Law could pose research problems

Many universities are concerned that legislation increasing access to federally funded research data will impede the course of scientific research.

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KETC building coming down; green space to take its place

The Baer Memorial building that formerly housed KETC Channel 9 at the corner of Millbrook and Big Bend boulevards will be torn down next week.

Demolition of the 44-year-old building will begin Monday, March 22, and will take about three weeks, said Steven G. Rackers, manager of capital projects and records in Facilities, Planning and Management.

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Full-scale sequencing

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Monday, March 15, that Washington University School of Medicine is one of three U.S. sites chosen to begin full-scale sequencing of the human genome -- all of the DNA in our chromosomes. Because it contains genes and regulators of gene function, this DNA choreographs the development of a fertilized egg to an adult, tells every cell in our bodies how to function and can cause disease when faulty.

Washington University, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., will share $81.6 million in NIH funding during the next 12 months. Washington University expects to receive about $38 million of this allocation.

The NIH support, which comes from the National Human Genome Research Institute, will enable the three sites to contribute to a working draft of at least 90 percent of the human genome by the spring of 2000. The medical school will obtain one-third of this sequence.

"This award will allow us to continue to play a leading role in genome studies," said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., associate professor of genetics. "Most of the methods and techniques now being used by other centers were developed and first implemented here." Wilson co-directs the Genome Sequencing Center, which is directed by Robert H. Waterston, M.D., Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Professor and head of genetics. The center already has received more than $97 million in federal funding since it was established in 1993.

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Bellwether

Wood frogs in eastern Missouri have staged a dramatic comeback.

The frogs, which had been extinct in eastern Missouri, and spotted salamanders that had been greatly reduced have come back with a flourish through a long-term conservation effort by Washington University biologists.

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