Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
IBM computers and Microsoft software have been mainstays of biomedical studies for years. But, in the past decade, software and technology companies have increasingly been taking a more active role in biological research. Monica Heger profiles four of the movers and shakers who have been leading the charge.
As concerns have emerged in recent years over medications such as Vioxx and now Avandia, the need to improve the surveillance of approved drugs has become increasingly apparent. To ensure the success of the drugs they develop, biomedical researchers should track a wider set of clinical endpoints in drug trials and prepare to distinguish between real and false risks suggested by long-term safety monitoring.
Salt has been humanity's great taste enhancer, preservative and all-around go-to food ingredient for 8,000 years. But the ubiquitous white crystal is now thought to have caused an epidemic of heart attacks and strokes. In response, many food manufacturers are devising new ways to curb sodium intake while trying to maintain food's saline-stoked good flavor. Stephen Strauss gets a taste of the leading technological solutions for cutting back on the tabletop seasoning.
Last month, Carolyn Bertozzi became the first woman to win the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-Lemelson Prize, a $500,000 award that honors midcareer inventors. Bertozzi, a chemical biologist, works to understand how sugars mediate cell-to-cell communication. Roxanne Palmer recently caught up with her to discuss Bertozzi’s sweet success with cell surface sugars.
It is not uncommon for potentially life-saving research data to be published years after being generated. But the setback to progress caused by the delay in releasing data is troublesome for people who selflessly participate in trials and desperately await new therapies. Scientists need to feel greater urgency to share their findings quickly, and they need additional avenues to facilitate this process.