, can be carried out in the USA, the committee states. Last year, the Dutch government donated about 7 million Euro to the privately owned BPRC for improvements on the poor housing conditions of the 1500 remaining primates. Dutch animal welfare groups say in de Volkskrant that they regret that the Academy does not doubt the raison d’être of the entire institute. According to their calculations, only 500 of the 1500 animals were used for experiments in 1999. They say that good alternatives exist for these experiments, that some can be conducted elsewhere and others are not scientifically relevant. J.d.B.
US stem cell researchers collared Cloning sceptics have gained considerable political power in the USA recently. Shortly after the Bush administration entered the White House, Congress forbade the use of federal funds for any research in which a human embryo is destroyed. The NIH has been told by the Dept of Health and Human Services to postpone grant review procedures for research on
human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). The department first wants to evaluate the legal basis for research on human ESCs. Currently, privately funded research is not affected by these measures, but Reuters reported that a bill has just been introduced in Congress that will ban human cloning completely. According to Reuters, the White House has said that President Bush opposes human cloning and is willing to work with Congress on legislation to prevent it. J.d.B.
Britain the first to formally ban human cloning The British government announced in April that it would ban all forms of human reproductive cloning. This makes Britain the first country to do this and comes as part of a package of legislation designed to allay fears regarding misuse of genetic technologies. The health secretary, Alan Milburn, announced the comprehensive ban on human cloning along with a moratorium on the use of genetic data by insurance companies and an increased availability of genetic screening tests on the UK National Health Service. Two new national laboratories for research into diagnostics and treatments for genetic disorders are also to be established. The cloning ban signifies a clear demarcation between the application of stem cell technologies for therapeutic research, which is allowed in Britain, and the use of such technologies in the creation of cloned humans. D.S.
Proteomics moves into the spotlight After reading recent press stories, you could be forgiven for thinking that proteins didn’t exist until after the human genome sequence was reported. But out of the shadow of the genome project, proteomics – the identification and characterization of gene products – is emerging as the newest buzzword in biology (see Wired magazine, April 2001). This is because extensive genome databases combined with high-resolution protein separation technologies and mass spectrometry are revolutionizing protein science by allowing ultra-fast, highthroughput protein identification. A shift in focus from ‘genomics’ to ‘proteomics’ has recently been observed in some biotech companies (Boston Globe,
http://tcb.trends.com 0962-8924/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
News & Comment
Wellcome Trust discourages Celera subscriptions Following the controversy over publication of the draft human genome sequence earlier this year by Celera Genomics, the Wellcome Trust have added further fuel to the fire by preventing any Wellcome Trust grant funding from being used to subscribe to the human genome data resources produced by Celera. Access to the Celera sequence is available free to academic users on completion of a Public Access Agreement, but there is a restriction on how the data may be used subsequently. Celera also have a subscription-based analysis package, the ‘Celera Discovery System’, that incorporates the human sequence data with genome sequence data from Drosophila and from the recent Celera mouse genome sequence, as well as giving single nucleotide polymorphism information. Having been involved in the funding of the public human genome sequencing effort, principally through funding of the Sanger Centre in Cambridge, UK, it is unsurprising that the Trust would ask its grant awardees to use the public sequence information. The Director of the Wellcome Trust, Mike Dexter, was reported in Nature as saying: ‘There is no evidence that Celera’s database offers any scientific advantage. This is not a ban: we are just trying to get the best value for trust money.’ Wellcome urges its researchers to make themselves aware of the publicly available data before entering into agreements with Celera. D.S.
Changes to NIH graduate student and postdoc positions The NIH has responded to concerns regarding the training of biomedical scientists in the USA by announcing a dramatic and sustained increase in postdoc stipends. National Research Service Award stipends are to rise to $25 000 for graduate students and $45 000 for new postdocs. This represents a massive increase on the current levels of $16 500 and $28 260, respectively. The NIH also said that federal funding should not exceed a total of six years for graduate students and five years for postdocs. A need for an investigation into the impact of such measures before their introduction was also noted. Curbing the tenure of postdocs in this way is seen as a method for combating the much higher numbers of postdocs than available faculty places in the USA. The NIH also said that
TRENDS in Cell Biology Vol.11 No.7 July 2001
they do not intend to reduce the number of PhDs in training in the USA in order not to disrupt current research progress. The package of measures comes in response to a report from the National Academy of Sciences published last year, ‘Addressing the Nation’s Changing Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists’. See: http://grants.nih.gov/training/nas_report/ NIHResponse.htm D.S.
No more monkey business in Europe The Dutch government has decided to end research on chimpanzees at the Biomedical Primate Research Center (BPRC) in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. The BPRC was the last institute to conduct experiments on chimpanzees in Europe. The decision follows the advice of a committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, which reported that it was unnecessary to maintain the animals and suggested that the chimps be retired to sanctuaries. Experiments that require chimpanzees, such as studies of hepatitis C vaccine, can be carried out in the USA, the committee states. Last year, the Dutch government donated about 7 million Euro to the privately owned BPRC for improvements on the poor housing conditions of the 1500 remaining primates. Dutch animal welfare groups say in de Volkskrant that they regret that the Academy does not doubt the raison d’être of the entire institute. According to their calculations, only 500 of the 1500 animals were used for experiments in 1999. They say that good alternatives exist for these experiments, that some can be conducted elsewhere and others are not scientifically relevant. J.d.B.
US stem cell researchers collared Cloning sceptics have gained considerable political power in the USA recently. Shortly after the Bush administration entered the White House, Congress forbade the use of federal funds for any research in which a human embryo is destroyed. The NIH has been told by the Dept of Health and Human Services to postpone grant review procedures for research on
human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). The department first wants to evaluate the legal basis for research on human ESCs. Currently, privately funded research is not affected by these measures, but Reuters reported that a bill has just been introduced in Congress that will ban human cloning completely. According to Reuters, the White House has said that President Bush opposes human cloning and is willing to work with Congress on legislation to prevent it. J.d.B.
Britain the first to formally ban human cloning The British government announced in April that it would ban all forms of human reproductive cloning. This makes Britain the first country to do this and comes as part of a package of legislation designed to allay fears regarding misuse of genetic technologies. The health secretary, Alan Milburn, announced the comprehensive ban on human cloning along with a moratorium on the use of genetic data by insurance companies and an increased availability of genetic screening tests on the UK National Health Service. Two new national laboratories for research into diagnostics and treatments for genetic disorders are also to be established. The cloning ban signifies a clear demarcation between the application of stem cell technologies for therapeutic research, which is allowed in Britain, and the use of such technologies in the creation of cloned humans. D.S.
Proteomics moves into the spotlight After reading recent press stories, you could be forgiven for thinking that proteins didn’t exist until after the human genome sequence was reported. But out of the shadow of the genome project, proteomics – the identification and characterization of gene products – is emerging as the newest buzzword in biology (see Wired magazine, April 2001). This is because extensive genome databases combined with high-resolution protein separation technologies and mass spectrometry are revolutionizing protein science by allowing ultra-fast, highthroughput protein identification. A shift in focus from ‘genomics’ to ‘proteomics’ has recently been observed in some biotech companies (Boston Globe,
http://tcb.trends.com 0962-8924/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.