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NO LIFE IN Tu ST TUBE 7/30/ 64W
EXPEOTED BY RUSSTANS

By FAYE MARLEY
Science Service Medical Writer

NEW YORK, -- Creation of life and modification of
heredity in a test tube will not be possible for many years, if ever,
a Russian scientist told Science Service here.

Dre Lev Kisselev of Moscow, who at the 1961 International
Congress of Biochemistry translated the code-cracking speech of Ameri-
cats\ pre Marghall W. Nirenberg | said that he had been working with

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other Russian scientists in Leningrad and Moscow on problems of

 

correlating function and structure of RNA, or ribonucleic acid.

‘Many results lie ahead when this work 1s done," he, said,
but he only Laughed at the idea of higher life in a test tubee

Dre Edgar Lederer, director of the new French institute of
natural substencess15 miles south of Paris, said he hoped human life
would not be created in a test tube,

The creation of tobacco mosaic virus from inert chemicals
led to an. announcement two years ago that life had been created in a
test tube.

But creating Life in a tiny infective virus is a far cry
from creating human life as we know it,

Progress is being mede in deciphering the genetic code, how-
ever, end the results Dr. FKisselev foresees when all the tedious work
of correlation in function and structure is finished coulda well ine
clude correction of hereditary discases —- even a cure for some forms
of cancer,

‘
Dr. Nirenberg, with Dr. J. Heinrich Matthei at thelMational

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Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., partially unraveled the mystery
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of the genetic code, They are, however, the first to agree that years
cf work remain to be done before all the necessary sequences can be
determineds

Dre Nirenberg's work has shown that in all species, a given
nucleotide triplet always specifies the same amino acid. Thus it
appears that all nature has evolved from one ancestor ~~ DNA, or
deoxyribonucleic acid, with RNA, or ribonucleic acid, carrying out its
eod-Like bidding.

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NO LIFE -- CONTINUED SHED 2 74 °30/ GL

Both Dr, Nirenberg and Dr. Severo Ochoe, president of the

wnational Union of Biochemistry, spoke (Friday) at a, symposium

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5

of the Sixth International Congress cf Biochemistry here, Dro Je De
Watson of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., who shared the 1962
Nobel. Prize in Medicine and Physiology with Dr. Francis H. C. Crick

of Cambridge University, England, was another speaker at this meeting.
Dr. Ochoa shared the 1959 Novel Prize in Medicine end Physiology for
his studies in the biosynthesis of RNA,

Dr. Nirenberg!s early experiments were made possible by the
use of mixed polymers of RNA that could be synthesized by the bacterial
RNA polymerase, or enzyme, previously isotated by Dre Ochoae

After intensive work, esnecially in the laboratories of

Drs. Ochoa and Nirenberg, it 1s now possible to assign triplet RNA

base codes to.all the amino acids.

The corresponding DNA triplet code should then be the
complement of the RNA code. Tests of this code in bacterial, plant
ead animal systems have indicated that the Escherichia coli,code is
universal, a fact of considerable evolutionary significance.

The actuel definition of which triplet snecifies which amino
acid is pursued at present by Drs. Ochoa, Nirenberg end others,
principally by constructing messenger RNA molecules of known sequence
to see which amino acid they snecify. ;

By making and testing a large variety of messenger RNAs,

a genetic code is being mapped oute In another eoproach, certain
nucleotides in the master molecule, be 1% DNA or virus RNA, are
exchanged, and the effect of this exchange is reflected in an
altered pattern of amino acid incorvoration.

The Indian—born Dr. H. Gobind Khorana, researching at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, has synthesized small DNA. models
after ten years of work. From 10 to 20 years lie. ahead, Dr. Khorana
feels before the full sequence can be established. Improvement of
human heredity may be at the tip of the scientist's fingers, but the
fingers must reach far into the future.

Another Russian scientist interviewed py Science Service
was Dre Ge Fe Géuse of the Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow,
who reported his work with Laboratcry animals using some antibiotics

Shas fight cancer.
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NO LIFR ~~ COMTPINUED SHEET 3. 7/30/64W

Working with Dr. Ae V. Laiko «t the Institute of New
Antibiotics, Dre Gause found that they inhibit the synthesis of
nucieic acids, Mitomycin C, porfircmycin and degranol, a representa
tive of the chlcorethylamines, were the entibiotics used, These anti-
biotics inhibited the synthesis of DNA in the cells of normal and ?mnu-
tant staphylo-wuccus organisms, Staph is a cause of boils and other
pus-—forming infections.

Progress in basic knowledge reported at this congress gives
hope for mankind's fight against disease as well as for understanding
the puzzle of lifes

In the words of Dre Ochoa, the human intellect will
eventually solve the puzzle of the nature of life. ,

"But will it ever solve the riddle of the meaning of life,
of the existence of the universe, or even of its prerequisite, matter,
and of the essence of the intellect itself?" the MNobelist questioned.

Dro Ochoa said the exploration of space might provide clues

for further inquiry into the origin of life.

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FUTURE RELEASE: Saturday morning, Aug. 1 7/30/64

CUE TOOTHPASTE CETS
DENTISTS! APPROVAL

By SCIENCE SERVICE

CHICAGO, —- A second fluoride-gontaining toothpaste
has American Dental Associntion { ADA) approval, Cue, made by the
Colgate~Paimolive Company, joins Crest, Procter and Gamble Company
product, as en "effective decey~preventive dentifrice."

Both Cue and Crest contain stannous fluoride, but the ADA
says from the standpoint of cost, effectiveness and,convenience, water
fluoridation is the best way to prevent tooth decay, Another method

is by topical application of fluoride on the teetn by a dentist.

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