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Cell Biology: A Future Fueled by Genomics
Anyone who doubts the massive economic power of the biomedical industry would have needed only to survey the exhibition hall at the annual conference of the American Society for Cell Biology, held in San Francisco from 9 to 13 December 2000. The Moscone Convention Center exhibition area, the size of three football fields, was packed with exhibitors from all over the world, elegantly displaying sophisticated biomedical wares, publications, and information on educational opportunities. Tucked into a pocket of this mammoth show of technical and economic prowess was a rotating display of 2763 scientific poster sessions. The scope and size of the professional program were no less ambitious than those of the exhibit arena and covered every conceivable area of cell biology research. Like the exhibitors, speakers and attendees came from all over the world. More than 8000 visitors were rewarded with a veritable cornucopia of new scientific findings in cell biology.
One intriguing report was given by Pamela Bjorkman, PhD, California Institute of Technology (Pasadena) biology professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. The report addressed pathogen subversion of host functions. Bjorkman and colleagues have been using structural biology and biochemical techniques to study two proteins from human pathogens Yersinia pseudotuberculosis (which causes food poisoning) and human cytomegalovirus. Host cell integrins have a greater affinity for the Y. pseudotuberculosis invasin protein than for the natural substrates of integrins, such as fibronectin, and this binding of the host …
