FEBRUARY 2003 www.asbmb.org Constituent Society of FASEB AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY ALSO IN THIS ISSUE A Plea to Congress Page 2 Healing Power in a Gene Page 16 ASBMB Annual Meeting Preview page 6 Proteomic Solutions in Cellular and Developmental Biology and Medicine Stowers Institute For Medical Research Kansas City, Missouri May 2–4, 2003 Sponsored by the ASBMB Organized by: Joan W. Conaway, Stowers Institute and the Stowers Institute for Ralph A. Bradshaw, UC, Irvine Medical Research John Walker, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia Steve Alexander, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia For further information contact: ASBMB Meetings Office 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814 Tel: 301-634-7145; Fax: 301-634-7126 Email: [email protected] Meeting website: http://www.asbmb.org/meetings www.asbmb.org AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY FEBRUARY 2003, Volume 1, Issue 11 features 2 A Plea To Congress By Dr. Michael DeBakey 5 NAS Decries Visa Restrictions 10 Sundquist to Receive ASBMB-Amgen Award 12 Kirschstein to Receive Public 14 Service Award 14 Search Narrows to 2 Cholesterol ON THE COVER: Absorption Genes 6 ASBMB Annual Meeting Preview 16 Healing Power in a Gene 17 Regulations on Select Biological Agents 24 Making Keyword Searches Work departments 16 14 Members in the News 18 News From the Hill 20 Biotech Business 24 Calendar A PLEA TO CONGRESS: ASBMB Today Save Lives, Free is a monthly publication of The American Society for The following is an opinion piece by Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Dr. Michael DeBakey, Chancellor Emeritus at the Baylor College of Medicine, which Officers Bettie Sue Masters President appeared in the Houston Chronicle on Robert D. Wells Past-President December 29, 2002. The opinions expressed Albert E. Dahlberg Secretary Kenneth E. Neet Treasurer are those of the author and do not Thomas Blumenthal Councilor necessarily represent the views of ASBMB. Judith Bond Councilor William Lennarz Councilor By Dr. Michael DeBakey Alexandra C. Newton Councilor Merle S. Olson Councilor s I write this, researchers are ing Resolution. If a final 2003 budget is Peter Parker Councilor engaged in extraordinary not approved by Congress this January, Cecile M. Pickart Councilor A research. They are taking skin, all 2003 federally sponsored medical Cecil B. Pickett Councilor muscle and blood cells from heart research will be funded by substantially Vern L. Schramm Councilor patients, engineering them in a labora- lower 2002 budgets. That means put- James T. Stull Councilor tory and injecting them back into ting the brakes on medical advances those patients. The hope is that the Non-Voting Members engineered cells will transform into The cost of research is George M. Carman heart cells to make failing hearts pump minuscule compared Chair, Meetings Policy Committee more strongly and extend the lives of Claudia Kent to the astronomical Vern L. Schramm patients who would otherwise have to Co-chairs, 2003 Program Committee undergo risky heart transplants. expense of caring for Marion H. O’Leary This potential breakthrough—and sick populations at Chair, Education and Professional what it could one day promise for heart Development Committee today’s—or William R. Brinkley patients across the country—should Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee give Congress yet another compelling tomorrow’s—spiraling Phillip A. Ortiz reason to continue to invest in medical Chair, Minority Affairs Committee hospital rates. research, our best hope for health. Herbert Tabor Editor, JBC But as you read this, debates con- that could sooner or later benefit every Ralph A. Bradshaw tinue on how Congress will support man, woman and child in this country, Editor, MCP the National Institutes of Health, as well as future generations. (NIH), the federal agency that funds Some might argue that with our medical research conducted by the country running a deficit we must cut Comments brightest scientific minds in our coun- back on medical research funding. As Please direct any comments or questions concerning ASBMB Today to: try. The astonishing acceleration of one who has pioneered new research, their research over the past four years thanks in part to federal funding, I sug- John D. Thompson is a result of a bipartisan commitment gest looking at what is at stake: The Editor, ASBMB Today 9650 Rockville Pike made by Congress and the President lack of funding could well force the Bethesda, MD 20814-3996 to double the NIH budget over five best researchers into alternative careers, Phone: 301-634-7145 Fax: 301-634-7126 years, beginning in 1999. Four pay- thus depleting the pool of medical sci- E-mail: [email protected] ments toward that doubling have entists, and, in the process, imperiling For information on advertising occurred so far. America’s current global leadership in contact FASEB AdNet at 800-433-2732 The fifth and final appropriation, medical research, so vital to our econ- ext. 7175 or 301-530-7157, or email [email protected] however, is stalled, hostage to a legisla- omy. Once the pool is depleted, it will tive holding pattern called a Continu- require decades to replenish it. 2 ASBMBToday FEBRUARY 2003 Hostage Research Funds The first four payments toward the ❖ Help the paralyzed. Researchers are For example, in some laboratories NIH budget’s doubling - about $77 bil- testing specially treated immune that have benefited from the doubling lion since 1999 - have virtually trans- cells to help repair injuries and of NIH funding, you will see robotic formed American scientific research. restore lost nerve impulses. This arms filling test tubes and yielding These funds have permitted scien- research provides hope where none results 64 times faster than six years tists from different disciplines to col- existed before. ago. You will see computers spilling out laborate in the same laboratories, ❖ Devise an early detection test for complex research results, checking pat- enabling research to move at fast-for- ovarian cancer, now one of the dead- terns, discovering blind alleys and ward speed toward new treatments liest forms because it is so hard to promising new pathways, and instantly and their clinical trials, and accelerat- diagnose in early stages. In later printing out information that used to ing the creation of new diagnostic tests stages it is invariably fatal. Finding it take years to obtain. If you have a very to detect illness earlier, when interven- early, when it is most easily treatable, sick child or parent, you know that tion can be most effective. The ulti- will spare young women premature faster is better when it comes to learn- mate goal: Many Americans no longer death and their children the agony ing more that can save lives. need be told by their doctors, “There is of living without their mothers. The cost of research is minuscule nothing more we can do.” In my own field of interest, cardio- compared to the astronomical expense Thanks to the NIH budget-dou- vascular diseases, the advances in of caring for sick populations at today’s bling, so far we are on track to do the knowledge and in effective control of —or tomorrow’s—spiraling hospital following: these disorders have been dramatic - all rates. NIH-funded research, in just the ❖ Hasten research that takes cells from derived directly from medical research. past few years, has helped lead to cost- the inner lining of blood vessels to In the past few decades, the treatment saving new discoveries, such as a new form a stent that the body will not of both lethal and disabling cardiovas- drug group called statins, which reject. The stent aims to expand nar- cular diseases has been remarkably sharply reduce the number of heart rowed arteries permanently. This is improved, leading not only to ever- attacks and strokes that used to spell crucial for children who have small increasing survival, but also to restora- death. Heart attacks and heart disease arteries and now need repeated heart tion of patients’ normal activities. currently cost this country almost $200 operations to keep them alive. Coronary artery bypass, now common, billion a year in direct medical expendi- ❖ Refine a new generation of cancer has saved countless lives, previously tures. More than 1.1 million people of treatments that targets only cancer doomed to certain death. cells and spares other fast-growing Similarly, aneurysmal surgery, replace- Tell Us What cells. Many years of NIH-funded ment of defective heart valves, Dacron molecular research have helped lead graft replacement surgery to restore arte- You Think to the development of new life-saving rial circulation, carotid endarterectomy drugs like such as Gleevec imatinib for stroke, organ transplantation and We appreciate receiving let- mesylate, a cancer-killer that has cardiac assistors to support failing ters that are suitable for publica- fewer harsh side effects than current hearts —all products of the research lab- tion from ASBMB members chemotherapy. This drug does not oratory —now successfully treat patients regarding issues of importance cause hair loss or nausea and does not similarly doomed previously. or commenting on articles preclude childbearing potential. New Postponing the crucial fifth install- appearing in ASBMB News. Let- radiologic devices permit doctors to ment of these life-saving NIH funds— ters should be sent to the editor, see if this new therapy is working $27.3 billion due in January—would John Thompson, at the address without invasive surgery. Extremely postpone these investigations and found at left. Letters must be effective against leukemia, the new more promising medical research cur- signed and must contain the drug is now being tested on other rently under way at academic medical writer’s address and telephone forms of cancer. New cancer therapy schools, hospitals and independent number. The editor reserves the will continue to be an important laboratories in hundreds of communi- right to edit all letters.