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Editorial

The twain shall meet p869

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-869

Announcing an initiative to connect commercially oriented academics with their local business community.


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News

Expanded access rules pose quandary for drug developers pp871 - 872

George S Mack

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-871


FDA penalizes trial misconduct p872

Catherine Shaffer

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-872


Test tube meat on the menu? p873

Jeffrey L Fox

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-873


Europe plans for drug-making plants p874

Wendy Wolfson

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-874a


Pfizer lured to Sweden p874

Susan Aldridge

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-874b


Spotlight focuses on protein-misfolding therapies p874

Mark Ratner

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-874c


Regulation of consumer genomic tests remains in limbo pp875 - 877

Malorye Allison

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-875


Golden Triangle taps Boston p877

Susan Aldridge

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-877a


Fits and starts for Geron p877

Laura DeFrancesco

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-877b


Firms seek new models to access public equity pp878 - 879

Peter Mitchell

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-878


Sanofi's Shantha boost p879

Killugudi Jayaraman

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-879a


Gulf beckons biotech p879

Hayley Birch

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-879b


News Feature

Under wraps pp880 - 882

Emily Waltz

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-880

Are the crop industry's strong-arm tactics and close-fisted attitude to sharing seeds holding back independent research and undermining public acceptance of transgenic crops? Emily Waltz investigates.


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Bioentrepreneur

Building a business

Credibility: your most important asset pp883 - 885

Douglas MacDougall & Jennifer Conrad

doi:10.1038/bioe.2009.8


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Opinion and Comment

Correspondence

Is it virtuous to be virtual? The VC viewpoint pp886 - 888

Justin Chakma, Jeff L Calcagno, Ali Behbahani & Shawn Mojtahedian

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-886


The power of social networking in medicine pp888 - 890

Catherine A Brownstein, John S Brownstein, David S Williams III, Paul Wicks & James A Heywood

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-888


Creating a mouse academic research commons pp890 - 891

David Einhorn & Rita Heimes

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-890


Cofactor-mediated protein promiscuity p892

Jordan D Dimitrov & Tchavdar L Vassilev

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-892a


Healthcare-biotech symbiosis pp892 - 893

Kamran Ahmed & Hutan Ashrafian

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-892b


Improved genome annotation for Zymomonas mobilis pp893 - 894

Shihui Yang, Katherine M Pappas, Loren J Hauser, Miriam L Land, Gwo-Liang Chen, Gregory B Hurst, Chongle Pan, Vassili N Kouvelis, Milton A Typas, Dale A Pelletier, Dawn M Klingeman, Yun-Juan Chang, Nagiza F Samatova & Steven D Brown

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-893


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Features

Can web 2.0 reboot clinical trials? pp895 - 902

Malorye Allison

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-895

Dozens of companies are trying to leverage social networking and other software tools to accelerate trials and reduce their cost.


Patents

Legal uncertainty in the area of genetic diagnostic testing pp903 - 909

Isabelle Huys, Nele Berthels, Gert Matthijs & Geertrui Van Overwalle

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-903

A patent landscape analysis of 22 common genetic diagnostic tests shows substantially fewer claims on genes per se than initially suggested but raises questions of legal uncertainty as to the claims' scope.


Recent patent applications in RNA interference p910

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-910


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News and Views

siRNA delivery not Toll-free pp911 - 912

Michael P Gantier & Bryan R G Williams

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-911

Activating the tumor-associated immune system with an siRNA conjugated to a Toll-like receptor 9 ligand is a promising anticancer strategy.

See also: Research by Kortylewski et al.


Snapshots of kinase activities pp912 - 913

Javier Muñoz & Albert J R Heck

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-912

A mass spectrometry–based strategy facilitates sensitive and rapid detection of kinase activities in small amounts of cell lysate.

See also: Research by Kubota et al.


Stem cell biology meets p53 pp914 - 915

Anna M Puzio-Kuter & Arnold J Levine

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-914

Often called "the guardian of the genome," p53 may also be the guardian of stable development.


Cancer's insatiable appetite pp916 - 917

Jason W Locasale, Lewis C Cantley & Matthew G Vander Heiden

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-916

Seemingly unrelated mutations that drive cancer share the ability to promote nutrient uptake and metabolism conducive to cell growth.


Introducing the acetylome pp917 - 919

Karen T Smith & Jerry L Workman

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-917

Mass spectrometry reveals protein acetylation to be as widespread as phosphorylation.


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Research Highlights

Research highlights p920

Kathy Aschheim, Markus Elsner, Peter Hare & Craig Mak

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-920


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Computational Biology

Primer

How to visually interpret biological data using networks pp921 - 924

Daniele Merico, David Gfeller & Gary D Bader

doi:10.1038/nbt.1567

Networks in biology can appear complex and difficult to decipher. Merico et al. illustrate how to interpret biological networks with the help of frequently used visualization and analysis patterns.


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Research

Article

In vivo delivery of siRNA to immune cells by conjugation to a TLR9 agonist enhances antitumor immune responses pp925 - 932

Marcin Kortylewski, Piotr Swiderski, Andreas Herrmann, Lin Wang, Claudia Kowolik, Maciej Kujawski, Heehyoung Lee, Anna Scuto, Yong Liu, Chunmei Yang, Jiehui Deng, Harris S Soifer, Andrew Raubitschek, Stephen Forman, John J Rossi, Drew M Pardoll, Richard Jove & Hua Yu

doi:10.1038/nbt.1564

Tumors generate microenvironments that actively suppress the body's anti-tumor immune response. Kortylewski et al. restore immunity by delivering an siRNA against Stat3, a regulator of immune suppression, to myeloid and B cells using a CpG oligonucleotide that targets toll-like receptor 9.

See also: News and Views by Gantier & Williams


Article

Sensitive multiplexed analysis of kinase activities and activity-based kinase identification pp933 - 940

Kazuishi Kubota, Rana Anjum, Yonghao Yu, Ryan C Kunz, Jannik N Andersen, Manfred Kraus, Heike Keilhack, Kumiko Nagashima, Stefan Krauss, Cloud Paweletz, Ronald C Hendrickson, Adam S Feldman, Chin-Lee Wu, John Rush, Judit Villén & Steven P Gygi

doi:10.1038/nbt.1566

Kubota et al. describe a sensitive mass spectrometric method for generating signatures of kinase activity characteristic of specific cell types. They also identify kinases responsible for phosphorylating substrates of interest.

See also: News and Views by Muñoz & Heck


Letter

A proteomics approach to discovering natural products and their biosynthetic pathways pp951 - 956

Stefanie B Bumpus, Bradley S Evans, Paul M Thomas, Ioanna Ntai & Neil L Kelleher

doi:10.1038/nbt.1565

Nonribosomal peptides and polyketides constitute a large fraction of antibiotic, antitumor and immunosuppressant drugs. Bumpus et al. present a proteomic strategy to identify new natural products and their biosynthetic pathways.


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Research

Letters

Automated design of synthetic ribosome binding sites to control protein expression pp946 - 950

Howard M Salis, Ethan A Mirsky & Christopher A Voigt

doi:10.1038/nbt.1568

Salis et al. design precisely tuned ribosome binding sites that allow rational control over the rate of protein translation. This technology should facilitate the design of synthetic genetic circuits and metabolic pathways.


Induction of protein-protein interactions in live cells using light pp941 - 945

Masayuki Yazawa, Amir M Sadaghiani, Brian Hsueh & Ricardo E Dolmetsch

doi:10.1038/nbt.1569

Controlling protein-protein interaction with high temporal and spatial resolution is essential for understanding many cellular processes. Yazawa et al. present genetically encoded tags that can induce protein dimer formation upon stimulation with blue light.


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Errata

Erratum: Sanofi Aventis grooms its ranks for biotech partnering p957

Nuala Moran

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-957a


Erratum: Diagnostics firms face new patent claim worries p957

Malorye Allison

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-957b


Erratum: Novo awaits green light for diabetes drug p957

Mike May

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-957c


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Careers and Recruitment

People

People p958

doi:10.1038/nbt1009-958


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