Promoters are genetic regulatory elements that drive gene expression in cells under certain conditions. One way to identify promoters is to use a promoter-trap vector, which is a plasmid containing a ...
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Microorganisms adapted to grow in exceptionally harsh environments, such as hot springs and arctic soils, are a potentially vast source of novel metabolic processes, antibiotics, enzymes and other pro...
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Microorganisms adapted to grow in exceptionally harsh environments, such as hot springs and arctic soils, are a potentially vast source of novel metabolic processes, antibiotics, enzymes and other pro...
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Humans with mutations in the Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) gene develop hundreds or even thousands of adenomas in the colon, which often lead to colorectal cancer. Mouse models of human intestinal ...
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Actinomycetes, which are Gram-positive filamentous bacteria, produce the majority of known antibiotics. Fungus-growing Attine ants engage in a mutualistic association with actinomycetes to defend thei...
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Because conventional DNA sequencing using electrophoresis is laborious and time consuming, alternative approaches, such as those using microarrays, have been developed. Photolithographic techniques ar...
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Functional genomics involves identifying the function of all genes within a sequenced genome. Knockout mutants may be used to identify the in situ function of any gene, without making assumptions abou...
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Much of the research on RNA transcription is focused on the action of RNA polymerases. Thus, improved methods for purifying and characterizing RNA polymerase greatly enhance studies of transcription. ...
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Re-polarization of the cardiac action potential, which plays a critical role in maintaining normal cardiac rhythm, occurs mainly due to the action of potassium ion (K+) currents in the heart. The most...
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Controlled micrometer-scale oil droplets have applications in nano-materials, meso-materials, responsive materials, optical materials, filters, sensors and opto-electronic technologies.  Emulsion dro...
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Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are an important area of cancer research.  They could provide clinically relevant information about a patient’s prognosis.  However, these cells are extremely rare (r...
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Few treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, have been discovered.  In many cases, the molecular basis for neurodegeneration remains unknown...
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The low mobility of bacterial transposons, such as Tn5, makes it difficult for researchers to detail the molecular transposition process and to exploit transposition for uses such as the development o...
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Over the last eight years, academic researchers have been developing a new set of spectroscopic techniques that are multidimensional versions of visible and infrared spectroscopies, such as two-dimens...
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Functionalized substrates have commercial applications ranging from biosensors to energy conversion devices such as solar cells.  Biosensors rapidly detect the presence of target biomolecules based o...
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Dielectrophoresis is a technique for gathering particles that uses an electric field to induce an electrical polarization in an uncharged object. The electrical polarization then interacts with variat...
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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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One of the key potassium channels in the heart is formed by the co-assembly of protein products from the KvLQT1 (KCNQ1) and minK (KCNE1) genes, which produce the slowly activating delayed rectifier po...
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Cationic lipid-mediated delivery of nucleic acids and proteins may replace virus-mediated transfection of exogenous DNA for many applications. However, current lipid-based carriers provide limited con...
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Human embryonic stem (hES) cells have the potential to provide a source of specific cell types for research and ultimately, for therapeutic transplantation into humans.
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Plasmid R6K is an antibiotic resistance plasmid of E. coli and a popular cloning vector. The R6K protein pi, which is encoded by the pir gene, plays a key role in R6K replication.
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The extensive use of neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors to treat influenza virus infections by reducing viral sialidase activity requires close monitoring for resistant variants. However, cultured cells do...
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Human embryonic stem (hES) cells are capable of self-renewal, as long as they remain undifferentiated. Culture conditions, including the medium and substrate the cells are grown in, play an important ...
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Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the most common sexually transmitted pathogens. These small DNA viruses are associated with almost all cervical cancers and about 20 percent of head and neck cancers.
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The normal growth and development of tissue requires a complex interplay of multiple signals from multiple genes in well-defined locations, leading to the controlled differentiation of precursor cells...
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