For eight years, Nelson has been studying FMR1 and two related genes, called FXR1 and FXR2. All three of the genes encode proteins that bind to RNA and help regulate the process that builds proteins from RNA templates. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Previous research had shown that fruit flies that lack the Drosophila FMR1 gene have disrupted circadian rhythms when kept in darkness, but can still reset their biological clocks when exposed to light.
So Nelson and his colleagues tested mice that lack FMR1, FXR2 or both genes to see if their biological clocks are also thrown off. When normal mice are kept in complete darkness, they fall into sleeping-waking patterns slightly shorter than 24 hours. Mice lacking either FMR1 or FXR2 have yet shorter circadian rhythms when kept in the dark, but the difference is subtle, Nelson says. The mice have no trouble resetting their circadian clocks when the lights are turned on.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
shot 7.sho.0002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
When Brandon Granthon told his father he was moving to an apartment at Mulberry and Crescent streets in Harrisburg's crime-ridden Allison Hill neighborhood, Dwane Tennant recalled telling his son to reconsider.
For Granthon, 27, the rent was cheap, and he could walk across the Mulberry Street bridge to Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, where he was a freshman studying computer science.
On Friday evening, Tennant watched as mourners placed candles, flowers, balloons and pictures of Granthon at a memorial set up at the apartment building near where Granthon was shot and killed early Tuesday.
"This area right here, it's real bad," said Tennant, who lives in uptown. "They got kids 12 and 13 years old out here with guns." Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Granthon, who school officials said carried a 4.0 grade-point average, was shot once in the chest and was found lying on his back less than a block from his apartment around 1:10 a.m. He died shortly after arriving at Harrisburg Hospital, making him the city's seventh homicide victim this year -- one shy of the total number of killings in 2008.
Tennant's first son, Kevin T. Evans, was shot to death July 19, 1996, minutes after he and three others robbed Brandon Wallace of cash and drugs at North Fifth and Harris streets. Wallace, then 19, was convicted of third-degree murder.
Police said they found cocaine on Granthon's body, but whether drugs were involved in the killing has not been determined, city spokesman Matthew Coulter said. The claim that Granthon was involved with drugs came as a surprise to those who knew him best.
"I didn't know a person who didn't like Brandon," his friend Ashley Green said. "Everyone adored him and respected him."
Granthon spent a lot of time volunteering, school officials said. He participated in a reading program where he and others read to students at Harrisburg and Steelton schools. He worked a bargain box rummage sale and volunteered at Downtown Daily Bread, a Harrisburg soup kitchen.
Teachers and staff at the university said Granthon was a leader and had a knack for applying what he learned to real-life situations.
"He consistently was a model to the other students," said Jenni Olivetti, a student services administrator. "They watched how he worked and would follow him."
Mourners gathered at the university campus on Market Street just after 5 p.m. and walked, candles in hand, across the Mulberry Street bridge, passing beautiful murals that included one sketch of a blond girl holding a sign with "peace" written on it.
They stopped at Mulberry and Crescent and stood, many sobbing and embracing each other, for more than a half-hour and placed lit candles in white, paper cups among the flowers, balloons and pictures. Granthon's 6-year-old brother, Mark Lindsay, drew a heart on a white piece of paper and placed it against a picture of his brother.
"It feels like I had my heart ripped out of my chest," said Brandon's mother, Theresa Granthon, as she clutched the stem of a small red balloon with "I love you" written on it.
Others struggled to make sense of it and pleaded for answers.
"I just want to know what happened and I want to know why," Green said. "I just want to know why."
For Granthon, 27, the rent was cheap, and he could walk across the Mulberry Street bridge to Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, where he was a freshman studying computer science.
On Friday evening, Tennant watched as mourners placed candles, flowers, balloons and pictures of Granthon at a memorial set up at the apartment building near where Granthon was shot and killed early Tuesday.
"This area right here, it's real bad," said Tennant, who lives in uptown. "They got kids 12 and 13 years old out here with guns." Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Granthon, who school officials said carried a 4.0 grade-point average, was shot once in the chest and was found lying on his back less than a block from his apartment around 1:10 a.m. He died shortly after arriving at Harrisburg Hospital, making him the city's seventh homicide victim this year -- one shy of the total number of killings in 2008.
Tennant's first son, Kevin T. Evans, was shot to death July 19, 1996, minutes after he and three others robbed Brandon Wallace of cash and drugs at North Fifth and Harris streets. Wallace, then 19, was convicted of third-degree murder.
Police said they found cocaine on Granthon's body, but whether drugs were involved in the killing has not been determined, city spokesman Matthew Coulter said. The claim that Granthon was involved with drugs came as a surprise to those who knew him best.
"I didn't know a person who didn't like Brandon," his friend Ashley Green said. "Everyone adored him and respected him."
Granthon spent a lot of time volunteering, school officials said. He participated in a reading program where he and others read to students at Harrisburg and Steelton schools. He worked a bargain box rummage sale and volunteered at Downtown Daily Bread, a Harrisburg soup kitchen.
Teachers and staff at the university said Granthon was a leader and had a knack for applying what he learned to real-life situations.
"He consistently was a model to the other students," said Jenni Olivetti, a student services administrator. "They watched how he worked and would follow him."
Mourners gathered at the university campus on Market Street just after 5 p.m. and walked, candles in hand, across the Mulberry Street bridge, passing beautiful murals that included one sketch of a blond girl holding a sign with "peace" written on it.
They stopped at Mulberry and Crescent and stood, many sobbing and embracing each other, for more than a half-hour and placed lit candles in white, paper cups among the flowers, balloons and pictures. Granthon's 6-year-old brother, Mark Lindsay, drew a heart on a white piece of paper and placed it against a picture of his brother.
"It feels like I had my heart ripped out of my chest," said Brandon's mother, Theresa Granthon, as she clutched the stem of a small red balloon with "I love you" written on it.
Others struggled to make sense of it and pleaded for answers.
"I just want to know what happened and I want to know why," Green said. "I just want to know why."
Monday, May 4, 2009
health 3.hea.0002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
A pair of health policy advisers — one representing John McCain and the other Barack Obama — took part in a forum (one might say mild-mannered debate) this afternoon at George Washington University. Through this event, they became the public faces of the committees counseling the candidates on health issues.
Health-policy analyst Jay Khosla parried questions about John McCain’s stance; physician Dora Hughes did the same for Barack Obama.
Before joining the McCain campaign, Khosla served as a counsel on health issues for the Senate Budget Committee and held a similar position for former Senate Majority Leader — and surgeon — William H. Frist.
Hughes, herself a physician, formerly worked for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as Deputy Director for Health on the Senate Committee on Health. Before that, Hughes was the senior program officer at the Commonwealth Fund, a national health foundation based in New York City.
But when a question from the audience asked who the candidates’ other health and research advisers were, both Khosla and Hughes demurred.
It wasn’t even clear from his somewhat strained response whether Khosla knows who the others are. He mentioned that many excellent people are advising McCain, but when pushed for names, he eventually could name only Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who’s also advising the candidate on science. For more names, Khosla asked the debate’s moderator, National Public Radio correspondent Julie Rovner, to contact others on the candidate’s campaign staff.
He did offer that a health-care professionals coalition — physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, optometrists, and others — participates weekly in a conference call to discuss health problems and policy recommendations. Members of this coalition identify, from the “ground level,” emerging issues, Khosla said, and a synthesis of their comments gets “funneled to Sen. McCain.”
Khosla did give up a few additional names as being in the McCain inner circle: Grace-Marie Turner, founder of the Galen Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and health-care analyst Gail Wolensky, who ran the Medicare/Medicaid programs in the George H. Bush administration.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Hughes did acknowledge knowing who Obama’s other health advisers are, but noted that their services in many cases were being provided confidentially, so she thought it inappropriate to name them. However, she did offer up that the 1989 Nobel Prize winner Harold Varmus, a former director of NIH, was among them. Other names that she mentioned: David Blumenthal, a health care analyst with an endowed chair at Harvard Medical School and David Cutler (presumably the one that’s a renowned software engineer behind a number of projects, including several of Microsoft’s more recent operating systems). http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
Today's forum was organized by the nonpartisan Scientists & Engineers for America. A recording of today's event is slated to become available at their website this evening
Health-policy analyst Jay Khosla parried questions about John McCain’s stance; physician Dora Hughes did the same for Barack Obama.
Before joining the McCain campaign, Khosla served as a counsel on health issues for the Senate Budget Committee and held a similar position for former Senate Majority Leader — and surgeon — William H. Frist.
Hughes, herself a physician, formerly worked for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as Deputy Director for Health on the Senate Committee on Health. Before that, Hughes was the senior program officer at the Commonwealth Fund, a national health foundation based in New York City.
But when a question from the audience asked who the candidates’ other health and research advisers were, both Khosla and Hughes demurred.
It wasn’t even clear from his somewhat strained response whether Khosla knows who the others are. He mentioned that many excellent people are advising McCain, but when pushed for names, he eventually could name only Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who’s also advising the candidate on science. For more names, Khosla asked the debate’s moderator, National Public Radio correspondent Julie Rovner, to contact others on the candidate’s campaign staff.
He did offer that a health-care professionals coalition — physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, optometrists, and others — participates weekly in a conference call to discuss health problems and policy recommendations. Members of this coalition identify, from the “ground level,” emerging issues, Khosla said, and a synthesis of their comments gets “funneled to Sen. McCain.”
Khosla did give up a few additional names as being in the McCain inner circle: Grace-Marie Turner, founder of the Galen Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and health-care analyst Gail Wolensky, who ran the Medicare/Medicaid programs in the George H. Bush administration.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Hughes did acknowledge knowing who Obama’s other health advisers are, but noted that their services in many cases were being provided confidentially, so she thought it inappropriate to name them. However, she did offer up that the 1989 Nobel Prize winner Harold Varmus, a former director of NIH, was among them. Other names that she mentioned: David Blumenthal, a health care analyst with an endowed chair at Harvard Medical School and David Cutler (presumably the one that’s a renowned software engineer behind a number of projects, including several of Microsoft’s more recent operating systems). http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
Today's forum was organized by the nonpartisan Scientists & Engineers for America. A recording of today's event is slated to become available at their website this evening
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
