The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013

Nobel Prize for Vesicle Transport in Cells

James E. Rothman

Photo: H. Goren. © HHMI

Randy W. Schekman

Photo: © S. Fisch

Thomas C. Südhof

The 2013 Nobel Prize honours three scientists who have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Each cell is a factory that produces and exports molecules. For instance, insulin is manufactured and released into the blood and chemical signals called neurotransmitters are sent from one nerve cell to another. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles. The three Nobel Laureates have discovered the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time in the cell.

Randy Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle traffic. 

James Rothman  unravelled protein machinery that allows vesicles to fuse with their targets to permit transfer of cargo. 

Thomas Südhof revealed how signals instruct vesicles to release their cargo with precision.

Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Südhof have revealed the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.

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Special Issue: Communicating in Science

Bassler's Rules of Presentation

Stick to the big picture.

"We know this stuff in excruciating detail," she says. "You want to drive a metal stake through your head listening to our lab meetings."

On slides, use few words and make one point.

"People can read faster than I can talk," she says. "If I put the words there, I'm irrelevant."

Tell stories.

"These are detective stories with mini mysteries that all point to the same thing."

Don't strive to be the smartest person in the room.

"Sometimes people are like, 'Wow you don't sound scientific,'" she says. "The data are on the slide."

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Selective Gas Transport Through Few-Layered Graphene and Graphene Oxide Membranes

SCIENCE

When gas separation membranes are made thinner, they usually allow permeating gases to pass through faster. However, a thinner membrane may be poorer at separating between gas species. Kimet al. (p. 91) examined the permeability and selectivity of layered graphene and graphene oxide membranes. Gas molecules diffuse through defective pores and channels that form between the layers. Controlling these structures tuned the properties of the membranes to allow the extraction of carbon dioxide from other gases. Li et al. (p. 95) describe membranes as thin as 1.8 nanometers made from only two to three layers of graphene oxide. Small defects within the layers allowed hydrogen to pass through, separating it from carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

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Personal-genetics firm denies pursuit of designer babies in patent filing

NATURE NEWS BLOG

02 Oct 2013 | 14:35 BST | Posted by Ewen Callaway | Category: Biology & Biotechnology, Business,Ethics

23ANDME

The consumer genetics firm 23andMe was last week awarded a US patent for a method to predict a baby’s traits on the basis of its parents’ DNA, the companyannounced.

23andMe, which is based in Mountain View, California, says that the patent relates to its Family Traits Inheritance Calculator, which “offers an engaging way for you and your partner to see what kind of traits your child might inherit from you” and has been available to customers since 2009.

Yet the patent (PDF here), which was filed more than 5 years ago, includes language that mentions other applications of the method, including for the screening of sperm and ova to be used for in vitro fertilization. The patent mentions the potential to screen would-be babies for traits such as eye colour, disease risk, height and gender.

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Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?

     Magazine

Mondadori Portfolio, via Getty Images

At the Solvay Conference on Physics in 1927, the only woman in attendance was Marie Curie (bottom row, third from left).

By EILEEN POLLACK

Published: October 3, 2013 770 Comments

Last summer, researchers at Yale published a study proving that physicists, chemists and biologists are likely to view a young male scientist more favorably than a woman with the same qualifications. Presented with identical summaries of the accomplishments of two imaginary applicants, professors at six major research institutions were significantly more willing to offer the man a job. If they did hire the woman, they set her salary, on average, nearly $4,000 lower than the man’s. Surprisingly, female scientists were as biased as their male counterparts.

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Foot Cream Kills HIV by Tricking Cells to Commit Suicide

Ciclopirox is currently approved by the FDA as a topical antifungal cream (Credit: Fougera) A common drug that dermatologists turn to treat nail fungus appears to come with a not-so-tiny side effect: eradicating HIV.

Foot Cream Kills HIV by Tricking Cells to Commit Suicide

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Ciclopirox is currently approved by the FDA as a topical antifungal cream.

(Credit: Fougera)

A common drug that dermatologists turn to treat nail fungus appears to come with a not-so-tiny side effect: eradicating HIV.

In a study performed at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, not only does the drug Ciclopirox completely eradicate infectious HIV from cell cultures, but unlike today's most cutting-edge antiviral treatments, the virus doesn't bounce back when the drug is withheld. This means it may not require a lifetime of use to keep HIV at bay.

The same group of researchers had previously shown that Ciclopirox -- approved by the FDA and Europe's EMA as safe for human use to treat foot fungus -- inhibits the expression of HIV genes in culture. Now they have found that it also blocks the essential function of the mitochondria, which results in the reactivation of the cell's suicide pathway, all while sparing the healthy cells.

The researchers said that one aspect of HIV that makes it particularly persistent, even in the face of strong antiviral treatments, is its ability to disable a cell's altruistic suicide pathway -- which is typically activated when a cell is damaged or infected. In other words, infected cells that would normally commit suicide to spare healthy cells no longer pull any altruistic kamikaze missions. Ciclopirox tricks these cells back into their old ways with a double negative, disabling the disabling of the suicide pathway.

It's obviously still going to take clinical trials on humans to study the safety and efficacy of Ciclopirox as a potential topical HIV treatment, but the fact that it's already deemed safe for one type of human use could make the regulatory process faster than usual.

In fact, the researchers note that another FDA-approved drug now thought to help subdue HIV, called Deferiprone, skipped studies in animals and went straight from tests in culture to a phase I human trial in South Africa, possibly paving the way for other FDA-approved drugs to move faster through the study phases. (Unlike Ciclopirox, which is approved for topical treatment, Deferiprone is FDA- and EMA-approved for systemic use, meaning it effects more than just one part of the body.)

The new findings on Ciclopirox appear in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE.

Nanotube Computer

Researchers Build a Working Carbon Nanotube Computer

Norbert von der Groeben

Max Shulaker is a Stanford graduate student who is a leading member of the research group that built the nanotube computer.

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: September 25, 2013

RelatedPALO ALTO, Calif. — A group of Stanford researchers has moved a step closer to answering the question of what happens when silicon, the standard material in today’s microelectronic circuits, reaches its fundamental limits for use in increasingly small transistors.

• A High-Stakes Search Continues for Silicon’s Successor (December 6, 2011)

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Max Shulaker and Nature

An image, obtained using scanning electron microscopy, of a section of the carbon nanotube computer developed by Stanford researchers.

In a paper in the journal Nature on Wednesday, the researchers reported that they had successfully built a working computer — albeit an extremely simple one — entirely from transistors fashioned from carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes, which are cylinder-shaped molecules, have long held the promise of allowing smaller, faster and lower-powered computing, though they have proved difficult to work with.

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