Faculty Bibliography

Ms. Elion developed drugs for use in a vast array of conditions. They included drugs for herpes, leukemia, malaria, gout, immune disorders, and AIDS, and immune suppressants to overcome rejection of donated organs in transplant surgery. In perfecting one compound after another, Ms. Elion worked for four decades with Dr. George H. Hitchings, who died a year ago. Ms. Elion broke down gender barriers in the male-dominated world of scientific research, becoming one of the rare women to win a Nobel Prize and, even rarer, a scientist who did not have a doctorate. Ms. Elion shared the Prize with Hitchings, who hired her as a $50- a-week assistant in 1944. Also sharing the Prize was Sir James Black of Britain, who discovered two classes of drugs, beta blockers, for high blood pressure and heart disease, and H-2 antagonists, for ulcers

David M. Oshinsky reviews the book "Why the American Century?" by Olivier Zunz

To date, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the mighty Blue Diamond for women's use. Clinical trials of both Viagra and of Vasomax, a new oral medication, are only now in the early investigational phases needed for approval. "I'm absolutely against women indiscriminately using the medication," says Laura A. Berman, a sex therapist at the Boston University Medical Center. Along with her sister Jennifer, a urologist and director of the new Women's Sexual Health Clinic, Berman is now evaluating women of all ages from around the country who complain of sexual dysfunction. Viagra and other drugs in the rapidly growing sexual medicine armamaterium - such as testosterone and estrogen and, eventually, Viagra-like topical gels and creams - relax the arteries and allow more blood to flow to the genitals, where it's needed. With more blood comes increased sensitivity, even for post-menopausal women and those who have had hysterectomies

These are not just pill formulations that a man gulps down with a glass of water; indeed, some of the novel drugs being tested include gels and creams (tasteless, most likely. Flavored? We don't know.) that are rubbed into the penis. There are also "needle-less" and "painless" injectable medications. Bill Gates, Microsoft's CEO, currently has a sizable interest in Icos, a Bothell, Wash., company that's developing a medication similar to Viagra. Approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, could be years away. While many of these men can be helped by Viagra, it's estimated that of the men 50 years of age and older with heart ailments, approximately 10 to 20 men per million will die (without taking Viagra or any other prosexual) during sexual intercourse. Still, the FDA considers Viagra to be a very safe medication and should be readily prescribed to men who need it and can safely use it. If you're considering Viagra, be sure to first have a thorough cardiovascular assessment

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the cancer from which King Hussein of Jordan is near death at age 63, comes in many forms. While the prognosis varies significantly according to the type, any form can act unpredictably. Yet many others, like King Hussein, develop a form that is highly aggressive, and succumb swiftly even after they experience an apparently successful bone marrow transplant and other powerful but risky therapies. Like many cancers, King Hussein's initially responded dramatically to large amounts of anti-cancer drugs. Then, to give him the best chance of a cure, cells were taken from his body and stored for what is known as an autologous stem cell transplant. In the procedure, he received huge amounts of drugs to kill the cancer cells. But the drugs also killed the King's own healthy blood cells. So a few days after the chemotherapy regimen was completed, the King received his own cells to supply oxygen and defend against infection while his own bone marrow healed and began to make its own cells

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the cancer which has left King Hussein of Jordan near death at age 63, comes in many forms. While the prognosis varies significantly according to the type, any form can act unpredictably. Doctors have divided lymphomas into two types: Hodgkin's disease (named for Thomas Hodgkin of London, who first described it as a new disease in 1832) and a dozen other forms grouped as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Hussein's cancer is believed to be the most common latter type, known as B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His demise comes less than eight months after the diagnosis was first made at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn

Two new laboratory tests promise to improve therapy for people with drug-resistant strains of the AIDS virus and to reduce the risk that the virus will develop resistance in others who are newly infected, researchers said at the close of a five-day AIDS meeting here today. Drug resistance has become a critical factor in the failure of potent drug cocktails in many individuals infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Studies have shown that resistance can result when patients do not adhere to prescribed regimens, allowing the virus to change and become resistant to the medication. Other cases result when someone infected with a resistant virus transmits it to another person. Drug resistance is estimated to affect only a small percentage of infected individuals now, said Dr. John W. Mellors of the University of Pittsburgh. But Dr. Mellors said health officials were concerned that further spread could increase the problem of resistance and wipe out some gains made in AIDS therapy in the last three years

A day after United Nations scientists reported that mother-to-infant transmission of the AIDS virus could be significantly cut by a new, simple drug treatment regimen, serious questions about its safety arose from a report of the deaths of two babies in a similar, separate French study. Researchers involved said the meeting's organizers did not allow them to release news of the two cases until today, even though the United Nations scientists reported the findings of their study on Monday and also spoke at a news conference. Dr. Joseph Saba, the United Nations official who reported the findings on the simpler treatment regimen, said a meeting official had told him that restrictions had been placed on information so that it was made public on specific days