Donald Glaser, who won the Nobel Prize in physics before focusing on biological questions, has died, the New York Times reports. He was 86. Glaser built a bubble chamber that could be used to study subatomic particles, despite Enrico Fermi saying that such a chamber was impossible.

Glaser later turned to studying biology as he was "frustrated that particle physics was adopting huge atom smashers requiring large teams of scientists," the Times notes. He went on to found a biotechnology company called the Cetus Corporation that made the cancer therapies interleukin-2 and interferon. Cetus was then sold to Chiron Corporation, which was, in turn, acquired by Novartis.

In the early, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Uppsala University's Ulf Gyllensten and colleagues describe genetic variants that appear to affect peptide levels in the human blood proteome. The team assessed SNP patterns in more than 1,000 Swedish individuals, while using mass spectrometry to characterize and quantify peptides in their blood. The genome-wide association study led to apparent "protein quantitative trait loci," or pQTLs, for 60 peptides representing just over twodozen proteins. Those involve argue that the potential for using high-throughput proteomic and genomic schemes to assess genetic influences on the proteome "opens up the possibility for systemic studies of the functional importance of specific genetic variants on the protein."

Our sister publication GenomeWeb Daily News has more on the study, here.

A trio of researchers from the University of Georgia takes a peek at gene function in the methanogenic archaeal species Methanococcus maripaludis using transposon-mediated mutagenesis and deep sequencing. The team mapped transposon insertion sites in the M. maripaludis genome in mutant lines, using this information to gain clues about whether various genes are essential or beneficial for the bug's growth under given conditions. "Although definitive assignments of essentiality still require detailed analyses of each gene, the methodology generates hypotheses about the nature of specific genes and a great deal of insight into specific questions regarding methanogens," study authors say, "as well as more general questions about the genetics, biochemistry, and physiology of archaea."

Members of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and collaborators report on findings from a modified GWAS designed to pin down variants contributing to brain connectivity. The group started by doing brain scans on dozens of identical or non-identical twin pairs as a means of teasing apart heritable aspects of brain networks. Using this information, together with genotyping data, researchers unearthed variants with apparent ties to brain connectivity. Among them: a SNP near the SPON1 gene that appeared to influence brain structure and dementia risk in follow-up analyses. From these and other findings, study authors concluded that the connectome/genome-wide screening approach "offers substantial promise to discover genes affecting brain connectivity and risk for brain diseases."

Jane Wright, an oncologist who was among the founders of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, has died, reports the New York Times. She was 93. After attending New York Medical College, Wright joined her father Louis Wright, who was one of the first black graduates of Harvard Medical School, at Harlem Hospital, working at a cancer research center there. They studied the effects of new chemotherapeutic agents on mice with leukemia and, later, in patients.

In 1964, Wright joined with six other physicians to found ASCO. She also served on Lyndon Johnson's President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.

"Not only was her work scientific, but it was visionary for the whole science of oncology," Sandra Swain, the current ASCO president, tells the Times. "She was part of the group that first realized we needed a separate organization to deal with the providers who care for cancer patients. But beyond that, it's amazing to me that a black woman, in her day and age, was able to do what she did."

University of Florida researchers looked at genetic variation in lice in the context of louse ecotype and the infected human population in a PLOS One study. Investigators turned to genomic analyses to find 15 louse microsatellite markers that they subsequently used to genotype head and clothing lice from nearly 100 individuals in North America, Central America, Asia, and Europe. Lice genetic profiles differed between clothing and head louse ecotypes, researchers report, and between lice from one geographical site and the next. As such, those involved in the study say microsatellite markers in lice may be useful for understanding not only louse biology and infection patterns, but also human migration history. For more on this study, see our sister publication GenomeWeb Daily News.

Mice exposed to ionizing radiation such as X-rays or gamma-rays show a shift in their blood microRNA profiles, according to another study in PLOS One. Using a digital, hybridization-based assay, researchers from Ohio State University and elsewhere tested blood samples from mice exposed to individual doses of gamma radiation or multiple X-ray treatments. Compared to untreated or sham-treated control animals, blood samples from the radiation-exposed mice exhibited a boost or dip in the expression of many miRNAs. At least a few of these miRNA expression changes seemed to coincide with radiation dose or related damage, the team notes, suggesting human versions of some of the miRNAs might eventually prove useful for tracking an individual's radiation exposure and/or risk of related complications. GWDN has more on the study here.

In PLOS Genetics, an international research team genotyped more than 1,300 Lebanese individuals as part of its effort to more clearly define historical human migrations in a Near East area known as the Levant. When they compared SNP profiles in the Lebanese samples with those found in individuals from four dozen other populations around the world, the investigators detected genetic patterns that appear to reflect ancient and more recent historical events in the Levantine. For example, results from the analysis suggest that Levantine populations tended to be more genetically related to Europeans prior to Islamic expansion into the region. On the other hand, some populations in the area now cluster more closely with populations in the Middle East and Africa — a pattern that the study's authors attribute to admixture between individuals with shared cultural and religious affiliations.

A genome-wide SNP analysis found that five mental disorders share four risk loci. The researchers from the Cross-Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium report in The Lancet that two of the four loci could be traced to genes encoding two subunits, CACNA1C and CACNB2, of L-type voltage-gated calcium channels.

The researchers examined the genomes of 33,332 people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, bipolar disorder, major depression, or schizophrenia, and 27,888 controls, all with European ancestry. From this, they found those four risk loci. Pathway analysis, they add, indicates that the calcium channel signaling gene may play a role in each of the disorders.

Jordan Smoller, a member of the consortium and an author on the paper, tells the New York Times that "the calcium channel findings suggest that perhaps — and this is a big if — treatments to affect calcium channel functioning might have effects across a range of disorders."

In a related comment in The Lancet, Alessandro Serrettia and Chiara Fabbria from the University of Bologna note that these finding bolster previous evidence of pleiotropy in complex disorders.

They add that "the present study might contribute to future [disease description] systems, which could be based not only on statistically determined clinical categories, but also on biological pathogenic factors that are pivotal to the identification of suitable treatments."

In Science this week, a multi-institute team of Australian researchers reports on the discovery of a protein found in the female reproductive tract that appears to protect against sexually transmitted diseases. The protein, interferon-epsilon, is expressed by cells that line the ovary, uterus, cervix, and vagina, and mice lacking interferon-epsilon are more susceptible to infection with herpes simplex virus 2 and chlamydia. The regulatory and protective properties of interferon-epsilone may "facilitate the development of new strategies for preventing and treating STIs and, perhaps, other diseases," the researchers say.

Also in Science, a group of Japanese and Australian researchers provide evidence that a family of genes called KNOX2 may be behind the haploid-to-diploid morphological transition found in land plants. "In mosses, the haploid gametophyte generation is dominant, whereas in vascular plants — including ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms — the diploid sporophyte generation is dominant," the researchers note. In their study, the scientists found that KNOX2 genes appear to suppress the development of a normal reproductive form of moss during its spore-producing generation, "indicating a critical role for the evolution of KNOX2 in establishing an alternation of generations in land plants."