Human Genetic Variation Alters Anthrax Toxin Sensitivity
Martchenko, Candille et al., PNAS
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine show that genetic variation affecting capillary morphogenesis gene 2, or CMG2, dramatically alters toxin sensitivity in humans. In its analysis, the team reports on "a CMG2 single-nucleotide polymorphism occurring frequently in African and European populations [that they found] independently altered toxin uptake." The group goes on to suggest "testing of genomically characterized human cell populations may offer a broadly useful strategy for elucidating effects of genetic variation on infectious disease susceptibility."
Open Access on the Airwaves
April 30, 2009
Jonathan Eisen points to a story on Marketplace that discusses open-access publishing. (The text is here and audio here.) In it, Janet Babin starts out by speaking with Josh Summer who, after being diagnosed with a chordoma, set out to find out more about his disease. "I'd find an abstract, and I'd click on it. And oh, you have to pay $60 to read this article. Oh, you have to pay $40 to read this article. I mean, I have this disease, I want to know about it," Summer says. She then discusses open-access publishing and the NIH's open-access policy with Duke professor James Boyle and the American Physiological Society's Martin Frank. Boyle says it's only fair for taxpayers to have access to the research they funded while Frank says it may constrain publisher's abilities to recoup their costs.