Advances

(Advances gives a glimpse of the many significant research projects at the university. Tell us about your discoveries by e-mailing: wisweek@news.wisc.edu.)

Atmospheric scientists take to the skies again
The Wisconsin Snow and Cloud-Terra 2000 experiment is under way through Monday, March 13, based at Madison’s Truax Field. The experiment is the third in a series sponsored by the Space Science and Engineering Center.

Like experiments in 1997 and 1999, the latest project will bring to Madison NASA’s ER-2, a high-altitude research plane that acts as a platform for developing and proving new scientific instruments used on satellites.

Scientists will use the ER-2 instrument measurements to validate science products from NASA’s new earth observing satellite Terra, which began its five-year mission following its launch into orbit Dec.18.

The ER-2 will fly over the Upper Midwest and Oklahoma, coordinating ER-2 measurements with data from the Department of Energy’s CART site in Oklahoma, where scientists will be engaged in a complementary cloud experiment at about the same time as the Wisconsin experiment.

Details will be posted on the Web at: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/wisct2000/

Discovery may advance drug development
In a breakthrough that could revolutionize the development of drugs to treat cancer and other diseases, Medical School researchers have identified the molecular basis through which a family of enzymes involved in several life-threatening diseases communicates to cells.

Richard Anderson, professor in the Department of Pharmacology, and postdoctoral fellow Jeannette Kunz have discovered how a family of 13 closely related enzymes produces “second messengers,” molecules that regulate many functions throughout the body. These second messenger molecules carry instructions to cells, signaling them to grow, move about, communicate with other cells and respond to threats to the body’s immune system.

What had baffled researchers for years was the question of how this particular family of enzymes, each of which has a similar chemical structure and appearance, could produce wildly different secondary signaling messengers.

Kunz and Anderson’s research has pinpointed the answer: an activation loop composed of a short sequence of amino acids is the agent responsible for determining which secondary messengers are produced by each enzyme.

Armed with this knowledge, pharmacologists will now be able to begin designing drugs that can either block the enzymes from creating the signaling messengers or stimulate them to create more.

CALS counsels caution on alternative crops
Increasingly, growers are looking at alternative crops, farm enterprises such as bed and breakfasts and tourism, and other business diversification strategies to improve their farm profits and the quality of their lives.

Goldenseal, Echinacea (coneflower), garlic, shiitake mushrooms and aquaculture are a few alternatives that have been in the spotlight the past few months because of the decline in farm prices.

“For those just getting into alternative markets, it is important to recognize that a lot of information out there is little more than hype. It is your job as a potential grower to learn how to distinguish between meaningful information and what is just trying to lure you into an alternative crop,” says John Hendrickson, outreach specialist.

Growers should know where their buyers are and how much product is needed. And farmers need to carefully consider the price volatility of many alternative crops.