HUBERMAN@BIONET-20.BIO.NET (Joel Huberman) (07/24/89)
I am late in responding to the July 1 announcement of BIONET's
obliteration on September 30 because I was away on vacation until a few
days ago. I, too, was shocked and appalled at a decision which appeared
to me to be so irrational that I couldn't imagine its happening.
I have read through the other testimonials to BIONET's effectiveness
on this bulletin board and, although I can't match them in articulateness,
logic, and emotional appeal, I would like to add one additional
testimonial. Although mundane, this is an important testimonial because
it provides an example of one of the many ways in which BIONET has
contributed to the research effectiveness of practicing molecular
biologists. One of the most important papers I have published during what
is becoming a long career is Huberman, Spotila, Nawotka, El-Assouli, and
Davis (1987), "The in vivo replication origin of the yeast 2 micrometer
plasmid", Cell 51: 473-481. This paper describes a method which allows
reliable and accurate mapping of directions of DNA replication, initiation
sites (origins), and termination sites in eukaryotic chromosomes.
Inability to define eukaryotic replication origins has held back the field
of eukaryotic DNA replication for many years. The technique described in
this paper plus a similar technique developed independently by Bonnie
Brewer and Walt Fangman and described in an adjacent Cell paper and a
totally independent technique pioneered by Howard Cedar (Handeli, Klar,
Meuth and Cedar (1989) "Mapping Replication Units in Animal Cells", Cell
57: 909-920) have generated an excitement in this field similar to the
excitement which prevailed 20 years ago. If one reads the paper from my
lab, one will notice in the acknowledgements section that "computer
resources used to carry out our studies" were provided by BIONET.
Joel A. Huberman
Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Roswell Park Memorial Institute
Buffalo, New York 14263
716-845-3047
Alternative E-mail address: V138C8NG@UBVMSA.BIONET
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