NEWS OF THE WEEK GENOMICS
Malaria infects more than 300 million people every year, and more than a million die— 90% of them children under five, according to the World Health Organization. The disease is rampant in Africa, largely because of the parasite's growing resistance to drugs and the mosquito's to insecticides. puking of the science of malaria into the era ofgenomics and all of A plethora of papers accompathe attendant advantages," says nying the sequences shows that reAnthony S. Fauci, director of searchers are already capitalizing NIH's National Institute of Alon the findings. For example, a lergy & Infectious Diseases. proteomics analysis of the life cyN I AID joined four other organcle of the parasite offers leads to izations in funding the six-year incomponents of a malaria vaccine ternational effort to sequence the (Nature, page 537). Researchers genome of Plasmodium falcihave identified genes involved in parum, the parasite that causes the the mosquito's sense of smell and deadliest form of malaria in hutaste, which could be blocked to mans [Nature, 419,498 (2002)}. keep the insects from zeroing in N I A I D also funded the consoron humans (Science, page 176). 'Vet tium that in less than one year seanother study shows that P falciquenced the genome ofAnopheles parum became resistant to the gambiae, the mosquito that trans- drug chloroquine through mutamits most cases of malaria in tions in a single gene (Science, page Africa [Science, 298,129 (2002)}. 210).-PAMELAZURER
MALARIA MAPPED
Sequences of parasite and mosquito genomes offer disease-control targets D E C O D E D Humans are the favorite food of Anopheles gambiae, the most important malaria vector in Africa.
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tion of genome sequences for the parasite that causes malaria and for the mosquito that carries it opens the door to new drugs, vaccines, and insecticides for combating the lethal disease. "We are seeing now the cata-
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U.S. CHEMICAL R&D QUESTIONED Alleged work on nonlethal weapons raises treaty compliance issues
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IN BRIEF: HONORED The National Academy of Engineering on Oct. 6 presented its 2002 Founders Award to University of Pennsylvania chemical and biochemical engineering emeritus professor Stuart W. Churchill. NAE cites Churchill's "outstanding" contributions in combustion, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics over a half century.
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Iraq's chemical weapons these days, the possible involvement of the U.S. in chemical weapons development may also be an issue—although a very confusing one. The Sunshine Project, a small activist group, is in The Hague this week trying to tell delegates to the annual Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of its conviction that the U.S. is violating the convention with R&D into nonlethal chemical weapons. It would like the delegates to immediately request an inspection of the U.S. activity un-
2002
der the treaty—something that is extremely unlikely A spokesman for the Defense Department's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (fNLWD) tells C&EN that there is nothing to the charges and that the directorate is not involved in chemical weapons research. However, in a presentation last November to an academic research symposium on nonlethal technology, J N L W D identified calmatives (a military euphemism for mind-altering drugs) and malodorants as "new capabilities" under "chemical-based technologies." Under "challenges," the C W C was listed first. Under "an-
cillary technologies," J N L W D listed microencapsulation and long-range, precision delivery The Sunshine Project claims that government documents it has gathered and placed on its website (http://www.sunshineproject.org) "demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that J N L W D is operating an illegal and classified chemical weapons program." J N L W D maintains that the erroneous charges are based on misinterpretation of the data. One example is J N L W D ' s work on developing a nonlethal round for the standard U.S. Army 81-mm mortar. This, combined with a request for methodologies to characterize the aerosols it produces and calculate ground-area coverage of gas clouds from air bursts at different altitudes, is a clear treaty violation, according to the Sunshine Project. However, according to J N L W D , the round is being developed as a nonchemical, nonlethal weapon, using such things as rubber bulletS.-MICHAELHEYLIN HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
