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Biomedical subjects

H Varmus

Publications and source records attributed to H Varmus.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Revitalization of the Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health.

For nearly 45 years the Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center has been the site of the intramural clinical research of the National Institutes of Health. It has served as the largest clinical research facility for the nation and the site for training many of the clinical investigators in the nation's academic medical centers. Research at the Clinical Center has focused on study of orphan diseases and phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, and this research emphasis has made it a special national resource. Over the last decade there has been a dramatic decline in the number of patients seen at the Clinical Center, as well as a perceived decrease in the quality of research performed at the center. The decreased activity is related in part to fiscal constraints and the impact of the changing health care delivery system. The trends at the Clinical Center are particularly distributing because they parallel what is happening at academic health centers across the country. Because its success is viewed as vital to national clinical research, a major effort has been undertaken to revitalize the center. This paper reports on the plans and activities undertaken to reorganize the center's management, revitalize its infrastructure for conducting clinical research, establish vital clinical research training, and promote partnerships with extramural investigators who will benefit from access to the center. The hope is that the model established at the NIH Clinical Center will assist in the revitalization of clinical research across the nation.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1997

Casein kinase 2 associates with and phosphorylates dishevelled.

The dishevelled (dsh) gene of Drosophila melanogaster encodes a phosphoprotein whose phosphorylation state is elevated by Wingless stimulation, suggesting that the phosphorylation of Dsh and the kinase(s) responsible for this phosphorylation are integral parts of the Wg signaling pathway. We found that immunoprecipitated Dsh protein from embryos and from cells in tissue culture is associated with a kinase activity that phosphorylates Dsh in vitro. Purification and peptide sequencing of a 38 kDa protein co-purifying with this kinase activity showed it to be identical to Drosophila Casein Kinase 2 (CK2). Tryptic phosphopeptide mapping indicates that identical peptides are phosphorylated by CK2 in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that CK2 is at least one of the kinases that phosphorylates Dsh. Overexpression of Dfz2, a Wingless receptor, also stimulated phosphorylation of Dsh, Dsh-associated kinase activity, and association of CK2 with Dsh, thus suggesting a role for CK2 in the transduction of the Wg signal.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
PubMed1997

A member of the Frizzled protein family mediating axis induction by Wnt-5A.

In Xenopus laevis embryos, the Wingless/Wnt-1 subclass of Wnt molecules induces axis duplication, whereas the Wnt-5A subclass does not. This difference could be explained by distinct signal transduction pathways or by a lack of one or more Wnt-5A receptors during axis formation. Wnt-5A induced axis duplication and an ectopic Spemann organizer in the presence of hFz5, a member of the Frizzled family of seven-transmembrane receptors. Wnt-5A/hFz5 signaling was antagonized by glycogen synthase kinase-3 and by the amino-terminal ectodomain of hFz5. These results identify hFz5 as a receptor for Wnt-5A.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Basic science and the NIH.

The following is an edited version of the Keynote Speech delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology by Harold Varmus, Director of the National Institutes of Health. The address, entitled Basic Science and the NIH, was given at the opening of the meeting in New Orleans on December 11, 1993. It was Varmus' first public policy talk as NIH Director.

National Institutes of Health (U.S.)↗