Several chapters from this book are freely available in PDF. Here are the titles:

* Building a Multiuser Sequence Analysis Facility Using Freeware
* Flexible Sequence Similarity Searching with the FASTA3 Program Package
* Annonating Sequence Data Using Genotator
* Computer Resources for the Clinical and Molecular Geneticist
* Computing with DNA
* Design and Implementation of an Introductory Course for Computer Applications in Molecular Biology and Genetics

Bioinformatics Methods and Protocols | Humana Press

According to the new director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, biology will soon bring us materials like nothing we've seen. She says: "Biology is just exploding out there. We're actually reaching a level where you find yourself imagining questions that a year ago you couldn't even formulate."

Biomaterial World | MIT Technology Review on Bio Futures

A paper, by US researchers from U. Missouri, Immerge BioTheraputics and Korean researchers, appearing in the 08 Feb 2002 issue of _Science_.

Title: Production of ... Knockout Pigs by Nuclear Transfer Cloning

Summary: Shortages in human organs for transplantation has led to consideration of other species as possible donors. The ability to use pig organs has been hampered by the presence of galactose a-1,3-galactose residues on the surface of pig cells, which result in their rejection by primate recipients, who lack the enzyme that creates this linkage. Lai et al. (p. 1089) knocked out one allele of the a-1,3-galactosyltransferase in fetal fibroblasts in vitro and then used these cells to clone transgenic pigs by nuclear transfer. The next step will be the creation of a homozygous pig that completely lacks these residues. In addition to their eventual impact in the field of xenotransplantation, these pigs serve as models for genetic modifications of the porcine genome for other medical and agricultural purposes.

Overcoming Rejection | _Science_

"SPECIAL FOCUS AREA: ENGINEERED TISSUE CONSTRUCTS (ETC). The Defense Sciences Office is interested in innovative proposals to develop the technologies and science for supporting efforts leading to the creation of a three-dimensional ex vivo human immune system. This system will be used for testing new vaccine constructs and immunomodulators that provide superior protection against threat agents. The ETC program seeks to develop reliable methodologies that will accelerate the science and technology base necessary to achieve 3-D tissue engineering and to define the spatial and temporal requirements necessary to expand its applicability. This program intends to encourage multi-disciplinary teams, bringing together a combination of science and engineering communities to achieve its goals. The ability to fabricate functional 3-D ex vivo tissue constructs is limited by current methodologies and materials in 3-D printing, culture methods, bioscaffolding, stem cell biology, and the controlled differentiation of cells. ETC is a two-phase program addressing these limitations. Phase 1 will establish proof-of-concept that human stem cells can be reliably differentiated into multiple immune functions within an in vitro 3-D culture system. ... Phase 2 will focus on continuation of Phase 1 technologies and on producing interactive engineered tissue constructs of the functional elements of the immune system required for both cellular and humeral responses and its appropriate validation."

Engineered Tissue Constructs (ETC) | DARPA

This 432-page book is due out in March 2002.

Description: "Supramolecular chemistry is the outburst topic of the next generation of science. While the majority of biomedical research efforts to date have centered on utilizing well-known polymeric materials, the recent progress in supramolecular chemistry has introduced a fascinating new field of macromolecular architecture.

Supramolecular Design for Biological Applications focuses on modulating, altering, and mimicking biological functions with a new family of molecular assemblies. The authors provide innovative ideas and concepts for developing novel biomaterials that could be applied in diagnosis, drug carrier operations, and environmental protection. This reference is comprehensive, providing readers with principles, applications, recent advances, and future direction. Each chapter includes clear and informative illustrations of molecular architectures. The writing is scientific but allows for easy comprehension of the differences in molecular interactions, dimensions, and supramolecular architecture.

Supramolecular Design for Biological Applications will advance the understanding of supramolecular-structured biomaterials and associated issues regarding biological functions. By explaining recent trends and molecular interactions, this book will enable you to initiate new research for nano-scale science and technology in the 21st century."

_Supramolecular Design for Biological Applications_ | CRC Press

This report from scientists from the Santa Fe Institute and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study will soon appear in PNAS.

Genetic mutations that lead to undetectable or minimal changes in phenotypes are said to reveal redundant functions. Redundancy is common among phenotypes of higher organisms that experience low mutation rates and small population sizes. Redundancy is less common among organisms with high mutation rates and large populations, or among the rapidly dividing cells of multicellular organisms. In these cases, one even observes the opposite tendency: a hypersensitivity to mutation, which we refer to as antiredundancy. In this paper we analyze the evolutionary dynamics of redundancy and antiredundancy. Assuming a cost of redundancy, we find that large populations will evolve antiredundant mechanisms for removing mutants and thereby bolster the robustness of wild-type genomes; whereas small populations will evolve redundancy to ensure that all individuals have a high chance of survival. We propose that antiredundancy is as important for developmental robustness as redundancy, and is an essential mechanism for ensuring tissue-level stability in complex multicellular organisms. We suggest that antiredundancy deserves greater attention in relation to cancer, mitochondrial disease, and virus infection.

Redundancy, antiredundancy, and the robustness of genomes

A team including scientists from the Santa Fe Institute writes in the Jan 22 issue of PNAS:

Evolutionary processes generating biodiversity and ecological mechanisms maintaining biodiversity seem to be diverse themselves. Conventional explanations of biodiversity such as niche differentiation, density-dependent predation pressure, or habitat heterogeneity seem satisfactory to explain diversity in communities of macrobial organisms such as higher plants and animals. For a long time the often high diversity among microscopic organisms in seemingly uniform environments, the famous "paradox of the plankton," has been difficult to understand. The biodiversity in bacterial communities has been shown to be sometimes orders of magnitudes higher than the diversity of known macrobial systems. Based on a spatially explicit game theoretical model with multiply cyclic dominance structures, we suggest that antibiotic interactions within microbial communities may be very effective in maintaining diversity.

Chemical warfare between microbes promotes biodiversity

Biophysics researchers at NYU write in the Jan 22 issue of PNAS:

RING domains act in a variety of essential cellular processes but have no general function ascribed to them. Here, we observe that purified arenaviral protein Z, constituted almost entirely by its RING domain, self-assembles in vitro into spherical structures that resemble functional bodies formed by Z in infected cells. By using a variety of biophysical methods we provide a thermodynamic and kinetic framework for the RING-dependent self-assembly of Z. Assembly appears coupled to substantial conformational reorganization and changes in zinc coordination of site II of the RING. Thus, the rate-limiting nature of conformational reorganization observed in the folding of monomeric proteins can also apply to the assembly of macromolecular scaffolds. These studies describe a unique mechanism of nonfibrillar homogeneous self-assembly and suggest a general function of RINGs in the formation of macromolecular scaffolds that are positioned to integrate biochemical processes in cells.

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Self-assembly properties of a model RING domain | PNAS

Robert Frietas, a researcher at Zyvex and a former fellow of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, writes in most recent issue of _Pathways_ magazine:

In just a few decades physicians could be sending tiny machines into our bodies to diagnose and cure disease. These nanodevices will be able to repair tissues, clean blood vessels and airways, transform our physiological capabilities, and even potentially counteract the aging process.

Nanomedicine: Robots in the bloodstream

"Biomedical science faces two critical questions in the 21st century. ... How do we ensure that our enormous investment in biomedical research makes a difference for the safety as well as for the health of ordinary people? ... In this new world, it is clear that science must follow new directions. ... The events of the past few months have dramatically illustrated that our strongest defense against bioterrorism of any kind must be at the local level.
... [T]he other, older question: How do we apply science to health? ... We also need to ask: Who will translate the research results into diagnostic tools and lifesaving treatments? ... Whether the battle is against cancer or bioterrorism, there are doors for which we have not yet found the keys. We must open those doors carefully, never letting our science get ahead of our ethics. ... [I]f citizens are educated about where we are going in genetic research, about the way anthrax and smallpox work, and about the promise of stem cells, they will make better decisions for their families, their communities, and their nation."

Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami, is a former US Secretary of Health and Human Services.

New Directions for Biomedical Science | Donna Shalala in Science