Pinpointing Pathogens Technologies to Track Infections from the Skies and on the Ground
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JULY 2015 | WWW.THE-SCIENTIST.COM PINPOINTING PATHOGENS TECHNOLOGIES TO TRACK INFECTIONS FROM THE SKIES AND ON THE GROUND ERADICATING POLIO AND GUINEA WORM DISEASE THE CONSEQUENCES OF AN INCOMPLETE MICROBIOME MAKING CLINICAL STUDIES MORE DIVERSE PLUS STAYING ACTIVE AFTER RETIREMENT THE NO-WASH ELISA ALTERNATIVE THAT TRANSFORMS YOUR LAB is a registered trademark of PerkinElmer, Inc. All other trademarks are the property their respective owners. ® © 2015 PerkinElmer, Inc. 400334_02 All rights reserved. PerkinElmer Copyright The perfect combination of convenience and results. Drug development and disease prevention are a race against time – so researchers need the confidence in their biology to enable quick go-to-market decisions. AlphaLISA® technology delivers a fast, cost-effective, no-wash ELISA alternative that reduces user error, prevents washing away weak interactions, and makes walkaway, overnight immunoassays possible. 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JULY 2015 Contents THE SCIENTIST THE-SCIENTIST.COM VOLUME 29 NUMBER 7 DUNG HOANG © Features ON THE COVER: © GUNNAR PIPPEL/SHUTTERSTOCK AL GRANBERG; PIETRO CECCATO; 28 37 44 BY Driven to Extinction Outbreak Observatory The Sum of Our Parts The eradication of smallpox set Increasingly precise remote-sensing Putting the microbiome front and the standard for the global elimination data are helping researchers monitor center in health care, in preventive of a devastating infectious disease. and predict cases of infectious disease. strategies, and in health-risk Will the ongoing polio and guinea BY JYOTI MADHUSOODANAN assessments could stem the epidemic worm campaigns be as successful? of noncommunicable diseases. BY JEF AKST BY RODNEY DIETERT AND JANICE CARTER CENTER/GRAPHIC CARTER DIETERT THE 07.2015 | THE SCIENTIST 3 BioResearch Clonetics™ Primary Cells and Media The Trusted Path to Relevant Results 30th Anniversary Clonetics™ Primary Cells Choose Lonza for Optimal Cell Performance Lonza’s Clonetics™ Primary Cells and Media are globally renowned for Clonetics™ Primary Cells Portfolio: quality and reliability. As the pioneers of primary cell culture, Lonza – 100+ cell types – cryopreserved or proliferating, human and animal celebrates 30 years of providing these products and expertise to – Broad donor variety – large selection of donors for most cell types scientists for consistent and biologically relevant results every time. – Cells from normal and diseased tissues – Optimized Growth Media BulletKit™ for each cell type Our breadth of cell-type offering is unmatched and spans across research areas such as respiratory, neurobiology, cancer, stem cells, diabetes, The trusted path to results starts with Lonza. cardiovascular and others. © 2014 Lonza Walkersville, Inc www.lonza.com/primary JULY 2015 Department Contents 11 FROM THE EDITOR 60 LAB TOOLS Intelligence Gathering Breaking Down Barriers Disease eradication in the 21st century Finding and recruiting diverse BY MARY BETH ABERLIN populations for clinical studies BY CARINA STORRS 14 NOTEBOOK The Lies That Scars Tell; Brrrr-ying 63 CAREERS the Results; Hunting Off the Hook?; Staying Active in the Lab High-Flying Ducks Retiring as a professor, and even shutting down your own lab, doesn’t 25 CRITIC AT LARGE necessarily mean quitting research. When Does a Smart Mouse BY JENNY ROOD Become Human? Ethical issues attend the creation 66 READING FRAMES 14 of animal-human chimeras. The War Rages On BY JOHN D. LOIKE The conflict between science and religion continues, with effects on 55 27 MODUS OPERANDI health, politics, and the environment. How to Make a New Species BY JERRY A. COYNE Scientists mutate a yeast mating pheromone and its receptor to 67 CAPSULE REVIEWS promote speciation. BY BOB GRANT BY RUTH WILLIAMS 72 FOUNDATIONS 50 THE LITERATURE Half Mile Down, 1934 Nutrient turnover in complex BY JENNY ROOD ecosystems; DNA interference in metazoans; microbial symbionts IN EVERY ISSUE and phosphorus sequestration in marine sponges 9 CONTRIBUTORS 52 PROFILE 12 SPEAKING OF SCIENCE Sold on Symbiosis THE GUIDE DORLING KINDERSLEY/GETTY IMAGES DORLING KINDERSLEY/GETTY Gutless sea worms and their 68 © nurturing bacterial symbionts keep Nicole Dubilier at the leading edge 71 RECRUITMENT of marine microbiology. SIMCOCK; BY ANNA AZVOLINSKY PAUL © 55 SCIENTIST TO WATCH Shawn Douglas: DNA Programmer BY ANDY EXTANCE CORRECTION: Update: Re: “A Plague on Pachyderms” (June 2015). After the issue went 57 LAB TOOLS to press, the announced death of a five-year-old Asian elephant at the Albuquerque BioPark raised the number of elephants killed by EEHV since Tools for Drools OF ALASTAIR BAYLIS; OF ALASTAIR 2008 to two. A general guide to collecting and In “Memorial Research” (June 2015), the fieldwork conducted by processing saliva Christopher Rodriguez took place in the Davis Mountains near Fort Davis, 57 not the Franklin Mountains near El Paso. COURTESY KELLY RAE CHI The Scientist regrets the error. 07.2015 | THE SCIENTIST 5 JULY 2015 Online Contents THIS MONTH AT THE-SCIENTIST.COM: VIDEO VIDEO SLIDE SHOW Orb-iters You Gutless Worm Monkey Business See how William Beebe and Otis Barton Meet the digestive tract–lacking Travel to Bangladesh to meet the Bedey, descended to the ocean’s depths in oligochaete that has fueled Max Planck a band of river nomads, and their trained an early submersible designed to allow researcher Nicole Dubilier’s interest macaques, which perform shows observation of the mysterious life-forms in symbiosis and marine science. and seldom transmit a monkey virus inhabiting the deep sea. to their handlers. AS ALWAYS, FIND BREAKING NEWS EVERY DAY, AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS ON INDIVIDUAL STORIES ON OUR WEBSITE. Coming in August ERIC ISSELEE/SHUTTERSTOCK HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN NEXT MONTH’S ISSUE: © • Bio-inspired medical innovations • The placenta: a vital conduit between mother and fetus • Deleterious effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment • Lymphatic system development • Humanized mouse models BUSINESS: LYNN JOHNSON; PORCUPINE: LYNN BUSINESS: AND MUCH MORE MONKEY 6 THE SCIENTIST | the-scientist.com CALL FOR ENTRIES! Send Us Your Top Innovation! Announcing The Scientist’s annual Top 10 Innovations Competition Submit your cutting-edge, life-sciences technology innovation for consideration by a panel of expert judges. The winners will be the subject of a feature article in the December 2015 issue of The Scientist. • A n “innovation” is defined as any product that researchers use in a lab: machines, instruments, tools, cell lines, custom-made molecular probes and labels, software, apps, etc. • Products released on or after October 1, 2014 are eligible. • Entries accepted from April 13 to September 15, 2015. For further information, contact us at: [email protected] enter online at: www.the-scientist.com/top10 TAKE THE 415 Madison Avenue, SURVEY NOW! Suite 1508, New York, NY 10017 E-mail: [email protected] EDITORIAL EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Editor-in-Chief Mary Beth Aberlin Roger Beachy [email protected] Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Senior Editors Jef Akst [email protected] Steven A. Bent Foley and Lardner LLP Bob Grant THE SCIENTIST ’S [email protected] Deborah Blum Associate Editor Kerry Grens University of Wisconsin SALARY SURVEY [email protected] Annette Doherty IS OPEN! News Editor Tracy Vence Pfizer Global Research [email protected] and Development Contributing Editor Alla Katsnelson Kevin Horgan Copy Editor Annie Gottlieb GE Healthcare Correspondents Anna Azvolinsky Steve Jackson Ruth Williams University of Cambridge Interns Amanda Keener Elizabeth Kerr Jenny Rood Life Technologies/Applied Biosystems DESIGN AND PRODUCTION