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PubMed is the database of choice if you are looking for published
articles from life science journals. In this exercise we want to find
out about obesity and a gene associated with it. In the 1990'es Jeff
Friedman's lab at Rockefeller University cloned a gene called obese
(ob). His lab discovered, to much fanfare, a hormone that seemed
to make fat mice slim.
- Open a new window and browse to
PubMed.
- Search for all publications of Jeff Friedman's lab.
- What is the basic structure of a PubMed entry?
- Which gene comes up most frequently? What hormone does it encode?
- Search for obesity gene or obesity protein. If you get too many hits, limit
your search to years 1990 to 1999.
- Can you find the original paper describing the sequencing of the gene?
In which journal was it published?
- Try to find more information about leptin.
- Go to the Jackson Labs web page and search for the mutant ob
strain of mice. What does it take to purchase a pair of these mice for
research purposes?
- Which company paid how much for the patent to use the leptin
sequence commercially? Was it the panacea that some obesity researchers
and patients had hoped for?
more...
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