Browne to deliver State of the Lab address
Feb. 20
Laboratory Director John Browne will give his annual State of the Lab address at 8:10 a.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 20, in the Administration Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
His talk, "Living Our Vision," is open to all Laboratory badgeholders and will be shown live on Labnet Channel 9.
Browne will focus on the key issues facing Los Alamos, including the status of its mission, new challenges since the Sept. 11 incidents on the east coast, recruitment and employee development and infrastructure renewal. The director also will look at how the Laboratory is doing in meeting its institutional goals, the latest report card from the Department of Energy, and challenges still ahead.
Browne is scheduled to speak to community leaders from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 4 in the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center.
Laboratory's new herpes database goes
online
In an ongoing effort to aid in the search for cures and vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases, the Laboratory has created a publicly available Web database containing the Human herpesvirus 2 genomic sequence.
"The Sexually Transmitted Disease Genome Sequence Database is a database developed to aid in the analysis of genomic sequences from sexually transmitted infectious agents," said Thomas Brettin, of McClintock Resource (B-1) and database project leader. "Genomic sequences, like those in this database, have the potential to unlock the medical mysteries of pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites."
Last November, the database team added the sequence of the Human herpesvirus 2, or HSV-2, the cause of most genital herpes cases, into the database. Earlier in 2001, the team entered the sequence of the herpes virus (Human herpesvirus 1) that causes most "cold sores" into the database.
According to Penny Hitchcock of B-1 and former chief of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Branch for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, oral herpes, or cold sores, are quite common, and it is estimated that one of five Americans has genital herpes. These lifetime infections occur in different parts of the body and cause sores that often vary in severity and frequency of recurrence. Most people with genital herpes have silent infections or mild disease and don't know they are infected.
Genital herpes can be unknowingly transmitted to partners and unborn babies, from women who become infected during pregnancy. In addition to the pain and embarrassment of the infections, genital herpes has been a driving force in the AIDS epidemic. The sores of genital herpes increase the risk of HIV infection in two ways: HIV infects the inflammatory cells that are present near the sores, and people who have both genital herpes and HIV infection shed HIV from the genital sores, said Hitchcock.
"By translating the gene sequences of these organisms into protein sequences and making comparisons between related organisms, scientists hope to understand how organisms establish infection, why diseasescaused by similar organisms are different and how to develop biomedical tools such as vaccines, microbicides, therapeutics and diagnostics that can be used to prevent and control these diseases," said Brettin.
The Lab received the HSV-2 genome sequence, originally determined at the McGeoch Laboratory of the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, and translated it into protein sequences. Brettin's team also performed structural and functional analysis on the sequences to determine potential biological functions of gene products, or proteins, and entered this information into the STDGEN database to be used by the herpes research community.
The Sexually Transmitted Disease Genome Sequence Database provides the ability to search the database information with several search tools, each with different characteristics, explained Brettin. The search tools range from one that allows asking simple questions across different information fields to one that searches protein sequences for sophisticated amino acid patterns. By performing special searches, the database reveals molecular differences and similarities among the viruses. Scientists can then conduct laboratory experiments to determine if the predictions about protein function are valid.
The database team continually adds to the contents of the database. Future additions to the herpes section of STDGEN will include genomic sequences of related herpes viruses that cause other serious diseases, such as infectious mononucleosis and Kaposi's sarcoma, a type of cancer associated with herpes.
The STDGEN project is a continuation of a project started by the Lab in the early 1980s. Laboratory scientists created the GenBank database that now currently resides at the National Institutes of Health. The GenBank database provides access within the scientific community to the most up to date and comprehensive DNA sequence information.
After creating GenBank, the Lab began the HIV and human papalomavirus - one of the primary causes of cervical cancer - databases. When scientists first created these databases they distributed data in large notebooks to interested parties. Later, the Lab decided to make this information available on the Web so it would be more convenient and accessible. In 1998, Brettin expanded this idea and developed the software for STDGEN and included tools for searching the database and studying in depth the genomic sequences of STD causing organisms.
The Sexually Transmitted Disease Genome Sequence Database can be found at www.stdgen.lanl.gov online.
--Shelley Thompson
Nobel Prize winner Heeger to give Director's Colloquium Friday at the Lab
Materials that conduct electricity is the subject of a Director's Colloquium Friday by Alan Heeger, a University of California, Santa Barbara professor.
His presentation, "Semiconducting and Metallic Polymers: The Fourth Generation of Polymeric Materials," is scheduled to begin at 1:10 p.m. in the Louis Rosen Auditorium at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center at Technical Area 53. It will be broadcast live on Labnet Channel 9 and can be accessed via the Internet using Real Media Player. For more information, see Monday's Daily Newsbulletin.
Eating healthy class helps Laboratory workers manage chocolate, other fun food cravings
To some people, Valentine's Day and chocolate are synonymous. There are chocolate covered cherries. And chocolate covered roses. And heart-shaped boxes of chocolates.
But for people struggling to control their weight and watch their diet, chocolate can be a challenge. At the Wellness Center, Laboratory workers participating in a class are learning about food cravings, just in time for today's chocolate-filled day.
Goals of the "Eating Well, Living Well" class are to offer realistic suggestions on eating, exercising, and creating a more healthy lifestyle without the restrictions of a diet plan, said Marta Gentry Munger of the Wellness Center, part of Occupational Medicine (ESH-2).
Research on food cravings indicates that chocolate is one of the most craved foods, said Gentry Munger. Cheese, ice cream, pizza and chips are other common foods that people crave.
Causes for cravings are often complex, but these are some strategies for managing them, Gentry Munger said:
For most people, eliminating the food that is craved may not be the answer, for Gentry Munger said absence really does make the heart - or stomach - grow fonder. "If you do choose to eat a craved food, take the time to slowly savor a small portion," she said.
She added, "A study on chocolate concluded that the sensory experience of eating chocolate was the important factor in satisfying the craving, rather than the bioactive components of chocolate itself. So go ahead and enjoy that special little truffle on Valentines Day."
For more information about healthy weight and lifestyle programs, contact Gentry Munger at the Wellness Center at 7-7166 or write to mgm@lanl.gov by electronic mail.
--Steve Sandoval
Coming soon to a computer screen near you
The Public Affairs Office is unveiling a redesigned Daily Newsbulletin on Tuesday (Feb. 19). The new Daily Newsbulletin is available for viewing or reading through the World Wide Web.
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