NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 23 November 2008
This press release is copyrighted to the Nature journals mentioned below.
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Photonics: Inspiration from chaos
Medicine: Sticky seizures
Immunology: Predicting vaccine immunogenicity
Medicine: Inside-out antivirals
Chemical Biology: Uncoupling cannabinoid effects
Geoscience: Wind-resistant ocean currents
And finally…Neuroscience: Making connections for face recognition
· Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
· Geographical listing of authors
PDFs of all the papers mentioned on this release can be found in the relevant journal’s section of http://press.nature.com. Press contacts for the Nature journals are listed at the end of this release.
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PLEASE CITE THE SPECIFIC NATURE JOURNAL AND WEBSITE AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO THE APPROPRIATE JOURNAL’S WEBSITE.
[1] Photonics: Inspiration from chaos
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2008.227
Lasers could be used to create high speed random-number generators, useful for many aspects of daily life, such as encrypting emails and internet transactions. A study online this week in Nature Photonics reveals that the perceived negative qualities of lasers, such as noise and chaos, can actually be used to beneficial effect for a wide range of modern applications.
Trusted random numbers should be unpredictable, irreproducible and statistically unbiased, and thus ensure confidentiality. However, previously reported approaches have produced either pseudo-random numbers that can be generated quickly but are vulnerable to prediction, or true randomness that is limited to a slow generation rate of the order of megabits per second.
Atsushi Uchida and co-workers in Japan report that, by sampling the fluctuating optical output of two chaotic semiconductor lasers, they are able to generate true random bit sequences at rates up to 1.7 gigabits per second – an order of magnitude faster than previously reported schemes that have verified randomness. The team suggests that the key is to use the unpredictability gained from the lasers’ noise, and the nonlinear amplification and mixing process of laser noise offered by the lasers’ chaotic dynamics.
This achievement of fast generation of truly random bit sequences is anticipated to improve security in the concealing of public information and the speed of secure key generation in future quantum cryptography systems. Further applications include computing in complex situations involving nuclear medicine and computational chemistry.
Author contact:
Atsushi Uchida (Saitama University, Japan)
Tel: +81 48 858 3490; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Medicine: Sticky seizures
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1878
A possible link between epileptic seizures and an interaction between immune cells and brain blood vessels is reported online this week in Nature Medicine. The study indicates that these interactions might be a target for the prevention and treatment of epilepsy.
Although epilepsy affects about 1% of the world population, its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Gabriela Constantin and colleagues show that seizures induce the expression of adhesion molecules in blood vessels of mice brains, holding immune cells called leukocytes in the circulatory system of the brain. Stopping the interactions of these cells with blood vessels or depleting certain immune cells known as neutrophils markedly reduced seizures.
The authors also found that seizures caused the barrier between the blood and the brain to become leaky, a phenomenon known to enhance the tendency of neurons to become active. However, blocking the binding of leukocytes to brain vessels prevented such a leak, linking leukocyte-blood vessel interactions, damage to the blood-brain barrier and seizure generation. Finally, the team found that leukocytes were more abundant in brains of people with epilepsy than in healthy subjects, a finding consistent with a potential leukocyte involvement in human epilepsy.
Author contact:
Gabriela Constantin (University of Verona, Italy)
Tel: +39 045 802 7102; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Immunology: Predicting vaccine immunogenicity
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1688
Scientists reveal how the Yellow Fever virus vaccine triggers different immune responses online this week in Nature Immunology. This work paves the way to rapidly predict whether vaccinated individuals will respond in a way that likely provides them with immune protection.
Using a myriad of genetic, biochemical, analytical and mathematical approaches, Bali Pulendran and colleagues screened gene expression patterns in individuals who received the Yellow Fever vaccine. By choosing subsets of genes on the basis of specific bioinformatic criteria, they extracted two distinct gene expression ‘signatures’ that correlated with lymphocyte immune responses. A subsequent test of the predictive power of these signatures demonstrated between 90 and 100% accuracy on a second group of individuals who had received the vaccine.
Accurately predicting, on the basis of ‘gene signatures’, if a given vaccine effectively induces immune responses has never been accomplished before. Whether this model can be used to predict efficacy of other vaccines types remains to be tested.
Author contact:
Bali Pulendran (Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA)
Tel: +1 404 727 8945; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Medicine: Inside-out antivirals
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1885
Targeting specific fat molecules normally found on the inside of the cell membrane could be a therapeutic strategy against viral diseases, reports a paper published online this week in Nature Medicine.
Therapies against multiple classes of viruses might be achieved by targeting molecules that are widely expressed on infected cells, as opposed to targeting individual viruses. Philip Thorpe and colleagues reasoned that events occurring during virus replication – for example, changes immediately before an infected cell dies – might lead to the extracellular exposure of fat molecules, known as phospholipids, that are normally on the inner surface of the cell membrane.
The team used a specific antibody, bavituximab, to target these potentially exposed molecules in cells infected with Pichinde virus. This virus is used as a model for Lassa fever virus – a potential bioterrorism agent. They found that infection led to the exposure of phospholipids, and that bavituximab treatment cured guinea pigs lethally infected with the virus. The authors found a similar therapeutic effect of bavituximab in mice with lethal cytomegalovirus infections. These results represent a new strategy for the generation of antiviral agents.
Author contact:
Philip Thorpe (University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX, USA)
Tel: +1 214 648 1268; E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Chemical Biology: Uncoupling cannabinoid effects
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.129
An endocannabinoid – which acts on the same receptors as the active component in marijuana – is shown to be involved in a wide range of neurological processes including pain sensation, reports a paper online in Nature Chemical Biology.
Cannabinoid signalling in the nervous system affects memory, appetite and mood, making it an attractive therapeutic target. Two different endocannabinoids, chemicals that bind to the cannabinoid receptors, induce these varied neurological effects. However since both chemicals signal through the same receptors, it has been difficult to match an endocannabinoid with its specific behavioural effects.
Benjamin Cravatt and colleagues have developed an inhibitor of the enzyme that breaks down an endocannabinoid, arachidonoylglycerol known as 2-AG. By blocking this enzyme, levels of 2-AG increased in mouse brains, which led to decreased pain sensation, hypothermia and decreased movement – providing evidence for the specific role of 2-AG in these processes. This inhibitor will provide an important tool for further investigating the neurological effects of 2-AG and may also provide a starting point for designing new pharmaceuticals.
Author contact:
Benjamin Cravatt (The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 858 784 8633; Email: [email protected]
[6] Geoscience: Wind-resistant ocean currents
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo362
The strength of Southern Ocean overturning circulation — a process that draws surface waters down to the ocean’s abyss and deep waters up to the surface near Antarctica — has not been significantly affected by intensifying wind strength over recent decades, a study online in Nature Geoscience reports. A possible future intensification of the wind-driven circulation had been suggested as a mechanism that could inhibit the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the deep ocean.
Claus Böning and colleagues analysed data from the Argo network of floating measurement instruments along with historical oceanographic data from the Southern Ocean. They found that the water in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current has become warmer and less salty over recent decades. From the resulting spatial distribution of water density, they conclude that neither the strength of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current nor of the overturning circulation were affected significantly by the recent strengthening of the westerly winds between 30 and 60º S.
The researchers conclude that the action of small-scale eddies, which are not resolved in most of the earlier ocean models, counteract any wind changes and stabilise the ocean circulation.
Author contact:
Claus Böning (Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, Kiel, Germany)
Tel. +49 431 600 4003; E-mail: [email protected]
[7] And finally…Neuroscience: Making connections for face recognition
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2224
The connectivity among face processing areas in the brain is disrupted in people born with prosopagnosia, a disorder of impaired face recognition ability, reports a study published online this week in Nature Neuroscience.
Previous work had suggested that the size and activity levels of interconnected face processing areas in prosopagnosics’ brains are relatively normal. Cibu Thomas and colleagues now ask whether a disruption of the connectivity among these areas could underlie the disorder. Face processing areas are connected by two major tracts of white matter, but the team find that in prosopagnosics, the structural integrity of both of these tracts is reduced. Other tracts connecting surrounding regions are unaffected in prosopagnosics.
Performance on a face recognition task correlates with the structural integrity of these connections, suggesting that these differences underlie this unique behavioural impairment.
Author contact:
Cibu Thomas (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 726 9034; Email: [email protected]
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Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature)
[8] Analysis of combinatorial cis-regulation in synthetic and genomic promoters
DOI: 10.1038/nature07521
[9] Dynamics of DNA replication loops reveal temporal control of lagging-strand synthesis
DOI: 10.1038/nature07512
[10] Altered circadian rhythms regulate growth vigour in hybrids and allopolyploids
DOI: 10.1038/nature07523
[11] Pulsed contractions of an actin–myosin network drive apical constriction
DOI: 10.1038/nature07522
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology)
[12] Human embryonic stem cells reveal recurrent genomic instability at 20q11.21
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1509
[13] Recurrent chromosomal abnormalities in human embryonic stem cells
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1510
[14] Asymmetric RNA duplexes mediate RNA interference in mammalian cells
DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1512
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology)
[15] Activation of TGF-b/activin signalling resets the circadian clock through rapid induction of Dec1 transcripts
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1806
[16] Glucose metabolism inhibits apoptosis in neurons and cancer cells by redox inactivation of cytochrome c
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1807
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nchembio)
[17] Substrate selection by the proteasome during degradation of protein complexes
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.130
NATURE GENETICS (http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics)
[18] The mitochondrial DNA genetic bottleneck results from replication of a subpopulation of genomes
DOI: 10.1038/ng.258
[19] Regulatory activity revealed by dynamic correlations in gene expression noise
DOI: 10.1038/ng.281
[20] Molecular characterization of clonal interference during adaptive evolution in asexual populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
DOI: 10.1038/ng.280
[21] Recurrent reciprocal 1q21.1 deletions and duplications are associated with microcephaly or macrocephaly and a range of developmental and behavioral abnormalities
DOI: 10.1038/ng.279
NATURE GEOSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/ngeo)
[22] Persistent thermal activity at the Eastern Gulf of Aden after continental break-up
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo359
[23] Increased cuticular carbon sequestration and lignin oxidation in response to soil warming
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo361
[24] Abrupt changes in Antarctic Intermediate Water circulation over the past 25,000 years
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo360
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology)
[25] Human fetal lymphoid tissue–inducer cells are interleukin 17–producing precursors to RORC+ CD127+ natural killer-like cells
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1668
[26] Influence of the transcription factor RORgt on the development of NKp46+ cell populations in gut and skin
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1681
[27] RORgt and commensal microflora are required for the differentiation of mucosal interleukin 22–producing NKp46+ cells
DOI: 10.1038/ni.1684
NATURE MATERIALS (http://www.nature.com/naturematerials)
[28] Determination of spin injection and transport in a ferromagnet/organic semiconductor heterojunction by two-photon photoemission
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2334
[29] Direct measurement of the electronic spin diffusion length in a fully functional organic spin valve by low-energy muon spin rotation
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2333
[30] Thermally stable Pt/mesoporous silica core–shell nanocatalysts for high-temperature reactions
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2329
Nature MEDICINE (http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine)
[31] Granulysin is a key mediator for disseminated keratinocyte death in Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1884
[32] Modification of mineralocorticoid receptor function by Rac1 GTPase: implication in proteinuric kidney disease
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1879
[33] A method for quantifying normal human mammary epithelial stem cells with in vivo regenerative ability
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1791
[34] Eradication of acute promyelocytic leukemia-initiating cells through PML-RARA degradation
DOI: 10.1038/nm.1891
NATURE METHODS (http://www.nature.com/nmeth)
[35] Epitope mapping of antibodies using bacterial surface display
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1272
[36] Human Protein Factory: an infrastructure to convert the human transcriptome into an in vitro-expressed proteome
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1273
[37] Whole cell 3D STORM reveals interactions between cellular structures with nanometer-scale resolution
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1274
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/nnano)
[38] Optically monitoring the mechanical assembly of single molecules
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2008.333
Nature NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience)
[39] Feature-based attention modulates feedforward visual processing
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2223
[40] Connectivity-based segregation of the human striatum predicts personality characteristics
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2228
[41] Interneurons hyperpolarize their target compartments along the entire somatodendritic axis of CA1 pyramids
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2230
[42] Bi-directional modulation of synaptic functions by Eph/ephrin signaling
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2231
[43] Stimulus contrast modulates functional connectivity in visual cortex
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2232
NATURE PHOTONICS (http://www.nature.com/nphoton)
[44] Low-power continuous-wave nonlinear optics in doped silica glass integrated waveguide structures
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2008.228
[45] Large-scale arrays of ultrahigh-Q coupled nanocavities
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2008.226
[46] Geometrodynamics of spinning light
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2008.229
Nature PHYSICS (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
[47] Size and mobility of excitons in (6, 5) carbon nanotubes
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1149
[48] Multiphase transformation and Ostwald’s rule of stages during crystallization of a metal phosphate
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1148
[49] Thermal-transport measurements in a quantum spin-liquid state of the frustrated triangular magnet k-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3
DOI: 10.1038/nphys1134
Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol)
[50] Structural insights into the Cyclin T1–Tat–TAR RNA transcription activation complex from EIAV
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1513
[51] Structural basis of nucleotide exchange and client binding by the Hsp70 cochaperone Bag2
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1518
[52] The MSL3 chromodomain directs a key targeting step for dosage compensation of the Drosophila melanogaster X chromosome
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1520
[53] Structure of a RSC–nucleosome complex and insights into chromatin remodeling
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.1524
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GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.
AUSTRALIA
Canberra: 46
Sydney: 44
Tasmania: 6
BELGIUM
Brussels: 13
CANADA:
Montreal: 18
Ottawa: 21
Toronto: 7, 21, 23, 44
Vancouver: 33
Varennes: 44
CHINA
Beijing: 10
Changsha: 28
Shanghai: 34
FRANCE
Clamart: 12
Evry: 12
Illkirch 34
Le Chesnay: 34
Lyon: 3
Marseille: 26
Paris: 22, 34
Villejuif: 12
GERMANY
Bonn: 40
Dortmund: 50
Freiburg: 27
Heidelberg: 50
Kiel: 6, 28
Kaiserslautern: 28
Munich: 38
Munich-Martinsried: 42
Wurzburg: 47
ISRAEL
Beer-Sheva: 7
Haifa: 46
ITALY
Milan: 47
Pavia: 44
Varese: 2
Verona: 2
JAPAN
Chiba: 36
Ehime: 36
Fukui: 36
Hiroshima: 15
Ibaraki: 36
Kanagawa: 36, 45
Kobe: 32
Kyoto: 1, 49
Osaka: 32, 36
Saitama: 1, 45
Sendai: 49
Shiga: 36
Tokyo: 1, 15, 32, 36
LEBANON
Beirut: 34
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 25
Leiden: 25
Rotterdam: 25
OMAN
Al-khod: 22
POLAND
Warsaw: 21
SOUTH KOREA
Daejeon: 48
Incheon: 48
SWEDEN
Stockholm: 35
SWITZERLAND
Fribourg: 29
Villigen: 29
TAIWAN
Hualien: 31
Taipei: 31
UKRAINE
Kharkov: 46
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 33
Didcot: 29
London: 7, 29, 43
Oxford: 41
Sheffield: 29
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Arizona
Phoenix: 21
Tucson: 40
Arkansas
Little Rock: 21
California
Berkeley: 30, 51
Davis: 39
La Jolla: 5, 41, 53
Los Angeles: 43
Palo Alto: 2
Pasadena: 19
San Francisco: 21, 25, 43
Stanford: 2, 20, 53
Tustin: 4
Connecticut
Farmington: 21
Delaware
Wilmington: 48
Florida
Miami: 21
Georgia
Atlanta: 3
Decatur: 3
Illinois
Chicago: 17
Evanston: 17
Urbana: 21
Indiana
Fort Wayne: 21
Maine
Bangor: 21
Maryland
Annapolis: 44
Massachusetts
Boston: 9, 14, 34, 52
Cambridge: 37
Norwood: 14
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 21
Missouri
Kansas City: 52
St Louis: 8, 21
New Jersey
Princeton: 11
New York
New York: 8, 14, 26, 27
Palisades: 24
Rochester: 21, 28
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 2, 16, 51
Durham: 31
Ohio
Cincinnati: 51
Cleveland: 2, 51
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City: 2
Tulsa: 21
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 7
Texas
Austin: 10
College Station: 20
Dallas: 4, 26, 52
Houston: 21
San Antonio: 21
Virginia
Richmond: 5
Washington
Seattle: 3
PRESS CONTACTS…
For media inquiries relating to embargo policy for all the Nature Research Journals:
Rachel Twinn (Nature London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: [email protected]
Katherine Anderson (Nature New York)
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: [email protected]
Ruth Francis (Head of Press, Nature, London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4562; E-mail: [email protected]
For media inquiries relating to editorial content/policy for the Nature Research Journals, please contact the journals individually:
Nature Biotechnology (New York)
Peter Hare
Tel: +1 212 726 9284; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Cell Biology (London)
Bernd Pulverer
Tel: +44 20 7843 4892; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Chemical Biology (Boston)
Andrea Garvey
Tel: +1 617 475 9241, E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Genetics (New York)
Orli Bahcall
Tel: +1 212 726 9311; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Geoscience (London)
Heike Langenberg
Tel: +44 20 7843 4042; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Immunology (New York)
Laurie Dempsey
Tel: +1 212 726 9372; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Materials (London)
Alison Stoddart
Tel: +44 20 7843 4593; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Medicine (New York)
Juan Carlos Lopez
Tel: +1 212 726 9325; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Methods (New York)
Hugh Ash
Tel: +1 212 726 9627; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Nanotechnology (London)
Peter Rodgers
Tel: +44 20 7014 4019; Email: [email protected]
Nature Neuroscience (New York)
Kalyani Narasimhan
Tel: +1 212 726 9319; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Photonics (Tokyo)
Oliver Graydon
Tel: +81 3 3267 8776; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Physics (London)
Alison Wright
Tel: +44 20 7843 4555; E-mail: [email protected]
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (New York)
Michelle Montoya
Tel: +1 212 726 9326; E-mail: [email protected]
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