Molecule-molecule interactions, including interactions between proteins, nucleic acids and other small molecules, are important in a variety of cellular events. A number of physical, molecular biologi...
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Bacterial production of recombinant proteins is used commonly by researchers and commercial entities to manufacture a large variety of proteins. However, many proteins are not produced efficiently in ...
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Liquid crystal materials are promising candidates for many sensing and interfacial applications. Liquid crystals respond to and amplify small changes in temperature, electric or magnetic fields, shear...
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Mass spectrometry (MS) has become the principal tool for routine identification of proteins and their post-translational modifications (PTMs). Quantification of the amounts of proteins and PTMs is req...
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Now that complete sequence information is available for many organisms, researchers are focusing on the analysis of single genomic DNA molecules. A key issue in this analysis is how to unravel and mar...
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Stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of monounsaturated fatty acids. SCDs may influence the development of diseases such as obesity, atherosclerosis and diabet...
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When using live vertebrate animals, principal investigators for any activity supported by a Public Health Service (PHS) agency, such as the FDA, NIH or CDC, must comply with the PHS policy on Humane C...
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Mass spectrometers are analytic instruments that precisely measure the mass of molecules, and therefore may be used to determine composition and molecule identity based on mass data. Generally, the mo...
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Studying how neurons and other cells work may require stimulating individual or small clusters of cells. The cells conventionally are stimulated through the use of fine electrodes inserted into or nea...
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UW–Madison researchers previously developed a method of using traceless Staudinger ligation to chemically synthesize proteins (see WARF reference number P00315US).  This method is based on the Stau...
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Studying how neurons and other cells work may require stimulating individual or small clusters of cells.  The cells conventionally are stimulated through the use of fine electrodes inserted into or n...
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A DNA microarray is a collection of microscopic DNA spots arranged on a solid surface via covalent attachment to a chemically suitable substrate. DNA microarrays allow hundreds of thousands of DNA seq...
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Several fluorescent reporter molecules, such as the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), are available as research tools to monitor gene activity and protein distribution within cells.  However, currentl...
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Botulinum neurotoxins produced by Clostridium botulinum are the most potent toxins known. Because of the threat of bio-terrorism, sensitive methods for detecting botulinum neurotoxin are needed; howev...
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Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry is commonly used to identify and characterize proteins and to sequence DNA. A key step in this process involves creating sample sp...
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In addition to simple nucleotide polymorphisms, the human genome includes intermediate structural variations, such as amplifications, insertions, deletions, inversions and complex rearrangements. Whil...
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The yeast two-hybrid system is a powerful technique used to detect protein-protein interactions. The technique has been used to establish physical interactions between genetically identified proteins,...
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The main form of RNA polymerase in E. coli is Eσ70. One of the recognition elements within the promoter region for Eσ70 is the UP element. This element is situated upstream of the RNA transcription ...
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DNA damage occurs in organisms as a result of exposure to environmental chemicals and radiation. Failure to repair this damage can lead to tumor formation and cancer. Although a gene has been found in...
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Membrane proteins perform many crucial functions in vivo.  Physical characterization of these proteins, including the determination of three-dimensional crystal structures, could improve fundamental ...
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Accurate monitoring of gene expression is critical to determining those patterns of expression correlating with exposure to certain drugs or toxins. By elucidating these patterns, researchers may be a...
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Microbial genome sequencing projects uncover large numbers of new genes. Functional analyses of these genes require targeted modifications of particular DNA sequences in their chromosomal locations us...
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Support vector machines (SVMs) are powerful tools for classifying data that are often used in data mining operations. An SVM classifies data in extremely large data sets by identifying a linear or non...
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The SCN5A gene encodes a human cardiac sodium (Na+) channel alpha subunit that carries the inward Na+ current in the heart. Three distinct polymorphic SCN5A clones, hH1, hH1a and hH1b, have been isola...
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Acyl carrier protein (ACP) is a small lipid carrier protein involved in fatty acid biosynthesis and in the solubilization of fats to make them metabolically available. The molecule is difficult to obt...
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