The Left Handed DNA Hall of Fame

- Tom Schneider The Left handed DNA Hall of Fame has moved. Please note the NEW LOCATION: http://www.fred.net/tds/leftdna/

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1996

version = 2.00 of leftyear1996.txt 2009 Sep 29

1. Poster for the meeting: International Symposium on Molecular Virology, Advances in Molecular Basis of Viral Pathogenesi [sic]. Date: Oct 6-10, 1996. Place: Xi'an, China. Host: Chinese Society of Medical Virology. Sponsor: Chinese Medical Association. Supported by: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo China, Ltd, National Vaccine & Serum Institute of China.
2. TaKaRa Shuzo Co. LTD. advertisement in The Journal of NIH Research March Volume 8, p. 12, 1996.
3. Elsevier Science advertisement in Cell March 8, Volume 84, Number 5 1996 for Gene-Combis. (It's nice that they show a sequence logo though! :-)
4. Taconic advertisement in Science 19 January 1996, Vol 271:278, for Transgenic mouse models.
5. Schleicher & Schuell advertisement in BioTechniques volume 20, number 4, April 1996, page 645. "PCR-Quality [left handed?] DNA from Whole Blood" ... "a revolutionary new device" ...
6. Bio-Synthesis Inc. advertisement in American Biotechnology Laboratory April 1996, page 79. Catalog of [left handed DNA?] products.
7. Rice Biotechnology Quarterly volume 26, April 1996. The cover shows left handed DNA recombining. Are the space invaders evolving now?
8. Knight-Ridder Information, Inc. advertisement in R&D Magazine April 1996 page 2 shows a rather lovely graphic with both a right hand and part of a left handed DNA.
9. Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. advertisement in Nature Vol 381 23 May 1996 between pages 346 and 347. A single DNA molecule switches from left- to right- handed. Where the right hand DNA is inspected under a magnifying glass, it becomes left handed. Something is strange about those optics!
10. Retrogen advertisement in BioTechniques volume 20, number 6, June 1996, page 955. Apparently they synthesize left handed DNA.
11. Enzo Diagnostics advertisement in Nature Vol 381 13 June 1996 page ii. A single DNA molecule is left-handed and switches to a right hand twist. Why is this mistake gaining popularity?
12. Wyeth-Ayerst advertisement in Science Vol 272 21 June 1996 page 1826. A single DNA molecule is left-handed and switches to a right hand twist as one goes up the page. This mistake is gaining in popularity!
13. Technology Review August/September 1996 cover by Marc Burckhardt shows a lovely left-handed DNA twisting around a tree. The cover is about "Misusing Genetics".
14. Schleicher & Schuell a huge poster received on 1996 July 23 shows one of the "biggest" (77 cm x 39 cm) mistakes so far: a psoralen attacking a left-hand DNA. "Choose the Psoralen Advantage" ... to make your DNA reverse handedness?
15. Pierce advertisement in Nature Vol 382 25 July 1996 just after page 294. The DNA on the card insert has left hand twist.
16. Clontech 96/97 catalog. The cover shows a series of left handed DNAs coming out of a machine; the DNAs are stamped "innovation". How are they going to use this innovative product? In the Chapters on PCR-Based Analysis, they show another picture where a left handed DNA is replicated into both left and right handed DNA! Does this mean that they have invented a left handed enzyme? For the section on Libraries, they show a box from which a right then left twist DNA appears from a box.
17. Perkin-Elmer advertisement flyer. Apparently they have a way to amplify left handed DNA!
18. Clontech advertisement in Science Vol 273, 2 August 1996, page 552.
19. As of 1996 Aug 16 a left handed DNA is on the cover of the journal Gene!
    By Spring of 1997, they had corrected the error.
20. Scientific American, September 1996:
    pages 56-57: people against a background of left handed DNA.
    page 61: left handed DNA for a section titled "Fundamental Understandings" ...
    page 64: both left and right handed DNA in a normal cell
    page 109: DNA hybridizing to "normal" DNA from Hubert Humphrey has a left handed twist. What was he ...?
    The editors responded: "Thanks for pointing out our error in the September issue regarding the handedness of DNA. We have alerted the artists and editors involved. We appreciate your interest in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Sincerely, THE EDITORS"
21. The cover of the book Independent Birth of Organisms by Periannan Senapathy Shows that frogs came from right handed DNA but that crabs came from left handed DNA. No wonder he claims "that evolutionary theories are fundamentally incorrect".
22. Bio-Synthesis advertisement in Science Vol 273, 23 August 1996, page 1138. and at their web site. Do they synthesize left handed DNA?
23. Science volume 273, 30 August 1996, page 1249. An advertising supplement showing a graduating student's left handed DNA tassle.
24. Nature Volume 383, No 6596, 12 September 1996, page 119. The article "Activation without a vital ingredient" by David M. Chao and Richard A. Young is about how TAFs are not apparently needed for transcriptional activation. The diagram shows transcription from left handed DNA.
25. 5 Prime -> 3 Prime, Inc mail flyer. received on 1996 September 23 with "products for cloning and molecular biology" shows left handed DNA.
26. TIBS September 1996 249(21) page 336. Artwork by Bo Segerman showing an entire eukaryotic transcription complex binding left handed DNA.
27. The Economist's cover of September 14th-20th, 1996 shows a man (or is "nam" a more appropriate name?) walking along as a puppet with left handed DNA attached to the feet, hands and head, and labled "The genetic illusion". Hmm.
28. NEN Life Science Products Catalog received on 1996 October 24. The cover shows left handed DNA.
29. PharMingen International advertisement in Nature Vol 384 5 December 1996, 3rd page after page ix. The DNA about to be eaten by a little pacman has left hand twist. (Also in Science Vol 275, 14 Feb 1997, page 894. Also in an advertising poster 1997 Oct 15)
30. Newsweek's cover December 23, 1996 shows a left handed DNA wrapped around an ... alien from outer space?
31. GIBCO BRL PCR Products catalogue from Life Technologies, Inc shows the successful PCR replication of left handed DNA. (Thanks to Denise Rubens, rubens@ncifcrf.gov, for pointing this one out!) as of 1999 June 10
    

For your first visit to the Left Handed Hall of Fame page I suggest that you follow the story over all of the years. After that you can look at each year individually from the table below. Note: just because a year has gone by does not mean we haven't found more examples for that year!

1997 and 1998 were bumper crop years
and 1999 beat them more than 2 fold. 2000 was a record year, thanks to help from friends around the world (60 of the 97 cases, 63%!). 2001 exceeded even that record! 2002 was lower - are we making headway?

Tom Schneider.

updated: 2024Aug15_21:49:45