Working in health access programme (WHAP): initial results.

CONTEXT: Academic achievement and social class are positively related and applications to medical schools reflect a class-based bias favouring middle-class candidates. Applying a measure that is class-free could be useful as an indicator of a potential good health professional may widen the pool of applicants. In the Working in Health Access Programme (WHAP), we report on the potential usefulness of such a measure. In addition, we describe a programme for raising awareness of higher education (HE) and careers in health care. METHODS: Pupils attending schools with low HE participation rates sat a battery of psychometric tests assessing both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. A total of 2349 pupils sat the tests and 1000 of them took part in the subsequent activities. These pupils are being followed up and have obtained their Standard Grade (Year 11) examination results. RESULTS: Although social class influenced cognitive skills, it had no influence on non-cognitive abilities. Pupils with high levels of cognitive ability were found in all classes, including the most deprived. Both the testing and the awareness-raising programme were successful. Additional information was obtained on factors influencing the participants' choices of career. CONCLUSIONS: Psychometric assessment could act as an early indicator for identifying potential in young people. For pupils with both cognitive and non-cognitive attributes that might indicate they would be successful in veterinary or human medicine, appropriate advice regarding subject choices for school examinations and future careers could be provided.

Genetic analysis of the interface between Cdc42p and the CRIB domain of Ste20p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Mutagenesis was used to probe the interface between the small GTPase Cdc42p and the CRIB domain motif of Ste20p. Members of a cluster of hydrophobic residues of Cdc42p were changed to alanine and/or arginine. The interaction of the wild-type and mutant proteins was measured using the two-hybrid assay; many, but not all, changes reduced interaction between Cdc42p and the target CRIB domain. Mutations in conserved residues in the CRIB domain were also tested for their importance in the association with Cdc42p. Two conserved CRIB domain histidines were changed to aspartic acid. These mutants reduced mating, as well as responsiveness to pheromone-induced gene expression and cell cycle arrest, but did not reduce in vitro the kinase activity of Ste20p. GFP-tagged mutant proteins were unable to localize to sites of polarized growth. In addition, these point mutants were synthetically lethal with disruption of CLA4 and blocked the Ste20p-Cdc42p two-hybrid interaction. Compensatory mutations in Cdc42p that reestablished the two-hybrid association with the mutant Ste20p CRIB domain baits were identified. These mutations improved the pheromone responsiveness of cells containing the CRIB mutations, but did not rescue the lethality associated with the CRIB mutant CLA4 deletion interaction. These results suggest that the Ste20p-Cdc42p interaction plays a direct role in Ste20p kinase function and that this interaction is required for efficient activity of the pheromone response pathway.