Alison McCook

• Losing Your Lab

The scientist was running a lab in the reproductive endocrinology department at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, and had recently logged some interesting results from his knockout mice. Instead, he noticed metabolic changes, including larger islet cells, altered fat distribution, and fatty liver, a sign of insulin resistance -only, these mice weren't insulin resistant (Proc Natl Acad Sci, 104:1348-53, 2007).

• Scientist, The
• August 26, 2009

• The Automated Dna Sequencer

• Scientist, The
• August 05, 2009

• Sizing Up Bush On Science

• Scientist, The
• August 11, 2009

• Betting On Better Organs

Eventually, scientists Will take one of the white spheres floating in the jars - the scaffolds - and add layers upon layers of human bladder cells, then ship the organ to a surgeon, who will implant it in the body of its donor/From biopsy to surgery, the process takes six to eight weeks. To get ready, employees have cleared out a 2,800 square meter facility, gradually equipped it with all the state-of-the-art technology, and begun the drawn-out process of testing and tweaking the system, using biopsies from cadavers and animals.

• Scientist, The
• August 21, 2009

• Stem Cell Rumble On the Prairie

...-Alison McCook. Copyright The Scientist, Inc. Oct 10, 2005...

• Scientist, The
• August 05, 2009

• Twin Disorders

Within months, she, Hugh, and other parents of NPC kids helped assemble an unprecedented collaboration between NPC researchers, gathered samples for a longitudinal study to look for NPC biomarkers, assisted one of the world's leading stem cell researchers in getting the background he needed to build an NPC neuron using human embryonic stem cells, and threw a fundraiser that netted $500,000 for NPC research. (Despite the fact that scientists can often pinpoint the specific mutations behind NPC, gene therapy is not an attractive option, because NPCl is a transmembrane protein that is not released from cells, so gene therapy would have to correct every cell to have an effect.) Christopher Austin first became interested in NPC 20 years ago as a clinical neurologist treating children with t...

• Scientist, The
• August 29, 2009

• Life After Fraud

The NIH Guide, a weekly report that lists findings of misconduct to help grant reviewers flag scientists who apply for federal funds before their exclusion period is over, is online, too. [...] Google anyone's name who has ever been penalized by the ORI, and even if their debarment was lifted more than a decade ago, even if they signed a document stating they accepted the ORI's decision well before the Internet became such a staple of daily life, the description of the finding against them - and the penalty they received will pop up. A pilot study published in Diabetes Care showed that the cream raised foot temperatures in 13 diabetics (who are prone to circulation problems) by several degrees, and improved blood flow.

• Scientist, The
• October 08, 2009

• Your Money for Your Life

...-Alison McCook. Copyright The Scientist, Inc. Mar 2006Prov...

• Scientist, The
• July 27, 2009

• Edit at Your Own Risk

... can have it as long as you don't use it." -Alison McCook. Copyright The Scientist, Inc. Apr 2006Prov...

• Scientist, The
• July 27, 2009

• Is Murray Hypoallergenic?

[...] late that Friday night in October 2007, a cat carrier came into sight. Brodie admits that Murray might have the gene for the normal rather than the modified FeI d 1, but declines to provide any information about the nature of the genetic change in the gene, considering it a trade secret.

..."We know that this works," he says. -Alison McCook. Copyright The Scientist, Inc. Jun 2009Prov...

• Scientist, The
• October 02, 2009