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It has been slightly more than 25 years since the CDC first published accounts of a strange malady affecting young men in San Francisco. That illness, now known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, has since become a global pandemic affecting millions of men, women and children. Thanks to the tireless effort of thousands of doctors and research scientists, today we have effective treatments for prolonging the lives of those diagnosed with AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus that causes it. But there is no cure. This fact rankles MU life scientists such as Marc Johnson, an assistant professor of microbiology who is devoting his career to discovering how proteins in retroviruses -- the organisms responsible for HIV/AIDS and a host of other dreaded maladies -- assemble themselves deep within the molecular structure of an infected cell. Johnson's quest is no esoteric exercise: Getting to the bottom of retroviral assembly will ultimately help scientists disrupt its replication. And this, as he puts it in our feature beginning on Page 18, "will bring us one step closer to ... ridding the body of the infection." A passion for probing deeply is something Johnson shares with all successful scientists and scholars, a group whose investigations routinely find them looking below the surface of things. As you'll discover in this edition of Illumination, such explorations occur on both literal and figurative levels. Consider, for example, the experience of MU faculty members such as Ken MacLeod, a geologist who drilled deep into the North Atlantic sea floor to shed light on the demise of dinosaurs; or that of Mike Stadler, a psychologist who has used the tools of his discipline to get inside the heads of Major League Baseball players. You'll also meet a faculty poet who has used religious pilgrimage as a means of deepening his understanding of life and language; a regional photographer whose work, rescued by an MU faculty scholar, brings us closer to the mysterious soul of America's Deep South; and a professor of veterinary medicine whose own unique vision is helping blind cats see. Here at the University of Missouri-Columbia, our faculty look deeply into the nature of things, not just with an eye toward what is, but with a view toward what could be. I hope you'll enjoy learning more about what they are discovering.
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To request an issue or subscribe to Illumination, contact us at Illumination, Office of Research, 205 Jesse Hall, Columbia MO 65211. |
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Overcoming Unease