Chemoselective transformations are of key importance in modern chemical biology. Protein esterification can, for example, be employed for labeling, enhanced cellular uptake and other useful protein mo...
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Titin is a sarcomeric protein expressed primarily in striated muscles. It is responsible for maintaining the structure and biomechanical properties of muscle cells. In the heart, cardiac titin under...
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Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) or brittle bone disease is an incurable genetic disorder that causes fragile bones and a lifetime of breaks and fractures. Recently, mutations in the gene for bone morphog...
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To produce pulp from wood, harsh chemicals are applied during cooking and bleaching mainly because lignin is tough to break down. To make it easier to degrade, Wisconsin researchers discovered how che...
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Two estrogen receptor isoforms regulate normal mammary cells in response to estrogen: ERα and ERβ. ERα is currently a therapeutic target in breast cancer, and breast cancers expressing ERα are com...
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Assays currently used to detect neutralizing antibodies to influenza virus or measure virion binding to cells, antibodies or receptors require multiple steps. These steps are destructive, low sensitiv...
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The therapeutic and biochemical properties of proteins including antibodies can be enhanced by custom chemical functionalization that enables modifications, such as small molecule drug conjugation, PE...
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Approximately 20 percent of human proteins – including many of high pharmaceutical relevance – are believed to contain disulfide bonds critical for proper structure and function. However, producin...
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The utility of many biologic drugs is limited by inefficient cellular delivery. There is a particular need for methods and reagents that facilitate delivery of peptides and proteins into the interior ...
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Influenza infections in humans, from the common seasonal flu to the deadly pandemics of the 20th century, are caused chiefly by influenza A and influenza B viruses. Understanding the in vivo dynamics ...
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Gram-negative bacterial infections are an ongoing challenge to health care providers worldwide. Detection, treatment and control of such pathogens have gained increasing importance in the context of a...
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Macrophages are white blood cells that ingest foreign material and play a crucial role in the immune system. Presently, there is no bovine macrophage cell line available for research and testing purpo...
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Regenerative medicine requires a practical, high throughput method of assessing the cellular components of multicellular entities before transplantation. Such a method would have many clinical and res...
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In addition to the common cold, human rhinoviruses (RV) trigger nearly half of all cases of asthma exacerbation. Wheezing illnesses in infancy caused by RV are associated with a high risk of developin...
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Human rhinoviruses (species A, B and C) encompass more than 160 types that are responsible for the majority of upper respiratory tract infections (common colds) and many of the lower respiratory tract...
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Schizophrenia is a complex neuropsychiatric disease afflicting up to 1 percent of the worldwide population. It affects perception, behavior and thinking and can have devastating social ramifications. ...
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Fluorescent proteins can be found today in most molecular biology laboratories. Since the discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in the early 1960s, fluorescent molecules have revolutionized man...
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Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to generate copies of a particular DNA sequence. The technique is common and indispensable in many research applications. Unfortunately, methods for isolating/p...
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Fatty acids generally can be classified as straight-chain or non-straight-chain. Non-straight-chain fatty acids are less abundant and highly valued in dietary supplements, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, ...
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Pyruvate is a starting material for synthesizing a variety of biofuels and chemicals. It can be readily converted into more than 60 commercial chemicals, including ethanol and several active pharmaceu...
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As the industrial uses of yeast and other fungi expand, new systems are needed to genetically optimize strains for their intended use. In particular, the ability to manipulate prototrophic and diploid...
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Enzymes called ribonucleotidyl transferases (NTases) add nucleotides to the ends of RNAs. At present only a few such enzymes are known, such as poly(A) polymerases and poly(U) polymerases. The selecti...
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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cells shed from tumor deposits that flow into the bloodstream. They are detected at a frequency of about one CTC per one billion surrounding blood cells. The great h...
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Metabolomics, or the systematic study of all metabolites in an organism, is one of the fastest growing areas of scientific research. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one tool used to a...
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‘Nanopore sequencing’ allows a single molecule such as DNA to be analyzed without conventional tools like chemical labels or costly optical instruments. In the process, DNA strands and a stream of...
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