The Pocket-Science Volume 3

For more than 40 years Vittorio Erspamer investigated in the research fields of biochemistry and comparative pharmacology focusing his attention on biogenic amines and bioactive peptides both in invertebrates and lower vertebrates. As a result, he succeeded in identifying, defining the chemical structure, reproducing per chemical synthesis and studying at pharmacological level a great number of:

biogenic amines, the most relevant of which are serotonin, octopamine, leprodactilin and spinachamine

bioactive peptides belonging to tachykinin, bradykinin, caerulein, sauvagines, dermorphins, tryptophyllins.

The discovery of some of these peptides paved the way to the discovery of analogous peptides in mammals that act as neurotransmitters/neuromodulators, neurohormones and hormones ( the gut - brain -skin triangle )

November

Isolation of Normal Human Neural Stem Cells

January

The drive to reduce time to market

by Joseph D. Palo and Erik Rule in: The Biotech Journal - Dec/Jan 1999, Vol. 4 (3) (page 3)

"This article explores the rational for time to market strategies and the means for achieving improved results"

February

Scholars and Entrepreneurs: succedding in the Science Biz

by Karen Hopkin in: The Scientist Feb. 15, Vol 13 (4)

(www.the-scientist.library.upenn.edu/yr1999/feb/prof_990215.html)

Intrusion Detection : Network security beyond the firewall

byTerry Escamilla (1998) Wiley Computer Publishing - John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The three central goals in computer security are: confidentiality, integrity and availability. Hot links for information on intrusion detection are reported below.

Considering the importance of network securityin the E-business, a special section has been dedicated to this topic, with useful resources on the Internet

March

The Information Economy: the most complete web site (run by economist Hal Varian) for the new economy. Almost any web site connected to the information or network is linked here.

Information Rules: a strategic guide to the network economy

by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian (1998) - Harvard Business School Press

A place for space and smell

by J.N.P. Rawlins - Nature (1999) 397, 561-563

The global record of memory in hippocampal neuronal activity

by Emma R. Wood, Paul A. Dubchenko & Howard Eichenbaum - Nature (1999) 397, 613 - 616

A transformed view of cyclosporin

by Gary J. Nabel - Nature (1999) 397,471 - 472

Cyclosporin induces cancer progression by a cell-autonomous mechanism

by Minoru Hojo et al. - Nature (1999) 397, 530 - 534

Heparin and the Neurogenic Thoracic Outlet Syndrome(TOS)

New viruses search for strong encryption keys

by Andrew Dornan - We recommand to visit also the related linked sites (read the article: "Playing hide and seek with stored keys")

April

Valuation of a technology

by Rose Ann Dabek (a royalty rates web site)

May

Chips meet single cells with Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM)

Researchers at NIH have developed a technology , laser capture microdissection (LCM) for cell separation tools. LCM is commercialized as PixCellII by Arcturus (Mountain View, CA USA)

Individual microchip technology (Frequent Asked Questions)

There are basically three categories of individual microchip devices available today: (i) implantable chips, (ii) insertable chips, (iii) attachable chips.

"Fight the Fingerprint" Web Site

Fingerprints, DNA, Fingerscans, Digital Photographs, Hand Geometry, Digital signatures, retina scan, Social Security Number Identification.. Biometrics in human services are reported at the CT DSS website (Digital Imaging - Connecticut's Biometric Imaging Project)

Understanding the digital economy (Data, Tools and Research)

The impact on organizational change, small business, market structure and competition, employment and the workforce

Everything's great when it sits on a chip - A bright future for DNA arrays. by: Bob Sinclair in The scientist 13 (11), May 24 [see also the article "The great DNA chip derby" by Ellen Licking on Business Week , pages 90 - 92, October 25, 1999]

The M Guide : The Brown lab's complete guide to microarraying for the molecular biologist, telling the reader how to build a microarray robot and listing all the necessary parts, suppliers and prices [Science 286, 446 (1999)].

June

The first human embryo has been cloned.

American Cell Technology (ACT), cloned the first human embryo. The aim is "therapeutic cloning" not "reproductive cloning". Another U.S. company, Geron, are also reported to be attempting to clone human embryos for therapeutic purposes.

Neurosilicon Computers by Otis Port in Business Week , June 21 (1999) pages 111-115

William L. Ditto and his collegues at the Georgia Institute of Technology race to combine living neurons and silicon, "Biological neurons (from leeches) and silicon circuits both transmit electrical signals. While chips in computers perform predictably, neurons can behave chaotically. By controlling that chaos, Georgia Tech researchers are, for the first time, using neurons to do arithmetic, heralding the possibility of brainlike computers." (Spano, M.L. and Ditto, W.L. - Chaos control in biological systems in : Handbook of Chaos Control, pages 427 - 456, 1999).

Prof. Ehud Shapiro (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel) has developed the prototype of a small biological computer, as reported on BBC News ("Biological computer prototype unveiled"). in the section Sci/Tech

Stem cells may restore neurons - Many diseases of the central nervous system are characterized by "global" neural degeneration or dysfunction. Therapy might require widespread neural cell replacement, a challenge not regarded conventionally as amenable to neural transplantation Mouse mutants [shiverer (shi)] are characterized by CNS-wide white matter disease (because of oligodendrocyte disfunction) ; the oligodendrocytes of the dysmyelinated shi mouse are "globally" disfunctional because they lack myelin basic protein (MBP) essential for effective myelination. These mutant mice provide ideal models for testing the hypothesis that neural stem cell transplantation might compensate for defective neural cells types in neuropathologies, requiring cell replacement throughout the brain. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Acedmy of Sciences (96, 7029-734, 1999) , Yandava B., Billinghurst L. and Snyder E. report that injections of the neural stem cells were able to restore normal function to the shiverer mouse. The application of neural stem cell transplants in humans is discussed.

Note: As reported by Gretchen Vogel on the magazine Science 287, 948 - 949 (2000), The University of Wisconsin (UW, Madison, U.S.A.) will distribute embryonic cell lines. derived by UW researcher James Thomson. An agreement exist with Geron Corp. (Menlo Park, CA, U.S.A.). Thomson's work was supported by Geron, Corp. and by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). WARF has now created the WiCell Research Institute for distributing cells to academic and industrial scientists late this spring. WiCell's first customers could come from Japan [Dennis Normile, in Science 287, 949 (2000); David Cyrano, in Nature 403, 470 (2000)]

REFERENCES:

"Culturing new life: stem cells lead the way to a new medical paradigm in tissue regeneration" by Tim Beardsley in: Scientific American (1998), June, pages 11-12 uee

"The Troubled Hunt for the Ultimate Cell" by A. Regalado in Technology Review (1998) - July-August, pages 34-41

Stem cells have been discovered in different tissues (bone marrow, nervous system, muscle, cartilagine, bone, pancreas islet cells and the liver). These cells, when implanted in the appropriate type of tissue, can regenerate the range of cells normally found there. Special cells derived originally from a fetus could produce a wide variety of tissue-specific cells.

Geron plans to derive tissue-specific stem and other cells from a different source: nonaging cells called embryonic germ cells.

Dr. John D. Gearhart and Dr. Michael Shamblott (both at Johns Hopkins University) established embryonic germ-cell lines from human gonad-precursor cells from aborted fetuses. They are now testing whether the cells can indeed develop into a full range of human cell types ["New potential from human embryonic stem cells" by J. Gearhart, in: Science (1998) 282, 1061-1062].

Thompson et al. have reported the derivatization of independent cell lines from the inner cell masses of human blastocysts. After undifferentiated proliferation in vitro, these cell lines still mainteined the developmental potential to form trophoblast and derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers, including gut epithelium (endoderm); cartilagine, bone, smooth muscle, and striated muscle (mesoderm); and neural epitelium, embryonic ganglia and stratified squamous epitelium (ectoderm). These cell lines should be useful in human developmental biology, drug discovery and transplantation medicine. [Science (1998) 282, 1145 - 1147]

July

Gene Therapy by Ellen Licking in: Business Week, July 12 (1999), pages 94 - 104

It is described the attempt to correct a genetic disease in humans: "the Falconi Anemia" (a recessive disease that occurs only when children inherit two copies of the defective gene from each parent).

Hiding crimes in cyberspace by Doroty E. Denning and William E. Baugh

September

"OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 1999 Benchmarking Knowledge-based Economies" a knowledge-based economy study posted by OECD (= Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The Economist has an e ditorial on the report. (

The battle of the alliances by Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. in: Management Review, September 1999, pages 46 - 51

Visualizing innovation by Nicholas G. Carr in: Harvard Business Review, September - October 1999, page 16 ; To have more information about the new mapping technique, please visit the web site www.doblin.com/landscapes/

Antiangiogenic activity of the cleaved conformation of the serpin antithrombin by Michael S. O'Reilly, Steven Pirie-Shepherd, William S. Lane, Judah Folkman in Science 285 (1999) 1926 - 1928 . The serpins are a protein family of highly adaptable serine protease inhibitors that have outmaneuvered their many relatives to become the predominant protease inhibitors in human plasma. Antithrombin, a member of the serpin family, function as an inhibitor of thrombin and other enzymes. Cleavage of the carboxyl-terminal loop of antithrombin induces a conformational change in the molecule. O'Relly and collaborators have shown that the cleaved conformation of antithrombin has potent antiangiogenic and antitumor activity in mouse models.

October

Affinity-driven peptide selection of an NFAT inhibitor more selective than cyclosporin A by Jose' Aramburu, Michael B. Yaffe, Cristina Lopez-Rodriguez, Lewis C. Cantley, Patrick G. Hogan, Anjana Rao in Science 285 (1999) 2129-2133 - The peptide MAGPHPVIVITGPHEE [VIVIT (16 mer) potently inhibited NFAT activation and NFAT -dependent expression of endogenous cytokine genes in T cells, without affecting the expression of other cytokines that require calcineurin but not NFAT. As reported by the authors, in addition to their established role in the immune response, NFAT and calcineurin have been implicated in cardiac and skeletal muscle hypertrophy, in slow fiber differentiation in skeletal muscle, and in other biological systems . Consequently, the VIVIT peptide constitutes a highly selective inhibitor of NFAT, which can now be used for direct identification of NFAT target genes in various cell types

Neurogenesis in the neocortex of adult primates by Elizabeth Gould, Alison J. Reeves, Michael S. A. Graziano, Charles G. Gross, in: Science 286 (1999) 548 - 552 In primates , prefrontal, inferior temporal and posterior parietal cortex are importantfor cognitive function. It has been shown that , in adult macaques, new neurons are continually added to these three neocortical association areas, but not to a primary sensory area. The new neurons appeared to originate in the subventricular zone and to migrate through the white matter to the neocortex (neurogenesis). The discovery reverses a dogma and suggests entirely new ways of explaining how the mind accomplishes its basic functions , from problem solving to learnig and memory. Considering the structure similarity between the brain structures of monkeys and humans, it is possible to postulate thar the same process can occur also in humans.

The Electronic Sniffing

Vapor is sampled >> Nose Chip (with a polymer sensor that expands like a sponge when it comes in contact with a vapor) >> Response signal >> Identification

Greenberg, I. - A nose for business in: Technology Review (1999) July - August, 63 - 67 - Nose Chips could be integrated into many consumer products. Cyrano Inc. is studying how well their nose (Cyranose 2000) can mimic human sensory values

November

Isolation of normal human neural stem cells - CytoTherapeutics, Inc. announced the results obtained by Nobuko Uchida (at the subsidiary StemCells, Inc.) about the isolation and expansion of human neural stem cells. For the first time, human brain stem cells have been successfully isolated , using specific surface markers.This could have a positive impact on the development of cellular replacement therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, for delivery of specific therapeutic substances within the brain and for the use in drug discovery.