Word: tsien
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...this weakening of memory and the parallel loss of ability to learn new things easily that led Princeton molecular biologist Joe Tsien to the experiments reported last week. "This age-dependent loss of function," he says, "appears in many animals, and it begins with the onset of sexual maturity...
...that's just what Tsien & Co. did, focusing not just on the NMDA receptor but on a particular component of it. Called NR2B, it's very active in young animals (which happen to be good at learning), less active in adults (who aren't), and is found mostly in the forebrain and hippocampus (where explicit, long-term memories are formed). The researchers spliced the gene that creates NR2B into the DNA of ordinary mouse embryos to create the strain they called Doogie. Then they ran the mice through a series of standardized tests--sort of a rodent...
...altered mice grow up looking and acting just like ordinary mice, with no evidence of seizures or convulsions, according to Tsien. That's critical. The NMDA receptor shows up throughout the brain, and though calcium is crucial to learning and memory, too much of it can lead to cell death. That's what happens during a stroke: when brain cells are deprived of oxygen, they release huge amounts of glutamate, which overstimulates nearby NMDA receptors and kills their host cells. Nature may have designed NR2B-based receptors to taper off in adult brains for a reason. Some scientists fear that...
...ideological purity. The compelling modernism of the moment is lush, dreamy and concerned with appropriateness, not big, inhumane and cookie-cutter corporate; successful ersatz-old-fashioned buildings are lately tough and even somber, not merely quaint and pleasant. Hybrids abound, and modesty is a virtue. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien's Long Island pool house, for example, combines industrial materials and delicate details. The Clayton County (Ga.) Library delivers a high concept with a relatively low budget. The finest work, from Washington's restored Union Station to the sleek Ford Probe, accommodates both pizazz and gravitas...
...more June graduates have been awarded Marshall scholarships. Katherine S. Park "2 of Dunster House and Williamston majored in History here and will continue her studies at the University of London. Roger Y. Tsien '72 of South House and Livingston. N.J., majored in Chemistry and Physics and will study neurophysiology at Churchill College, Cambridge...