A team of John Innes Centre scientists led by Prof Tony Maxwell have developed a new technique that will help search for new anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs more quickly and accurately.

The researchers found a new way of measuring the activity of a group of enzymes called DNA topoisomerases that help package DNA, the molecule that stores genetic information, into cells. Chemicals that block these enzymes could be developed into new anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs. The previous method used for measuring the activity of topoisomerases is time consuming and labour-intensive; this new technique is faster, more accurate and could be automated with robotics to screen thousands of chemicals and identify those with the potential to be made into drugs.

“This development is really exciting because it will speed up the whole discovery process for this type of drug. A quicker and more accurate screen will allow more potential drugs to be assessed and therefore aid the search for urgently needed new anti-cancer and antibacterial drugs” says Tony Maxwell. “A patent for the technique has been granted and we already have several pharmaceutical companies that are interested in licensing the technology”.

August 30th, 2006 | General Science, Health | 1 comment

On last Tuesday, the International Astronomical Union has adopted their definition of a planet. The adopted definition had as a consequence to “demote” Pluto into the newly created category of dwarf planets.

BBC News currently has a nice article showing both sides of the medal.

Dr Alan Stern, who leads the US space agency’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and did not vote in Prague, told BBC News: “It’s an awful definition; it’s sloppy science and it would never pass peer review - for two reasons.

“Firstly, it is impossible and contrived to put a dividing line between dwarf planets and planets. It’s as if we declared people not people for some arbitrary reason, like ‘they tend to live in groups’.

“Secondly, the actual definition is even worse, because it’s inconsistent.”

Out of the ~2700 astronomers that were present at the Prague Conference, only 424 attended the last day of debates and voted on the proposed definition.

But other astronomers were happy to see Pluto cast from the official roster of planets. Professor Iwan Williams, the IAU’s president of planetary systems science, commented: “Pluto has lots and lots of friends; we’re not so keen to have Pluto and all his friends in the club because it gets crowded.

“By the end of the decade, we would have had 100 planets, and I think people would have said ‘my goodness, what a mess they made back in 2006′.”

August 28th, 2006 | General Science, Space | 2 comments