John N. Brady (1952-2009): a Generous Spirit

John N. Brady, Chief of the Virus Tumor Biology Section of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology, National Institutes of Health, died of cancer on 27 April 2009. John was a stellar member of the virology community. He was a longtime Journal of Virology reviewer and a member of the editorial board. He will be missed. Fatah Kashanchi of the George Washington University Medical Center has written John''s memorial. Fatah worked with John at the NIH and published more than 30 papers with him. Fatah thanks all the people who contributed to John''s obituary, including Kuan-Teh Jeang, Lou Laimins, Mary Loeken, Renaud Mehieux, Paul Lambert, Graziella Piras, Scott Gitlin, Paul Lindholm, Nadia Rosenthal, Sergi Nekhai, Brian Wigdahl, David Price, Susan J. Marriott, Cynthia Masison, Jurgen Dittmer, Eric Verdin, Bassel E. Sawaya, and John''s longtime assistants Janet Duvall Grimm and Michael Radonovich, who gave immense support to all the individuals who went through John''s lab.     

Robert A. Weisberg (1937�C2011): a Bacteriophage Pioneer

With the untimely, sudden passing of Robert Weisberg on 1 September 2011, the bacteriophage community lost a shining light. Bob had a remarkable career and served his profession exceptionally well. He was an editor of the Journal of Virology (1983 to 1988) and the Journal of Bacteriology (1985 to 1995) and worked tirelessly to advance bacteriophage biology. He was my mentor when I was a Staff Fellow at the NIH in the mid-1970s. His long-time collaborator and colleague, Max Gottesman, has prepared a tribute to this stellar virologist.     

Reemergence of the bedbug Cimex lectularius in Seoul, Korea

A healthy 30-yr-old woman carrying an insect that had been caught in her living room visited the International Clinic at Severance Hospital, Seoul, in December 2007. The insect she brought was identified to be a nymph of a bedbug, Cimex lectularius, and her skin rashes looked typical bedbug''s bites. Her apartment was investigated, and a dead body of a bedbug, cast skins, and hatched eggs were found in her rooms and neighbors'' rooms in the same building. She was living in that apartment in Seoul for 9 months since she had moved from New Jersey, USA. We assume that the bedbugs were introduced from abroad, since there had been no report on bedbugs in Seoul for more than 2 decades at least. This is a report of a reemergence of the common bedbug, C. lectularius in Seoul, Korea.     

Riccardo (Rico) Wittek (1944-2008)

Riccardo (Rico) Wittek died 26 September 2008 in Switzerland. Rico was well known for his work on the molecular biology of poxviruses and for his work with the World Health Organization on biosafety that led to international guidelines for work with dangerous infectious agents. His colleagues Erwin G. Van Meir, Daniel Lavanchy, and Bernard Moss have written Rico''s memorial.Lynn W. EnquistEditor in Chief, Journal of Virology     

Raissa L. Berg's contributions to the study of phenotypic integration,with a professional biographical sketch

Raissa L. Berg had a remarkable career in many respects and an impact on the study of phenotypic integration that continues to increase over 50 years after the publication of her seminal paper in that area. She was born and lived most of her life in Russia, with most of her research focused on measuring spontaneous mutation rates in Drosophila. She was forced to abandon this work during the height of Lysenko''s power in Russia, so she turned temporarily to the study of correlation patterns in plants; ironically, this work has had a more enduring impact than her main body of research. She showed that floral and vegetative traits become decoupled into separate correlation ‘pleiades’ in plants with specialized pollinators, but floral and vegetative traits remain correlated in plants that have less specialized pollination. Unfortunately, her plant work is often mis-cited as providing evidence for increased correlations among floral traits due to selection by pollinators for functional integration, a point she never made and one that is not supported by her data. Still, many studies of correlation pleiades have been conducted in plants, with the results mostly supporting Berg''s hypothesis, although more studies on species with generalized pollination are needed.     

A case of giardiasis expressing severe systemic symptoms and marked hypereosinophilia

An 88-year-old Japanese woman was referred to our hospital due to a one-month history of face edema, aphagia, shortness of breath, and skin rush over almost her entire skin. She had no abdominal symptoms. Her peripheral blood count showed a white blood cell (WBC) count of 27.1 × 10⁹/L with 82.1% eosinophils. Serum non-specific Immunoglobulin E was within a normal range. Soluble interleukin-2 receptor was elevated to 4200 U/mL. At first, her eosinophil count was so high that we suspected she had an eosinophilic leukemia or hypereosinophilic syndrome. After admission, cysts of Giardia duodenalis (G. duodenalis) were detected in the patient's feces by microscopic analysis, then she was diagnosed with giardiasis, and 750 mg per day of metronidazole was administered for seven days. Her WBC count decreased to 6.0 × 10⁹/L with 10% eosinophils, and her systemic symptoms improved. At that time her serum IL-5 was within a normal range. A few months later, the patient again complained of skin rush, and G. duodenalis was once again found in her feces. Her serum IL-5 was elevated to 751 pg/mL. Metronidazole was administered for two weeks, and her eosinophil count decreased. G. duodenalis is a protozoan parasite, and it is one of the most common waterborne transmission gastrointestinal parasites in the world. G. duodenalis rarely causes hypereosinophilia. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of giardiasis with extreme hypereosinophilia and severe systemic symptoms.     

Self-directed EMG training for the control of pain and spasticity in paraplegia: A case study

A 25-year-old paraplegic woman was able to gain control of her debilitating leg and bladder spasms and abdominal pain using self-directed EMG biofeedback. The case is significant in that she previously had only cursory exposure to biofeedback as an undergraduate student and received only minimal support and direction from an instructor. She proceeded through daily home practice using a borrowed EMG unit and audiotapes from Lester Fehmi'sOpen Focus series. Records were kept of the frequency and intensity of her pain and spasms, as well as the frequency and procedures of her home practice. She also maintained a record of specific psychosocial events in her life, which, over time, showed a strong, consistent pattern of influence on the recurrence and severity of her symptoms. The woman's physician declared her medical progress remarkable and encouraged her biofeedback work. At 2-year follow-up, she remains virtually symptom- and medication-free. Her successful biofeedback training program provides support for the value of client-directed biofeedback in selected cases.     

Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 1. Taking an exposure history

PUBLIC CONCERN AND AWARENESS ARE GROWING about adverse health effects of exposure to environmental contaminants. Frequently patients present to their physicians with questions or concerns about exposures to such substances as lead, air pollutants and pesticides. Most primary care physicians lack training in and knowledge of the clinical recognition, management and avoidance of such exposures. We have found that it can be helpful to use the CH²OPD² mnemonic (Community, Home, Hobbies, Occupation, Personal habits, Diet and Drugs) as a tool to identify a patient''s history of exposures to potentially toxic environmental contaminants. In this article we discuss why it is important to take a patient''s environmental exposure history, when and how to take the history, and how to interpret the findings. Possible routes of exposure and common sources of potentially toxic biological, physical and chemical substances are identified. A case of sick-building syndrome is used to illustrate the use of the mnemonic.CaseA 40-year-old married bookkeeper presents with a 3-year history of headaches. She describes having “tight,” bitemporal headaches almost daily that resolve after taking three 325-mg tablets of ASA. She also complains of a “spacey” feeling, difficulty concentrating and remembering, fatigue, a stuffy nose and a full feeling in her ears. Her symptoms improve on weekends and over the holidays and seem to be worse in the winter. Over the past 2 years she has noticed that she gets a stuffy nose and headaches when exposed to perfumes, tobacco smoke and automobile exhaust. Her past medical history is remarkable only for infantile eczema. Her family history is unremarkable other than her mother having hypothyroidism. She is taking no medications other than ASA, does not smoke, reports having no allergies and says she is happily married with no major family, financial or social concerns. She enjoys her work and coworkers. On physical examination she has puffy, dark circles under her eyes, there is loss of light reflex on her left ear drum, and her nasal mucosa appears edematous and erythematous. There are multiple excoriated, erythematous papules 5 mm in diameter on her face, anterior chest and anterior lower legs.Questions surrounding this case: What is sick-building syndrome and how do patients commonly present? What causes or contributes to sick-building syndrome? What are the risk factors? How should cases be managed?     

Design rules for nanomedical engineering: from physical virology to the applications of virus-based materials in medicine

Physical virology seeks to define the principles of physics underlying viral infections, traditionally focusing on the fundamental processes governing virus assembly, maturation, and disassembly. A detailed understanding of virus structure and assembly has facilitated the development and analysis of virus-based materials for medical applications. In this Physical Virology review article, we discuss the recent developments in nanomedicine that help us to understand how physical properties affect the in vivo fate and clinical impact of (virus-based) nanoparticles. We summarize and discuss the design rules that need to be considered for the successful development and translation of virus-based nanomaterials from bench to bedside.     

Fatal diphtheria in an older woman

A previously healthy 68-year-old woman presented with fever and sore throat. Her condition was initially diagnosed as necrotizing streptococcal tonsillitis and was treated with penicillin G, given intravenously. A swab of her throat taken for culture at the time of admission yielded Corynebacterium diphtheriae 48 hours later. At that time an electrocardiogram showed new T-wave inversion — evidence of diphtheritic myocarditis. She was immediately given 60 000 units of equine diphtheria antitoxin (following a test dose), but later that day she began choking, became apneic and died. The patient had not received any immunizing agents as a child, and no antitoxin was detected in a blood sample obtained prior to administration of the antitoxin. Her death re-emphasizes the seriousness of diphtheria, an infection to which many elderly people are susceptible.     

Self-directed EMG training for the control of pain and spasticity in paraplegia: a case study

A 25-year-old paraplegic woman was able to gain control of her debilitating leg and bladder spasms and abdominal pain using self-directed EMG biofeedback. The case is significant in that she previously had only cursory exposure to biofeedback as an undergraduate student and received only minimal support and direction from an instructor. She proceeded through daily home practice using a borrowed EMG unit and audiotapes from Lester Fehmi's Open Focus series. Records were kept of the frequency and intensity of her pain and spasms, as well as the frequency and procedures of her home practice. She also maintained a record of specific psychosocial events in her life, which, over time, showed a strong, consistent pattern of influence on the recurrence and severity of her symptoms. The woman's physician declared her medical progress remarkable and encouraged her biofeedback work. At 2-year follow-up, she remains virtually symptom- and medication-free. Her successful biofeedback training program provides support for the value of client-directed biofeedback in selected cases.     

The molecular genetics of bacteriophage: the work of Norton Zinder

In 1966, Norton Zinder and Joshua Lederberg discovered that Salmonella could exchange genes via bacteriophages. They named this phenomenon “genetic transduction.” This discovery set Zinder on a lifelong journey researching bacteriophage. In the two Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) Classic papers reprinted here, Zinder and Nina Fedoroff present their findings on the phage f2 replicase.Properties of the Phage f2 Replicase. I. Optimal Conditions for Replicase Activity and Analysis of the Polynucleotide Product Synthesized in Vitro (Fedoroff, N. V., and Zinder, N. D. (1972) J. Biol. Chem. 247, 4577–4585)Properties of the Phage f2 Replicase. II. Comparative Studies on the Ribonucleic Acid-dependent and Poly(C)-dependent Activities of the Replicase (Fedoroff, N. V., and Zinder, N. D. (1972) J. Biol. Chem. 247, 4586–4592)Norton David Zinder was born in New York City in 1928. He attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science and went on to Columbia University where he received his B.A. in biology in 1947. Zinder then joined the graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying under geneticist Joshua Lederberg.Open in a separate windowNorton ZinderLederberg recently had found that Escherichia coli could mate and exchange genes (conjugation), a discovery for which he would be awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Zinder''s assignment was to continue Lederberg''s investigations using Salmonella. To do this, he needed to obtain large numbers of mutant bacteria. Rather than using the traditional method of exposing the Salmonella to mutagens and testing the survivors, Zinder decided to use a nutritionally deficient medium and penicillin (negative selection) to select for mutants (1). However, when he began investigating conjugation in Salmonella, most of his attempts at crossing the mutants failed. Fortunately, one mutant strain produced some prototrophs; but puzzlingly, Zinder''s markers did not segregate. Further experiments showed that the mutants were exchanging genes via bacteriophages (2). Lederberg and Zinder named this new phenomenon “genetic transduction.”Zinder received his M.S. in genetics in 1949 and completed his Ph.D. in medical microbiology in 1952. He then accepted a position as assistant professor at Rockefeller University (then known as Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research). By 1964 Zinder had become a full professor of genetics, and approximately 10 years later he was named John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Professor of Molecular Genetics. In 1993 Zinder was appointed dean of graduate and postgraduate studies.At Rockefeller, Zinder continued his studies of the molecular genetics of phages. He discovered the f2 phage, which was the first bacteriophage known to contain RNA as its genetic material, and demonstrated that RNA phage replication is not dependent on DNA (3).Zinder''s two Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) Classics reprinted here look at the phage f2 replicase. In the first paper, Zinder and his graduate student Nina V. Fedoroff show that the enzyme, purified on the basis of its poly(G) polymerase activity, could carry out the in vivo synthetic reactions involved in phage RNA replication. They also report that phage replicase activity is stimulated by salt and by a brief preliminary incubation at high ionic strength. The second paper, also by Zinder and Fedoroff and printed back-to-back with the first, compares the f2 poly(G) polymerase and replicase activities under a variety of conditions. They examined the effects of ionic strength, temperature, magnesium ion concentration, and template and substrate concentrations on the enzymes'' activities. Based on their results, Zinder and Fedoroff suggest a distinction between initiation and polymerization sites on the enzyme complex.Zinder remains at Rockefeller as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Emeritus Professor and continues to research bacteriophage. Currently he is using genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology to analyze the filamentous bacterial virus, f1, and its interactions with its host, Escherichia coli. His other studies relate to protein-DNA recognition, membrane anchoring, and questions of protein structure.In recognition of his many contributions to science, Zinder has received numerous honors and awards. These include the 1962 Eli Lilly Award in Microbiology and Immunology from the American Society of Microbiology, the 1966 Award in Molecular Biology from the National Academy of Sciences, the 1969 Medal of Excellence from Columbia University, and the 1982 Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Zinder became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1968 and of the National Academy of Sciences in 1969.Zinder''s coauthor on the two JBC papers also has gone on to a distinguished career in science. Fedoroff received her Ph.D. in 1972 and was a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. She joined the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University in 1995 and became the Evan Pugh Professor, Penn State''s highest academic honor, in 2002. She currently holds the Verne M. Willaman Chair of Life Sciences. In 2007, U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Fedoroff her science and technology adviser. She remains in this position today, serving U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Fedoroff is a 2006 National Medal of Science laureate and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies. Her current research focuses on the mechanisms that allow plants to withstand the environmental challenges of a changing climate.     

Women's mating strategies

What does a woman want? The traditional evolutionist's answer to Freud's famous query is that a woman's extensive investment in each of her children implies that she can maximize her fitness by restricting her sexual activity to one, or at most, a few high-quality males. Because acquiring resources for her offspring is of paramount importance, a woman will try to attract wealthy, high-status men who are willing and able to help her. She must be coy and choosy, limiting her attentions to men who are worthy of her and emphasizing her chastity so as not to threaten the paternity confidence of her mate. The lady has been getting more complicated of late, however. As Sarah Hrdy¹ predicted, we now have evidence that women, like other female primates, are also competitive, randy creatures. Women have been seen competing with their rivals using both physical aggression^2,3 and more subtle derogation of competitors.⁴ While they are still sometimes coy and chaste, women have also been described recently as sexy and sometimes promiscuous creatures, manipulating fatherhood by the timing of orgasm^5,6 and using their sexuality to garner resources from men. The real answer to Freud's query, of course, is that a woman wants it all; a man with the resources and inclination to invest, and with genes that make him attractive to other women so that her sons will inherit his success. Her strategies for attaining these somewhat conflicting aims, and her success in doing so, are shaped by her own resources and options and by conflicts of interest with men and other women.     

Zombies in TCGA

Next-generation sequencing results obtained to detect somatic mutations in human cancers can also be searched for viruses that contribute to cancer. Recently, human papillomavirus 18 RNA was detected in tumor types not typically associated with HPV infection. Analyses reported in this issue of Journal of Virology demonstrate that the apparent presence of HPV18 RNA in these atypical tumors is due in at least some cases to contamination of samples with HeLa cells, which harbor HPV18.     

Reply to dickemann

This paper is a response to Dickemann’s review ofPedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions. Her main criticism of the book is its inappropriate application of ethology to human sexology and its natural variations. She proposes instead the superiority of the “social constructionist” perspective. The “Phylogenetic Fallacy” of which her review speaks results from her erroneously having attributed ethological arguments about the phylogeny of coordinated motor patterns and sensory releasing stimuli to higher levels of behavioral-ecological strategies to which such arguments were never applied. Because no convincingly adaptive function of human pedophilia could be found at this higher level, as a working hypothesis, variant erotic age and gender orientations were both tentatively conceptualized as by-products of Darwinian natural selection for heterosexual “adultophilia.” The social and political implications of this perspective, when compared to social constructionism, are discussed.     

Book Review Essay: Mary Angela Uwalaka. Ọfọ: Its Juridical and Linguistic Potency. Ibadan, Afrika-Link Books, 1996. 69 pages

Rev. Mother (Dr.) Mary Angela Uwalaka was a distinguished and devoted religious woman linguist. Her major area of research was Igbo syntax, where she made tremendous contributions, through published texts and scholarly articles towards the development of a unified Igbo language and the field of Linguistics. As a renowned scholar, her research interest was not limited to Linguistics only. In the words of Prof. Ben Elugbe, her colleague at the University of Ibadan where Mother Uwalaka worked until her demise in January 7 2007, she also “found time and ability to work and publish in the areas of religion and Igbo culture.” Ọfọ: Its Juridical and Linguistic Potency, which we shall review here, is an evidence that Uwalaka’s interests extended to other areas of Igbo studies, apart from the Igbo language.     

A conversation with Mariana Wolfner,newly inducted member of the National Academy of Sciences

Molecular Reproduction and Development is delighted to announce that editorial board member Mariana F. Wolfner has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Here, Dr Wolfner is interviewed by two of her former postdocs. She discusses her path to studying reproduction and her career as a researcher and mentor.     

Succeeding in Science Despite the Odds; Studying Metabolism with NMR by Mildred Cohn

A Study of Oxidative Phosphorylation with O¹⁸-labeled Inorganic Phosphate(Cohn, M. (1953) J. Biol. Chem. 201, 735–750)Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra of Adenosine Di- and Triphosphate. II. Effect of Complexing with Divalent Metal Ions(Cohn, M., and Hughes, T. R. (1962) J. Biol. Chem. 237, 176–181)Mildred Cohn was born in New York City in 1913. When she was young, her father told her she could achieve anything she chose to, but not without some difficulty because she was both female and Jewish. With her parents'' encouragement, Cohn moved rapidly through the New York public school system and graduated from high school at age 14. She decided to go to Hunter College in Manhattan, then an all-girls college, and majored in chemistry and minored in physics. Hunter''s attitude toward science education at that time can be summed up by the chairman of the chemistry department who declared that it was not ladylike for women to be chemists and that his sole purpose was to prepare his students to become chemistry teachers.When Cohn graduated from Hunter College in 1931 she tried to get a scholarship for graduate studies in chemistry but was unsuccessful. She enrolled in Columbia University nonetheless and used her savings to pay for her education. At Columbia, she studied under Nobel laureate Harold Urey but had to drop out after a year because of lack of money. She then took a job with the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics and after a few years was able to earn enough money to return to Columbia. Working with Urey, she studied ways of separating different isotopes of carbon and received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1937.Unfortunately, jobs were scarce in 1938, during the years of the Great Depression, and academic positions for women were even more scarce. Industrial recruiters regularly posted notices announcing that, “Mr. X of Y Company will interview prospective doctorate recipients—Male, Christian”(1).¹ With Urey''s help, Cohn was able to obtain a postdoctoral position at George Washington University with future Nobel prize winner Vincent du Vigneaud. In du Vigneaud''s laboratory, Cohn pioneered the effort to use isotopic tracers to follow the metabolism of sulfur-containing compounds, the subject of a previous Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) Classic (2). Cohn worked with du Vigneaud for 9 years and moved with him to New York when he went to Cornell Medical College.In 1946, Cohn went to Washington University in St. Louis to work with Carl and Gerty Cori, Nobel prize laureates and authors of a previous JBC Classic (3), who were studying biological catalysts. There, she did independent research, mainly focusing on using isotopes and NMR to study metabolic processes. Cohn was promoted to Associate Professor in Biochemistry in 1958 but left Washington University 2 years later to move to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She became a full Professor in 1961 and retired as Benjamin Rush Professor Emerita of Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1982.Once, when asked what her most exciting scientific moments were (4), Cohn replied, “In 1958, using nuclear magnetic resonance, I saw the first three peaks of ATP (5). That was exciting. [I could] distinguish the three phosphorus atoms of ATP with a spectroscopic method, which had never been done before. Another paper, in 1962 (the second JBC Classic reprinted here), was about the effect of metal ions on the phosphorus spectrum of ATP. And earlier, I found that oxygen in inorganic phosphate exchanged with water through oxidative phosphorylation (the first JBC Classic reprinted here).”Cohn''s study of oxidative phosphorylation came at a time when it was known that phosphorylation occurred concomitantly with oxidation in the electron transport chain. However, no one had yet discovered the nature of the interaction of the electron transport system with phosphate or any part of the phosphorylating system. Cohn approached this problem by tracking the loss of O¹⁸ from inorganic phosphate during oxidative phosphorylation in rat liver mitochondria. In the first JBC Classic reprinted here, she describes her findings as, “a new reaction which occurs in oxidative phosphorylation associated with the electron transport system has been observed in the rat liver mitochondria with α-ketoglutarate, â-hydroxybutyrate, and succinate as substrates. This reaction manifests itself by a replacement of O¹⁸ with normal O¹⁶ in inorganic phosphate labeled with O¹⁸ and parallels the phosphorylation which is associated with the oxidation.” Cohn concluded that water must be involved in this reaction because there was no other source of oxygen large enough to account for the amounts she saw introduced into inorganic phosphate. In the second JBC Classic Cohn describes her use of NMR to examine the structural changes in ADP and ATP caused by various divalent metal ions. Cohn knew that divalent ions were involved in enzymatic reactions of ADP and ATP but didn''t know their functions. Using NMR, she measured the changes in the chemical shifts in the peaks of the ATP and ADP phosphorus nuclei in the presence of Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Zn²⁺ as well as the paramagnetic ions Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, and Co²⁺. By analyzing the resultant spectra, she was able to determine which metals bound to which phosphate groups and thus gained insight into the nature of the metal complexes formed.Cohn received many awards and honors for her contributions to science, including the National Medal of Science in 1982, “for pioneering the use of stable isotopic tracers and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the study of the mechanisms of enzymatic catalysis,” as well as election to the National Academies of Science in 1971. She also served the American Society of Biological Chemists (ASBC), now American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), in many ways. She was President of the Society in 1978 and was on the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Board from 1978 to 1980 as ASBC representative. In addition, Cohn was the first woman to be appointed to the JBC Editorial Board.Despite her success, Cohn''s father was right about the difficulties she would encounter in her life. “My career has been affected at every stage by the fact that I am a woman, beginning with my undergraduate education, which was very inferior in chemistry, and physics was not even offered [as a major] at Hunter College, unlike the excellent science education that my male counterparts received at City College,” she notes. “In my day, I experienced discrimination in academia, government, and industry.”     

News and views from the 8th annual meeting of the Italian Society of Virology

The 8th annual meeting of the Italian Society of Virology (SIV) took place in Orvieto, Italy from the 21st to the 23rd of September 2008. The meeting covered different areas of Virology and the scientific sessions focused on: general virology and viral genetics; viral oncology, virus–host interaction and pathogenesis; emerging viruses and zoonotic, foodborne and environmental pathways of transmission; viral immunology and vaccines; viral biotechnologies and gene therapy; medical virology and antiviral therapy. The meeting had an attendance of about 160 virologists from all Italy. In this edition, a satellite workshop on “Viral biotechnologies” was organized in order to promote the role of virologists in the biotechnological research and teaching fields. A summary of the plenary lectures and oral selected presentations is reported. J. Cell. Physiol. 219: 797–799, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Anne Barnard,her life and contribution to Curtis's Botanical Magazine

Anne Barnard (23 June 1833–19 January 1899), née Henslow, made around 125 illustrations for Curtis's Botanical Magazine, during the editorship of J.D. Hooker. Her life and botanical works are reviewed here, and examples of her original paintings are given.