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SCIENCE8TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday. February 8, 2(KK)
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Science Briefs
Boston hospital
suspends trials
BOSTON (AP) — A Boston med
ical center has suspended its
gene therapy tests because of
safety concerns arising from a stu
dent's death last year in a similar
trial program in Pennsylvania.
“We are temporarily halting (the
trial) because there is a national
discourse on this, and we would
like to benefit from it," Dr. Michael
Rosenblatt, interim president of
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center, said.
The death in September of the
18-year-old patient in Pennsylva
nia triggered a government inves
tigation, the suspension of eight
gene therapy trials in that state
and a Senate hearing last week.
In halting their program last
week, Beth Israel officials said
they had encountered no prob
lems with it.
The trial involved implanting ge
netically altered cells into patients
with hemophilia, an inherited
bleeding disorder.
Last summer, Beth Israel halt
ed a different gene therapy trial af
ter three of the first six terminally
ill cancer patients died.
Officials at the hospital said an
internal review concluded that at
least two of the deaths were not
related to the treatment.
Gene therapy attempts to re
pairer replace broken genes in se
riously ill patients by transferring
normal genes into the body.
Study says brain
needs stimulation
DALLAS (AP) — You better
keep those brain cells from get
ting bored, otherwise they might
kill themselves, according to a
new study.
The findings point out how im
portant it is for nerve cells in an
embryonic brain to keep transmit
ting signals to neighboring cells in
the brain. If they don’t, then the
non-active cells actually engage in
a mass suicide, according to
Thomas Sudhof of the University
of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center at Dallas.
“If we can figure out how neu
rons die, we can think about how
to prevent that,” Dr. Sudhof told
The Dallas Morning News.
Nerve cells transmit signals
mainly by feeding neighboring nerve
cells a batch of messenger chemi
cals called neurotransmitters.
There are many types of mes
senger chemicals, including sero
tonin, which directly affect those
the parts of the brain which trigger
depression.
In the new study, Dr. Sudhof
and a crew of other researchers
studied mice brains that were no
longer being fed the messenger
chemicals as they were being
developed in the womb of an
other mouse.
The mice's brains developed
normally up to a point, then nerve
cells in the brain engaged in a
mass suicide so severe that the
developing brain shrinks.
The developing spinal cord ac
tually disappeared and the mice
die at birth. Their findings appear
in the latest issue of the journal
Science.
Astronauts return
for 2nd attempt
CAPE CANAVERAL. Fla. (AP) —
Astronauts returned to the
Kennedy Space Center on Monday
for their second attempt at lifting
off on an Earth-mapping mission.
“We’re real glad to be back,”
said space shuttle Endeavour’s
commander, Kevin Kregel, flanked
by his five crew members.
“The weather looks like it’s go
ing to be favorable for a launch at
tempt on Friday.
he ants go marching ...
Texas researchers introduce natural enemies for ant control
BY SCOTT JENKINS
The Battalion
S ome ships steaming into tlie GulfolTVIex-
ico from South America in tlie 1930s
brought mon.' titan exotie produce.
Soil shoveled by tlie ton into South
American ships for ballast also carried pop
ulations of red lire ants — unwitting im
migrants to the southern United States.
The ants, non-native to the U.S., be
came a future menace to U.S. ecosystems.
But some scientists say that carefully
introducing natural enemies of the import
ed red tire ant into tlie Texas ecosystem
could help control the species.
Research on so-called biological con-
trol of the ant make up several of the 35 pro
jects underway as part of the
Texas Fire Ant Research and
Management Plan, directed by
Dr. Bart Drees oftheTexas A&M
Department of Entomology'.
The imported red fire ant
spread into large chunks of many
southeastern states after arriving
as an unwanted stowaway.
In addition to disrupting the
ecology ofthe region, tlie red fire ant
is a danger to humans and livestock
and acause ofdamage to landscape
and electrical equipment
Efforts at controlling the ants
have been expensive and largely
unsuccessful.
The introduction of tlie ants to
this area was a “huge ecological
disaster,” Drees said.
Tlie lack of natural enemies in
the U.S. is thought to be an im
portant factor in allowing tlie red
imported lire ant to spread quick
ly, displacing native species.
In South America, several
natural enemies keep tlie fire ant
populations in check.
Some of tliese — including a
lly whose larvae are parasites to
the ant, and a strain of ftuigus whose spores
grow on tlie ants’ bodies — are being
looked at as candidates for introduction
into the local ecosystem as a sustainable so
lution to mitigate the fire ant problem.
“We are trying to re-establish the bal
ance of nature,” Drees said. He cautioned
that tlie research is aimed at control, not
eradication.
It is thought that biological control of
tlie insects could he a self-sustaining way
to control the tire ant population and elim
inate the need for insecticides and other
measures that could have a greater impact
on tlie environment.
“[Bio-controls] are self-generating and
usually rather specific, so they can be gen
tler on native species,” said Dr. Bradleigh
Vinson, professor of entomology.
Biological control of insects is not with
out hazards.
“Tlie challenge for researchers is to en
sure that tlie newly introduced
species do not become problems
themselves,” Drees said.
Several institutions from across
the state are participating in the
plan including Texas A&M, Uni
versity of Texas and Texas Tech
University.
At A&M, Vinson and his
group are investigating a micro
scopic protozoan called Theloha-
niasolenopsae that infects red tire
ants and shortens their life span.
Over a period of months, an
infected colony will decline dramatically.
“Thelohania has great potential if we
can learn how to produce it in large
amounts,” Vinson said.
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1999-2000
Applications Due TODAY
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OF FORMER STUDENTS
fA/c cate. The, Aggie, Netiuo'dc!
Buck Weirus Spirit Award Applications
are now available for undergraduate and graduate students at
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Questions regarding application completion may be directed to Sandy Briers
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Applications are due by 5 p.m., TODAY! Tuesday, February 8th, 2000, at the
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