Faculty Bibliography

For 15 years, Dr. Phillip Sharp's secretary kept a bottle of champagne refrigerated and ready for the day her boss at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a Nobel Prize. Yesterday, Sharp and his secretary, Margarita Siafaca, popped the cork and drank the bottle of Moet & Chandon after he and Dr. Richard Roberts of New England Biolabs of Beverly, Mass., were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. That discovery proved that genes can be composed of several separate segments. It shattered scientific dogma that held that genes were continuous within DNA, the chemical basis of heredity

Yesterday, [Phillip Sharp] and his secretary, Margarita Siafaca, popped the cork and drank the bottle of Moet & Chandon after he and Dr. Richard Roberts of New England Biolabs of Beverly, Mass., were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The discovery 'has changed our view on how genes in higher organisms develop during evolution,' the Nobel committee said, adding that other scientists had found that split genes were frequent in higher forms of life, including humans. The discovery of split genes 'does not give us cures, but the possibility to know how we are going to do therapy with genes in the future,' Gosta Gahrton, a professor of medicine at the Karolinska Institute, told reporters in Stockholm

'Even though doctors may not distinguish experimentation from treatment when they are doing a study, they may shift ground once it is over,' Mr. [George J. Annas] said. 'If it did well, it was treatment; and if it did poorly or something went wrong, it was an experiment.' Dr. [Judith P. Swazey], the Maine ethicist, said the term 'new medication' was misleading. She said Dr. [Jay H. Hoofnagle] should have used the term 'experimental anti-viral compound' on the form 'and underlined it.' Dr. Swazey is co-director of a major study of review boards and consent forms for the N.I.H. Dr. Hoofnagle said he believed none of the patients had thought they were receiving a standard treatment. And as for warning that FIAU might worsen the disease and even cause death, Dr. Hoofnagle said, 'We did not imagine that would happen.'

''Although sporadic cases are occurring, it looks like the acute phase of this epidemic is over,'' [Thylefors] said. Cuban health officials plan to continue dispensing vitamins to the entire population until the exact cause of the epidemic is determined, Thylefors said. Cuban scientists have published a booklet that makes it ''clear that there is a significant difference'' in nutrition between people with the illness and healthy individuals, Thylefors said. Early in the epidemic, Cuban scientists identified a virus that they thought might be the cause of the epidemic. However, Thylefors said, that finding has not been confirmed

An epidemic of a mysterious illness that has impaired vision and damaged nerves among nearly 51,000 people in Cuba seems to have ended without a specific cause being found, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The most likely explanation is a combination of a nutritional deficiency and another unidentified factor, probably a toxic substance, Dr. Bjorn Thylefors of WHO said after returning from a visit to Cuba. The epidemic has occurred at a time when the Cuban diet has undergone a drastic change and the average caloric consumption has fallen after the collapse of trade between Cuba and the former Soviet Union

The World Health Organization said on Sep 29, 1993 that an epidemic of mysterious illness that has impaired vision and damaged nerves among nearly 51,000 people in Cuba appears to have ended. A specific cause for the illness has not yet been found

An epidemic of a mysterious illness that has impaired vision and damaged nerves among nearly 51,000 people in Cuba seems to have ended without a specific cause being found, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The most likely explanation is a combination of a nutritional deficiency and another unidentified factor, probably a toxic substance, said Dr. Bjorn Thylefors of WHO in an interview after returning from a visit to Cuba

The most likely explanation is a combination of a nutritional deficiency and another unidentified factor, probably a toxic substance, Dr. Bjorn Thylefors of the U.N. agency said in an interview after returning from a visit to Cuba. The epidemic has occurred at a time when the Cuban diet has undergone a drastic change and the average caloric consumption has fallen after the collapse of trade between Cuba and the former Soviet Union. 'Although sporadic cases are occurring, it looks like the acute phase of this epidemic is over,' [Thylefors] said. Cuban health officials plan to continue dispensing vitamins to the entire population until the exact cause of the epidemic is determined, Thylefors said

According to a study to be printed in the British Medical Journal on Sep 25, 1993, children who attended a day care center for at least three months before two years of age were found to have a lower risk of developing childhood leukemia than children who were not placed in such an environment

[Dimitrios Trichopoulos]'s findings strengthen a thesis advanced in recent years by scientists in England and Scotland that children exposed to an as yet undetected virus or other infectious agent very early in life may gain immunity to childhood leukemia. Childhood leukemia is the most common cancer among children under the age of 15. In developing the thesis, scientists have used poliomyelitis as a model. Poliomyelitis is a paralyzing form of an infection caused by a virus. In most cases, the polio virus causes widespread but symptomless infection. Cases of paralysis are rare, with the ratio of symptomless infection exceeding cases of paralysis by 100 to 1. Scientists don't know why some people develop the paralytic form, which is now prevented by immunizations