Bioscience Technology Online - Molecular Biology

Interferon-Gamma Release Assay in the Ascites: Early Hint for Diagnosis of Abdominal Tuberculosis

Thursday, 29 Jul 2010 17:46:51 GMT

We report on a 20-year-old woman with abdominal tuberculosis. Standard microbiological examination of ascites showed no acid-fast bacilli (AFB), and analysis for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-complex DNA by PCR was negative. However, the interferon-γ release assay (IGRA)...

In vitro selection of structure-switching, self-reporting aptamers.

Wednesday, 28 Jul 2010 09:47:24 GMT

We describe an innovative selection approach to generate self-reporting aptamers (SRAs) capable of converting target-binding events into fluorescence readout without requiring additional modification, optimization, or the use of DNA helper strands. These...

Telomerase-immortalized human mammary stem/progenitor cells with ability to self-renew and differentiate.

Wednesday, 28 Jul 2010 09:47:20 GMT

There is increasing evidence that breast and other cancers originate from and are maintained by a small fraction of stem/progenitor cells with self-renewal properties. Whether such cancer stem/progenitor cells originate from normal stem cells based on initiation...

Fractionation and RNA Extraction from Exosomes

Tuesday, 27 Jul 2010 10:43:48 GMT

The new ExoMir Kit from Bioo Scientific offers an alternative to ultracentrifugation traditionally used to recover exosomes and other microparticles from cell-free samples. The Exomir kit captures these micropoarticles using syringe filters. The filters are then flushed with BiooPure-MP, an RNA extraction reagent, to lyse the captured particles and release their contents.

Characterization of Biomolecular Interactions

Tuesday, 27 Jul 2010 10:32:22 GMT

GE Healthcare announces the launch of Biacore T200, designed to deliver sensitivity in the measurement of high quality kinetic, affinity, concentration, specificity, and thermodynamic interaction data, in real time.

Inducible Expression System

Monday, 26 Jul 2010 10:23:23 GMT

Clontech Laboratories and TET Systems (TET) announced that they have signed an amendment to their existing license agreement. Under the expanded license agreement, Clontech obtains rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize novel Tet Systems products as the Tet-On 3G Inducible Expression System.

Rare and common genetic variations responsible for high triglyceride levels in blood

Sunday, 25 Jul 2010 13:41:59 GMT

(University of Western Ontario) In a new study published online in Nature Genetics, Dr. Robert Hegele of the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario has shown that it's a combination of both common and rare variants or "misprints" in several genes that add up, and...

TNF{alpha}-exposed bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells promote locomotion of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells through transcriptional activation of CXCR3 ligand chemokine...

Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 15:50:48 GMT

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) are often recruited to solid tumors, integrate into the tumor stroma, and contribute to tumor development. TNFalpha is a major inflammatory cytokine present in the tumor microenvironment and has a profound...

BCR-ABL positive cells and chronic myeloid leukaemia in immune suppressed organ transplant recipients.

Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 15:50:44 GMT

Abstract The constitutively activated tyrosine kinase activity of the p210(bcr-abl) fusion protein, generated by a t(9;22)(q34;q11) chromosomal translocation, is pathogenetically associated with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). However, mechanisms contributing...

Alternative splicing and gene duplication in the evolution of the FoxP gene sub-family.

Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 15:50:40 GMT

The FoxP gene sub-family of transcription factors is defined by its characteristic 110 amino acid-long DNA-binding forkhead domain and plays essential roles in vertebrate biology. Its four members, FoxP1-P4 have been extensively characterized functionally....

The small GTPase ARL2 is required for cytokinesis in Trypanosoma brucei.

Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 05:48:01 GMT

The Arf-like (Arl) small GTPases have a diverse range of functions in the eukaryotic cell. Metazoan Arl2 acts as a regulator of microtubule biogenesis, binding to the tubulin-specific chaperone cofactor D. Arl2 also has a mitochondrial function through its...

RT2 Profiler PCR Arrays

Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010 10:27:24 GMT

SABiosciences, a QIAGEN company, launches several new RT2 Profiler PCR Arrays for gene expression profiling in nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicology, differentiation, and embryonic stem cells markers as well as analysis of epigenetic modulators and enzymes. Covering more than 100 pathways, PCR arrays enable scientists to easily and accurately analyze the gene expression in research areas such as cancer, stem cells, biomarker discovery, and immunology.

Physically grounded approach for estimating gene expression from microarray data.

Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010 06:47:11 GMT

High-throughput technologies, including gene-expression microarrays, hold great promise for the systems-level study of biological processes. Yet, challenges remain in comparing microarray data from different sources and extracting information about low-abundance...

Cloning and phylogenetic analyses of serine/threonine kinase class defense-related genes in a wild fruit crop 'chestnut rose'

Tuesday, 20 Jul 2010 08:47:38 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Chestnut rose (Rosa roxburghii Tratt) is a promising wild fruit crop in Southwest China. However, chestnut rose suffers from several important diseases such as powdery mildew and black spot. Cloning and phylogenetic analysis of plant...

EPA and other federal agencies collaborate to improve chemical screening

Tuesday, 20 Jul 2010 03:41:46 GMT

(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) The US EPA, the NIEHS National Toxicology Program and the NIH Chemical Genomics Center welcome the US FDA to the Tox21 collaboration. The Tox21 collaboration merges federal agency resources to develop ways to more effectively predict how chemicals...

Molecular Biology's Central Dogma

Monday, 19 Jul 2010 15:42:17 GMT

Compilation of "true" to size, shape and speed animations provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute showing each part of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology using the Human globin gene as an example--all in one video

Springer to publish Journal of NeuroVirology

Monday, 19 Jul 2010 14:42:14 GMT

(Springer) Starting in January 2011, Springer will publish the Journal of NeuroVirology, a bimonthly publication closely affiliated with the International Society for NeuroVirology. Previously published by Taylor & Francis/Informa, the five-year contract with Springer runs to 2015.

Optimizing nucleotide sequence ensembles for combinatorial protein libraries using a genetic algorithm.

Monday, 19 Jul 2010 03:47:08 GMT

Protein libraries are essential to the field of protein engineering. Increasingly, probabilistic protein design is being used to synthesize combinatorial protein libraries, which allow the protein engineer to explore a vast space of amino acid sequences, while...

STITCH 2: an interaction network database for small molecules and proteins.

Monday, 19 Jul 2010 03:47:03 GMT

Over the last years, the publicly available knowledge on interactions between small molecules and proteins has been steadily increasing. To create a network of interactions, STITCH aims to integrate the data dispersed over the literature and various databases of...

An automated stochastic approach to the identification of the protein specificity determinants and functional subfamilies.

Saturday, 17 Jul 2010 08:47:51 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Recent progress in sequencing and 3D structure determination techniques stimulated development of approaches aimed at more precise annotation of proteins, that is, prediction of exact specificity to a ligand or, more broadly, to a binding...

Transcriptomic epidemiology of smoking: the effect of smoking on gene expression in lymphocytes.

Saturday, 17 Jul 2010 07:46:52 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: This investigation offers insights into system-wide pathological processes induced in response to cigarette smoke exposure by determining its influences at the gene expression level. METHODS: We obtained genome-wide quantitative...

The 68 kDa subunit of mammalian cleavage factor I interacts with the U7 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein and participates in 3'-end processing of animal histone mRNAs.

Saturday, 17 Jul 2010 06:47:04 GMT

Metazoan replication-dependent histone pre-mRNAs undergo a unique 3'-cleavage reaction which does not result in mRNA polyadenylation. Although the cleavage site is defined by histone-specific factors (hairpin binding protein, a 100-kDa zinc-finger protein and...

A new lysozyme from the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, and a possible evolutionary pathway for i-type lysozymes in bivalves from host defense to digestion.

Saturday, 17 Jul 2010 05:47:40 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Lysozymes are enzymes that lyse bacterial cell walls, an activity widely used for host defense but also modified in some instances for digestion. The biochemical and evolutionary changes between these different functional forms has been...

Comparison of glucose derivatives effects on cartilage degradation.

Friday, 16 Jul 2010 09:47:31 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Glucosamine (GlcN) is a well-recognized candidate for treatment of osteoarthritis. However, it is currently used in derivative forms, such as glucosamine-hydrochloride (GlcN-HCl) or glucosamine sulfate (GlcN-S). However, the molecular mode...

Validation of reference genes as internal control for studying viral infections in cereals by quantitative real-time PCR.

Friday, 16 Jul 2010 09:47:26 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Reference genes are commonly used as an/the endogenous normalisation measure for the relative quantification of target genes. The appropriate application of RT-qPCR, however, requires the use of reference genes whose level of expression is...

PCR Consumables

Thursday, 15 Jul 2010 10:48:01 GMT

The new BRAND white PCR consumables are designed to optimize results for Real Time PCR (qPCR). Uniformly colored with Titanium dioxide, BRAND white PCR products offer quality results in the analysis of fluorescence signals and consequently with the quantification of the replicated DNA.

Serious limitations of the QTL/Microarray approach for QTL gene discovery.

Wednesday, 14 Jul 2010 21:47:28 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that the use of gene expression microarrays in nonrecombinant parental or congenic strains can accelerate the process of isolating individual genes underlying quantitative trait loci (QTL). However, the effectiveness of...

Identification of the Eph receptor pathway as a novel target for eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) modification of gene expression in human colon adenocarcinoma cells (HT-29).

Wednesday, 14 Jul 2010 21:47:23 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The health benefits of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly those of the n-3 series are well documented. The mechanisms by which these effects are mediated are not fully clarified. METHODS: We used microarrays to assess the...

New adhesin functions of surface-exposed pneumococcal proteins.

Wednesday, 14 Jul 2010 16:48:25 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a widely distributed commensal Gram Positive bacteria of the upper respiratory tract. Pneumococcal colonization can progress to invasive disease, and thus become lethal, reason why antibiotics and vaccines are...

Copy number variation at leptin receptor gene locus associated with metabolic traits and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Wednesday, 14 Jul 2010 16:48:20 GMT

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Recent efforts have been made to link complex human traits and disease susceptibility to DNA copy numbers. The leptin receptor (LEPR) has been implicated in obesity and diabetes. Mutations and genetic variations of LEPR gene have been...