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NIH-Funded Research
Post-Katrina
Losses to Gulf Area Scientists Are Longer Term, Harder to Quantify |
| By Carla Garnett |
There was little if any dramatic footage of
storm and flood damage to research facilities after Hurricane Katrina.
Everyone was rightly concerned with addressing emergency and immediate
needs. Now, though, as clean-up and recovery continue, stories
about losses to science and NIH-funded research interests in the
Gulf area are beginning to emerge. Although physical damage to
buildings and other structures was less than at first feared, affected-area
research projects in general and the requirements for conducting
them suffered a tremendous hit.
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| Bertozzi To Give Stetten Lecture, Oct. 26 |
| By Karin Jegalian |
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Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi |
When introducing carbohydrate polymers, general
biology textbooks typically give center stage to starch, cellulose
and chitin. They seldom mention that chains of carbohydrates with
complex and dynamic structures coat the surfaces of our cells and
undergird cellular communication, the basis of everything from
embryonic development to immune response.
Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi of the University of California, Berkeley,
would like discussions of glycan polymers to parallel those on
nucleic acids and proteins. She points out that while every biologist
knows that there are 20 amino acids and four DNA nucleotides, few
automatically know the number of monosaccharide building blocks.
(The answer is 9.) In fact, carbohydrates attached to proteins
after translation add an essential level of complexity to our genetic
makeup.
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