G G Petsko

..The Nobel process for science are often somewhat controversial for who they omit. A posthumous Nobel honor could help recognize some neglected heroes...

..We can, and should, use the financial resources of our institutions to redress the serious inequities and problems that bright, ambitious women face in the scientific workplace...

..A business-science hybrid model for medical research that focuses on collaboration rather than competition seems worth exploring...

..Most of us have had so many bad experiences with service personnel over the years that we harbor the illusion that doing things for ourselves is faster and better...

..The $60 million a year in public money that is being spent on the Protein Structure Initiative is enough to fund approximately 100-200 individual investigator-initiated research grants...

..A look into the future of a biologist: daily activities governed by presidential mandates and acts...

..But there is no way we can ever assess all of the likely consequences...

..In many respects, the most intriguing part of the mouse genome sequence is what it has told us about so-called 'junk' DNA sequences...

..I believed that genomics was like a tsunami: a force that, when it crested, would change everything...

..As 2002 draws to a close, I find myself contemplating the future of biology with hope, but also with uncertainty and some apprehension. When I find myself in such a spiritual quandary, I usually turn to a guru...

..Recent advances in biology and medicine, from the sequence of the human genome to the cloning of mammals have made many lay people profoundly uneasy about the future of humanity...

..Science is essential to the economic future and national security. The next US President needs to understand the importance of science, communicate that to the public, and use scientific information properly...

..Statistics is the one branch of mathematics that everybody should be able to grasp--and all biologists should be required to do so...

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..The problem with reaching 'senior faculty' status is the feeling that you have nothing much to contribute except experience, but the recently announced Neanderthal Genome Project might put things into perspective...

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..In popular-culture, 'jumping the shark' refers to an abandoning of core values in an attempt to appeal to dwindling audiences, a metaphor that might be reasonably be applied to some areas of genomics-based research...

..All too often the first report is sketchy, superficial in its analysis, and prone to error. The second report is often more thoughtful, more useful, and is essential to the scientific process of validation and self-correction...

..Lessons in personal genome analysis, social networking or health information?..

..We need to familiarize ourselves with the facts of evolution, so that we can mount a spirited defense against creationism and the forces of ignorance...

..It doesn't serve science well to drift towards a Manichaean view by calling religion 'nonsense'. People of faith may be the natural allies of biologists when it comes to matters of conservation and climate protection...

..Objections to dividing biomedical research into 'translational' and 'basic' are not just a matter of semantics...

..It becomes imperative that our doctors bring to the practice of medicine a true scientific perspective; it may be just as important that those of us doing biomedical research try to learn more of what doctors know...

..Before too long a smaller number of young people will be having to support a larger number of the very old, a typical and unsustainable Ponzi scheme...

..Most principal scientific organisations in Western countries have similar ideas about the importance of independence but the independence of American science is being eroded...

..The genome sequence of the giant panda using next- generation sequencing marks a watershed in genome sequencing - in more ways than one...

..Our bright young biologists should start thinking now about the ethical issues of what we can do and will be able to do in the future...

..The army of the men of death, in John Bunyan's memorable phrase, has a new recruit, and fear has a new face: a face wearing a surgical mask...

..For a quarter of a century in genetics if you said Ira the chances were you meant Ira Herskowitz. When he died, on April 28 this year, it left a hole in the fields of genetics and genomics the size of the Grand Canyon...

..If the fiftieth anniversary of the double helix teaches us anything it ought to be that great scientific discoveries are almost never made in time of war or directly for the purpose of war...

..Why, after less than two centuries of almost incomprehensible technological progress has progress in so many areas seemed to slow almost to a halt...

..of biological research are likely, it is to our advantage to preempt government action by devising for ourselves restrictions that we can live with, then the inevitable question becomes: how should these restrictions be administered?..

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..The draft sequence of the genome of the Japanese pufferfish has just been announced and the temptation to humor is great...

..Of the two components of the word genome, 'ome' is the more interesting...

..Any scientist will think twice before reporting any discrepancy or possible theft of biohazardous material to either his or her institution or to the government...

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..If we want to know for sure whether there was, or still is, life on Mars, we have to send people there...

..Our ability to sustain some of the outward signs of life has rendered obsolete the legal system's definition of what it means to be alive...

..About ten years ago, a group of scientists began to argue that it was unfair to ask other scientists to pay to read the results of research that had been publicly funded...

..If an idea or result can't be conveyed in plain language, how important can it really be?..

..The hope for those afflicted with Parkinson's is embryonic stem cell therapy, which depends on research that the Bush administration is doing its best to strangle...

..Brilliant, acerbic, not given to suffer much of anybody gladly, let alone fools, Francis Crick had enormous influence that was due to his style and high scientific standards...

..With 151 billion dollars, all world-wide AIDS programs could be fully funded for the next 12 years...

..Anyone who cares about the moral and social implications of genomics, genetic engineering and biotechnology should read Michael J. Sandel's article, 'The Case Against Perfection', in the April 2004 issue of The Atlantic Monthly...

..Repressingly, a robot scientist can generate functional genomic hypothesis and carry out experiments, increasing the working scientist's feelings of redundancy...

..It is important to formulate a set of topics--and a Medical College Admissions Test reflecting them--that would leave chemistry departments no choice but to change their teaching...

..Because most basic chemistry students are premedical students, medical schools have enormous influence and could help us start all over again to create undergraduate chemistry education that works...

..It used to be that one's generation could be defined simply by the war one fought in. Since the middle of the last century, equally defining are the diets that each generation has been swept up in...

..The dog genome sequence represents a landmark in the genomics era for a number of reasons...

..Every mutant will also be examined crystallographically, in complex with the actual substrate glucose...

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..IMPDH catalyzes the rate-determining step in GMT biosynthesis and is a target for immunosuppressive, anticancer, antiviral and antimicrobial drugs. ..

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..Finally, mutations will be made at several other positions where the crystallographic results and sequence conservation imply a possible role in either active site architecture or catalysis: Ser 96, Cys 126, Glu 97, and Asn 10...

..Other members of this family include the regulator for alginate production by Pseudomonas in cystic fibrosis. The remaining four projects aim to determine the structures and mechanism of four enzymes, including alanine racemase...

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