Table of Contents

January/February 2000
Vol. 3, No. 1

FEATURES
28	Bioinformatics battles breast cancer Mona Mort Years of research show that genetic mutations, whether caused by exposure to environmental mutagens or inherited as defective gene copies, are inherent to the onset of cancer. Only about 5% of all incidences of breast cancer can be attributed to defective BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Determining the cause of breast cancer in the cases that are not hereditary and searching for other genetic defects leading to breast cancer require large-scale screening of tumor tissue from all types of breast cancer cases, and not just in high-risk families. Producing large quantities of information on cancer genes, and their expression, is a challenge in cataloging the information and making it available.
37	Are drugs for sepsis the "impossible dream"? Evelyn Strauss More than 700,000 people in the United States become septic every year and the incidence has been climbing for at least the past 20 years. Decades of research and more than 40 clinical trials have yielded no treatment for sepsis. Despite these failures, researchers' assault on this deadly foe is anything but quixotic.
46	Intuitive data analysis: The next generation Bill Ladd High-throughput technology has resulted in the warp-speed production of data. Turning that data into usable information requires an analysis environment that offers access to disparate data sources, visual data displays that promote multidimensional reasoning, and flexible ways to publish data in a collaborative work-group environment.
55	Compound collections get focused Edward Hodgkin and Kathe Andrews-Cramer As genomics identifies increasing numbers of novel targets, HTS resources will be in high demand. The ability to screen small, well-designed compound libraries for certain targets will free large-scale HTS for other targets for which a knowledge-based approach is not appropriate.