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Volume 5 Issue 4, April 2009

Compounds direct differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to pancreatic progenitors. Chen et al. (p 258) isolated (-)-indolactam V (ILV) from a high-content screen, and when added to definitive endoderm that had been derived from hESCs, ILV increased the number of cells that express the pancreatic marker Pdx1. Pdx1 and other pancreatic lineage markers, such as FOXA2, were monitored by immunocytochemistry. ILV acted synergistically with FGF10, a known contributor to pancreatic development, to produce the Pdx1-positive cells shown here (see also News and Views by Wright, p 195). Cover art by Erin Boyle, based on images provided by Douglas Melton.

Volume 5 Issue 4

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Editorial

  • With a new administration and pending increases in scientific funding, chemical biologists in the United States have an unprecedented opportunity to influence the national scientific agenda.

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News & Views

  • Small-molecule library screening identifies simple imitators of the cellular signaling events that normally guide formation of the pancreas and its insulin-secreting beta cells, further enabling detailed analysis in vitro, or eventual diabetes therapies via large-scale differentiation of human stem cells.

    • Yu-Ping Yang
    • Chris Wright
    News & Views

  • Protein prenylation plays a key role in the localization and function of many proteins, but the number and identities of prenylated proteins are unknown. A new study uses a multidisciplinary approach to provide a broad yet detailed snapshot of prenylation within the mammalian proteome.

    • James L Hougland
    • Carol A Fierke
    News & Views

  • It is well known that HIV-1 deceives the host immune system and usurps host cell machinery to replicate, but it is not known how this viral particle is released from the cell. A recent glycan profiling technique revealed that the glycome signatures of HIV-1 and host cell microvesicles are almost identical, providing important support for the 'exosome' hypothesis of viral release.

    • Jun Hirabayashi
    News & Views

  • The development of an autocatalytic, exponential replicator that is based solely on nucleic acids has implications for our understanding of the origins of life and potential applications in nucleic acid engineering.

    • Andrew D Ellington
    News & Views

  • By converting prolyl to 4-hydroxyprolyl residues, prolyl hydroxylases induce a conformational bias into proteins. This conformational preference is a result of a stereoelectronic gauche effect and is crucial for protein-protein recognition in oxygen sensing.

    • Danica Galonić Fujimori
    News & Views
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