Select agent regulations

In recent years, there has been an increase in research with biological agents, particularly those that pose a potential for use by terrorists. In this environment, laws have been enacted and regulations developed to ensure the appropriate use of specified "select agents and toxins" for legitimate research. Within this regulatory environment, it has been necessary for institutions and investigators to adapt to an entirely new set of requirements to begin or continue to work with these pathogens. Registration and approval for use of select agents and toxins, security and safety requirements, and daunting record-keeping requirements are only some of the regulatory challenges that researchers face in working with these agents. A brief overview of recent regulations is presented, as well as where to obtain additional information on regulations, standards, and guidelines related to work with select agents and toxins.     

« Biology/medicine 2.0 »: an overview

In the last decade, the applications known as "web 2.0" (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter…) have changed our daily life and gradually influence the field of research. This article aims at proposing a critical overview of these new services, and emphasizes the changes induced for researchers (practice of scientific publication, sharing and mutualization of research data and discussion between researchers…) especially in the field of biology/medicine. A focus is done on the limitations that prevent most of scientists from using these services in their common practice (lack of knowledge about these tools, time-consuming, fear of sharing data and ideas). Despite these restrictions, some mutations affecting researcher's information uses are unavoidable, and these new tools may rapidly contribute to scientific advances.     

Microbiology: a dangerous profession?

The history of science contains many cases of researchers who have died because of their professional activity. In the field of microbiology, some have died or have come close to death from infection by agents that were the subject of their research (Table 1). Infections that had a lethal outcome were usually accidental. Sometimes, however, researchers inoculated themselves with the pathogen or did not take preventive measures against the potential pathogen because they wanted to prove their hypotheses--or disprove someone else's--regarding the origin of the infection. Here is an overview of several episodes in the history of microbiology since the mid nineteenth century involving researchers or workers in fields related to microbiology who have become infected. They are considered here in their historical context to provide insights into some of the pillars of modern microbiology--The giants on whose shoulders several generations of microbiologists have stood to see further.     

Consensus for experimental design in electromyography (CEDE) project: Terminology matrix

Consensus on the definition of common terms in electromyography (EMG) research promotes consistency in the EMG literature and facilitates the integration of research across the field. This paper presents a matrix developed within the Consensus for Experimental Design in Electromyography (CEDE) project, providing definitions for terms used in the EMG literature. The definitions for physiological and technical terms that are common in EMG research are included in two tables, with key information on each definition provided in a comment section. A brief outline of some basic principles for recording and analyzing EMG is included in an appendix, to provide researchers new to EMG with background and context for understanding the definitions of physiological and technical terms. This terminology matrix can be used as a reference to aid researchers new to EMG in reviewing the EMG literature.     

Internet-Based Integrated Environmental Assessment Using Ontologies to Share Computational Models

New advances in Internet technologies and computer modeling provide opportunities for collaborative systems to support research and development in the field of industrial ecology. In particular, new information technologies such as semantic search engines based on ontologies could help researchers to link fragments of knowledge generated at research centers from around the world. Using a storyline of four imaginary researchers who hope to find collaborators in order to develop their research findings, we illustrate two levels of a four-level architecture for an Internet-based knowledge integration and collaboration environment for integrated environmental assessment. The foundation of the proposed architecture is a belief that computational models are an effective medium for conveying expert knowledge of various phenomena. Drawing from this premise, the first level of the architecture stands on a base of computational models that in some way represent the expert knowledge of the model builder. At the second level, we provide markup and interface definition tools to describe the type of knowledge contained in each model, together with the types of information services that can be provided.
The results of research at these two levels of an Internet-based knowledge integration environment for integrated environmental assessment in industrial ecology are presented in this article. Our work on the third level of model searching and matching and the fourth level of parametric model integration and solving will be presented in subsequent articles.     

Genetic strategies for antibacterial drug discovery

The availability of genome sequences is revolutionizing the field of microbiology. Genetic methods are being modified to facilitate rapid analysis at a genome-wide level and are blossoming for human pathogens that were previously considered intractable. This revolution coincided with a growing concern about the emergence of microbial drug resistance, compelling the pharmaceutical industry to search for new antimicrobial agents. The availability of the new technologies, combined with many genetic strategies, has changed the way that researchers approach antibacterial drug discovery.     

Theoretical neuroscience rising

Theoretical neuroscience has experienced explosive growth over the past 20 years. In addition to bringing new researchers into the field with backgrounds in physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering, theoretical approaches have helped to introduce new ideas and shape directions of neuroscience research. This review presents some of the developments that have occurred and the lessons they have taught us.     

抗血栓药物的研究进展

血栓栓塞性疾病是引起人类疾病死亡的主要原因之一,随着人们对其发病机制研究与认识的不断深入以及药物设计和筛选技术的日臻成熟,针对各种靶点的新型抗血栓药物不断涌现,如二磷酸腺苷受体阻滞剂、Ⅹ a 因子抑制剂、凝血酶抑制剂等,我国药学研究者也在这些靶向抗血栓药物研究领域取得一定进展。综述我国学者近些年在国内外学术期刊上发表的相关研究论文中所涉及的各类新型抗血小板药物、抗凝血药物和血栓溶解剂的结构、活性和构效关系。     

Postgenomic research on leishmaniasis: a critical self-appraisal

Scientific conferences, a major feature of academic life, rarely provide the opportunity for self-appraisal of a research field. During a 2007 meeting on leishmaniasis research in the postgenomic era, approximately 60 researchers participated in group discussions that aimed to provide a critical self-appraisal of the state of the field and to highlight major roadblocks that are likely to prevent the translation of new research into tools for leishmaniasis control. These discussions demonstrated a surprising concordance of views and highlighted several crucial areas for future development.     

LabVelocity: online tools for life science products, protocols, technical information, MEDLINE searches, and laboratory calculations.

As the pace of life science discovery increases, so do the demands on researchers. To remain competitive in the life science industry, researchers must use every tool at their disposal to keep up with new products, protocols, news, and literature in their field. While there are now myriad Web sites that assist researchers with this problem, many suffer from confusing user interfaces, poorly designed search engines, and a narrow information focus. Here, we present LabVelocity, a user-friendly Web site that provides a free multidisciplinary information-gathering service for the life science research community. Using LabVelocity, a researcher can quickly find the products, protocols, technical references, news, MEDLINE abstracts, and interactive software tools necessary for an experiment. This aggregation of information can streamline experimental planning and is especially useful when researchers want to set up a new laboratory or to venture outside their field of expertise.     

Biomarkers in rare neuromuscular diseases

Neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) comprise a range of rare disorders that include both hereditary peripheral neuropathies and myopathies. The heterogeneity and rarity of neuromuscular disorders are challenges for researchers seeking to develop effective diagnosis and treatment strategies. In particular, clinical trials of new therapies are made more difficult due to lack of reliable and monitorable clinical outcome measures. Biomarkers could be a way to speed up research in this field, shedding light on the pathophysiological mechanisms behind such diseases and providing invaluable tools for monitoring their progression, prognosis and response to drug treatment. Furthermore, biomarkers could represent a surrogate endpoint for clinical trials, enabling better stratification of patient cohorts through more accurate diagnosis and prognosis prediction.     

The molecular basis of erectile dysfunction: from bench to bedside

Erectile dysfunction is a common problem affecting many men across all age groups. Its etiology is multifactorial. Hormonal, vascular, neurogenic, lifestyle, and psychological entities have all been implicated as causative agents. The molecular basis underlying its etiology and progression is complex and still challenges researchers in the field. Nonetheless, newly discovered common pathways and targets of its pathogenesis have opened a new era for both prevention and active treatment of the disease. This review describes some of the known molecular mechanisms contributing to erectile dysfunction and discusses the future of gene therapy for the disease.     

Back to the future: antibody-based strategies for the treatment of infectious diseases

Before antibiotics, sera from immune animals and humans were used to treat a variety of infectious diseases, often with successful results. After the discovery of antimicrobial agents, serum therapy for bacterial infections was rapidly forsaken. In the last two decades, problems with treatment of newly emerged, reemerged, or persistent infectious diseases necessitated researchers to develop new and/or improved antibody-based therapeutic approaches. This article reviews some information on the use of antibodies for the treatment of infectious diseases, with special reference to the most seminal discoveries and current advances as well as available treatment approaches in this field.     

Antifungal activity of immunosuppressants used alone or in combination with fluconazole

Fungal infections remain a challenge to clinicians due to the limited available antifungals. With the increasing use of antifungals in clinical practice, drug resistance has been emerging continuously, especially to fluconazole (FLC). Thus, a search for new antifungals and approaches to overcome antifungal resistance is needed. However, the development of new antifungals is usually costly and time consuming; discovering the antifungal activity of non-antifungal agents is one way to address these problems. Interestingly, some researchers have demonstrated that several classes of immunosuppressants (calcineurin inhibitors, glucocorticoids, etc) also displayed potent antifungal activity when used alone or in combination with antifungals, especially with FLC. Some of them could increase FLC's susceptibility against resistant Candida albicans significantly reversing fungal resistance to FLC. This article reviews the antifungal activities of immunosuppressants used alone or in combination with antifungals and their potential antifungal mechanisms that have been discovered so far. Although immunosuppressive agents have been identified as risk factors for fungal infection, we believe these findings are very important for overcoming drug resistance and developing new antifungals.     

根除细菌生物被膜的新视角：分散

细菌生物被膜(biofilm,BF)是细菌为对抗外界压力形成的一种自我保护结构,对于抗菌药物具有极高的耐受性,在临床上极易引发难治性慢性感染。BF分散是指在BF形成周期中,膜内细胞主动逸出,恢复浮游生长模式,寻找新定植位点的过程。由于细菌在浮游状态下,更易受到抗菌药与免疫反应的作用,诱导BF分散是控制BF相关感染(biofilm-associated infections, BAI)的一条富有前景的策略。本文从BF分散的方式和信号分子等角度,对BF分散的调控机制进行分析;归纳能影响BF分散的物质,并对BF分散后可能带来的危害及未来的研究思路进行简述,以期为研发新型分散剂和深入研究药物作用的靶点提供理论参考。     

Peptide neuroregulators: the opioid system as a model

Aaron Lerner's work provides a stunning set of examples of substances that help to transmit information in the brain and body. His characterization of alpha-MSH and melatonin and his sparking of interest in the further discovery of previously unknown substances have been of inestimable value for the field of neurobiology. Efforts such as those that Lerner undertook so successfully in the field of investigative dermatology now constitute a major research thrust in the field of behavioral neurochemistry and are directly related to advances in psychiatry and neurology. This review considers aspects of research on the neuropeptides, with particular attention to the endogenous opioid (morphine-like) peptides that are active on neural tissue. Neuropeptide research can be categorized broadly as efforts to discover and characterize new families and classes of active agents, investigations of their genetic and molecular processing, and studies of their relationships to behavior in animals and human beings. This review selectively considers some key research questions and strategies that arise from such research.     

Biomedical ontologies: a functional perspective

The information explosion in biology makes it difficult for researchers to stay abreast of current biomedical knowledge and to make sense of the massive amounts of online information. Ontologies--specifications of the entities, their attributes and relationships among the entities in a domain of discourse--are increasingly enabling biomedical researchers to accomplish these tasks. In fact, bio-ontologies are beginning to proliferate in step with accruing biological data. The myriad of ontologies being created enables researchers not only to solve some of the problems in handling the data explosion but also introduces new challenges. One of the key difficulties in realizing the full potential of ontologies in biomedical research is the isolation of various communities involved: some workers spend their career developing ontologies and ontology-related tools, while few researchers (biologists and physicians) know how ontologies can accelerate their research. The objective of this review is to give an overview of biomedical ontology in practical terms by providing a functional perspective--describing how bio-ontologies can and are being used. As biomedical scientists begin to recognize the many different ways ontologies enable biomedical research, they will drive the emergence of new computer applications that will help them exploit the wealth of research data now at their fingertips.     

Glycoprotein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum

Our understanding of eukaryotic protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum has increased enormously over the last 5 years. In this review, we summarize some of the major research themes that have captivated researchers in this field during the last years of the 20th century. We follow the path of a typical protein as it emerges from the ribosome and enters the reticular environment. While many of these events are shared between different polypeptide chains, we highlight some of the numerous differences between proteins, between cell types, and between the chaperones utilized by different ER glycoproteins. Finally, we consider the likely advances in this field as the new century unfolds and we address the prospect of a unified understanding of how protein folding, degradation, and translation are coordinated within a cell.