Creative Biomart Blog

Wed, 2016/03/23

Terrible Consequence: New Mechanisms of Antimicrobial Resistance, Do We Have Available Antimicrobial Medicines in The Future?

Growing levels of resistance to available antimicrobial medicines are causing tens of thousands of deaths each year across the world. By 2050, the overall costs associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2 to 3.5%. One concern is the development of resistance to the carbapenem antibiotics among Gram-negative bacteria, in particular, the carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE). Enterobacteriaceae are the source of community- and hospital-acquired infections and commonly cause opportunistic infections, including pneumonia, and some

Wed, 2016/03/16

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP): For DNA Binding Proteins and DNA Binding Sites Analysis

Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-Seq) is a well-established method for identifying binding sites for DNA-binding proteins. This method involves (1) cross-linkage of DNA binding proteins to DNA, (2) DNA shearing, (3) immunoprecipitation of DNA fragments bound by a protein of interest, and (4) sequencing of precipitated DNA fragments. Resulting sequencing reads are aligned to the corresponding genome, and genome areas bound by the protein of interest are expected to be over-represented with aligned reads. Ideally, only genomic regions bound by the protein of interest w

Fri, 2016/03/11

Protein Crystallography: From Protein Structure to Protein Function

The function of a protein is encoded by its 3D structure. Protein crystallography is used as the major biophysical approach to investigate protein structure and function. A world class protein crystallography facility together with a high throughput protein expression facility for protein structure determination can be used to examine proteins of prime importance to human health. The recent advances in molecular medicine have led to an increase in the demand for structural information about proteins and, at the same time, an increase in the throughput of protein structure determination. As a p

Mon, 2016/02/22

What’s “Mini Brain”? Can It Replace Experimental Animal?

With human cells as material, researchers from American have recently developed “mini” brain that has some of the features. This artificial organs can not only help scientists better detect drugs, but can also save a lot on the cost of laboratory animals. Currently, about 95% drugs that were through animal experiments can not be successfully applied to humans, thus a lot of human and financial resources are needed. Thomas Hartung, toxicologist from Johns Hopkins University said: “Even if the drug is effective in rodents, but we are not a large rodent.” By using induced pluripotent stem cel

Mon, 2016/02/01

Lack of Certain Transcription Factors May Promote Blood Vessel Growth

Blood Vessel plays a very important role as its growth determines whether timely nutrition is provided during embryonic development. In adulthood, the growth of new vessels can help the process of repair and regeneration. When the growth of them are disturbed, cancer, diabetes and eye disease may occur. By now, scientists have found that the growth of blood vessels in the innermost cell layer can be controlled by metabolism. The results, however, can be used as the basis of new treatments for diseases. Vascular is generally referred as water pipe; those pipeline system supply oxygen and nutr

Fri, 2016/01/15

Noteworthy Technology in 2016: Protein Labeling in Cells

Nature Method has recently sorted out the most noteworthy technologies in 2016, including protein labeling in cells, unraveling nuclear architecture, protein structure though time, precision optogenetics, highly multiplexed imaging, deep learning, subcellular maps and integrated single-cell profiles. Florescent dyes are relatively small, having good photophysical properties and spectral span. Those features make fluorescent dyes attractive, and they are expected to replace fluorescent protein for protein labeling. Researchers are actively developing tools to label protein by dyes in living c

Thu, 2015/12/10

Pigeons that Can Distinguish Cancer Image

In nature, numerous animals share characteristics with humans, such as pigeons, its ability to find ways still remains for human use. However, a recent study makes people aware it’s more than that. Richard Levenson, pathologists from the United States together with Edward Wasserman, psychologist from Edward Wasserman, trained pigeons to identify cancer. During training, the researchers first demonstrated the microscope image of breast tissue to pigeon. Then, the researchers would reward them if they can peck correctly the corresponding colored buttons of healthy or cancerous tissues. Each

Wed, 2015/11/25

Principle and Protocol of Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)

The development of ELISA is based on the immobilization and enzyme labeling of antigen or antibody. The immunological activity of antigen or antibody remains after the immobilization. And enzyme-labeled antigen or antibody remains both their immunological activity and enzymatic activity. Materials: Antigen Serum Reagent and kit: Carbonate coating buffer PBST BSA Equipment and Supplies: 96-Well ELISA plates 4℃refrigerator Incubator Spectrophotometer Procedure: (1) Coating antigen 1. Dilute the antigen into 10-20μg/ml with 50 mM carbonate coating buffer (pH9.6) ; add 100μl per well