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‘Nature’ reports innovative research approach The journal, “Nature,” in its Jan. 27 issue, reports an innovative research approach integrating scientific experimentation with mathematical modeling conducted by researchers at MUSC and Georgia Tech. A research team at MUSC with Yusuf Hannun, Ph.D., in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Eberhard Voit, Ph.D., in the Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology and now at the Georgia Tech/Emory University Department of Biomedical Engineering, demonstrated that mathematically modeled research data could be useful in testing hypotheses, leading to further experimentation. The promising research approach, demonstrated within the context of sphingolipid metabolism in yeast, represents another step toward modeling complex biological systems accurately enough to make useful predictions. This research represents a key development in bringing together experimentalists and theoreticians in the post-genome era. Sphingolipids are signaling molecules that assist cells in deciding whether to grow or die. Research has shown these molecules have implications in preventing several types of cancer in animal models. With implications for disease characterization, biotechnology and drug design, the approach tested by MUSC researchers on Hannun's team and their colleague at Georgia Tech offers an efficient way of gaining useful knowledge from the massive amounts of complex biological information generated within today's advanced analysis technology. Often the data generated by researchers is modeled by mathematicians and ends there. In this research, the experimenters tested hypotheses generated by the model. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and largely completed at MUSC. Co-authors with Hannun and Voit on the Nature paper are MUSC postdoctoral researchers Fernando Alvarez-Vasquez and Ashley Cowart, MUSC graduate student Kellie Sims and former postdoctoral fellow Yasuo Okamoto.   Friday, Jan. 28, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.