• Disease-resistant plants enhance profits

    Updated: 2009-12-30 14:09:53
    New varieties of plants marketed as "disease-resistant" or "insect-resistant" are becoming more accessible to consumers. Available through local garden centers and catalogues, these attractive ornamentals often come with guarantees that offer amateur gardeners the promise of lower maintenance or the need for fewer pesticides........

  • Google Earth and the state of the planet

    Updated: 2009-12-23 09:59:25
    The Copenhagen summit may have flopped because of petty politics by short sighted bureaucrats, but there's still hope from the corporation that believes in 'Do no evil' ;) Google's services are getting stronger and more powerful with every passing week. Their announcement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen could be a real game-changer, especially in South American and Indonesian rainforests, where deforestation is rife. Areas suffering from deforestation (including illegal log...

  • NVidia to launch a touch screen Android OS PC powered by 8 core chip that runs for 25 days

    Updated: 2009-12-21 05:33:45
    NVIDIA and Notion Ink, launches ‘Adam’, a touch screen tablet at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010, a high-tech IT product that was completely developed in India, marking the country’s big entry into product development. With NVIDIA’s Tegra system-on-chip at its heart, Adam is a device the new generation technology user dreams of. [...]

  • Advances in Next-Gen Sequencing Speed Evolution of Bioinformatics Tools in 2009

    Updated: 2009-12-18 20:50:48
    Search Home News GenomeWeb Daily News BioArray News BioInform In Sequence PCR Insider PGx Reporter ProteoMonitor RNAi News Magazine Blog The Daily Scan Informatics Iron The Sample Careers Job Listings Log in or Register Thursday , December 31, 2009 Arrays Bioregionnews Biotechtransferweek Cbanews DxPGx Informatics PCR Sample Prep Proteomics RNAi Sequencing Home News BioInform Advances in Next-Gen Sequencing Speed Evolution of Bioinformatics Tools in 2009 December 18, 2009 Type size : Email Printer-friendly version RSS Feed View on one page A prime example of the progress made in bioinformatics over the last year was the publication this week in Nature of the panda genome , which the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen sequenced and assembled de novo using only the Illumina Genome Analyzer platform and the SOAPdenovo algorithm for . assembly Full-text access for premium subscribers . only Existing premium subscribers login here New to GenomeWeb Register quickly here 1 2 next last Related Stories Partek Preps RNA-seq Workflow for Genomics Suite as Demand for New Tools Grows June 26, 2009 BioInform BGI Says it Has Used the Illumina GA for De Novo Sequencing of Two Macaque Genomes

  • Research on plants to produce pharmaceutical drugs

    Updated: 2009-12-15 00:04:12
    I have got too lazy after I started using twitter. So instead of posting  news story in my blog I just updated my twitter @clinicalsearch about  Dr Josh Mylne from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at University of Queensland receiving research fund to support research on plants to produce pharmaceutical drugs http://digs.by/10R9 My first thoughts about [...]

  • Activation of Human NK Cells by Malaria-Infected Red Blood Cells

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    This chapter describes a protocol to assess activation of human NK cells following in vitro stimulation with malaria-infected red blood cells. Activation is assessed by flow cytometry, staining for cell surface expression of CD69 and accumulation of intracellular IFN-γ. Procedures are described for in vitro propagation and purification of Plasmodium falciparum parasites, separation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from heparinised blood by density centrifugation, in vitro culture of PBMC and for staining and analysis of PBMC by flow cytometry. Some examples of typical FACS plots are shown. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Immunology)

  • Identification and Analysis of Novel Transcripts and Promoters in the Human Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR ) Genes

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    We present here all of the techniques used to systematically determine if a gene possesses these types of control elements. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Immunology)

  • A Simple Method to Measure NK Cell Cytotoxicity In Vivo

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    Natural killer (NK) cells were discovered in the 1970  and named after their naturally occurring cytotoxic activity against tumor cells. It has recently become clear that NK cells are not just killers and that malignancy is unlikely to be the selective pressure driving the evolution of NK cells. Indeed, NK cells secrete a host of cytokines and chemokines that contribute to tissue remodeling at the feto-maternal interface and to both innate and adaptive immunity during infection. Moreover, in certain conditions, they cannot deliver functions cell autonomously, as they require priming from other cells, namely dendritic cells. Nevertheless, natural cytotoxicity is still considered an important parameter used to evaluate NK cell biology, both in the clinic and in the research lab. In thi...

  • Determining Ligand Specificity of Ly49 Receptors

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    Ly49 receptors in rodents, like KIR in humans, play an integral role in the regulation of NK cell activity. Some inhibitory Ly49 are known to interact with specific MHC I alleles to maintain tolerance to self tissues, and NK activation is triggered upon the loss of inhibitory signals due to pathological downregulation of self MHC I. Although a virally encoded ligand has been identified that can trigger NK cytotoxicity through an activating Ly49, some activating Ly49 also recognize MHC I and the role of most activating receptors in NK effector function remains poorly defined. As many Ly49 remain orphan receptors, we describe methods to unambiguously discern receptor–ligand pairs. Additionally, we describe a method for the mutagenesis of Ly49 and MHC ligands that can be used to define ...

  • Identification of NK Cell Receptor Ligands Using a Signaling Reporter System

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    NK cell responses are regulated by a balance of inhibitory and activating signals, reflecting the net effect of interactions between receptors and ligands on target and effector cell surfaces. The identification of ligands for orphan NK cell receptors is key to enhancing our understanding of NK cell biology. Here we describe a strategy (protocol) for the identification of ligands for orphan NK cell receptors using signaling reporter cells in combination with a virus rescue system. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Immunology)

  • Methods to Identify and Characterize Different NK Cell Receptors and Their Ligands

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    Different cellular immune responses are modulated by the cross talk between activating and inhibitory signaling pathways initiated via different cell surface receptors. Similarly, the killing of NK cells is controled by multiple activating and inhibitory surface receptors. In humans, the major NK triggering receptors, identified so far, include NKp80, 2B4 NKG2D, and CD16 and the natural cytotoxic receptors (collectively named NCRs) include NKp46, NKp44, and NKp30. The two major families of MHC-specific inhibitory receptors identified in humans are the Ig superfamily (KIR and LIR) and the C-type lectin (CD94/NKG2A) receptor superfamily. The different inhibitory receptors show diverse specificity and discriminate between different class I MHC proteins. Much is known about the function and ex...

  • Introduction of shRNAs into Human NK-Like Cell Lines with Retrovirus

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    Natural killer (NK) cell lines are difficult to transfect using standard techniques, which limits the ability to establish long-term knockdown of proteins with short-hairpin (sh)RNAs. We have developed a method to stably knockdown protein expression in human NK-like lines by introducing shRNAs in retroviral vectors. After a single transduction with retrovirus, shRNA-containing cells can be selected with drug treatment or sorted for enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression. With this method, protein expression can be stably decreased to less than 10% of wild-type levels. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Immunology)

  • Expression of cDNAs in Human Natural Killer Cell Lines by Retroviral Transduction

    Updated: 2009-12-09 23:00:00
    Human NK-like cell lines are difficult to transfect using standard mammalian expression vectors and conventional transfection protocols, but they are susceptible to retroviral transduction as a means to introduce cDNAs. Our laboratory has exploited this technique to study a number of receptors in human NK cell lines. The method utilizes a bicistronic retroviral vector that co-expresses either drug resistance or enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) in parallel with the gene of interest. After a single infection with recombinant retrovirus, transduced NK cells can be sorted for expression of EGFP or the transduced cell surface marker. Alternatively, cells expressing the transduced cDNAs can be selected for by treatment with neomycin, puromycin, or hygromycin. Using this method, the sort...

  • SSSPG - 2010

    Updated: 2009-12-08 00:38:16
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  • Indian Government to make biometric ID mandatory for clinical trials

    Updated: 2009-12-04 10:27:32
    Hit with allegations in the western media about unethical practices in conducting clinical trials, The Indian government and regulatory authorities are making a bolder move planning mandatory biometric identification for clinical trial volunteers in India. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare plans to ask all clinical research organisations to enforce biometric identification for the volunteers [...]

  • One in 10 hospital prescriptions in UK ‘is wrong

    Updated: 2009-12-04 00:54:10
    I am not concerned about the number of mistakes made in UK hospitals. As a pharmacist I am concerned, if UK has such a high rate of medication errors, then what would be the rates in countries like India, where Pharmacists almost never over ride the prescriptions and physicians treat more than 100 patients every [...]

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