Faculty Bibliography

NEW YORK - Dr. Gunter Blobel, a cellular and molecular biologist at Rockefeller University in New York City, won the 1999 Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discovering that proteins carry signals that act as ZIP codes, helping them find their correct locations within the cell. The research that Blobel has conducted for 30 years has had an 'immense impact' on studies of the cell and helps explain the molecular mechanisms behind diseases such as cystic fibrosis, condition that creates a certain type of kidney stone in young children, and other hereditary illnesses, the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced. There are a billion protein molecules in an average human cell. Cells are constantly dividing or being repaired to replace those damaged or lost to everyday wear and tear. The mystery that Blobel helped solve was learning how the cells regulate internal traffic so the protein molecules 'go to the right address,' he said in his office at Rockefeller University

There are a billion protein molecules in an average human cell. Cells are constantly dividing or being repaired to replace those damaged or lost to everyday wear and tear. The mystery that Dr. Blobel (pronounced BLO-bul) helped solve was learning how the cells regulate internal traffic so the protein molecules ''go to the right address,'' he said in an interview yesterday in his fifth floor office at Rockefeller University. Dr. Richard Klausner, the head of the National Cancer Institute, said many advances in recent decades, including his own research, were in some way derived from Dr. Blobel's findings. ''Gunter's work in many ways initiated the whole modern era of what we call molecular cell biology,'' Dr. Klausner said in an interview. ''It began to merge the observational approaches of cell biology, looking, describing structure,'' he said, and so scientists could ''figure out how molecular information underlies the structure and functioning of the cell.'' Dr. Blobel, who recalled witnessing the bombing of Dresden as a child, said he was donating most of the $960,000 in prize money to the Friends of Dresden, an independent American group that supports the reconstruction, restoration and preservation of Dresden's artistic and architectural legacy. The group is helping rebuild the Frauenkirche, a bell-shaped church that was a fixture in prewar Dresden. Dr. Blobel, who is not Jewish, said he is also donating part of the award to the reconstruction of a synagogue in Dresden

Dr. Gunter Blobel, a cellular and molecular biologist at Rockefeller University in New York City, won the 1999 Nobel Prize in medicine yesterday for discovering that proteins carry signals that help them find their correct locations within the cell

She is Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis, 59, who worked for four years as a nurse before going to college and then medical school. Dr. DeAngelis will leave her job as a vice dean at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and will step down as editor of the A.M.A.'s journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Dr. DeAngelis's appointment as the 15th editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association comes as many scientific journals are under pressure to increase income for the professional societies and companies that own them. Dr. DeAngelis's predecessor, Dr. George D. Lundberg, was dismissed in January, accused of publishing a paper on whether college students think oral sex is ''having sex'' to influence President Clinton's impeachment trial. The dismissal fueled a controversy over the journal's editorial independence

The fluorescent cholesterol analog 22-(N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3-diazol-4-yl)amino)-23,24-bisnor-5-cholen-3beta-ol (fluoresterol) was characterized as a tool for exploring the biochemistry and cell biology of intestinal cholesterol absorption. Hamsters absorbed fluoresterol in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, with an efficiency of about 15-30% that of cholesterol. Fluoresterol absorption was blocked by compounds known to inhibit cholesterol absorption, implying that fluoresterol interacts with those elements of the normal pathway for cholesterol absorption on which the inhibitors act. Confocal microscopy of small intestinal tissue demonstrated that fluoresterol was taken up by absorptive epithelial cells and packaged into lipoprotein particles, suggesting a normal route of intracellular trafficking. Uptake of fluoresterol was confirmed by biochemical analysis of intestinal tissue, and a comparison of [(3)H] cholesterol and fluoresterol content in the mucosa suggested that fluoresterol moved through the enterocytes more rapidly than did cholesterol. This interpretation was supported by measurements of fluoresterol esterification in the mucosa. Four hours after hamsters were given fluoresterol and [(3)H]cholesterol orally, 44% of the fluoresterol in the intestinal mucosa was esterified, compared to 8% of the [(3)H]cholesterol. Caco-2 cells took up 2- to 5-fold more [(3)H]cholesterol than fluoresterol from bile acid micelles, and esterified 21-24% of the fluoresterol but only 1-4% of the [(3)H]cholesterol. Thus fluoresterol apparently interacts with the proteins required for cholesterol uptake, trafficking, and processing in the small intestine.

People who suffer from digestive problems often feel fatigued and a loss of energy. Lamm and Couzens present some of the typical items that into into the average person's mouth during the course of a day--and the trouble they can cause

A case in point is the encephalitis outbreak that is blamed for at least three deaths in New York City. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the New York City Health Department said the cause was the mosquito-borne St. Louis virus, which had never been identified in New York City before. But last weekend the C.D.C., responding to findings from laboratory tests performed by Dr. Tracey McNamara, a pathologist at the Bronx Zoo, announced that the outbreak was caused by an even rarer zebra: the West Nile virus from Africa. Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, of the Emerging Diseases Laboratory at the University of California at Irvine, confirmed the findings. ''C.D.C. would not have made the diagnosis of West Nile virus as quickly without Dr. McNamara's persistent medical sleuthing,'' Dr. Duane J. Gubler, the head of the C.D.C.'s arbovirus field station in Fort Collins, Colo., said in an interview

A. Indeed. "We are finding more and more factors which can trigger the subsequent appearance of Alzheimer's disease," says Dr. Barry Reisberg, professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine and clinical director of the Aging and Dementia Research Center at the NYU Medical Center. Reisberg notes that external trauma is one of these factors. When any injury - like [Ronald Reagan]'s gunshot wound causes a decreased blood flow to brain- if the person goes into shock, for example, brain cells die as a result. Doctors don't know why, but such brain injury may increase the risk of Alzheimer's. Although Reagan may not have suffered from Alzheimer's while in office, Reagan lost 3,500 cubic centimeters of blood, more than half of his total, thanks to the assassin's bullet lodged an inch from his heart. It is possible the trauma may have contributed to his subsequently developing the disease