Word: cellular
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Stickiness is central to almost all biological processes. Cells are able to form organs and function as a unit thanks to a fascinating category of complex glues they secrete known as extracellular matrix. Securing cells in their matrix are Velcro-like patches called cellular-adhesion molecules (CAMs), which are present on every cell except red blood cells. These cellular glues not only hold things together but also play a vital role in growth, fetal development, repair of damaged tissue and elimination of noxious invaders...
...when cellular glues become too sticky or fail to hold, the outcome is often disastrous. In cancer, for instance, advancing tumors often secrete an enzyme that chews up their matrix, freeing malignant cells to leak into the bloodstream. Some inevitably stick and proliferate at sites elsewhere in the body. Thus the lethal process of metastasis may be viewed as a breakdown in stickiness...
Researchers have similar dreams of manipulating stickiness in more commonplace ailments, including cancer. "Cellular-adhesion research isn't going to cure cancer, but it might stop metastasis," says Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist Richard Hynes. At the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation in California, genetic scientists have succeeded in inserting a CAM gene inside a tumor cell. Once the cell starts manufacturing patches of biological Velcro, it is essentially "glued in place. It becomes incapable of metastasizing," says Erkki Ruoslahti, president of the foundation. A second approach to controlling cancer is known as "walking on ice." Here the goal...
Soon after his disappearance, FBI agents recovered letters demanding a ransom of millions of dollars from Exxon for his safe return. In one note the '90s-style kidnappers made a particularly unsophisticated request: that a cellular-telephone number be established through which further contact would be made. As the alleged culprits, Arthur and Irene Seale, later learned to their dismay, calls received on such phones can be traced...
Ultimately sold out by cellular, the Seales were apprehended after a fast- paced four-hour chase that ended at a Hackettstown, N.J., car-rental agency. There, Mrs. Seale was caught with a briefcase containing some extraordinary items: three .38-cal. bullets and a 1985 directory of home addresses for Exxon executives. A search of the house where the Seales had been staying turned up the scribbled phone numbers of banks in Zurich and Karachi, and a book on money laundering. Former Exxon security guard Seale and his wife, both 45, face life in prison if convicted. Investigators last Saturday discovered...