A switch to turn fragrances on and off
Professor Joseph Noel, co-first author Suzanne Thomas and collaborators at Purdue University discovered the switch in plants that turns off the production of terpenoids—carbon-rich compounds that play roles in plant physiology and are used by humans in everything from fragrances and flavorings to biofuels and pharmaceuticals. Plants often make terpenoids in such low quantities that extracting them for commercial use is difficult. The discovery could lead to more-efficient ways to obtain sufficient amounts of these products to the benefit of humans.
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Salk’s New ExplorersLike people, institutions move forward generation by generation. The Salk Institute’s first group of scientists included founder Jonas Salk, famous for developing the first effective and safe polio vaccine; and Renato Dulbecco, who demonstrated how viruses can cause cancer and who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975.
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