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Volume 14 Issue 4, April 2008

Signaling by Slit ligands through Robo receptors is known to help guide neurite outgrowth. In this issue, Dean Li and colleagues describe a role for Slit-Robo signaling in the vasculature, where it inhibits angiogenesis and vascular leak. The cover image shows widespread Robo4 expression in the retinal vasculature of a 5-day-old mouse.

Volume 14 Issue 4

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Editorial

  • Science funding in the United States is tight, and the application process is arduous. A recent study of NIH peer-review recommends a major overhaul of the system. Will the changes prove cosmetic or curative?

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News

  • Timeline of events...a brief look at the headlines from the past month

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  • Current medications used to treat drug addiction help to some extent by easing withdrawal symptoms, but these treatments cannot curb the high that people receive when they relapse and take a hit of the drug. Emma Marris explores how researchers are working on a way to make these tempting drug highs history for recovering addicts.

    • Emma Marris
    News

  • In 1999, Hussein bin Talal, the king of Jordan, died after a long battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since then, his eldest son and successor, King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein, has sought to improve cancer treatment in his country as part of an effort to boost healthcare and technological development. The country's capital, Amman, now boasts a world-class cancer treatment center, which draws patients from throughout the region. To lead that effort, the king tapped Samir Khleif, chief of the cancer vaccine section at the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Khleif, who received his medical degree in Jordan, now has an even bigger mandate from the king: to build an internationally renowned institute devoted to cancer research and biotechnology. Construction on The King Hussein Institute for Cancer and Biotechnology is scheduled to begin on the outskirts of Amman this month, with an expected completion in 2010.

    • Charlotte Schubert
    News
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Book Review

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News & Views

  • Only one drug is widely used to treat schistosomiasis, a chronic, neglected tropical disease caused by parasitic blood flukes. Fears of potential drug resistance have accelerated the search for new classes of antischistosome drugs. A promising candidate has now emerged (pages 407–412).

    • Alex Loukas
    • Jeffrey M Bethony
    News & Views

  • A strain of Escherichia coli that causes urinary tract infections seems to take hold in the body by interfering with signaling through Toll-like receptors (TLRs). The mechanism involves a secreted bacterial protein that is taken up by cells and clogs up the TLR signaling mechanism (pages 399–406).

    • Luke A J O'Neill
    News & Views

  • Robo4 expression in emerging blood vessels can neutralize signaling through the angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and maintain vessel integrity. The findings could lead to new therapeutic targets for angiogenesis and vascular leakage (pages 448–453).

    • Lisette M Acevedo
    • Sara M Weis
    • David A Cheresh
    News & Views

  • Two studies examine the cellular origins of peripheral nervous system tumors in mouse models of neurofibromatosis type 1 and conclude that stem cells may not be the culprits. Instead, more differentiated cells may give rise to and drive the tumors.

    • Peter B Dirks
    News & Views
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