Inside this issueCover storiesThe big questionsNew Kavli center for neuroscience research will untangle mysteries of the human brain Molecular gambleYale physiologist elected to National Academy of Sciences TrailblazerMagazine innovator celebrates 101 years with gifts for his medical school “family” PeopleLifelines: Expert on gene-swapping joined molecular biology at its very beginningsFor new deputy dean, focus is on top-notch care, service to patientsKidney researchers celebrate a banner yearUnconventional physician-filmmaker receives “genius” grantNew HHMI investigator says appointment liberates his scienceAwards & honorsScienceAnalysis of genome reveals clues to macular degenerationVaccinating wildlife suggests a new strategy in continuing battle against Lyme diseaseAdvances: Salmonella “syringe” ready for its close-up | Possible cancer inhibitor found in worm studyHealthA heart is repaired, the patient grows up: Program helps growing number of adult survivors of congenital diseaseMore integrated care for cancer patients, collaboration of scientists and clinicians are goals of proposed new YNHH buildingAdvances: New test easier for patients to swallow. | Study finds payoff in wider HIV testingPartnershipsPfizer and Yale join forces for research and educationA long, fruitful collaboration: Bristol-Myers Squibb and YaleDrive to cure blindness hits $5 millionClass of 1954 makes a lasting impact with scholarship giftGrants and contracts
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New HHMI investigator says appointment liberates his scienceRonald R. Breaker, Ph.D., has never shied away from less-charted scientific waters, but he says the best thing about his selection in March as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator is that the institute’s largely unrestricted support will “allow me to become much more aggressive in taking bigger risks.”
Breaker’s penchant for unconventional science has served him well. In his pathbreaking work on “riboswitches,” Breaker has shown that cells can regulate their function in ways that biologists would only recently have considered possible. In the laboratory, RNA strands can fold into intricate three-dimensional structures known as aptamers, which precisely recognize targets, much like antibodies do. Breaker has engineered aptamers to detect minute quantities of potential bioterrorist agents. But most biologists thought of aptamers as just a handy tool, and few imagined that they played any role in living things. However, because aptamers work so well in the lab, Breaker was convinced that they must exist in nature. Three years ago, he stunned the scientific world by showing that aptamers not only exist in bacteria, but they switch genes on and off, a function previously thought to be the sole province of proteins acting on DNA. These natural aptamers, which Breaker calls riboswitches, may be important new drug targets in humans, and Breaker has co-founded a company to search for aptamer-based gene therapies. Breaker, the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, is one of 43 newly appointed HHMI investigators, the first selected by the institute in five years. He joins 15 other Yale HHMI investigators among the 341 designees at biomedical research centers nationwide. Being able to pursue “risky” experiments “is a great honor,” Breaker says. “I feel tremendously lucky to be in this situation.”
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Medicine@Yale Magazine
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June/July 2005 Volume 1 Issue 1
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