Chemical world This week
EVIDENCE OF CANCER VIRUS Progress in the attempt to link vi ruses to human cancer has been at tained with two related research de velopments. Scientists at the M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Insti tute in Houston, Tex., have grown large amounts of virus from cells taken from a five-year-old boy suffer ing from Burkitt's lymphoma, a form of cancer. And Dr. Robert C. Gallo, of the National Cancer In stitute, Bethesda, Md., and Dr. Prem S. Sarin, of Bionetics Research Lab oratories, Bethesda, have collabo rated with a group from the M. D. Anderson Hospital in finding an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (reverse transcriptase) in the virus particles from these same cells. The sphere-shaped virus grown by the Texas workers is a type C virus, the same type that has been linked to causes of cancer in rats, mice, cats, dogs, monkeys, and other mammals. The Texas virus has been named ESP-1 virus in honor of Dr. Elizabeth S. Priori, a member of the Texas group. Other mem bers of the group are Dr. Leon M. Dmochowski, Dr. Brooks Myers, and Dr. J. R. Wilbur. Dr. Dmo chowski with C. E. Grey first identi fied what he believed to be type C viruses in the lymph nodes of a cancer patient in 1957.
Gallo: 10 C&EN JULY 12, 1971
Research done in collaboration with Dr. Lloyd J. Old and his co workers at Sloan-Kettering Insti tute in New York City suggest that there are differences between the newly found ESP-1 virus and sev eral known type C animal cancer viruses. Immunological studies by the Texas group, using immuno diffusion, immunofluorescence, and ferritin antibody techniques, show that the cells are human and that the virus particles do not contain the gs-1 antigen of mouse, rat, hamster, or cat type viruses. Thus, the ESP-1 virus is of human origin and does not stem from a con taminating material. Reverse transcriptase activity has been found in the ESP-1 viruses by Dr. Gallo and Dr. Sarin, working in collaboration with Dr. Priori, Dr. Dmochowski, Dr. P. T. Allen, Dr. W. A. Newton, and Dr. J. M. Bowen of the M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tu mor Institute. Recently, Dr. Dan H. Moore, of the Camden, N.J., Institute for Medical Research, discovered a type Β virus that contains reverse transcriptase in human milk. This virus is sus pected of causing breast cancer in humans, according to Dr. Sol Spiegelman, director of Columbia University's institute of cancer re-
Availability of ESP-1 virus
July 12,1971
search (C&EN, April 19, page 11). Dr. Spiegelman and Dr. Gallo had earlier found evidence for DNA polymerases in cells from leukemia patients; Dr. Gallo later separated two different RNA-dependent DNA polymerases from human leukemia cells. Dr. Gallo and his coworkers have shown that the type C virus isolated from the ESP-1 human cell culture possesses a DNA polymerase which can utilize RNA derived both in ternally and externally as a tem plate for DNA synthesis. The avail ability of the ESP-1 virus provides a tool of great potential for study of the possible role of viruses in causing human cancer, according to Dr. Gallo. MEDICINE:
Malaria vaccine closer "We have demonstrated that a ma laria vaccine is biologically feasible," reveals Dr. Paul H. Silverman, head of the zoology department at the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign. Dr. Silverman is director of a project, sponsored by the Agency for International Development, to develop just such a vaccine. He and his 30 coworkers at the univer sity have already successfully im munized mice and monkeys against several varieties of malaria. Pro tection appears to be long-lasting, and there have been no undue side effects. Dr. Silverman cautions, however, that a malaria vaccine for humans is still a long way off; it may take five more years just to de termine whether it is technologi cally practical to produce the vac cine in quantity. Need for the vaccine is urgent. Worldwide, malaria is probably the greatest health problem. And, al though the disease had at one time almost disappeared from the U.S., it is again becoming a matter for concern at home. Dr. Myron Schultz, head of the parasitic dis eases branch of the Center for Dis ease Control in Atlanta, Ga., notes that there were 4000 cases in the
U.S. in 1970, mostly among servicemen returned from Vietnam. Some of these cases were of the drug-resistant, sometimes fatal falciparum variety, he says. The problem is complex. As with many bacteria and viruses, Plasmodia—the protozoa that cause malaria—possess antigens that, isolated and injected, cause the recipient to develop protective antibodies. Plasmodia have complicated life cycles, however, and several species cause disease. Each stage of each species is antigenically distinct. At present, the Illinois team must obtain the blood stages of the parasites by bleeding infected animals, "harvesting" the plasmodia, and chemically fractionating them to extract the antigens. Getting the mosquito stages is even more tedious; the microscopic organisms must be manually dissected out of the digestive tracts of infected insects. Such techniques are obviously unsuited to the volume production of vaccines, Dr. Silverman points out. Already under way is development of in vitro tissue culture methods to enable large-scale production of the parasites. SCIENCE POLICY:
Freedom and responsibility The American Association for the Advancement of Science has named a five-member national committee to develop policies and procedures for protecting scientific freedom and for ensuring responsible scientific conduct. The committee members, most of whom have been in the midst of public controversy from time to time, include Walter J. Hickel, former Secretary of the Interior; Dr. John H. Knowles, director of Massachusetts General Hospital; Earl Warren, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; and Dr. Mary Catherine Bateson, an associate professor of sociology and anthropology at Northeastern University and daughter of Margaret Mead. Dr. Allen V. Astin, former director of the National Bureau of Standards, will chair the committee. Dr. Astin, as director of NBS in 1953, became embroiled in a controversy involving NBS studies on a battery additive, AD-X2, and was fired from the post but later reinstated amid threatened mass resignations at NBS and loud outcries from the scientific community. The AAAS committee's job is
to "study and report on the general conditions required for scientific freedom and responsibility, develop suitable criteria and procedures for the objective and impartial study of these problems, and recommend mechanisms to enable the association to review specific instances in which scientific freedom is alleged to have been abridged or otherwise endangered or responsible scientific conduct is alleged to have been violated." So, for the moment at least, by setting up a policy-making committee, AAAS has sidestepped a request by Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D.-Me.) that AAAS judge alleged denial by the Atomic Energy Commission of the scientific freedom of Dr. John Gofman and Dr. Arthur Tamplin— critics of U.S. radiation standards and AEC policy. Last December AAAS called for a committee to "study and report on specific instances" of allegations that scientific freedom had been abridged or endangered or that responsible scientific conduct had been violated. Now, however, the newly formed committee is to recommend a mechanism to deal with such cases, not actually investigate, adjudicate, and report on specific cases. One action that the committee might recommend would be setting up ad hoc committees to investigate complaints and make findings or recommendations.
UNEMPLOYMENT:
Rate for scientists hits 2.6% The highest unemployment rates among the nation's scientists are shared by several specific groups— those who are under 30, women, master's degree holders, and natural scientists (especially chemists and physicists), according to preliminary figures from a National Science Foundation employment survey of about half of all U.S. scientists. About 60°/o of the unemployed were last working on R&D; 38% in industry and business. NSF says the unemployment rate for scientists is 2.6%—considerably less than the 6.5% national unemployment rate for all workers for the first quarter but more than a 1.5% rate in 1970. More than half of the out-of-work scientists responding to the survey have become unemployed since the first of the year. In the first four months more than 600 lost their jobs monthly—by June, unemployment time averaged seven months. NSF says that more than half of the unemployed scientists were in chemistry and physics and that the unemployment rate for chemists (3.0%) is among the highest in the natural sciences. A recent ACS member employment survey found a 2.7% unemployment rate. Altogether, the NSF survey, which did not include engineers, turned
Unemployed rate for all scientists reaches 2.6%, NSF finds Not employed and not
Field of science
seeking Responding employment**
In labor force
Unemployed
Unemployed rate (per cen
TOTAL
253,078
8003
245,075
6337
2.6%
Chemistry
73,008
2576
70,432
2101
3.0
Earth and marine science
18,724
535
18,189
486
2.7
5,243
198
5,045
142
2.8
Physics
30,220
1089
29,131
1126
3.9
Mathematics
19,745
642
• 19,103
491
2.6
8,840
223
8,617
309
3.6
12,708
247
12,461
110
0.9
656
1.7
Atmospheric and space science
Computer sciences Agricultural sciences Biological sciences
39,871
855
39,016
Psychology
20,319
731
19,588
304
1.6
Statistics
2,465
92
2,373
51
2.2
Economics
9,767
318
9,449
154
Sociology
5,512
251
5,261
196
1.6 3.8
Political science
4,286
134
4,152
141
3.4
Anthropology
1,029 1,341
48
981
13
64
1,277
57
1.3 4.5
Linguistics
a Includes retired people, students, housewives, and others not in labor force. Source: National Science Foundation, National Register of Scientific and Technical Personnel JULY 12, 1971 C&EN 11
