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2 January 2008
Kathleen Caron finds that adrenomedullin plays an important role in the formation of the lymphatic system in mice. Research may lead to therapies to prevent cancer cells from traveling through these lymphatic vessels to infiltrate other parts of the body.
Growth of blood and lymphatic vessels is essential in the developing embryo and in the pathogenesis of human diseases such as cancer, but the signaling pathways that regulate vessel growth and function are not yet well characterized. Caron and co-workers demonstrate that loss of signaling by the adrenomedullin peptide results in embryonic edema and death.
Paper: http://content.the-jci.org/articles/view/33302
Commentary: http://content.the-jci.org/articles/view/34485
Press Coverage:
http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/071220/hormone-could-ease-painful-lymphedema.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071220172126.htm
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/536408/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/92474.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071220173855.htm

2 January 2008
Jim Evans comments on the impact of genetic medicine and health care.
Today, medical science is at another such threshold with the advent of individualized medicine. Driven by advances in genomics, emerging insight into each individual's unique susceptibility to disease promises to transform patient care. However, such advances will also compel a fundamental restructuring of the way medical care is delivered in the United States.
Paper: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/298/22/2670

2 January 2008
Fernando Pardo Manuel de Villena has developed a high-resolution map of the origin of the laboratory mouse
The de Villena lab has developed a high-resolution map of the origin of the laboratory mouse by generating 25,400 phylogenetic trees at 100-kb intervals spanning the genome. On average, 92% of the genome is of Mus musculus domesticus origin, and the distribution of diversity is markedly nonrandom among the chromosomes. There are large regions of extremely low diversity, which represent blind spots for studies of natural variation and complex traits, and hot spots of diversity. In contrast with the mosaic model, we found that most of the genome has intermediate levels of variation of intrasubspecific origin. Finally, mouse strains derived from the wild that are supposed to represent different mouse subspecies show substantial intersubspecific introgression, which has strong implications for evolutionary studies that assume these are pure representatives of a given subspecies.
Paper: http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v39/n9/abs/ng2087.html