Etcetera

Scripps Florida Wins Best of the Best National Award for Construction and Design
Scripps Florida has won a national Best of the Best Award from Engineering News-Record of McGraw-Hill. The annual competition recognizes construction and design excellence across the United States from among the regional winners of McGraw-Hill Construction's network of 11 regional publications; the Scripps Florida project, submitted by the construction management joint venture of Weitz Company of West Palm Beach and DPR Construction of San Diego, won a Best of 2009 Award from Southeast Construction Magazine. Engineering News-Record will publish a special section featuring the Best of the Best winners in its January 4, 2010 issue.

Scripps Research Papers Highlighted
Several papers by Scripps Research investigators have been highlighted recently in the scientific press:

• A paper from the Rebek lab was featured in the Hot Topics column of the science portal of Intute, a consortium of seven British universities working together with partners to direct people to the best resources on the Web. The paper, "Hydroxy Oximes as Organophosphorus Nerve Agent Sensors" by Dale et al. (Angewandte Chemie, Volume 48 Issue 42, Pages 7850 – 7852), describes the development of a new molecular sensor for substances that could be used as bioterrorism agents. The new sensors can work to detect neurotoxins 100,000 times faster than earlier detection systems—and the new sensors destroy the neurotoxic molecules in the process.
• A paper from the Fowler lab was highlighted on the cover of the Journal of Cell Biology, in the journal's "In this Issue" section, and in its Biobytes podcast. The article, "Tropomodulin1 is required for membrane skeleton organization and hexagonal geometry of fiber cells in the mouse lens" by Nowak et al. (Vol. 186, No. 6, 915-928), sheds light on the issue of how cells are packed together. In the paper, the authors demonstrate that, in the mouse lens, a network of proteins underlying the plasma membrane keeps epithelial cells in shape and sustains their orderly hexagonal packing.
• A paper from the Quigley lab was featured on the cover of the August issue of Molecular Cancer Research. The paper, "The Functional Role of Cell Surface CUB Domain-Containing Protein 1 in Tumor Cell Dissemination" by Deryugina et al., provides new insights into the process of cancer metastasis, the spread of a primary tumor to other parts of the body. In the study, the team showed that a molecule called the transmembrane CUB domain-containing protein 1 (CDCP1) facilitated the survival of tumor cells soon after they spread from blood vessels. The researchers also demonstrated that a unique antibody against CDCP1 was able to inhibit tumor dissemination in vivo.
• A paper from the Quigley lab was featured in the "The Month in AJP" column in The American Journal of Pathology. The paper, "Comparative Analysis of Metastasis Variants Derived from Human Prostate Carcinoma Cells" by Conn et al. (2009, 175: 1638-1652) also sheds light on the process of cancer metastasis. The study showed that a key difference between prostate cancer cells that have a tendency to spread to the vasculature and those that don't lies in the production of a molecule called serine protease urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). By inhibiting uPA activation, the researchers were able to block the spread of the cells, as well as the abnormal growth of new blood vessels.

A Note to Scripps Research Investigators: Please let the Office of Communications know of any significant papers before their publication, ideally at the time they are accepted by a journal, by contacting Mika Ono at mikaono[at]scripps.edu or Keith McKeown at kmckeown@scripps.edu. Thank you!

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

First Florida Employee Recognition Awards Celebrate Five Years

Scripps Research held its first employee recognition awards dinner at Scripps Florida on November 7, celebrating employees who have been with the institute for five years, from the opening of the Florida facility in 2004. Here, Executive Vice President Douglas Bingham (left) chats with Senior Staff Scientist Sukhvir Mahal (center) and Scientific Software Engineer Bruce Pascal.