News & Views in 2001

Slowly, more information is emerging about the function of untranslated RNAs in regulating transcript maturation and splicing.

A variation on an approach that uses diphtheria toxin to ablate specific cells in mice provides a better means of assessing biological function.

Microbeads embedded with quantum dots show promise as a multiplex coding technology for the analysis of nucleic acids and proteins.

Transgenic corn co-expressing two complementary endotoxins from Bacillus thuringiensis shows promise in controlling these pernicious pests, but questions remain on how best to avoid the emergence of resistance.

Progress continues in exploiting ionic conductance of a membrane channel for single-molecule DNA sequence detection.

If known pathways represent preferred paths through global protein networks, large-scale experiments should focus on how to recognize these paths among all of the alternatives.

Induction of apoptotic death by modified caspases enhances the function of “naked” DNA vaccination.

The targeted disruption of two genes in sheep confirms the feasibility of gene targeting in large animals, but falls short of producing viable offspring.

Two new approaches offer the means to expand the repertoire of amino acids available for protein engineering.

Coupling pheotype to genotype without physical linkage.

The genetic selection of mutant cells in a glycoconjugate biosynthetic pathway may provide insights into metabolic disease.

An approach for detecting chain-termination mutations could prove tremendously useful in developing diagnostics for human disease.

Engineering crops to release more iron-solubilizing chelators may increase their yield in alkaline soils.

Transgenic animals engineered to express a bacterial enzyme that liberates phosphate from animal feed may provide a solution to a common form of environmental pollution.

A recent US NIH meeting produced a draft pilot protocol to facilitate microarray data sharing.

A new twist on DNA shuffling increases recombination frequency and expands access to sequence space, facilitating the engineering of new protein activities.

Two chemical protocols for the rapid analysis of protein phosphorylation by mass spectrometry promise to expand the scope of proteomics research.

Can ribozymes replace antibodies in future array formats for proteomics and metabolomics?

Progress continues in the development of smaller, more penetrable probes for biological imaging.

The human genome sequence yields several surprises for researchers seeking to exploit genomic data in drug discovery