Scientists find clue to cell damage after stroke

Scientists have found that an enzyme is responsible for the death of nerve cells after a stroke and say an experimental drug that dramatically reduced brain damage in mice may also offer hope for humans.
Previous attempts to design drugs that can protect the brain from damage after a stroke have had limited success.

Dutch and German researchers said Tuesday that their work showed a potential new approach to treating stroke, which is the most common cardiovascular problem after heart disease and kills an estimated 5.7 million people worldwide each year.

In tests on mice, the scientists found that an experimental drug, known as VAS2870 and being developed by the German biotech firm Vasopharm, dramatically reduced brain damage and preserved brain functions, even when given hours after the stroke.
"The indications are very strong that the same mechanism may apply for human stroke," said Harald Schmidt from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who led the study with Christoph Kleinschnitz from Wurzburg University in Germany.

Ischaemic stroke is the most common kind of stroke, caused by a clot or other blockage disrupting the flow of blood to the brain.
The only currently available treatment is a clot-busting drug called a t-PA, or tissue plasminogen activator, but it must be given within three hours of a stroke and only around five to 10 percent of stroke victims get it.
Scientists facing a paucity of effective stroke drugs have been investigating whether tissue damage after stroke may be linked to a mechanism called oxidative stress, in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulate within a cell.

Previous experimental drugs designed to "soak up" loose ROS after stroke have failed in late-stage clinical trials. A compound from AstraZeneca called NXY-059 proved to be an expensive flop for the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker in 2006.
But in this study, published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology journal, Schmidt and Kleinschnitz focused on finding and then trying to block the source of ROS.

The enzyme they identified is called NOX4, and by blocking NOX4 with the experimental drug in mice with stroke, they dramatically reduced brain damage.

They also found that eliminating the gene linked to NOX4 in mice did not result in any abnormalities, suggesting that "no obvious side-effects are to be expected from a future NOX4 inhibitor drug," they wrote in the study.

"This approach focuses on keeping the neurons alive -- it preserves the neurons and brain function," Schmidt said in a telephone interview. "We show here that if you identify the real source (of oxidative stress), there is a huge potential benefit if you are then able to inhibit it."
Schmidt said the findings may also have implications for other diseases which are assumed to be linked to oxidative stress, such as heart attacks and some cancers, and for other forms of nerve cell degeneration such as in Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease.

"We now have a concept that we can follow in all these conditions -- identify the source, try to inhibit it, and see if that makes a difference," he said.

 

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Searching in the Microbial World for Efficient Ways to Produce Biofuel

With the help of genetic materials from a cow's rumen, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are developing new ways to break down plant fibers for conversion into biofuel.

To convert corn stover and switchgrass into biofuel, the plant fibers must first be broken down into sugars. But cell wall polymers are cross-linked in various ways that make them very resistant to breaking down, according to Dominic Wong, a chemist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Regional Research Center, in Albany, Calif.

Previous studies have shown that a special group of enzymes known as feruloyl esterases (FAEs) are capable of breaking apart key links between the polymers, and that the enzymes are produced by certain types of microbes that degrade plant materials. Wong collected the microbial population from a cow's rumen, and screened their genetic compositions to find genes that produce FAE enzymes.

Working with scientific partners at Cargill, Wong has isolated, sequenced and cloned 12 genes capable of being introduced into Escherichia coli for production of the enzymes, which can then be used to break loose the polymeric network in the plant cell wall. Wong and the Cargill team have filed a provisional patent application on the FAE genes and enzymes.
In addition to increasing the efficiency of biomass conversion to biofuel, the enzymes could also be used to enhance the digestibility and the nutritional qualities of animal feeds, aid in the development of nutritional supplements, and prove useful in the development of other value-added products.
 

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Interesting Questions from Genetics

hi friends ... just check out this question

The horse(Equus caballus) has a diploid complement of 64 chromosomes including 36 acrocentric autosomes;  the ass (Equus asinus ) has 62 chromosomes including 22 acrocentric autosomes.

a) predict the number of chromosomes to be found in the hybrid offspring (mule) produced by matinga male ass (jack) to a female horse(mare).

b) Why are mules usually sterile ?

and the answers are
first bit is easy ... second one is interesting

a) now as we know the sperm(jack) will carry haploid(n) set of chromosomes i.e; n = 31 here and the same way the egg (mare) will have n= 32 (haploid again) ; and hence the resulting hybrid mule wud have diplod set of chromosomes (formed by the union of gametes) with 31+ 32 = 63 chromosomes ...

b) as  seen in the question the haploid set of chromosome in horse has 18 acrocentric chromosomes , which are so dissimilar from the haploid set in jack having only 11 acrocentric chromosomes . so different that , meiosis in the mule germ line cannot proceed beyond first prophase where synapsis of homologues occur.. thereby mules are incapable of producing viable gametes ...they r sterile...

PROBLEM 2:
The absence of legs in cattle ("amputated") has been attributed to a completely recessive lethal gene. A normal bull is mated with a normal cow and they produce an amputated calf (usually death at birth). The same parents are mated again.

a) what is the chance that of the next calf being amputated?

b) what is the chance of these parents having two calves, both of which are amputated?

c) Bull carrying the amputated allele (heterozygous) are mated to noncarrier cows. The F1 is allowed to mate at random to produce the F2. What genotypic ratio is expected in the adult F2?

d)Suppose that each F1 female in part (c) rears one viable calf (i.e; each of the cows that throws an amputated calf is allowed to remate to a carrier sire until she produces a viable offspring). What genotypic ratio is expected in the adult F2?

(For convenience assign (AA Aa aa) as gene symbols.where "a" is the lethal gene)

the answers are -
a)25%
b)1/16
c)9AA:6Aa (or 3AA:2Aa)
d)7AA:5Aa

could anyone pls explain me the fourth bit ...

pls do add if u have any questions related to genetics in dis blog 

all d best everyone...:)

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Seaweed to tackle obesity :)

Seaweed could hold the key to tackling obesity after it was found it reduces fat digestion by more than 75 per cent, new research has shown.

Now the team at Newcastle University are adding seaweed fibre to bread to see if they can develop foods that could help you lose weight while you eat them.

A team of scientists led by Dr Iain Brownlee and Prof Jeff Pearson have found that dietary fibre in one of the world's largest commercially-used seaweed could reduce the amount of fat available for absorption by the body by around 75 per cent.

The Newcastle University team found that Alginate – a natural fibre found in sea kelp – stops the digestion of fat better than most anti-obesity treatments currently available over the counter.

Using an artificial gut, they tested the effectiveness of more than 60 different natural fibres by measuring the amount of fat that was digested and absorbed with each treatment.

Presenting their findings today at the American Chemical Society Spring meeting in San Francisco, Dr Brownlee said the next step was to recruit volunteers and study whether the effects they have modelled in the lab can be reproduced in real people, and whether such foods are truly acceptable in a normal diet.

"The aim of this study was to put these products to the test and our initial findings are that alginates significantly reduce fat digestion," explains Dr Brownlee.

"This suggests that if we can add the natural fibre to products commonly eaten daily - such as bread, biscuits and yoghurts – up to three quarters of the fat contained in that meal could simply pass through the body.

"We have already added the alginate to bread and initial taste tests have been extremely encouraging. Now the next step to to carry out clinical trials to find out how effective they are when eaten as part of a normal diet."

The research is part of a three year project being funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. It addresses the new regulations set out by the European Food Safety Authority that any health claims made on a food label should be substantiated by scientific evidence.

"There are countless claims about miracle cures for weight loss but only a few cases offer any sound scientific evidence to back up these claims," explains Dr Brownlee.

Alginates are already commonly used at a very low level in many foods as thickeners and stabilisers and when added to bread as part of a blind taste test, Dr Brownlee said the alginate bread actually scored higher for texture and richness than a standard white loaf.

"Obesity is an ever-growing problem and many people find it difficult to stick to diet and exercise plans in order to lose weight," explained Dr Brownlee.

"Alginates not only have great potential for weight management - adding them to food also has the added advantage of boosting overall fibre content."

What is a dietary fibre?

Dietary fibre would be scientifically classified as a group of carbohydrates of plant origin that escape digestion by the human gut.

"Actually, there's still quite a lot of confusion about fibre," says Dr Brownlee. "I think most people would describe it as roughage – the bit of your food that keeps you regular and is vital for a healthy gut.

"Both of these facts are true but the notion that all fibre is the same and that it simply goes through your system without having an effect is wrong."

Fibre is made up of a wide range of different molecules called polysaccharides and although it is not digested by the human gut, it both directly and indirectly affects a number of bodily processes.

Dr Brownlee adds: "These initial findings suggest alginates could offer a very real solution in the battle against obesity."

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Scientists 'Clone' Human Virus Responsible for Congenital Malformations and Other Life-Threatening Diseases

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a major infectious cause of congenital malformations worldwide. The virus is also known to cause life-threatening disease in transplant patients and people with HIV/AIDS. The development of new treatments has been hampered as scientists have been unable to stably replicate HCMV outside the human body. Dr Richard Stanton from Cardiff University's School of Medicine who led the joint research, said: "HCMV has by far the largest genome of all viruses affecting humans -- consequently it was technically difficult to clone in an intact form in the laboratory.

"Cloning a copy of the virus from a strain isolated by Cardiff Public Health Laboratories has enabled us to identify the genes causing the instability of the virus outside the body.

"Following the identification of these genes, we have successfully developed cells in which we can grow virus that corresponds to that which exists in the human body."

Cloning the virus for the first time will help virologists develop antivirals and vaccines against the virus that causes clinical disease.

Following the study, the clone has already been distributed to research laboratories worldwide, and is being tested by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as part of a study to develop an international diagnostic standard with which to compare clinical isolates.

"For the first time our work has enabled us to create an exact copy of the virus outside of the body offering a vital step forward in the development of new treatments."  The virus, named Merlin, was isolated from a clinical sample identified by the Diagnostic Unit, Public Health Wales.

Reconstruction of the complete human cytomegalovirus genome in a BAC reveals RL13 to be a potent inhibitor of replication -- is available in the on-line edition of TheJournal of Clinical Investigation.

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Genetically altered trees, plants could help counter global warming

Forests of genetically altered trees and other plants could sequester several billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and so help ameliorate global warming, according to estimates published in the October issue of BioScience.

The study, by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, outlines a variety of strategies for augmenting the processes that plants use to sequester carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into long-lived forms of carbon, first in vegetation and ultimately in soil.

Besides increasing the efficiency of plants' absorption of light, researchers might be able to genetically alter plants so they send more carbon into their roots—where some may be converted into soil carbon and remain out of circulation for centuries. Other possibilities include altering plants so that they can better withstand the stresses of growing on marginal land, and so that they yield improved bioenergy and food crops. Such innovations might, in combination, boost substantially the amount of carbon that vegetation naturally extracts from air, according to the authors' estimates.

The researchers stress that the use of genetically engineered plants for carbon sequestration is only one of many policy initiatives and technical tools that might boost the carbon sequestration already occurring in natural vegetation and crops.

The article, by Christer Jansson, Stan D. Wullschleger, Udaya C. Kalluri, and Gerald A. Tuskan, is the first in a Special Section in the October BioScience that includes several perspectives on the prospects for enhancing biological carbon sequestration. Other articles in the section analyze the substantial ecological and economic constraints that limit such efforts. One article discusses the prospects for sequestering carbon by culturing algae to produce biofuel feedstocks; one proposes a modification of the current regulatory climate for producing genetically engineered trees in the United States; and one discusses societal perceptions of the issues surrounding the use of genetically altered organisms to ameliorate warming attributed to the buildup of greenhouse gases.

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For the First Time, Monkeys Recognize Themselves in the Mirror, Indicating Self-Awareness

Typically, monkeys don't know what to make of a mirror. They may ignore it or interpret their reflection as another, invading monkey, but they don't recognize the reflection as their own image. Chimpanzees and people pass this "mark" test -- they obviously recognize their own reflection and make funny faces, look at a temporary mark that the scientists have placed on their face or wonder how they got so old and grey

For 40 years, scientists have concluded from this type of behavior that a few species are self-aware -- they recognize the boundaries between themselves and the physical world.

Because chimps, our closest relatives, pass the test, while almost all other primate species fail it, scientists began to discuss a "cognitive divide" between the highest primates and the rest.

But a study published Sept. 29 in PLoS ONE by Luis Populin, a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues shows that under specific conditions, a rhesus macaque monkey that normally would fail the mark test can still recognize itself in the mirror and perform actions that scientists would expect from animals that are self-aware.

The finding casts doubt on both the relevance of the mark test and on the existence of a definitive cognitive divide between higher and lower primates.

Populin, who studies the neural basis of perception and behavior, had placed head implants on two rhesus macaque monkeys, while preparing to study attention deficit disorder. Then Abigail Rajala, an experienced animal technician who is in the university's Neuroscience Training Program, mentioned that one of the monkeys could recognize himself in a small mirror. "I told her the scientific literature says they can't do this," says Populin, "so we decided to do a simple study."

Much to his delight, it turned out that the graduate student was right.

In the standard mark test, a harmless mark is put on the animal's face, where it can only be seen in a mirror. If the animal stares at the mirror and touches the mark, it is said to be self-aware: It knows that the mirror shows its own reflection, not that of another animal. (Animals that lack self-awareness may, for example, search for the "invading" animal behind the mirror.)

Rhesus macaques, a mainstay of medical and psychological research, have long failed the mark test.

But in Populin's lab, the monkeys that got the implants were clearly looking in the mirror while examining and grooming their foreheads, near the implant. Tellingly, they were also examining areas on their body, particularly the genitals, that they had never seen before. In some cases, the monkeys even turned themselves upside down during these examinations. In other cases, they grasped and adjusted the mirror to get a better view of themselves.

When the researchers covered the mirror glass with black plastic, these behaviors disappeared, and the monkeys ignored what had been a subject of fascination.

Furthermore, although a macaque will often interpret its reflection as representing an intruding monkey and adopt either an aggressive or submissive response, the implanted monkeys showed dramatically fewer of those "social" behaviors compared to the behaviors, such as exploring hidden body parts, that indicate self-awareness, Populin says.

"This report makes a unique contribution to our views about primate self-awareness because the 'mirror test' has been the traditional gold standard for determining if a person and/or animal met a criterion for having a sense of self," says Christopher Coe, a primatologist and professor of psychology at UW-Madison. "If a young child, brain-damaged adult or animal was able to recognize and appreciate that the image in the reflection was really them, then it was interpreted as proof of being aware."

Thus, Coe says, "If we follow that logic through with the belief that mirror recognition is proof of a sense of self, then we need to extend that attribute at least to rhesus monkeys."

Scientists who have used the mark test to explore self-awareness have found the quality in one species of bird, in one individual elephant, and in dolphins and orangutans. And so instead of asking how self-awareness evolved only among primates, they face the larger question of how it evolved multiple times in distantly related species.

The study may refine how the mark test is used, Populin says. "We clearly have data showing that these animals recognize themselves in the mirror, but fail the mark test."

The mounting data on self-awareness has undermined the concept of a cognitive divide in the primate lineage, Populin says. "There is another idea in primatology, and Charles Snowdon of UW-Madison has contributed to this, that instead of a divide, self-awareness has evolved along a continuum, so we will find it in different forms in different locations on the tree of evolution. I think the mark test may not be sensitive enough to detect self-awareness in the lower species; they may have it, but in a different form, and it may show up in different situations, using different tests."

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Mesenchymal Stem Cells - - Human MSCs & Differentiation Media Bone marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

www.lonza.com

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Human Derived Stem Cells Can Repair Rat Hearts Damaged By Heart Attack

The researchers also developed a new process that greatly improves how stem cells are turned into heart muscle cells and then survive after being implanted in the damaged rat heart. The findings suggest that stem-cell-based treatments might one day help people suffering from heart disease, the leading cause of death in most of the world.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and at Geron Corp. in Menlo Park, Calif. The scientists set out to tackle two of the main challenges to treating damaged hearts with stem cells: the creation of cardiac cells from embryonic stem cells, and the survival of those cells once they are implanted in a damaged heart.

"Past attempts at treating infarcted hearts with stem cells have shown promise, but they have really been hampered by these challenges," explained Dr. Chuck Murry, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Biology in the UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and corresponding author on the study. "This method we developed goes a long way towards solving both of those problems. We got stem cells to differentiate into mostly cardiac muscle cells, and then got those cardiac cells to survive and thrive in the damaged rat heart."

Embryonic stem cells can differentiate, or turn into, any type of cell found in the body. But researchers had struggled to get stem cells to differentiate into just cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells -- most previous efforts resulted in cell preparations in which only a fraction of 1 percent of the differentiated cells were cardiac muscle cells. By treating the stem cells with two growth factors, or growth-encouraging proteins, and then purifying the cells, they were able to turn about 90 percent of stem cells into cardiomyocytes.

The researchers dealt with the other big challenge of stem cell death by implanting the cells along with a cocktail of compounds aimed at helping them grow. The cocktail included a growth "matrix"-- a sort of scaffolding for the cells to latch on to as they grow -- and drugs that block processes related to cell death. When using the pro-growth cocktail, the success rate of heart muscle grafts improved drastically: 100 percent of rat hearts showed successful tissue grafts, compared to only 18 percent in grafts without the cocktail.

"The problem of cell death is pretty common in stem-cell treatments," Murry explained. "When we try to regenerate with liquid tissues, like blood or bone marrow, we're pretty good at it, but we haven't been very successful with solid tissues like skeletal muscle, brain tissue, or heart muscle. This is one of the most successful attempts so far using cells to repair solid tissues -- every one of the treated hearts had a well-developed tissue graft."

When the researchers followed up on the stem-cell treatment by taking images of the rat hearts, they found that the grafts helped thicken the walls that normally stretch out after a heart attack and cause the heart to weaken. The thickened walls were also associated with more vigorous contraction.

"We found that the grafts didn't just survive in the rat hearts -- they also helped improve the function of the damaged heart," said Dr. Michael Laflamme, UW assistant professor of pathology and the lead author of the study. "That's very important, because one of the major problems for people suffering a myocardial infarction is that the heart is damaged and doesn't pump blood nearly as well. This sort of treatment could help the heart rebound from an infarction and retain more of its function afterwards."

The next step in studying stem-cell treatments for the heart is to conduct similar experiments in large animals, like pigs or sheep, while further refining the treatment in rats. Early human clinical trials could begin in about two years, Murry said.

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New Findings on Multiple Sclerosis: Immune Cells Also Attack Neurons Directly

 Researchers in Germany have gained new insight into how the immune system causes damage associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable neuroinflammatory disorder. Using imaging tools which enable investigation of processes in living organisms, they were able to show a direct interaction between immune cells and neurons which plays a significant role in neuronal injury. However, this direct interaction may respond to therapeutic intervention.

The study by Dr. Volker Siffrin and Professor Dr. Frauke Zipp (formerly Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch, now University Medical Center Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz) has now been published in the journalImmunity.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which a person's own immune system attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms of the disease are variable depending on which nerves are affected, but often include muscle weakness, walking difficulties, numbness and visual disturbances. Research has shown that MS is caused by damage to the protective myelin sheath, an insulating substance that surrounds nerve processes and is critical for transmission of nerve impulses.

Research has also indicated that direct damage to neurons is prominent in early disease stages. "The contribution of direct neuronal damage to MS pathology has been debated since the first description of the disease," explained Professor Frauke Zipp, senior author of the study. "Although many different theories about possible underlying mechanisms have been proposed -- such as neuron damage being a secondary effect of the disrupted myelin sheath -- actual events leading to neural damage are not well understood."

To investigate processes in the living organisms, Dr. Zipp and her colleagues used two-photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM), with which they studied the role immune cells play in neuronal damage in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS. They observed direct synapse-like interactions between immune cells and neurons.

Immune cells called Th17 cells, which have been linked to autoimmune inflammation, induced elevated calcium levels in the neurons, which in the long run are toxic to the cells. Normally, calcium within the neuron plays a crucial role in exciting nerve cells as well as muscle cells.

This is significant because fluctuations in neuronal intracellular calcium levels that are linked to cell injury are partially reversible when the researchers expose the lesions of the animals to compounds used to treat excitotoxicity.

These results highlight a specific interaction between the immune system and the nervous system, implicating direct neuronal damage in autoimmune-mediated inflammation. "Our use of in vivo imaging during disease has led to the characterization of neuronal dysfunction as early and potentially reversible, and suggests that immune-mediated disturbances of the neurons themselves contribute to multiple sclerosis, in addition to interruptions in nerve cell transmission as a result of changes to the myelin sheath," Professor Zipp concluded.

"Furthermore, immune-mediated reversible calcium increases in neurons are a potential target for future therapeutics." However, it will take many years to find out if this is a strategy which will work for treating MS.

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Researchers Question Safety of Some Plant Antioxidants

Researchers in Taiwan warn that some naturally occurring plant antioxidants may actually have carcinogenic properties and represent a health risk that warrants further evaluation.

Investigators at Hungkuang University (Taichung Hsien, Taiwan) and colleagues at other Taiwanese research institutes conducted a series of experiments to test the pro- and anticancer effects of several popular plant antioxidants on the development of kidney cancer in a rat diabetes model.

The primary antioxidants that were evaluated were quercetin and ferulic acid. Ferulic acid is found in seeds of plants such as in rice, wheat, and oats, as well as in coffee, apple, artichoke, peanut, orange, and pineapple. It can be extracted from wheat bran and maize bran using concentrated alkali. Foods rich in quercetin include black and green tea, capers, lovage, apples, onion, especially red onion, red grapes, citrus fruit, tomato, broccoli and other leafy green vegetables, and a number of berries including cherry, raspberry, bog whortleberry, lingonberry, cranberry, chokeberry, sweet rowan, rowanberry, sea buckthorn berry, crowberry, and the fruit of the prickly pear cactus.

The investigators induced diabetes in a rat population for a 28-week period with the drug streptozotocin. At the end of this period, the animals were treated with either quercetin or ferulic acid. Results published in the July 29, 2010, online edition of theJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry revealed that in addition to various noncancerous types of kidney damage, the treated animals developed aggressive forms of kidney cancer.

This finding led authors to conclude that, "In this study we report that quercetin aggravated, at least, if not directly caused, kidney cancer in rats. Some researchers believe that quercetin should not be used by healthy people for prevention until it can be shown that quercetin does not itself cause cancer."

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Earn your PhD in Computational Bioscience at UCDenver.

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- a peer-reviewed journal on the science and policy of GM crops

www.landesbioscience.com/ -
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European Report on Concrete Measures to Avoid Mixing of GM and Conventional Maize

A report presented by Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli to the Agriculture Council concludes that specific measures relating to storing and the application of isolation distances can help limit or avoid the co-mingling of genetically modified (GM) maize with conventional and organic maize. In particular, the Best Practice Document, prepared by the European Coexistence Bureau (ECoB) and published by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), notes that storing seeds adequately and applying spatial isolation are the best ways to limit or avoid co-mingling. Alternative practices based on temporal isolation (shifting flowering times of GM and non-GM fields) are possible in several EU countries with specific climatic conditions.

Presenting the report to the Agriculture Council, Commissioner in charge of Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli, said: "The suggested practises contained in this important document are applicable within the framework of the Commission's new approach to coexistence and GMO cultivation adopted in July. They are in full accordance with the spirit and aims of the proposal, which provides Member States with more flexibility to organise the co-existence of GM, conventional and organic crops." To add : "This document details a set of non-binding practices, which aim to assist Member States develop and refine their national or regional approaches to co-existence."

Best Practice

The "best practice" document covers the cultivation of GM maize up to the first point of sale. It deals with three types of productions: grain, whole plant and sweet maize. The European Coexistence Bureau (ECoB) analysed the potential sources of admixture and reached a set of consensually agreed, best agricultural management practices that will ensure coexistence while maintaining the economic and agronomic efficiency of the farm.

For example, among other practices, the ECoB proposes isolation distances of 15-50m to reduce cross-pollination between GM maize and non-GM maize and to limit GMO content in conventional food and feed to levels below 0,9% (the legal labelling threshold). Larger distances (100-500 m) are proposed for lower targets of admixture levels (e.g. 0.1%, which is the usual estimate for the limits of quantification).

The European Coexistence Bureau

In 2006, the Council invited the Commission to further work on coexistence in order to identify best practices for technical segregation measures and to develop crop-specific guidelines for coexistence. The Commission created the ECoB in 2008.

The Bureau consists of experts nominated by interested Member States (20 Member States currently participate) and a scientific secretariat provided by the Joint Research Center's Institute for Prospective and Technological Studies (IPTS).

Work on the "best practice" document was carried out in close cooperation with stakeholders and the final outcome allows EU Member States the necessary flexibility to adapt the measures to their specific regional and local conditions.

Facts & Figures

In 2009, GM crops were cultivated worldwide on 134 million hectares. The main cultivating countries are the USA (48% of global GMO area), Brazil (16%) and Argentina (16%). The four main GM crops, either insect resistant or herbicide tolerant, are: soybean (77% of global soybean crop area), cotton (49% of global cotton crop area), maize (26% of global maize crop area), and rapeseed (21% of global rapeseed crop area).

In the EU, only three GM crops have been authorised for cultivation:

• Two GM maize products, of which only the insect-resistant Bt maize MON810 is cultivated in the EU.

• One GM potato (GM starch potato, authorised March 2010).

Background

On July 13, the Commission adopted a comprehensive proposal that provides the Member States the freedom to allow, restrict or ban the cultivation of GMOs on their territory, while keeping intact the EU's science-based GM authorisation system. The adopted package consisted of a new Recommendation on co-existence of GM crops with conventional and/or organic crops and a draft Regulation proposing a small change to the GMO legislation.

The proposal for revising Directive 2001/18/EC aimed to secure legal certainty for Member States when they decide on GMO cultivation on grounds other than science. It will be adopted through co-decision with the European Parliament and the Council.

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Why Don't Monkeys Infected With HIV-Like Viruses Get AIDS?

 Many strains of monkey become naturally infected with viruses that are related to HIV. These viruses are known collectively as SIV and naturally infected monkeys do not develop AIDS. It is hoped that understanding why monkeys naturally infected with SIV do not develop AIDS might teach researchers important lessons about the mechanisms underlying the development of AIDS in humans infected with HIV and identify ways to prevent this happening.

New insight into the mechanisms that control the number of virus particles in the blood of sooty mangabeys naturally infected with SIVsmm, the strain of SIV that naturally infects sooty mangabeys, has now been provided by a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Emory University, Atlanta.

HIV and SIV infect immune cells known as CD4+ T cells. So, the authors set out to determine how CD4+ T cells affected the number of virus particles in the blood of sooty mangabeys naturally infected with SIVsmm -- did they provide immune control of the number of virus particles or did they simply provide a place to live a replicate.

The number of SIVsmm particles in the blood of naturally infected sooty mangabeys decreased when the monkeys were depleted of CD4+ T cells and then increased again as the number of proliferating CD4+ T cells rebounded.

So, it was concluded that availability of proliferating CD4+ T cells is a key determinant of how many SIVsmm particles can be detected in the blood of naturally infected sooty mangabeys, rather than CD4+ T cells providing immune control of the virus.

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Malaria's Newest Pathway Into Human Cells Identified

Development of an effective vaccine for malaria is a step closer following identification of a key pathway used by the malaria parasite to infect human cells. The discovery, by researchers at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, provides a new vaccine target through which infection with the deadly disease could be prevented

Each year more than 400 million people contract malaria, and more than one million, mostly children, die from the disease. The most lethal form of malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Part of the parasite's success lies in its ability to deploy multiple ways to invade red blood cells, a process essential for the survival of the parasite within the human host.

Professor Alan Cowman, head of the institute's Infection and Immunity division, led the research with Dr Wai-Hong Tham, Dr Danny Wilson, Mr Sash Lopaticki, Mr Jason Corbin, Dr Dave Richard, Dr James Beeson from the institute and collaborators at the University of Edinburgh.

For decades, it has been known that malaria parasites use proteins called glycophorins as a means of entering red blood cells. This new research reveals an alternative pathway used by the parasite to enter red blood cells. The pathway does not involve glycophorins, instead requiring the binding of a parasite molecule named PfRh4 to Complement Receptor 1 (CR1), a common protein found on the surface of red blood cells.

"The parasite is like a master burglar - it will try a variety of different methods to get into the house, not just the front door," Professor Cowman said. "Although the human body has evolved a variety of methods to keep the parasite out, it keeps finding new ways to get in."

Professor Cowman said the PfRh family of surface proteins is involved in the recognition of red blood cell receptors, which allows the parasite to attach to the red blood cell surface and gain entry.

"We think that the parasite uses this protein to correctly identify the red blood cell and say 'Yes, this is the one we want to invade', it's like a quality assurance process," Professor Cowman said.

"The PfRh4-CR1 pathway is one of the most important of the pathways we've identified for entry of malaria parasites into cells," Professor Cowman said. "We are now at the stage where we have identified the best combination of proteins for a vaccine, and are ready to start clinical development.

"When both glycophorin and CR1 pathways are blocked, there is a 90 per cent decrease in infection of the cells with the parasite. These results suggest that if a vaccine were to stimulate the immune system to recognise and generate antibodies to the prevalent invasion pathways, there is a good chance it would lead to a significant decrease in malaria infection."

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh, the Wellcome Trust and the Victorian Government.

Professor Alan Cowman has identified a new pathway used by the malaria parasite to infect human cells. (Credit: Image courtesy of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)

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Interview Questions asked in Biotech Companies & Institutes Part 2

1. what is the difference between defined, characterised and standard serum? (JNU)
2. what is the difference between fermentor and bioreactor? (TITAN BIOTECH)
3. what is regenrative medicine?
4. Why is the RBC called as a cell even though it dont have all the characteristic features of a complete cell?
5. what are the shine-dalgarno sequences in organism other than E.coli.?
6. why life span of RBC IS GREATER THEN THE WBC?
7. Dubai is desert how it is possible it is becaming greenary
8. Size of Normal Land and bhosada
9. L-Tryptophan produced by a genetically modified bacteria caused many illnesses and deaths. Does this not prove that genetic modification can result in the production of toxic substances?
    

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Some Interview questions asked in Biotech Companies & Institutes

1. wat is the composition of glutathione? (BIOCON)
2. how much vol of sample u've 2 take to make 6mM solution.. if the Molr Wt is 164? (BIOCON)
3. Explain Gram Staining method?(BIOCON)
4. if protein in unknown solution,how will you determine it is protein?(IIT)
5. For which purpose Immunoblotting technique is used?(Biological.e.limited)
6. The absorbance of protein at 280 nm is due to which amino acid?(IGCAR)
7. The number of chromosomes in the triploid variety of a plant is 72...what is the number of chromosomes in a diploid genome of the same plant?? (IGCAR)
8. Who is the real father of biotechnology?

You all can also post the questions which you encountered in your interview

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New technique uncovers hidden insecticide resistance

A new technique pioneered at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) is improving the detection and monitoring of insecticide resistance in field populations of an important malaria-carrying mosquito.

Researchers at LSTM, led by Dr Charles Wondji have developed a new technique which encourages the female Anopheles funestus mosquitoes to lay eggs which are then reared into adult mosquitoes to provide sufficient numbers to determine levels of insecticide resistance and to characterise the underlying mechanisms.

Explaining the significance, John Morgan, who designed the technique, said: "Malaria is the main cause of death in Uganda with some 12 million cases recorded annually. The Ministry of Health relies heavily on insecticide treated nets and spraying to control mosquitoes. The effectiveness of those control programmes depends on the ability to detect and monitor insecticide resistance. "

The An. funestus mosquito is difficult to collect and rear from the field and hence published studies of insecticide resistance in this species are limited. This new forced egg laying technique encourages the females to lay eggs which we were then able to rear into viable populations.

"This allowed us to study levels of resistance to particular insecticides and in doing so, we have been able to find the first documented resistance to pyrethroid/DDT insecticides in East Africa. This will enable researchers to map the distribution of this resistance and allow the Ministry of Health to modify its vector control programme, thereby increasing its effectiveness and helping to reduce the transmission of malaria."

Source: The paper is published in PLoS ONE. Provided by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

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Acute Pain Is Eased With the Touch of a Hand, Study Shows

There may be a very good reason that people naturally clutch their hand after receiving an injury. A new report published online Sept. 23 in Current Biology shows that self-touch offers significant relief for acute pain under experimental conditions. The researchers suggest that the relief comes from a change in the brain's representation of the rest of the body.

"Pain is quite an important, but also complicated, experience and can be caused in many different ways," said Patrick Haggard of University College London. "We show that levels of acute pain depend not just on the signals sent to the brain, but also on how the brain integrates these signals into a coherent representation of the body as a whole."

Haggard and his colleague Marjolein Kammers, also of University College London, made the discovery by studying the effects of self-touch in people who were made to feel pain using an experimental condition known as the thermal grill illusion (TGI). "The TGI is one of the best-established laboratory methods for studying pain perception," Haggard explained. "In our version, the index and ring fingers are placed in warm water and the middle finger in cold water. This generates a paradoxical feeling that the middle finger is painfully hot." That's ideal because it allows scientists to study the experience of pain without actually causing any injury to those who participate in the studies.

When TGI was induced in an individual's two hands and then the three fingers of one hand were touched to the same fingers on the other hand immediately afterwards, the painful heat experienced by the middle finger dropped by 64 percent compared to a condition without self-touch. That relief didn't come when only one hand was placed under TGI conditions. Partial self-touch in which only one or two fingers were pressed against each other didn't work either. Nor did it work to press the affected hand against an experimenter's hand that had also been warmed and cooled in the same way.

"In sum," the researchers wrote, "TGI was reduced only when thermosensory and tactile information from all three fingers was fully integrated. That is, TGI reduction required a highly coherent somatosensory pattern, including coherence between tactile and thermal patterns and coherence of stimuli between the two hands."

Haggard said that earlier studies of chronic pain had suggested the importance of body representation in the experience of pain. For example, the phantom pain that is often felt following amputation of a limb appears to lessen with time as the brain converges on an updated representation of the body. Haggard said the new findings extend the important role of body representation to acute pain and may lead to a better understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in chronic pain as well.

The findings might be put to practical use, the researchers say. "Our work suggests that therapies aimed at strengthening the multisensory representation of the body may be effective in reducing pain," Haggard said.

The researchers include Marjolein P.M. Kammers, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, London, UK; Frederique de Vignemont, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS/EHESS/ENS, Paris, France; Transitions NYU-CNRS, New York, NY; and Patrick Haggard, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, London, UK.

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Hybrid Protein Developed as Tools for Gene Cutting, Editing

A U.S. team of researchers has developed a kind of hybrid proteins that can make double-strand DNA breaks at specific sites in living cells, potentially leading to better gene replacement and gene editing therapies.

Dr. Bing Yang, assistant professor of genetics, development and cell biology at Iowa State University (ISU; Ames, USA;), and his colleagues developed the hybrid protein by joining parts of two different bacterial proteins. One is called a TAL (transcription activator-like) effector, which functions to find the specific site on the gene that needs to be cut, and the other is an enzyme called a nuclease that cuts the DNA strands. Dr. Yang hopes this study will lead to the ability to engineer genomes by cutting out defective or undesirable parts of DNA, or by replacing defective or undesirable gene segments with a functioning piece of replacement DNA--a process called homologous recombination.

Dr. Yang reported that these hybrid proteins could be constructed to locate specific segments of the DNA in any sort of organism. "This breakthrough could eventually make it possible to efficiently modify plant, animal and even human genomes," said Dr. Yang. "It should be effective in a range of organisms."

The proteins function by binding onto the specific segment of DNA the researcher needs to change. These proteins do this by reading the DNA sequence and finding the specific area to be cut. Once the protein binds onto the DNA at the correct spot, the other half of the protein then cuts the double-stranded DNA. Bad or undesirable DNA can be resected and good or more desirable DNA can be introduced. When the DNA heals, the good DNA is included in the gene.

Dr. Yang began his project approximately one year ago after seeing the results of research by Dr. Adam Bogdanove, ISU associate professor of plant pathology, showing that TAL effectors use a very clear-cut code to bind to a specific DNA sequence. This discovery allowed Dr. Yang to predict precisely where the TAL effector nuclease will bind on the DNA to make the cut. Another study had similar results.

The conecept has also been validated by Dr. Bogdanove and Dr. Dan Voytas, collaborator in genetics, development, and cell biology at Iowa State, and director of the Center for Genome Engineering at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities, USA). The TAL effector-nuclease approach improves on tools currently available for genome modification. It should be faster and less expensive to make TAL effector nucleases, and simpler to design them to recognize specific DNA sequences, according to Dr. Yang.

Yang's findings appeared in August 2010 in the online version of the journal Nucleic Acids Research. Dr. Voytas' and Bogdanove's study also appeared in August 2010 the journal Genetics. Dr. Voytas and Dr. Bogdanove were also able to demonstrate that the TAL effector part of the hybrid protein can be modified to target new DNA sequences.

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by USDA/Agricultural Research Service. The original article was written by Dennis O'Brien.

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Structure That Allows Bacteria to Resist Drugs Identified

A research team led by Edward Yu of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory has discovered the crystal structures of pumps that remove heavy metal toxins from bacteria, making them resistant to antibiotics.

The findings are published in the Sept. 23 issue of the journal Nature.

Yu -- an Iowa State associate professor of chemistry, of physics and astronomy, of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory -- said the finding gives researchers a better understanding of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Ultimately it could help drug researchers develop treatments to combat that resistance.

To make their findings, the researchers purified and crystallized the membrane proteins that make up an efflux pump of E. coli bacteria. The researchers prepared some samples that contained the toxic heavy metals copper and silver and some that did not.

The researchers used X-ray crystallography to compare the various structures, identify the differences and understand the mechanism that removes heavy-metal toxins from cells.

Their paper specifically describes the crystal structure of CusA, one of three parts of the pumps responsible for removing toxins from bacteria. Yu said CusA is an inner membrane transporter which belongs to the resistance-nodulation-division protein superfamily. It consists of 1,047 amino acid residues and spans the inner membrane 12 times.

What those pumps do, Yu wrote in a summary of his research, is "recognize and actively export these substances out of bacterial cells, thereby allowing the bugs to survive in extremely toxic conditions."

The research project was supported by the National Institutes of Health. In addition to Yu, the research team includes Robert Jernigan, an Iowa State professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology and director of Iowa State's Laurence H. Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics; Kanagalaghatta Rajashankar, the operations team leader for the Northeastern Collaborative Access Team facility at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., that's managed by Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.; Iowa State post-doctoral researchers Feng Long and Chih-Chia Su; and Iowa State graduate students Michael Zimmermann and Scott Boyken.

"This work reports the first detailed structure of a unique heavy metal transporter that enables bacteria to survive the toxic effects of silver and copper," said Jean Chin, Ph.D., who oversees this and other structural biology grants at the National Institutes of Health. "By detailing the exact steps that a metal ion is likely to take through the transporter, this study suggests how we might block the pathway and render pathogenic bacteria sensitive to heavy metal toxins."

Yu, who has been studying bacterial resistance to antibiotics for nearly a decade, said direct information about how bacteria handle heavy-metal toxins is important information for biomedical researchers.

"We want to understand the mechanisms of these heavy-metal pumps," he said. "And that could allow biotechnology researchers to make inhibitors to stop the pump and the antibiotic resistance."

Journal Reference:

1. Feng Long, Chih-Chia Su, Michael T. Zimmermann, Scott E. Boyken, Kanagalaghatta R. Rajashankar, Robert L. Jernigan, Edward W. Yu. Crystal structures of the CusA efflux pump suggest methionine-mediated metal transport. Nature, 2010; 467 (7314): 484 DOI:10.1038/nature09395

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