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Date:         Sun, 20 Dec 1992 09:31:01 MST
              <MEDNEWS@ASUACAD.BITNET>
From:         David Dodell <david@STAT.COM>
Subject:      HICN506 Newsletter Part 4/4

some new strains of which are particularly virulent.  They advise more
extensive screening for TB infection among high-risk groups, including
children, hospital patients, and the homeless.  Since  people with depleted
immune systems are especially vulnerable to  TB, the physicians also recommend
that anyone who lives in close  contact with a TB patient should also be
tested for HIV  infection.  And as a last resort, the health experts recommend
mandatory quarantine for those TB patients who neglect to  routinely take
their treatment and, consequently, are a threat to their fellow citizens.











Health InfoCom Network News                                            Page 42
Volume  5, Number  6                                         December 20, 1992



::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
                                   Articles
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

                        In Search of Medical Victories
                                Fall 1992 - EDU
                    (c) 1992 Digital Equipment Corporation
                           Reprinted with Permission

One of the grand challenges of research in the 1990's is structural biology,
which reveals basic and detailed information about the molecular structure and
function of living systems.

A key technique in structural biology, X-ray crystallography, allows
researchers to study the X-ray diffraction patterns produced by tiny samples
of crystalline proteins. Recent advances in radiation sources, biotechnology,
controlled crystallization, and computer technology have spurred the more
rapid elucidation of molecular structure by X-ray crystallography.

Macromolecular crystallographers apply the technique of X-ray crystallography
to study the structure and function of viruses as well as proteins and other
biological macromolecules and assemblies. These studies explore the molecular
origins of disease and provide a molecular basis for the design of therapeutic
agents.

                         From AIDS to the Common Cold

One of the world's leading research teams in this field is the macromolecular
crystallography group of the Lucille P. Markey Center for Structural Biology
at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Indiana. Recognized internationally
for its ground-breaking investigations, the group is also a training center
for new generations of scientists and home to more than 50 researchers engaged
in various projects. This research is conducted under the supervision of
Michael G. Rossmann, Jack E. Johnson, Janet L. Smith, Jeffrey T. Bolin,
Cynthia V. Stauffacher, Thomas J.  Smith, and Wladek Minor.

Professor Rossmann has spent more than 25 years at Purdue exploring the world
of viruses. A recent achievement of his team was the announcement of the
molecular structure of the canine parvovirus, the first single-stranded DNA
virus to be so described. This study could lead to a medical victory over a
related virus known as B19, which attacks tissues in humans, sometimes
fatally.

Members of the group are now investigating the structure of the core antigen
of the AIDS virus.

Health InfoCom Network News                                            Page 43
Volume  5, Number  6                                         December 20, 1992


                             High-Speed Computing

In 1990, Professor Rossmann received a Smithsonian Institution award, "For
Heroic Use of Information," in recognition of his use of computers in the
crystallographic analysis of the structure of human rhinovirus-14, the cause
of the common cold. This award recognizes that macromolecular crystallography
would be impossible without efficient, high-speed computing capabilities.
Acquiring and processing primary data, for example, are computationally
intensive procedures, as are the complex procedures involved in atomic-
resolution molecular modeling.

The multivendor computing network used by Purdue's Macromolecular
Crystallography group includes two mainframes and 18 workstations running on
ULTRIX from Digital Equipment Corporation.

"The Digital workstations provide a very balanced system with their graphics
capabilities and speed," explains Minor, software developer and research
scientist. "The DECstation 5000's memory capacity is a distinct advantage."

"We now operate 15 Digital workstations in the lab - some in the general area,
and some as desktop devices for specific users," continues Minor. "We've been
running on the ULTRIX operating system for more than two years."

"A major advantage of the Digital workstation family is compatibility.
Everything that works on the existing systems will work on a new system," he
concludes.

                       New Tools on RlSC-based Platforms

Currently, the scope and significance of both experimental research and
software development in X-ray crystallography continue to expand dramatically.

Using the RISC/ULTRIX-based workstations for biological research, the Purdue
group also has developed software that takes advantage of the high rates of
data acquisition achieved by new radiation technology.

The Purdue group has also developed a family of instrument-independent
software tools that promise to bring significant improvements to
crystallographic data acquisition and processing. Today, both academic and
government laboratories around the world use Purdue's crystallographic
applications, as do the research facilities of many pharmaceutical companies.

By developing software for interactive visualization, Purdue's scientists are
giving researchers using platforms such as Digital's DECstation 5000 series

Health InfoCom Network News                                            Page 44
Volume  5, Number  6                                         December 20, 1992

the tools for evaluating and controlling complex crystallographic experiments
in conditions close to real time.

                         Toward Life's Very Beginning

Purdue's research teams also are continuing the pioneering work that has long
nourished major advances in structural biology, virology, crystallography, and
gene evolution. Prof. Rossmann believes that when a sufficient number of
molecular structures have been mapped in detail, scientists will identify a
common ancestry among all viruses. Crystallographic analysis then should
reveal the fundamental structure of all viruses and point toward answers to
the most basic questions in biology.

"There was some primordial structure whose function was very essential to
biological function," explains Prof. Rossmann. "That structure would have been
available at the very beginning of life."

Discovering "that structure" will answer to some of the basic questions of
biology. Yet, as Prof. Rossmann has written: Answering one question usually
raises other questions. Developing a technique means that new projects require
for their solutions further technological answers."

                             About the University

Purdue University, in Indiana, began in September 1874 with six instructors
and 39 students. Now it has an enrollment of almost 60,000 students. With
campuses in West Lafayette, Calumet, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and Westville
Purdue is one of the largest universities in the United States.

















Health InfoCom Network News                                            Page 45
Volume  5, Number  6                                         December 20, 1992

                        Sperm Homing Signal Discovered
                               from "interface"
                 The Weizmann Institute of Science No 2, 1991

How does a sperm cell find its way to the female egg! A possible answer to
that question has been provided by a Weizmann Institute study indicating that
chemical signals released by mammalian ova might attract spermatozoa and that
such chemical communication might be essential for normal human fertility.
This finding may facilitate the development of new approaches for dealing with
human infertility, particularly where the sperm signaling mechanism is faulty.

It is now recognized that a large fraction of sperm cells entering the female
reproductive tract remains motionless in storage sites until ovulation occurs,
at which time the sperm movement resumes, enabling the male gamete to reach
fertilization sites in the fallopian tubes within minutes. While the nature of
the chemical signal triggering this movement is unknown, Prof. Michael
Eisenbach, Head of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Membrane Research
and Biophysics, in collaboration with Prof. David Garbers of the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, Nashville, Tennesse, initiated preliminary stuides to
investigate whether chemical factors reieased by the egg might be responsible,
Evidence to that effect has recently emerged from follow-up research by Prof,
Eisenbach and Dr. Dina Ralt of the Weizmann Institute, in cooperation with
Drs. Mordechai Goldenberg, Jehoshua Dor and Shlomo Mashiach of the Sheba
Medical Center, Tel Hashomer.

Prof. Eisenbach and his team found in test-tube experiments that follicular
fluids extracted from women undergoing in vitro fertilization procedures
attract human sperm cells. It is likely that the same factors that exist in
the follicular fluid are released by the egg (or its surrounding cells) as it
passes through the fallopian tube, thereby alerting sperm cells to its
presence. Work is now under way to identify these sperm-signaling factors.

This research was supported, in part, by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, the U,S. National Institutes of Health, the Israel Ministry of
Health, and the Yeda Fund.










Health InfoCom Network News                                            Page 46
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