Washington, Feb 5 (ANI): Using a liquid laser, researchers have devised a better way to detect the slight genetic mutations that might make a person more vulnerable to a particular type of cancer or other diseases.

This work by University of Michigan researchers could advance understanding of the genetic basis of diseases.

It also has applications in personalized medicine, which aims to target drugs and other therapies to individual patients based on a thorough knowledge of their genetic information.

The researchers say their technique works much better than the current approach, which uses fluorescent dye and other biological molecules to find and bind to mutated DNA strands.

When a patrol molecule catches one of these rogues, it emits a fluorescent beacon. This might sound like a solid system, but it's not perfect. The patrol molecules tend to bind to healthy DNA as well, giving off a background glow that is only slightly dimmer than a positive signal.

“Sometimes, we can fail to see the difference,” said Xudong Fan, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and principal investigator on the project.

“If you cannot see the difference in signals, you could misdiagnose. The patient may have the mutated gene, but you wouldn't detect it.”

In the conventional fluorescence technique, the signal from mutated DNA might be only a few tenths of a percent higher than the background noise. With Fan's new approach it's hundreds of times brighter.

“We found a clever way to amplify the intrinsic difference in the signals,” Fan said.

He did it with a bit of backtracking.

Liquid lasers, discovered in the late '60s, amplify light by passing it through a dye, rather than a crystal, as solid-state lasers do. Fan, who works at the intersection of biomedical engineering and photonics, has been developing them for the past five years.

In his unique set-up, the signal is amplified in a glass capillary called a “ring resonator cavity.”

Last year, Fan and his research group found that they could employ DNA (the blueprints for life that reside in all cells) to modulate a liquid laser, or turn it on and off.

His group is one of just a few in the world to accomplish this, Fan said. At the time, they didn't have a practical application in mind. Then they had an epiphany.

“We thought, 'Let's look at the laser output. Can we see what's causing the different outputs and use it to detect differences in the DNA?'” Fan said.

“I had an intuition, and it turns out the output difference was huge,” Fan added.

The journal editors named this a “hot paper” that “advances knowledge in a rapidly evolving field of high current interest.”

The study has been published in German journal Angewandte Chemie. (ANI)

See more here:
Liquid lasers to make detection of cancer genes easier

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Jenks' Sam Sabin: Lineman headed to Air Force to study genetic engineering

Contact: Vicki Cohn
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914-740-2100
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY — If the proven long-term benefits of smoking cessation are not enough to motivate young adults to stop smoking, a new study shows that 18- to 24-year olds who stop smoking for at least two weeks report substantially fewer respiratory symptoms, especially coughing. The study findings are detailed in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available online.

Karen Calabro, DrPH and Alexander Prokhorov, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, compared self-reported respiratory symptoms among two groups of college students who participated in programs designed to motivate them to stop smoking. One group achieved smoking cessation for two weeks or longer and the other group failed to stop smoking. More than half of the students smoked 5-10 cigarettes a day and had smoked for 1-5 years.

“That the benefit of stopping smoking starts in days to weeks?not years or decades?is important. Now health care providers can counsel young smokers that their breathing can feel better soon after they stop. This can help to motivate young adults to stop smoking before the severe damage is done,” says Harold Farber, MD, MSPH, Editor of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Pulmonology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

###

Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal published in print and online. The Journal synthesizes the pulmonary, allergy, and immunology communities in the advancement of the respiratory health of children. The Journal provides comprehensive coverage to further the understanding and optimize the treatment of some of the most common and costly chronic illnesses in children. It includes original translational, clinical, and epidemiologic research; public health, quality improvement, and case control studies; patient education research; and the latest research and standards of care for functional and genetic immune deficiencies and interstitial lung diseases. Tables of content and a free sample issue may be viewed online.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery and Population Health Management. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on our website.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
140 Huguenot St.
New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215
http://www.liebertpub.com
Phone: 914-740-2100
800-M-LIEBERT
Fax: 914-740-2101

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Coughing and other respiratory symptoms improve within weeks of smoking cessation

Contact: Vicki Cohn
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914-740-2100
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, February 2, 2012?Small RNA-based nucleic acid drugs represent a promising new class of therapeutic agents for silencing abnormal or overactive disease-causing genes, and researchers have discovered new mechanisms by which RNA drugs can control gene activity. A comprehensive review article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., details these advances.

Short strands of nucleic acids, called small RNAs, can be used for targeted gene silencing, making them attractive drug candidates. These small RNAs block gene expression through multiple RNA interference (RNAi) pathways, including two newly discovered pathways in which small RNAs bind to Argonaute proteins or other forms of RNA present in the cell nucleus, such as long non-coding RNAs and pre-mRNA.

Keith T. Gagnon, PhD, and David R. Corey, PhD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, review common features shared by RNAi pathways for controlling gene expression and focus in detail on the potential for Argonaute-RNA complexes in gene regulation and other exciting new options for targeting emerging forms of non-coding RNAs and pre-mRNAs in the article “Argonaute and the Nuclear RNAs: New Pathways for RNA Mediated Control of Gene Expression.”

“The field of RNA mediated control of gene expression is rapidly evolving and the article by Gagnon and Corey provides a highly informative and up to date review of this exciting and often surprising area of biomedical research. We are delighted to publish this important review for the field,” says Co-Editor-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.

###

Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is under the editorial leadership of Co-Editors-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, and C.A. Stein, MD, PhD, Department of Oncology, Albert Einstein-Montefiore Cancer Center, Montefiore Medical Center; and Executive Editor Fintan Steele, PhD (SomaLogic, Boulder, CO).

Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative, peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. A complete table of contents and free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/nat.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy and Human Gene Therapy Methods, Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, Assay and Drug Development Technologies, and DNA and Cell Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215
Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax: (914) 740-2101
www.liebertpub.com

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New RNA-based therapeutic strategies for controlling gene expression

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NPR's Bias Against Genetic Engineering

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Assessing the value of BMI screening and surveillance in schools

Contact: Vicki Cohn
vcohn@liebertpub.com
914-740-2100
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY — A variety of innovative products and technologies that promote healing of difficult, painful, and potentially life-threatening acute and chronic wounds are described in the premier issue of Advances in Wound Care, a bimonthly online publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com) and an Official Journal of the Wound Healing Society. The issue is available free online at http://www.liebertpub.com/wound

Several Technology Reports highlight products such as a negative pressure device that delivers a continuous subatmospheric pressure level to the wound bed to promote healing. Advanced dressings described in the reports can absorb fluid produced by the wound, cushion the surrounding area, and provide continuous cleansing to accelerate healing, reduce pain, and control swelling. Also featured are biological therapies that may include the delivery of growth factors, bioengineered cells, or components of the patient's own cells to stimulate the healing process.

“Thanks to the Wound Healing Society, Advances in Wound Care is a peer-reviewed forum where the essence of latest advances in science contributed by world-experts meets practical solutions in wound care,” says Editor-in-Chief Chandan K. Sen, PhD, Professor of Surgery and Director of the Comprehensive Wound Center at The Ohio State University Medical Center.

###

Advances in Wound Care is a bimonthly online journal that reports the latest scientific discoveries, translational research, and clinical developments in acute and chronic wound care. Each issue provides a digest of the latest research findings, innovative wound care strategies, industry product pipeline, and developments in biomaterials and skin and tissue regeneration to optimize patient outcomes. The broad scope of applications covered includes limb salvage, chronic ulcers, burns, trauma, blast injuries, surgical repair, skin bioengineering, dressings, anti-scar strategies, diabetic ulcers, ostomy, bedsores, biofilms, and military wound care. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online (http://www.liebertpub.com/wound).

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Tissue Engineering, Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, and Surgical Infections. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at our website (http://www.liebertpub.com).

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215
http://www.liebertpub.com
Phone: 914-740-2100
800-M-LIEBERT
Fax: 914-740-2101

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

See original here:
New high-tech wound care products speed healing of ulcers, burns, injuries and surgical wounds

EDITORS: See photo at: http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/20189-genes-linked-to-cancer-could-be-easier-to-detect-with-liquid-lasers

Newswise — ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Using a liquid laser, University of Michigan researchers have developed a better way to detect the slight genetic mutations that might predispose a person to a particular type of cancer or other diseases.

Their results are published in the current edition of the German journal Angewandte Chemie.

This work could advance understanding of the genetic basis of diseases. It also has applications in personalized medicine, which aims to target drugs and other therapies to individual patients based on a thorough knowledge of their genetic information.

The researchers say their technique works much better than the current approach, which uses fluorescent dye and other biological molecules to find and bind to mutated DNA strands. When a patrol molecule catches one of these rogues, it emits a fluorescent beacon. This might sound like a solid system, but it's not perfect. The patrol molecules tend to bind to healthy DNA as well, giving off a background glow that is only slightly dimmer than a positive signal.

“Sometimes, we can fail to see the difference,” said Xudong Fan, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and principal investigator on the project. “If you cannot see the difference in signals, you could misdiagnose. The patient may have the mutated gene, but you wouldn't detect it.”

In the conventional fluorescence technique, the signal from mutated DNA might be only a few tenths of a percent higher than the background noise. With Fan's new approach it's hundreds of times brighter.

“We found a clever way to amplify the intrinsic difference in the signals,” Fan said.

He did it with a bit of backtracking.

Liquid lasers, discovered in the late '60s, amplify light by passing it through a dye, rather than a crystal, as solid-state lasers do. Fan, who works at the intersection of biomedical engineering and photonics, has been developing them for the past five years. In his unique set-up, the signal is amplified in a glass capillary called a “ring resonator cavity.”

Last year, Fan and his research group found that they could employ DNA (the blueprints for life that reside in all cells) to modulate a liquid laser, or turn it on and off. His group is one of just a few in the world to accomplish this, Fan said. At the time, they didn't have a practical application in mind. Then they had an epiphany.

“We thought, 'Let's look at the laser output. Can we see what's causing the different outputs and use it to detect differences in the DNA?'” Fan said. “I had an intuition, and it turns out the output difference was huge.”

The journal editors named this a “hot paper” that “advances knowledge in a rapidly evolving field of high current interest.”

The paper is titled “Distinguishing DNA by Analog-to-Digital-like Conversion by Using Optofluidic Lasers.” The research was funded by the National Science Foundation. The first author is Yuze Sun, a doctoral student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property, and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.

The University of Michigan College of Engineering is ranked among the top engineering schools in the country. At more than $130 million annually, its engineering research budget is one of largest of any public university. Michigan Engineering is home to 11 academic departments and a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. The college plays a leading role in the U-M Energy Institute and hosts the world-class Lurie Nanofabrication Facility. Michigan Engineering's premier scholarship, international scale and multidisciplinary scope combine to create The Michigan Difference. Find out more at www.engin.umich.edu.

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Genes Linked to Cancer Could Be Easier to Detect with Liquid Lasers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) recently announced a major breakthrough in engineering systems of RNA molecules through computer-assisted design.

This could lead to important improvements across a range of industries, including the development of cheaper advanced biofuels. 

Scientists will use these new “RNA machines,” to adjust genetic expression in the cells of microorganisms. 

This will enable scientists to develop new strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) that are better able to digest switchgrass biomass and convert released sugars to form three types of transportation fuels — gasoline, diesel and jet fuels.

“This is a perfect example of how our investments in basic science innovations can pave the way for future industries and solutions to our nation’s most important challenges,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a news release.

“This breakthrough at the Joint BioEnergy Institute holds enormous potential for the sustainable production of advanced biofuels and countless other valuable goods.”

A breakthrough with E. coli could make it cheaper to produce fuel from switchgrass or other non-food biomass plants to create advanced biofuels with the potential to replace gasoline. 

While the work at the JBEI remains focused on the development of advanced biofuels, its researchers believe their concepts may help other researchers to develop many other desired products, including biodegradable plastics and therapeutic drugs. 

For example, some researchers have started a project to investigate how to use the “RNA machines” to increase the safety and efficacy of medicine therapies to treat diseases, including diabetes and Parkinson’s.

Biological systems are incredibly complex, which makes it difficult to engineer systems of microorganisms that will produce desired products in predictable amounts. 

JBEI’s work, featured in the Dec. 23 issue of “Science” magazine, is the first of its kind to set up and adjust a RNA system in a predictable way. 

Specifically, researchers focused their design-driven approach on RNA sequences that can fold into complicated three dimensional shapes, called ribozymes and aptazymes. 

By using JBEI-developed computer-assisted models and simulations, researchers then created complex RNA-based control systems that are able to program a large number of genes. 

In microorganisms, “commands” that are sent into the cell will be processed by the RNA-based control systems, enabling them to help develop desired products.

One of the major goals of synthetic biology is to produce valuable chemical products from simple, inexpensive and renewable starting materials in a sustainable manner. 

Computer-assisted models and simulations like the one JBEI developed are essential for doing so. 

Up to this point, such tools for biology have been limited, and JBEI’s breakthrough in applying computer assisted design marks an important technical and conceptual achievement for this field. 

To view additional details about this research, visit http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/12/22/cad-for-rna/.

Excerpt from:
Genetic breakthroughs help develop cheaper biofuels: DOE

Experts who made an unprecedented recommendation that bird-flu researchers hold back some details of their work justified the controversial decision on Tuesday, saying that the experiments were akin to the 1940s work on nuclear weapons or the first attempts at genetic engineering in the 1970s.

Members of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity said that bioterrorists or rogue governments could use details of the experiments to make a global weapon of catastrophic potential.

“We found the potential risk of public harm to be of unusually high magnitude,” they wrote in a statement published jointly in the rival journals Science and Nature.

The decision, they said, is too big for the scientific community to make on its own. “Physicists faced a similar situation in the 1940s with nuclear-weapons research, and it is inevitable that other scientific disciplines will also do so.”

Since it started spreading in 2003, H5N1 bird flu has killed 344 of the 583 people it is known to have infected–a mortality rate of 59 percent. This compares to a 2.5 percent fatality rate for the 1918 flu, which killed tens of millions of people, or 30 percent for smallpox before it was eliminated in 1979. Luckily, H5N1 doesn’t infect people easily, but it spreads rapidly through flocks of chickens, infects ducks with barely a symptom, and appears to be carried by migrating wild birds. All flu viruses mutate, and most flu experts fear it is only a matter of time before H5N1 either evolves or mixes up with another flu virus to make a form that can easily infect people.

“A pandemic, or the deliberate release of a transmissible highly pathogenic influenza A/H5N1 virus, would be an unimaginable catastrophe for which the world is currently inadequately prepared,” the NSABB wrote.

Usually, when viruses acquire the ability to infect easily, they also become less lethal. So scientists are keen to find out what an H5N1 virus that could easily infect people might look like. If it transmits easily from one person to another, does it give up some of its killing power?

Two labs took a big step toward this goal last year, one in the Netherlands and one at the University of Wisconsin. They engineered forms of H5N1 that ferrets could easily pass to one another–ferrets being the closest thing in the animal world to humans when it comes to getting flu. The good news was that vaccines and drugs both worked against the new strain.

One team sent its findings to Science to be published, while the other submitted its results to Nature. The usual process would have been for the journals to ask other flu and genetics experts to critique the papers, and then they would publish them so other researchers could try to replicate the findings, adding to the world’s knowledge about H5N1, how to watch for dangerous changes, and how to make drugs and vaccines to protect people.

The flu community was atwitter about the pending news, and the potential consequences alarmed the NSABB, which was set up after the 2001 anthrax attacks and which includes heavyweight experts on bioterrorism such as Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University and Mike Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, as well as genetics experts like Claire Fraser-Liggett of the University of Maryland. They asked the two labs to hold off last year until the scientific community could agree on a way to make sure the information got into the right hands–and not into the wrong hands. The experts and the journals have agreed to wait for the time being, and the World Health Organization has set up a meeting in February in Geneva that includes experts from the two teams.

To say the decision frightened and irritated the scientific community would be an understatement. Almost everybody who is anybody in the world of viral research, bioterrorism, and scientific freedom has weighed in–most recently in eight letters to The New York Times.

Keim wrote a separate explanation for the online journal mBio, published by the American Society for Microbiology. “I carefully considered how restricting the information would compromise scientific research progress and even how it would hinder public health efforts to prevent such a horrific pandemic,” Keim wrote. “The short-term negative consequences of restricting experimental details seemed small in contrast to the large consequences of facilitating the replication of these experiments by someone with nefarious intent…. Publishing a detailed experimental protocol on how to produce a highly transmissible H5N1 virus in a highly regarded scientific journal is a very bad idea.”

Dr. Robert Webster of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., a pioneer in influenza research who doesn’t serve on the NSABB, agreed.  “It has been argued that suppression of information serves no purpose, as the information will inevitably be ‘leaked.’ Although this viewpoint is likely correct, I do not believe we should publish the detailed methods of preparing transmissible H5N1,” Webster wrote in a separate commentary in mBio. But he said that the research itself must continue. “While bioterrorism is of real concern, nature has the potential to do much greater damage,” Webster pointed out.

Vincent Racaniello, a microbiologist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, disagreed. “Bioterrorists do not want to carry out an experiment; they want to instill terror,” he wrote in mBio. “Science has always worked best when information is freely accessible. Fear has clouded the NSABB’s vision. We cannot allow fear to limit our ability to address medical problems.”

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Flu Work Akin to Nuclear-Bomb Experiments, Board Says

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Opportunities and challenges of palliative care in the ICU discussed in expert roundtable

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Bill Gates: Embrace Genetic Modification or Starve

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

It’s the 21st century. We’ve got robots. Genetic engineering.
Artificial intelligence. Hypersonic transportation.
Nanotechnology. Human cloning. Hydrogen-powered cars. We’re
even working on antigravity machines.

So where are the candidates of the Grand Old Party? They’re
busy trying to be a movie actor born more than 100 years ago,
in 1911. And a mediocre one, at that (he really didn’t make a
smooth transition from radio to those newfangled “talkies”).

Sure, that “Bedtime For Bonzo” guy turned out to be Ronald Reagan, and sure, THAT
Ronald Reagan (not the
Democrat he was in the 1950s) turned out to be a pretty darned
good president. But that, people, was 30-some years ago. Back
then, a Macintosh was an apple, not an Apple. Those on the
cutting edge of technology were using that dynamic new
communication device — the pager. And the Internet was the mesh
inside your swim trucks.

But, for some reason, the Republicans want to go back to the
idyllic 1980s — acid-washed jeans, the Cold War, Milli Vanilli,
“Dallas,” yuppies, the 10-year war in Afghanistan (that time it was the
Soviets), political correctness, the Commodore 64, Swatch.

President Reagan was not a
genius; he was a very smart man, but no genius. Still, he had
lived through heyday of the ‘20s, the depression of the ‘30s,
the Great War of the ‘40s, the Baby Boom of the ‘50s, the
social turmoil of the ‘60s, the excess and explosion of the
‘70s. It doesn’t take a genius to learn the lessons of a
half-century of just paying attention to the world. Reagan was smart enough to keep
his pores open and absorb all that knowledge through a life
filled with simple experience.

He was simply a man for his times, just as Margaret Thatcher was a woman
(and every bit a man) for her times. America had just gone
through the drama of a president resigning in shame, and along
came this man, this virile, striking man, who saw America —
still, despite its dramatic fall — as a shining city on a hill.

The image struck Americans in the heart; they saw it too,
always. But Reagan didn’t
say he was like anyone else, trying to be someone. Like few
others before him, he was simply himself.

Some say this year’s GOP nomination battle is just a rerun of
Nelson Rockefeller, a liberal Republican, running against
arch-conservative Barry
Goldwater. Of course, Rockefeller — that era’s Mitt Romney — lost the nomination to
Goldwater — that era’s
Ronald Reagan. Goldwater went on to lose in one
the biggest landslides in history, but never mind that.
Ideologues will fight that fight, damn the consequences to the
party.

But the bigger issue is the soul of the Republican Party.
George Bush the First got
crushed in 1992 by a superliberal who proclaimed “I feel your
pain.” When it came time for the GOP to post up a candidate
against Bill Clinton, they came up with — Bob Dole? Beholden to
the Christian coalition, he got crushed. George Bush the Second won as a
“compassionate conservative,” but only because America was sick
of Mr. Clinton — and especially his veep, Al Gore.

Mr. Bush turned out to be
(surprise) a big-government Republican, spending every bit as
wildly as any Democrat. Then, in 2008, the GOP, as in 1996,
went with the next in line, posting up another liberal
Republican (albeit a self-described “maverick”). The
Establishment Republicans and the Socially Conservative
Republicans and the Fiscally Conservative Republicans beat each
other down until all that was left was the LCD Candidate (the
least common denominator). Again, crushed.

Mr. Romney is that LCD
Candidate, many argue. Despite the emergence of a powerful new
conservative faction (the tea party), Republicans are about to
embark on a trip they’ve taken several times in the past
half-century. The party is more splintered than ever, thanks in
part to Newt Gingrich’s scorched-earth campaign.

Should Mr. Romney lose, all
segments of the Republican Party and conservative movement will
have to step back to reassess. They may simply decide then that
the party is broken beyond repair, say goodbye to Mr. Reagan’s “big tent” and
shatter into a hundred factions.

All over who really is the next Ronald Reagan. In 2012. You can’t
make this stuff up.

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a
decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at
jcurl@washingtontimes.com.

© Copyright 2012 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint
permission.

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CURL: The end of the GOP as we knew it

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Body clock receptor linked to diabetes in new genetic study

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Brand: World is entering ‘wild and woolly’ times for genetic engineering

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Mary Ann Liebert Inc. launches next-generation Web platform

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Bill Gates defends focus on high-tech agriculture

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Gates defends focus on high-tech ag in fight against hunger, calls for more money for research

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Gates defends high-tech farming in effort to ward off starvation

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Gates defends focus on high-tech agriculture