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07/25/2017

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03/12/2017

Here are some samples of previous work.

03/12/2017

By Abram Katz
Bad air linked to low birth weight
Connecticut air that meets federal pollution limits still contains enough harmful chemicals to stunt babies before they are born, a groundbreaking Yale University study has found.

The Yale study found that emissions from cars, diesel engines and power plants increase the frequency of low-birth weight babies, who face a multitude of medical problems, including cognitive ability, infection, heart disease and stroke.��"It is very worrisome and a tremendous public health problem," said David Brown, public health toxicologist and adjunct professor at Fairfield University.��"If you look at people with neurological difficulties, the predominant link is low birth weight," he said.��Occupational health experts and environmentalists said the study represents more evidence that air pollution standards need to be tightened, and that current limits are too lax to protect the population.��Yale researchers, led by Michelle L. Bell, assistant professor of environmental health at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, analyzed 358,504 births from 1999 to 2002 in 15 Connecticut and Massachusetts counties.��They then correlated maternal location, weather and pollution levels over the previous nine months, and the weight of the women’s infants.��The study is the first to measure air pollution and birth weight in the Northeast.��Similar research has been conducted in California, Nevada and Georgia, with inconsistent results.��Bell and colleagues found that exposure to pollution, even at low levels, apparently increases the risk of low birth weight. Black women were effected more strongly than whites.��The scientists examined maternal exposure to nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and soot particles 2.5 and 10 microns in diameter.��A human hair is about 70 microns across.��Pollutants reduced birth weight by up to an average of 16.2 grams, or about half an ounce.��However, because this is an average, an infant at the low end of the statistical curve might weigh substantially less, specialists said. Imagine a bell curve. A 16-gram difference would be more significant for the lower weight infants, and less of a factor for the heavier ones.��Babies who weigh less than 2,500 grams, or about 5C pounds, are considered to be at low birth weight.��In the Yale study sample, 4 percent of the infants were low birth weight. That would correspond to about 164,500 infants born in the United States every year, including around 1,684 in Connecticut.��"All of the counties in the study are in compliance (with federal clean air standards) so the lower levels are dangerous," Bell said.��The study showed that different pollutants had varying effects when breathed by the mother at different time in the pregnancy.��For example, lowered birth weight was associated with exposure to 10-micron particles in the third trimester. Carbon monoxide created its greatest effect in the first and third trimesters, and 2.5-micron particles in the second and third trimesters.��Most low birth weight babies do well, said Dr. Robert Herzlinger, chief of neonatology at Bridgeport Hospital.��Infants who are affected may experience poor growth, growth failure later in life, neurodevelopmental problems, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, he said.��Many factors determine birth weight, Herzlinger said, including poor nutrition, exposure to alcohol and drugs, smoking and prematurity.��The Yale researchers corrected for extremely low-weight infants, along with infants whose mothers smoked, level of education, lack of early prenatal care, and older and younger mothers.��Why breathing air pollutants while pregnant should influence the weight of the full-term infant is not well understood.��Bell and fellow researchers said air pollution could affect a fetus directly through the placenta, or indirectly by degrading the mother’s health. The same mechanism at work in smoking, premature rupture of membranes, may be to blame.��Inhaling smog may disrupt endocrine and nervous systems, and soot particles could reduce the amount of oxygen reaching the fetus.��Brown said a link between air pollution and birth weight, although obscure, shows that the population is responding to the pollutants.��Carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur oxide particles tend to travel together, making the task of figuring out which ones cause lower infant weight difficult.��Other unmeasured pollutants may also exert a bad influence, he said. Vanadium, a toxic metal, is often generated along with the ambient pollutants recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, yet it is neither tested for nor recorded, Brown said.��"We don’t want to repeat the cigarette smoke situation," he said. For many years to***co companies denied that smoking caused lung cancer because researchers could not explain how.��Industries could again argue that since none of the pollutants has been shown to cause lower birth weight, that no extra measures need be taken, Brown said.��"The question is, what will it take for people to understand this in such a way that they take action?" he said.��In fact, the EPA and states are working to reduce air pollution, said Roger Smith, campaign director for Clean Water Action in Hartford. The organization also works on air pollution.��"There has been some progress. In 2007, 2.5-micron particles must be reduced by 90 percent," he said. New diesel engines will be required to meet the more stringent standard, and Congress enacted a bill to spend $200 million on retro-fitting older engines with catalytic converters and filters to remove most fine soot particles.��However, the money has not been allocated.��"We’re slowly getting there, but too slowly," Smith said.��Also, under amendments to the federal Clean Air Act, all states must produce acceptable plans to reduce nitrogen oxides and particulates. These plans should be required to meet lower limits, he said.��The Connecticut General Assembly passed "An Act Establishing a Connecticut Clean Diesel Plan" in 2005.��The goal is to cut diesel exhaust from school buses, transit buses and construction equipment working on state jobs by 2010.��Whether these measures are sufficiently stringent, or even attainable, is not clear.��L. Bruce Hill, senior scientist with the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit organization based in Boston, said the Yale study suggests that current National Ambient Air Standards are too weak.��"It also suggests that there is no lower threshold for levels of particulates. It’s a cause for concern," Hill said.��Meanwhile, no single study will be sufficient to answer public health questions about air pollution and birth weight, said Dr. John Meyer, assistant professor in the division of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center.��"These kinds of studies are extremely hard to do," said Meyer, whose research focuses on occupational reproductive hazards.��As for the Yale study, Meyer said that county weather records are not specific enough. Pollution is higher in urban centers than in rural areas, which may lead to underestimating the birth weight effect in cities.��Parsing out all of the contributing factors of living in impoverished areas is also extremely difficult, Meyer said. "One would like to see additional studies of smaller areas," he said.��"The study makes another good step in understanding the issue. It’s helpful in adding to the base of knowledge. Should we be doing something about it? You’d have to compare the effects of poor pre-natal care and lack of access to medical care, to the effects of pollution," Meyer said.��Bell said she wants to continue her research with another study including more detailed information on each pregnancy.��"It’s useful for us to know," she said.
URL: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2007/05/20/import/18364333.prt
© 2008 nhregister.com, a Journal Register Property

03/12/2017

Taking out the twinkle: SCSU prof creates device that steadies stellar image in telescope

Monday, September 15, 2008
By Abram Katz, Register Science Editor
Earth’s atmosphere protects us from solar storms, radiation and meteors, but it’s an astronomical bugbear.

Even the clearest skies are turbulent, bending light this way and that in unpredictable ways that make certain observations difficult.

Now, a physicist at Southern Connecticut State University has developed a relatively simple and inexpensive device for telescopes that promises to improve the sharpness of images twentyfold.

The leap in resolution should help astronomers identify and explore binary stars — two stars orbiting each otherevery one to two years. Many stars are in binary pairs. By measuring the orbits, stellar masses can be calculated.

This kind of research could answer questions about the sun and the evolution of planets.

"It’s like putting eyeglasses on a telescope. It enables you to see the two stars in a binary system distinctly," said Elliot P. Horch, associate professor of physics at SCSU.

Horch recently took his device, called the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument, to the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. After testing and tweaks, the instrument should be one of the most advanced devices for improving the resolution of telescopes, Horch said.

The DSSI is also one of a kind, using off-the-shelf parts. Its aluminium case was machined in New Haven.

The work was funded by a $352,487 grant from the National Science Foundation.

The sky is clear, and we can see the moon and planets. Why do we need a machine like the DSSI?

Layers of air at different temperature in the atmosphere refract, or bend light. If the air remained stationary, the turbulence could easily be accommodated.

However, air moves constantly. So, when a distant star is viewed through a terrestrial telescope, the star jumps around and the image is blurred into a pattern of "speckles."

You can see a form of these speckles by shining a low-power laser against a wall in a dark room. Like turbulence in the air, the roughness of the wall breaks the laser light into a high number of moving dots.

Many astronomers have been attempting to compensate for the darting stars by using adaptive optics, Horch said.

With one method, a laser is beamed into the atmosphere and is reflected back through the turbulence. The wave front of the returning laser beam is similar to the wave front of light from stars passing through the same air.

A computer can analyze the laser beam and move a telescope’s mirror to correct for turbulence. Some telescope mirrors are backed by arrays of electronic pistons that bend the optical surface very slightly to keep the image in one place.

Horch said another approach is to collect the speckles and analyze them mathematically to clarify the image. DSSI does just that. The instrument takes about 1,000 rapid images, and then sorts through all of the dots using mathematical image processing.

Using this method, DSSI is able to resolve binary stars that orbit each other. The only other way to identify such a pair would be to monitor "a star" and see if its luminosity varies, which happens with a binary pair viewed edge-on. The problem is that several years of observation are required.

The DSSI contains a dichroic mirror that splits an incoming monochromatic speckle beam into red and green spots. Two cylindrical charge-coupled devices (CCDs) absorb the beams and translate them into electronic pulses, which are fed into a computer.

Mirrors in the device can deflect the beam from one CCD to the other very rapidly. In this way, the "slow" but low-noise CCDs can still yield speedy images.

The computer compares the two sets of moving dots, and determines which dots are traveling in identical patterns. A pair of patterns indicates a binary star. By grouping both sets of patterns, the computer can distinguish one star from the other, and determine their distance from each other.

Horch said the idea may seem simple, but most astronomers have been concentrating on adaptive optics rather than speckle interferometry.

"It’s been a very exciting project. It will enable us to learn more about the behavior of the binary stars, and, in turn, learn more about our own sun," Horch said. The sun originally may have been one half of a binary.

Many binary, and larger, clusters of stars eventually disperse. Studying the systems before they separate should reveal information about the sun’s early years, he said.

Horch said he plans to survey binary stars within 500 light-years of the sun. The survey, started when Horch was an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, will give a more complete picture of the binary stars in this region of the Milky Way and will test aspects of stellar evolution theory.

Abram Katz can be reached at [email protected] or 789-5719.

URL: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2008/09/15/life/doc48cdd7d61406d294874503.prt
© 2009 nhregister.com, a Journal Register Property

03/12/2017

Under pressure: Yale School of Medicine is exploring advanced ways to keep deadly aneurysms from bursting

Monday, April 21, 2008
By Abram Katz

The heart and vascular system stand up to decades of hard work.
The heart typically pumps about 70 times a minute. Pulses of blood course through the aorta, the largest artery, to every part of the body.
The aorta forms an arch above the heart and then feeds the carotid arteries and arteries in the arms. The 1-inch diameter vessel then descends through the abdomen, finally feeding arteries in the legs.
Sometimes the aorta bulges under the pressure, producing an expanded and weakened swelling called an aneurysm.
Sometimes aneurysms form near the heart, but more frequently they develop in the long downward trunk through the abdomen. Physicians are not sure what causes aneurysms, though the condition seems rooted in genetics. Their frequency increases with age.
Inflammation in the vessels and atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, are suspected of also contributing to the formation of aneurysms.
Men are more likely to develop thoracic aneurysms than are women.
Each year, about 200,000 abdominal aortic aneurysms are diagnosed in the United States, according to the Society for Vascular Surgery. About 15,000 of those may be life-threatening. Consequently, repairing abdominal aortic aneurysms is critical.
This is usually done by placing tubes of synthetic textiles, supported by nickel-aluminum wires, inside the vessel.
These "stent grafts" strengthen the weak areas and prevent aneurysms from rupturing. In men older than 45 in the United States, a ruptured aortic aneurysm is the 10th leading cause of death.
Americans might assume that, if they develop an abdominal aortic aneurysm, they will receive the most modern stent grafts in the world.
They would be wrong.
"The U.S. is five years behind Europe, although the devices are made by U.S. companies," said Dr. Bart E. Muhs, co-director of the Endovascular Program at the Yale School of Medicine.
Branched devices, which conform to the aorta and associated arteries, have been used in Europe for several years, but not in the United States.
Muhs, one of a handful of physicians in Connecticut approved to install endovascular devices, studied at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He received a doctorate there and published his doctoral thesis, "Endovascular Dynamics of the Aorta and its Sidebranches."
Now that he can implant endovascular devices at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Muhs modifies them to accommodate his patients.
"Its fun," Muhs said. "I experiment with the devices at home."
Using Gore-Tex and wire, he fabricates branched endovascular graft stents with "windows" so that the devices will conform to specific patients.
Without endovascular graft stents, which are threaded through arteries and then placed in the correct position, aneurysms can only be repaired by opening the chest, exposing the aorta, Muhs said. The aorta is clamped, opened, the device sutured into place, and then closed.
Dr. Bauer Sumpio, section chief of vascular surgery at Yale, said that innovations, such as the branched endovascular stent graft, are sometimes difficult to use in the United States in a timely manner because of strict federal guidelines on the use of new medical devices.
Indeed, the new stent grafts sometimes leak blood, move away from the desired location, or break.
Muhs has used magnetic resonance imaging to observe the motion of endovascular devices in breathing patients.
Developers of the products apparently did not take into consideration the way the heart and vascular system moves, Sumpio said. In fact, the system moves fairly vigorously, he said.
Muhs found that the movement sometimes causes the fabric to tear and the metal framework to break. "With magnetic resonance, I can see flows and elasticity and other factors that otherwise cant be seen," he said.
This wear and tear requires that patients with endovascular devices be examined with a CT scan every year to see if the device moved.
Grafts with holes, or fenestrations, for branching vessels actually help to anchor the devices so that they are immobile, Sumpio said.
"There are only a handful of places in the U.S. that are doing this kind of research," Sumpio said.
"We get the devices later, but theyre safer," he said.
Abram Katz can be reached at [email protected] or 789-5719.

URL: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2008/04/21/past_stories/19920806.prt
© 2009 nhregister.com, a Journal Register Property

03/12/2017

Breast cancer gene test disputed
A one-minute television ad masquerading as a public service announcement about hereditary breast cancer over-simplifies and exaggerates the risk of the disease, omits important caveats and encourages women to take an expensive genetic test that most do not need, doctors and genetic counselors contend.
Myriad Genetic Laboratories of Salt Lake City, Utah, began the breast cancer campaign on Sept. 10, with television and radio advertisements urging women to "be ready for breast cancer" by undergoing a $3,100 test that Myriad has under patent.��At issue are two genetic mutations, BRCA 1 and BRCA 2, that are passed through generations and significantly increase the lifetime risk for breast and ovarian cancer.��Because of Myriad’s patents, it is the only company that can offer tests for the two flawed genes.��However, only 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are hereditary, cancer specialists said.��And the Myriad test, called BracAnalysis, could miss cancer causing mutations in a small percentage of women, and suggest a risk where none exists, according to a study in the Sept. 27 Journal of the American Medical Association.��Moreover, the genetics of hereditary cancer are exceedingly complex and many primary care doctors might not be able to judge test results or advise patients knowledgeably, said Dr. Molly Brewer, associate professor of gynecology in the University of Connecticut Health Center’s Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.��"Most doctors are not familiar with genetic cancer. Publicizing the test is good, but it’s not something everyone should be tested for. Advertising to patients that they should be genetically tested is inappropriate," Brewer said.��Dr. Gregory C. Critchfield, president of Myriad Genetic Laboratories, said the television and radio ads are intended to make women with a "family history" of breast or ovarian cancer aware of the test and its importance.��"It’s designed to raise public awareness of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and to encourage women to talk to their health care providers," he said.��"Actually, they’re ads by a company with an exclusive patent that has an incentive to sell their tests," said Ellen T. Matloff, director of cancer genetic counseling at the Yale Cancer Center.��The cost of the BracAnalysis blood test is only covered by health plans if the woman has real risk factors for hereditary cancer.��"The television ad doesn’t mention any of the risk factors for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, or that a minority of breast cancers are hereditary," she said.��"Only one in 10 breast cancer cases are hereditary, and only one in 400 people carry one of these mutations," Matloff said.��The ads have caught the attention of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has subpoenaed Myriad for information about the ads, the test and other subjects.��Critchfield said Myriad is cooperating with Blumenthal and is assembling the requested documents.��"They seem to exaggerate, and oversimplify the benefits of taking the test," Blumenthal said.��The ad consists of women talking into the camera. "Breast cancer runs in my family," says one. "My mother," says another. "My grandmother," a third.��Then a woman says, "I wondered if it would be inevitable."��The first woman returns to say, "I found out it doesn’t have to be. I found my risk though BracAnalysis."��The problem with the ad up to this point, is that having family members with breast cancer does not mean the cancer is hereditary, said Robin Schwartz, assistant professor of genetics and developmental biology and pediatrics at the UConn health center.��Signs of hereditary cancer include multiple cancers in a family and early onset of breast cancer, Brewer said. While most breast cancer occurs in post-menopausal women, hereditary breast cancer often appears in women 25 to 40 years old, she said. These cancers also usually run down one side of a family.��Then a woman in the ad says, "BracAnalysis is a blood test that has helped thousands of women find out their risk for breast and ovarian cancer."��The first woman again: "After BracAnalysis I realized I could do something now."��The fact is that about 1 in 8 women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer. Risk factors include age, age at the first menstrual period and age of first live birth. BracAnalysis could identify a much less likely cause of breast cancer.��Women with normal genes face a 1.7 percent lifetime risk of ovarian cancer and a 12 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer, Brewer said.��Women with a BRCA 1 mutation have an 85 percent risk of breast cancer and a 40 to 60 percent chance of ovarian cancer.��However, the number of women carrying mutations of BRCA 1 or 2 is so small that their cancers comprise 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers.��The rate of the BRCA 1 mutation is about 8.6 percent, and BRCA 2 is about 5 percent, studies suggest. This means that BracAnalysis is of no use for at least 90 percent of women in the U.S.��Of the small remaining pool, the BracAnalysis test does not detect all BRCA mutations, either. Researchers at the University of Washington found that genetic testing in the U.S. for BRCA 1 and 2 mutations — necessarily performed by Myriad — missed about 12 percent of the cancer-predisposing genes, according to the JAMA report of Sept. 27.��Schwartz said BracAnalysis test results require expert interpretation. The possible results are:��• Positive for a "deleterious mutation" of BRCA 1 or 2.��• Positive for a genetic variant suspected of being deleterious.��• Positive for a genetic variant that is not believed to cause cancer.��• Positive for a genetic variant of uncertain significance.��• Negative for mutations.��Each of these findings presents the women who was given the test with a quandary, Schwartz said.��Contrary to the Myriad ad, medical options for women with confirmed BRCA 1 or 2 mutations are limited.��The safest, though most disruptive option, is removal of both breasts and the uterus. Many women instead opt for frequent cancer screening tests.��But these results have ramifications for more than the one woman patient, Schwartz said.��"If someone approaches this as ‘just a blood test’ they may be unaware of the implications for other family members," she said.��Positive results mean that the patient’s siblings and children may also carry the mutations. Should the woman notify all affected? How will they react? What about estranged family members?��If the finding is of "uncertain significance," what should the woman do?��Matloff said, "Recently I consulted with a woman who had a finding of variant of uncertain significance, and she was about to get both breasts removed."��A double mastectomy was not indicated, as it was not clear whether the mutation was even harmful, she said.��Blumenthal said the tone of the ad is also troublesome. The test might give some women a false sense of security, or convince them to undergo unnecessary measures, he said.��Furthermore, a general practitioner can request the test without receiving appropriate training, Blumenthal said.��Critchfield said physicians can depend on medical society guidelines or take continuing medical education courses. "This is a service. It allows doctors to learn what their societies are saying," he said.��"The importance of discussion between the patient and health care worker cannot be overemphasized," he said.��However, Myriad does not offer training on the use, application or interpretation of the test, he said.��Still, the Myriad campaign could help thousands of women, Critchfield said. "This is a very important story to get out into the community. There is a large number of women at risk for hereditary cancer," Critchfield said.��Critchfield said 97 percent of carriers of BRCA 1 or 2 mutations do not know it. Experts questioned the basis for that number.��Blumenthal said the ads apparently overstate the number of women who carry the mutated genes, or who could benefit from the test.��In addition, unlike ads for pharmaceuticals, the Myriad ad does not mention that hereditary breast and ovarian cancers amount to a very small percentage of the total, that the test may yield ambiguous results, and that it carries a risk of false positive and negative results, Blumenthal said.��"The ad appears to be a public service announcement. That’s very concerning to us. The content and tone suggest it is a public service announcement," he said.��The subpoena was filed under the aegis of the Department of Consumer Protection. "If Connecticut finds that the ads are deceptive, we can seek restitution for consumers, and also seek fines and penalties," Blumenthal said.��"Promoting awareness of ways to prevent cancer is very good. These ads are not efforts to prevent or reduce risk," he said.
URL: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2007/09/30/import/18868796.prt
© 2008 nhregister.com, a Journal Register Property

03/12/2017

Yale researchers have compiled the first comprehensive genetic map of the rice plant, which eventually may multiply the harvest of the world’s staple grain.
The rice atlas should also make the study of wheat, sorghum, maize and other grains easier, said Timothy Nelson, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale and lead researcher.
Already Nelson and colleagues have found that rice is equipped with the right combination of cells to perform the most efficient form of photosynthesis – a finding no one expected.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and was published online this month in the journal Nature Genetics.
The virtual atlas contains data on the relative activity of each rice gene across 40 cell types.
Rice is relatively easy to study because it has a small genome of about 30,000 genes. Each cell of a rice plant carries the full complement of genes, which contain instructions on what proteins to make, and when.
“From the first cell division there is differentiation, a specialization of cells that is key to the function and structure of the plant,” Nelson said.
Among the questions that Nelson and fellow scientists ponder, is “What is a cell type, how they get there, and how can we take advantage of certain cell types,” he said.
These are fundamental biological questions, with tremendous practical potential.
China consumes 135 million metric tons of rice a year; followed by India, 85 million; Egypt, 39 million; Indonesia, 37 million; and Bangladesh, 26 million metric tons. (A metric ton is 2,000 kilograms).
The United States consumed a mere 3.9 million metric tons in 2003 to 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Between 1961 and 2002, per capita consumption of rice increased 40 percent, based on figures in the department of agriculture’s Rice Yearbook.
Consequently, figuring out methods to increase the yield of rice, or Oryza sativa, is crucial to billions of people.
The genome of rice has been solved for several years, meaning that scientists know the entire sequence of DNA base pairs, including genes and segments of DNA whose functions are unknown.
Understanding what different cells are doing in rice as it grows is an important next step in understanding the plant.
Nelson and colleagues examined 40 cell types from the same plant at different stages of growth.
That includes cells in seedling roots, shoots, leaves and in germinating seed.
Researchers used a microscope to examine layers of cells topped by a thin sheet of plastic. Cells of interest were “micro-dissected” by beaming them with an infrared laser. The resulting burst of energy melted the plastic sheet, causing the cell to adhere. That way different cells could be harvested from a section of root, or the surface of a leaf.
The next step was to figure out what each type of cell produced, and in what quantity, at a particular time in the growing plant.
Researchers determined the cell products by intercepting RNA during the synthesis of proteins.
When a gene on a segment of DNA is activated, enzymes unwind the double helix, and the sequence of nucleic acids are translated into messenger RNA. Transfer RNA then gathers the appropriate amino acids, which are assembled into a protein at a ribosome.
By catching the messenger RNA, the scientists were able to determine what proteins were being produced.
They basically collected and analyzed the messenger RNAs produced by each cell type in the atlas.
“We can say exactly what these genes are doing in different cell types,” Nelson said.
“We we can query any gene we’re interested in,” he said.
Some cells expressed a few as 6,000 genes, while others used up to 16,000 or so genes.
Out of this mass of information, Nelson and co-workers were able to discern patterns of protein production, metabolites, and interactions between the different molecules.
“We’re very excited about this. We can do data mining and see patterns,” he said, such as production of plant hormones, and the synthesis and transport of proteins.
Nelson said he is especially interested in plants that perform C4 photosynthesis. Other plants utilize C3 or CAM photosynthesis.
C4 photosynthesis allows plants to absorb and utilize carbon dioxide rapidly, meaning less energy is wasted, and the plant can withstand higher temperatures and strong sunlight.
The C4 process requires two types of cells working together, mesophyll cells and bundle sheath cells. Rice was thought not to have bundle sheath cells, but Nelson and colleagues found bundle sheath cells in their plants. If a way could be found to increase the activity of these cells, rice could be grown with far greater efficiency.
The International Rice Research Institute, a non-profit organization in the Philippines, is funding C4 research in the hopes of increasing the world rice crop. The IRRI’s goal is to develop C4 rice plants that can produce 50 percent more grain than current types, using less water and fertilizer.
Nelson said C4 research also has the potential to make biomass grasses economically feasible.
Meanwhile, the search for cells continues. Nelson said he ultimately expects about 100 cell types to emerge from rice.

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