The New York Times, August 30, 2005

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The common ancestor of humans and the rhesus macaque monkey lived about 25 million years ago. But despite that vast gulf of time, our chromosomes still retain plenty of evidence of our shared heritage.

A team of scientists at the National Cancer Institute recently documented this evidence by constructing a map of the rhesus macaque’s DNA, noting the location of 802 genetic markers in its genome. Then they compared the macaque map to a corresponding map of the human genome. The order of thousands of genes was the same.

“About half of the chromosomes are pretty much intact,” said William Murphy, a member of the team, now at Texas A&M University.

Continue reading “The History of Chromosomes May Shape the Future of Diseases” →

The New York Times, August 18, 2005

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Michael Ellison has a dream: to reconstruct a living thing inside a computer, down to every last molecule. It is, he said, “the ultimate goal in biology, to be able to do this.”

It’s a dream that Ellison, a biologist at the University of Alberta, shares with other scientists, who have imagined such an achievement for decades.

Understanding how all of the parts of an organism work together would lift biology to a new level, they argue. Biologists would be able to understand life as deeply as engineers understand the bridges and airplanes that they build.

Continue reading “Developing a model for life, starting with E. coli” →

The New York Times, August 16, 2005

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Michael Ellison has a dream: to reconstruct a living thing inside a computer, down to every last molecule. It is, he said, “the ultimate goal in biology to be able to do this.”

It’s a dream that Dr. Ellison, a biologist at the University of Alberta, shares with other scientists, who have imagined such an achievement for decades.

Understanding how all of the parts of an organism work together would lift biology to a new level, they argue. Biologists would be able to understand life as deeply as engineers understand the bridges and airplanes that they build.

Continue reading “Building a Virtual Microbe, Gene by Gene by Gene” →

The New York Times, August 11, 2005

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Malaria is a devastating disease, striking an estimated 300 million to 500 million people a year and killing more than a million of them.

Scientists have long wondered how the parasite that causes malaria manages to be so successful.

New research has shown an unexpected source of its success. The parasite – a single-cell creature, plasmodium, carried by mosquitoes – makes infected humans smell more attractive to mosquitoes.

Continue reading “New explanations for malaria’s reach” →

The New York Times, August 9, 2005

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I recently spent a few days recovering from having my appendix removed. As I padded around my house in my pajamas, I pondered that dear departed bit of my gut.

I only became aware of my appendix when it flared with infection. Soon I was lying in an ambulance, with a paramedic poking at my abdomen. “Oh yeah,” he said, and went back to filling out paperwork.

Continue reading “The Riddle of the Appendix” →