Twelve years in the life of Reggie Bragg, who was infected with HIV at birth. The story continues with “Like everyone else.”   [read more]

Two of the nation’s most prominent Nobel laureates—David Baltimore and Harold Varmus—iscuss recent scientific advances, including the potential to “engineer” the immune system to prevent viral infections, as well as the changing roles of government and the private sector in advancing the research enterprise, and the need to improve the public’s “science literacy.”   [read more]

Step 1:
The viral envelope protein, gp120, which is highly coated in sugars, docks to the CD4 receptor and a co-receptor on the surface of the T cell. This causes the envelope protein to change shape, allowing a previously hidden part of it, gp41, to “spring open” and seize the cell membrane like a grappling hook.   [read more]

Another way to study ADHD is by taking “pictures” of the brain. Using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, scientists can determine which parts of the brain are “activated” when performing a task that measures attention or learning.   [read more]

For more than 20 years, Anthony Fauci, M.D., has been leading much of the government's fight against AIDS. Although he qualifies for Medicare, this intellectually tough physician-scientist isn't ready to retire. There's too much to do -- help find an AIDS vaccine, build defenses against a potential bioterrorist attack, and prepare for the next big emerging infection.   [read more]

During the past 20 years, Raymond L. Woosley, M.D., Ph.D., has contributed to current understanding of anti-arrhythmic drugs, helped discover the antihistamine Allegra and promoted post-marketing drug surveillance.   [read more]

The withdrawal of the blockbuster painkillers Vioxx and Bextra from the market illustrates the difficulty in predicting uncommon but serious side effects. Science may help solve this problem through the development of biomarkers, new imaging techniques and pharmacogenetics—understanding how genetic differences affect drug response. For cancer patients, this knowledge is being translated into more effective therapies.   [read more]

Tumors are not islands unto themselves. They can “hijack” normal cellular processes, including inflammation, to hide from the body’s immune system. They can “re-educate” inflammatory cells to release factors that promote tumor growth and spread. The ability to peer into this malevolent microenvironment is giving researchers new ideas for stopping tumors in their tracks.   [read more]

Sir Ravinder Maini, who helped discover a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs, discusses the limitations of clinical trials, the importance of post-marketing surveillance and the value of university-industry partnerships.   [read more]

Two of the nation's leading experts in neuropsychopharmacology—Drs. Joseph T. Coyle of Harvard Medical School and Edward M. Scolnick of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard—discuss the development of new medications to treat disorders of brain function. A major step forward has been the identification of "risk genes" that—in combination—may disturb normal brain development.   [read more]

The term “protein” goes back to 1838, when Swedish chemist Jöns Berzelius coined it from the Greek proteios (primary) to emphasize the importance of this group of molecules as the primary building blocks of life.   [read more]

The search for patterns of proteins in blood and tissue one day may help doctors diagnose diseases like cancer earlier and more accurately than ever before. These “molecular fingerprints” also may lead to new, more effective medicines and the ability to tailor treatments to individual patients. The ultimate aim: a more thorough understanding of disease and how to prevent it.   [read more]

The field of proteomics is burgeoning, thanks in large part to a generous flow of research funding – both public and private. But some observers wonder whether faster progress could be achieved with a concerted government effort – a “big science” program like the Human Genome Project (see “The Future of Proteomics”).   [read more]

The term “proteome” was coined by Australian researchers in the mid-1990s to describe all the PROTEins expressed by the genOME, the complete set of genetic material necessary for life. Proteomics, then, is the study of the expression, function and interaction of proteins in health and disease.   [read more]

To assess your risk for type 2 diabetes, check each item that applies to you:   [read more]

Diabetes is a disease characterized by high levels of glucose in the blood. It results from defects in the action or secretion of insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that promotes glucose uptake by the tissues, where it is used for energy.   [read more]

His father’s suicide nearly half a century ago continues to motivate Randy Blakely, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Center for Molecular Neuroscience, to search for clues to the development of depression and other serious brain disorders. The hope is that increased awareness, and improvements in diagnosis and treatment, may prevent events that can literally blow families apart.   [read more]

Oscar Crofford set out to bring scientific rigor to the care of patients with diabetes. Along the way, the persistent, determined Vanderbilt professor helped put diabetes on the federal government's agenda, and directed a landmark clinical trial that established the value of aggressive blood glucose control to reduce the risk of complications from the disease.   [read more]

Allen Spiegel, M.D., is an internationally recognized endocrinologist whose research has helped define the genetic basis of several endocrine diseases. A former director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Spiegel currently is dean of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.   [read more]

A major reason is the high attrition rate of promising compounds that never make it through the drug-development “pipeline” and its daunting succession of assays, studies and clinical trials.   [read more]

A driving force behind the sequencing of the human genome, Eric Lander is now tackling the “cancer genome.” More than that, this mathematical wunderkind wants to empower the next generation of scientists with new tools and information so they can “change the world.”   [read more]

The crab on the cover of this issue of Lens magazine represents all that is old and new about cancer, the nation’s second leading cause of death after heart disease.   [read more]

Can the sequence of the human genome be used to find genes that cause cancer?   [read more]

In 2006, Lens magazine asked four leading scientists about the ethics of genomics research. Should we direct our own evolution? Are there places we shouldn’t go?   [read more]

Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center illustrates how the study of a relatively rare condition, euphemistically called “soldier’s heart,” can help advance an entire field.   [read more]

While the federal government funds the lion’s share of biomedical research in the United States, there is concern that a predilection for “big science” projects may actually weaken rather than strengthen the potential for discovery.   [read more]

There are ominous signs that all is not well in the nation’s biomedical research enterprise.
Thanks to five years of flat budgets at the National Institutes of Health, which supports the bulk of basic biomedical research in the United States, young scientists increasingly are leaving university research labs or are leaving science altogether.    [read more]

Step 1: To trick the mosquito’s “nose,” scientists first have to find out how the insect “smells,” in order to understand how it identifies its prey. They do this by scanning the mosquito genome for genes that encode odorant receptors, proteins found primarily in sensory hairs, called sensilla, on the mosquito's antennae. Some of these receptors bind specifically to chemicals found in human sweat. At least one receptor gene is expressed only in the antennae of the female mosquito. Only female mosquitoes bite humans, and the expression of this gene rises when they are “hungry” for a human blood meal.   [read more]

In the not-too-distant future, cells taken from patients with diabetes will be “re-programmed” in the laboratory to create new insulin-producing beta cells that potentially can cure their disease. It sounds like science fiction, but researchers are quickly learning the genetic keys to this developmental path.   [read more]

Vanderbilt University is developing a new international strategy to enhance the exchange of people and ideas, the quality of the student learning experience and the pursuit of cutting-edge research.   [read more]

Emboldened by her groundbreaking imaging studies, Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is determined to transform the way addicts are treated by the medical profession and the criminal justice system. While she sees this as part of her duty as a physician, Volkow also acknowledges the world-changing legacy of her great-grandfather, Leon Trotsky.   [read more]

Grace to James Hildreth, Ph.D., M.D., is more than a manner of living -- it is an obligation. By emulating the grace he observed in his mother and in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Hildreth emerged from a childhood of poverty and despair to become a prominent AIDS researcher, dedicated to serving the underserved.   [read more]

The dopamine system evolved as a way to help ensure the survival of the species. Surges of dopamine accompany the consumption of food, the sexual act and the drive to be part of a group. Yet dopamine is more than a chemical of pleasure and reward. It is a messenger of salience.   [read more]

Just as imaging technologies are guiding and, in some cases, replacing the scalpel, they are revolutionizing the evaluation of new cancer drugs.   [read more]

Haitian AIDS researcher Jean William Pape, M.D., and David Holtgrave, Ph.D., an expert on HIV prevention programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, share their views about what it takes to conduct AIDS research in resource-poor countries, and what the United States can learn from these experiences.   [read more]

Like any ambitious endeavor, the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative has its share of skeptics.   [read more]

Jeffrey Sachs, Ph.D., former director of the U.N. Millennium Project to end hunger, poverty and disease, calls them “a weapon of mass salvation.”   [read more]

Beyond the reach of power lines and paved roads, researchers armed with nothing more exotic than cell phones and laptop computers are plugging into worldwide efforts to conquer ancient and modern plagues, and to prepare for those to come.   [read more]

The Latin American AIDS database network is called CCASAnet, an acronym recognizing its Caribbean, Central and South American partners. An estimated 2.1 million people were living with HIV and AIDS in this region in 2003—nearly 6 percent of infected people worldwide.   [read more]