TRENDS in Biochemical Sciences Vol.26 No.6 June 2001

http://tibs.trends.com 0968-0004/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

354 News&CommentNews&Comment

In Brief

The challenge of clarifyingcomplexityA highly sensitive technique that is capableof quantifying the amount of proteins atthe single-cell level has recently beendeveloped. This technique, termed‘immunodetection amplified by T7 RNApolymerase’ (IDAT), is the product of tworesearch teams at the University ofPennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA, USA) [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. (2001)10.1073/pnas.101124598]. For this method,an antibody to the protein of interest isattached to a microplate and allowed tocapture the protein from cell lysates. Asecond antibody to this protein, conjugatedto a double-stranded oligonucleotidecontaining the T7 promoter, is then allowedto bind these antibody–antigen complexesand T7 RNA polymerase is used to amplifyRNA from these oligonucleotides. Whenused for detecting the HER2/neureceptor, a185-kD surface membrane protein that isoverexpressed in ~25% of human breastcancers, IDAT was nine-orders of magnitudemore sensitive than conventional methodssuch as ELISA. IDAT might be useful in aidingthe development of proteomics becauseadvances in this area are currently limitedby the inability of techniques to detect andreliably quantify individual proteins fromcomplex mixtures of cellular molecules. AR(http://www.med.upenn.edu/news)

Fragmentation of sciencepolicy in Europe: the cost ofnon-EuropeA study conducted by the Europolis project(April 2001) has tagged the excessivefragmentation of European research effortsand institutions as a handicap for theEuropean science, technology andinnovation policy. The Europolis project,representing a collaboration of eight sciencepolicy organizations led by the Observatoiredes Sciences et des Techniques (OST) inParis, France, and funded by the 5thFramework Programme, began in February2000 with the aim of fostering in-depthdebates on the evolution of Europe’s scienceand technology policy. To solve thisfragmentation problem, the studyrecommended that one or moreindependent European research councils

should be created, in fields such as lifesciences, biotechnology, agriculture andphysical sciences. The study suggested that,based on the template of the NationalScience Foundation (NSF) or the NationalInstitute of Health (NIH) in the USA, suchnew organizations could originate from theexisting European Science Foundation (ESF)and the national research councils. AR(http://www.obs-ost.fr/ost_en/news.htm)

Smart as a frog

Studies in frogs have demonstrated for thefirst time the in vivo induction of defensepeptides in a vertebrate. The soft, scale-lessskin of frogs, coupled with the moist,warm environments inhabited by theseamphibians, is an ideal breeding ground formicrobial pathogens. The skin glands offrogs provide relief from this onslaught bysecreting an array of structurally diversepeptides with antibiotic activity. A researchgroup led by Maurizio Simmaco andDonatella Barra at the University of Rome‘La Sapienza’ (Italy) now shows that thesynthesis of antimicrobial peptides in theskin of Rana esculenta is, in fact, stimulatedby microorganisms [FASEB J. (2001)10.1096/fj.00-0695fje]. Frogs kept in a sterileenvironment did not produce antimicrobialpeptides; however, exposure to even asingle type of microorganism (one whichcontributes to the frog’s natural flora) wassufficient to elicit a marked production ofthese peptides. In support of thisobservation, the secretions of frogs kept inbacteria-containing water (but not of thosekept under sterile conditions) containedNF-κB-binding activity; a characteristicpreviously associated with the productionof antimicrobial peptides. These findingswill help researchers learn more about themolecular mechanisms governing the roleof peptide antibiotics in the innate immunesystem. AR

Free access to archivedresearch articles: navigatingthrough troubled watersHot debate regarding the future availability ofonline publications is turning into turmoil forthe scientific-publishing world. This debatewas initiated last autumn, when the advocacygroup called the Public Library of Science(http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org)distributed an ‘open letter’ urgingpublishers to archive original researcharticles from their journals into acentralized, freely-available public database[see also Trends Biochem. Sci. (2001) 26, 14].Communication of the results of researchimpacts on everyone involved in science,including publishers, authors, librarians,editors, database managers and, of course,scientists. With the aim of encouragingdiscussions about how best to disseminatescientific research, Nature and Science haverecently (April 2001) launched freelyaccessible online debates discussing theimpact of the web on the publication oforiginal research and the possibility ofconstructing a public archive for primaryscientific literature.

One significant contribution to thisdebate (hosted on the Nature site) is aposition statement by the American Societyfor Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,publisher of the Journal of BiologicalChemistry. Compiled by Robert D. Wells andHerbert Tabor, this statement raises someobjections (both practical and a matter ofprinciple) to centralized, government-runarchives like PubMed Central, and explainswhy the free content of their journal will notbe transferred to such repositories. Inaddition, on 23rd April, Science announcedthat they had made their back researchcontent freely available one year after initialpublication. AR(http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/index.html;http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/hottopics/plsdebate.shtml)

Please, don’t push me onprotein structure dataWhen is protein data produced by publicstructural genomics programs to bereleased? According to a documentsupported by all participants at the First