Laureates in the News
Dr. Frank Dixon, an immunologist who pioneered the use of radiolabeling in molecular biology, who was among the first to explain how autoimmune diseases worked and who founded the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, died Friday at his home in the San Diego community of La Jolla Shores.
Genetics pioneer honored
Dr. Victor A. McKusick, a Johns Hopkins professor widely considered the father of medical genetics, has been awarded the prestigious Japan Prize in Medical Genetics and Genomics and the $470,000 that goes with it.
The Feud
What may be medicine's most famous feud — and certainly one of its longest-lived — has apparently ended. It involved two of the world's greatest heart surgeons, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey and Dr. Denton A. Cooley.
Seymour Benzer, Geneticist, Is Dead at 86
Seymour Benzer, a geneticist who made scientific history by discovering that genes were structured like words and who went on to do pioneering work on the ties between genes and behavior, memory and longevity, died on Nov. 30 in Pasadena, California. He was 86.
Mario Capecchi wins Nobel Prize
The 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to a trio of scientists who modify genes in mice. One of the recipients, Mario Capecchi, professor of biology and human genetics at the University of Utah, discusses his award-winning work.
Harold Varmus on How to Change the Culture of Publishing in Biomedicine
"In the ongoing debate about open-access publishing, one issue that I feel doesn't get discussed enough is why more biomedical scientists don't submit to open-access journals like Public Library of Science Biology."
Daniel Koshland Jr.; Biochemist Led Journal Science
Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., 87, former editor of the journal Science, a biochemist known for his work on proteins and enzymes and the benefactor behind a D.C. science museum, died July 23 at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Walnut Creek, California, after a stroke.
Top U.S. Scientist to Use New AIDS Drugs Seeking Cure
AIDS may be cured in a select group of patients who now have extremely low levels of virus in their bodies by aggressively dosing them for a year with new HIV drugs from Roche Holding AG and Merck & Co., according to the top U.S. infectious disease scientist. Research released yesterday suggested that 7.7 years of combination therapy might cut HIV to very low levels in those treated early and faithfully. The next step is to see if aggressive treatment with new drugs for a year will cure the disease, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.