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The Office of AIDS Research, a relatively small but Influential unit within the US National Institutes of Health, is responsible for “coordinating the scientific, budgetary, legislative, and policy elements of the NIH AIDS research program”. Here the new director, Neal Nathanson, presents his vision of how the nations $1 .7 billion AIDS research effort should be used to respond to the challenge of AIDS
The self-organization of cells into complex interacting systems can be described using a branch of mathematics called nonlinear dynamics, which includes the study of chaos. Here, Donald Coffey explains how analysis of complex biological systems using nonlinear dynamics sheds light on the events leading to disorders as varied as epilepsy, heart disease and cancer
New findings apparently refute Hering's Law which holds that the eye movements of primates are yoked—that is, the two eyes are controlled as if they are one. On closer inspection they may prove to be compatible with it.
Spirochetes alter their major surface proteins in response to the temperature change that accompanies their passage from tick vector to mammalian host.
An organelle in apicomplexan parasites including those causing malaria and toxoplasmosis may be the site of a plant biosynthetic pathway that could provide new targets for drug discovery and development.
A test that identifies animal models in which fetal neural tube defects can be prevented by folic acid may shed light on how this vitamin mediates its preventive effects.
The hematopoietic microenvironment influences gene expression in both early embryos and adults suggesting possibilities for novel transplantation therapy.
New findings implicate apoptosis in the death of neurons in Alzheimer disease but the evidence is still insufficient to formally indict apoptosis in the neurodegeneration associated with this disease (pages 957–962).
Two new mouse models closely mimic human atherosclerosis, providing exciting opportunities for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of this disease and for evaluating novel therapeutics (pages 934–938).