Subject: LAB NOTES
Date: Published: 2/10/88 79 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   LAB NOTES
    ---
   By David Stipp

   Advances in Search
   For Superconductors

   RESEARCHERS are trying more complex compounds in their
quest for improved superconductor materials.

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   AIDS Concerns Spawn
   Medical Workers' Gear
   FEARS ABOUT AIDS spur products to minimize medical
workers' risks of getting the disease from patients.
   Medical workers chances of getting AIDS are low, but the
disease can be transmitted in blood and other bodily fluids
through accidental needle sticks, scalpel cuts and other
slips.  To ward off accidental cuts, Whiting & Davis Co., a
Plainville, Mass., concern known mainly for its accessories
for women, recently introduced metal-mesh hospital gloves.
   The $279-a-pair gloves are designed to be worn over rubber
surgical gloves, but their small nickel-plated, brass rings
 -- about one-twentieth of an inch in diameter -- won't stop
needles.  To deflect at least some needle sticks, the company
is developing an even finer metal mesh that resembles cloth,
a spokesman says.
   Another company, ICU Medical Inc. of Mission Viejo,
Calif., last year introduced needles with movable plastic
sheaths that lock over the needles as they are withdrawn from
patients.  And Meditrend Inc., an Albuquerque, N. M., concern,
recently introduced a plastic face shield to guard against
blood splashes.
   Hospital-supply companies emphasize that although AIDS is
driving the market for such products, the protection they
provide against hepatitis B, a virus that also can be
transmitted in bodily fluids, may be just as important.
Hepatitis B can be fatal, and the chances of getting it from
accidents like needle sticks is much higher than the chance
of getting AIDS the same way, they say.
 A New Way to Identify
   Types of Cancer Cells
 SCIENTISTS have found a new way to differentiate cells
that may improve cancer diagnosis.
   Biologists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
recently discovered that each cell type has its own "nuclear
matrix proteins," substances found in a cell's DNA-containing
nucleus.  Determining the particular mix of such proteins may
enable scientists to identify a cell's organ of origin, says
Sheldon Penman, one of the MIT researchers.  Until now,
identifying cell types by analyzing their proteins has been a
"Holy Grail" in biology, he adds.
   The discovery could help cancer specialists distinguish
some tumors that, in a process called metastasis, grow from
cancer cells that have migrated from their place of origin in
the body.  In perhaps 5% of cancer patients, doctors can't
identify the origin of such tumors and hence aren't sure what
treatment to prescribe.  And in a larger proportion of
patients with metastasizing cancer, identifying tumor type
requires time-consuming tests.
   The finding may yield quick, simple tests to identify
tumor types.  A new company, Matritech Inc., recently was
formed in Boston to develop commercial products from the MIT
research.  Experiments also suggest "the matrix proteins may
indicate the degree and nature of malignancy" in cancer, says
Mr. Penman.

[26 lines irrelevant to AIDS have been removed. -- sysop]

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