Laboratory Contributions Research Articles

Gene cloning to clinical trials-the trials and tribulations of a life with collagen.

This review, based on the BSMB Fell-Muir Lecture I presented in July 2018 at the Matrix Biology Europe Conference in Manchester, gives a personal perspective of my own laboratory's contributions to research into type X collagen, metaphyseal chondrodysplasia type Schmid and potential treatments for this disorder that are currently entering clinical trial. I have tried to set the advances made in the context of the scientific technologies available at the time and how these have changed over the more than three decades of this research.

Skin Stem Cells in Silence, Action, and Cancer.

In studying how stem cells make and maintain tissues, nearly every chapter of a cell biology textbook takes on special interest. The field even allows us to venture where no chapters have yet been written. In studying this basic problem, we are continually bombarded by nature's surprises and challenges. Stem cell biology has captured my interest for nearly my entire scientific career. Below, I focus on my laboratory's contributions to this fascinating field, to which so many friends and colleagues have made seminal discoveries equally deserving of this award.

Studying Earth in the New Millennium: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Contributions to Earth Science and Applications Space Agencies

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a national research facility that carries out cuttingedge earth science missions. JPL developed the first U.S. Earth-orbiting science spacecraft and is a pioneer in the use of remote sensing for science of the oceans, atmosphere, and solid earth. Explorer I was the first U.S. Earth-orbiting spacecraft. It followed the Soviet Sputniks 1 and 2 but carried James Van Allen's Geiger counter, which upended space physics with the discovery of the radiation belts now named for him [1]. Explorer I also carried a micrometeoroid detector. JPL developed atmospheric temperature instruments for the Nimbus series of weather satellites, built microwave and infrared instruments to help gain an understanding of stratospheric ozone depletion, ocean circulation, and surface winds, and flew Seasat, which carried the first civilian synthetic aperture radar. This article gives a general overview of recent, current, and near-future earth science missions led by JPL, highlighting a few of the many measurements that are transforming our understanding of the processes governing the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces, and climate.

Modelling brain deformations for computer‐integrated neurosurgery

AbstractIn this review paper we discuss Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory's contributions to mathematical and numerical modelling of brain deformation behaviour for neurosurgical simulation and brain image registration. These processes can be reasonably described in purely mechanical terms, such as displacements, strains and stresses and therefore can be analysed using established methods of continuum mechanics. We advocate the use of fully non‐linear theory of continuum mechanics. We discuss in some detail modelling geometry, boundary conditions, loading and material properties. We consider numerical problems such as the use of hexahedral and mixed hexahedral–tetrahedral meshes as well as meshless spatial discretization schemes. We advocate the use of total Lagrangian formulation of both finite element and meshless methods together with explicit time‐stepping procedures. We support our recommendations and conclusions with two examples: computation of the reaction force acting on a biopsy needle, and computation of the brain shift for image registration. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Building Epithelial Tissues from Skin Stem Cells

The skin epidermis and its appendages provide a protective barrier that guards against loss of fluids, physical trauma, and invasion by harmful microbes. To perform these functions while confronting the harsh environs of the outside world, our body surface undergoes constant rejuvenation through homeostasis. In addition, it must be primed to repair wounds in response to injury. The adult skin maintains epidermal homeostasis, hair regeneration, and wound repair through the use of its stem cells. What are the properties of skin stem cells, when do they become established during embryogenesis, and how are they able to build tissues with such remarkably distinct architectures? How do stem cells maintain tissue homeostasis and repair wounds and how do they regulate the delicate balance between proliferation and differentiation? What is the relationship between skin cancer and mutations that perturbs the regulation of stem cells? In the past 5 years, the field of skin stem cells has bloomed as we and others have been able to purify and dissect the molecular properties of these tiny reservoirs of goliath potential. We report here progress on these fronts, with emphasis on our laboratory's contributions to the fascinating world of skin stem cells.

Structure of interleukin-10/interleukin-10R1 complex: a paradigm for class 2 cytokine activation.

The class II alpha-helical cytokine family consists of eleven members including the interferons, interleukin-10 (IL-10) and several newly discovered IL-10 homologs. The molecules display a vast array of biologic activities including the ability to induce an antiviral state, modulate inflammatory responses, and inhibit cell growth. Biologic activity is dependent on cytokine-dependent aggregation of two different cell-surface receptors. The detailed protein-protein interactions that initiate these biologic responses are amenable to study using X-ray crystallographic methods. In this article, I summarize my laboratory's contributions to understanding these recognition processes using IL-10 as the prototypic class II cytokine.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory: the first fifty years

Inaugurated fifty years ago as a key component in the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge National Laboratory remains one of the nation's premier research institutions. This profusely illustrated volume, written for a non-scientific readership, chronicles the history of the laboratory from its origins to the present day. Leland Johnson and Daniel Schaffer begin their narrative in 1943 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built ORNL in the hills of East Tennessee to produce plutonium for atomic weapons. After World War II, ORNL became a center for fundamental scientific research under the successive management of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Energy Research and Development Administration, and the Department of Energy. Since 1945, the laboratory's contributions to national defense have been balanced by its investigations in many other areas, including nuclear medicine and environmental research. As the authors demonstrate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory represents the concerns of the American scientific establishment in microcosm. The facility was part of the flourishing of big science that began in the 1940s, and the workings of ORNL clearly illustrate the ties between scientific research and military concerns that continued well into the post-World War II era. Now that the Cold War is over, the laboratory's activities have embarked in directions that reveal the nation's new priorities in science, the environment, and technology. Thus this book, by offering a window into the past and present activity at Oak Ridge, allows the reader to glimpse the larger trends within the scientific community.

Up Close: Materials Sciences at Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory

Lockheed's Research Laboratory was established in 1956 to support the recently founded Lockheed Missiles and Space Division. The earliest products of the division were a new generation of submarine-launched ballistic missile—Polaris and the Agena spacecraft. It was immediately recognized that both required advances in materials technology and the Materials Sciences Directorate was established in the research laboratory to address those needs. Today, materials researchers are conducting investigations in a wide range of topics in metallurgy, chemistry, structures, and nondestructive test/evaluation.The laboratory has a particularly strong capability in performance analysis and problem identification/resolution for solid rocket propulsion systems. Current work on the Trident II continues the laboratory's contributions to the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident I missiles. Efforts are also focused on materials for other aerospace applications, such as advanced aircraft, the NASA Space Station (Freedom), and the Strategie Defense Initiative.Examples of materials sciences achievements include the development of the space shuttle's heat shield tiles, the first use of lithium as an anode in batteries, a real-time x-ray inspection system for large rocket motors, and coated and uncoated refractory metal hot gas manifolds for ballistic missile propulsion. The organization has a staff of about 170 professionals.

Up Close: Center for Materials Science at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has extensive and diverse activities and programs in materials science and engineering. The Center for Materials Science (CMS) was established to promote scientific collaboration and scientific excellence in materials research and engineering throughout the Laboratory and with individuals and institutions outside the Laboratory. The Center's objective is to enhance the Laboratory's materials science and technology contributions to the nation's defense, energy, and scientific missions.Consistent with its main objective, Laboratory resources supply the principal funding for CMS programs. Additional funding for individual scientific research programs conducted by CMS members comes directly from outside sources.To carry out its responsibilities, CMS has accepted four demanding missions:1. Build a core group of qualified and established materials scientists and solid state physicists.2. Promote and support top-quality, interdisciplinary materials research programs at Los Alamos.3. Strengthen the interactions of materials scientists at Los Alamos with the external materials science community.4. Establish and maintain modern materials research facilities in a readily accessible, central location.The core group of CMS members has a broad charter to advance materials science and technology in directions expected to have long-term impact on LANL's mission. The acting director is Don M. Parkin. In addition to the director, six members presently constitute the CMS. James L. Smith heads an experimental effort in superconductivity.

The Blair Research Laboratory's contributions to the Water Decade

The Blair Research Laboratory's contributions to the Water Decade

The Role of the Microbiology Laboratory in Surveillance and Control of Nosocomial Infections

The microbiology laboratory's rapid and consistent identification of nosocomial pathogens is a keystone in the surveillance and control of hospital-acquired infections. In addition, the laboratory serves as a source of expert consultation for clinicians and infection control personnel and as an "early warning center" for infection problems. In making its contributions to infection control most effective, the laboratory must recognize its capabilities and limitations, must insure that the materials and methods it uses and the specimens it processes meet high standards, must provide retrievable records, and must have a good working knowledge of microbiologic technics used to evaluate both endemic and epidemic infections. Moreover, because laboratory workers come into contact daily with potentially infectious specimens and isolates, the laboratory's contributions to infection control should also include the prevention and surveillance of laboratory-acquired infections.