Amplification in Biological News

Cataloguing invisible life: Microbe genome emerges from lake sediment

... copy, or amplify, them from the environment. "You can only use amplification when you know what you're trying to get. And that's the problem," Chistoserdova said. "When you want to discover something unknown, amplification is a very deficient technique because you keep discovering the things you ...

'TRAP' preserves genetic properties of popular geranium

... at The Ohio State University have demonstrated that Target Region amplification Polymorphism, or TRAP, is an effective method for preserving the important ... diversity of Pelagonium, the team tested a method known as Target Region amplification Polymorphism, or TRAP. Palumbo explained, "The TRAP method uses molecuar ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac - Oct. 10, 2007

... a DNA sample a thousand-fold before virus detection can begin. However, amplification increases the risk of false-positives and false-negatives, especially when ... fast, simple, accurate diagnosis is essential. The new method skips the amplification step entirely, and yet can detect the presence of less than two copies of ...

ESHRE launches international study of polar body screening

... of its development." 24sure, the novel molecular technique to be used in both phases of the trial was developed by BlueGnome and is based on DNA amplification and microarray technology, which enables scientists to look at all the chromosomes at the same time. This is, in theory, far more powerful than the ...

MIT reels in RNA surprise with microbial ocean catch

... microbe, Prochlorococcus, in the lab created a method for amplifying the RNA extracted from small amounts of seawater by modifying a eukaryotic RNA amplification technique. When Shi began lab studies of the RNA in their samples, she found that much of the novel RNA they expected to be protein-coding was ...

Basic guides to PCR, labeling neurons featured in Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

... acid amplification. But PCR is often difficult to optimize, and failure to do so can lead to undefined and unwanted products, or a complete lack of amplification altogether. To help avoid these issues, Kenneth Roux from Florida State University ( http://bio.fsu.edu/~roux/ ) provides "Optimization and ...

NYU Langone Medical Center researchers find micro RNA plays a key role in melanoma metastasis

... 7q, that is frequently amplified in melanoma and contains two other oncogenes; BRAF and C-MET. The study found a correlation between genomic amplification and miRNA over expression, though it is unclear whether other molecular mechanisms play a role in this effect, according to Dr. Hernando. ...

Genome of a heat and drought resistant cereal plant analyzed

... allow a comparative analysis of sorghum, rice and maize. This analysis yields information about the evolution of the genome size, distribution and amplification of genes or recombination processes. Last but not least, the researchers have validated a method in their study - whole genome shotgun sequencing ...

African thicket rat malaria linked to virulent human form

... found in tree-dwelling rats share a close evolutionary relationship with P. falciparum and Plasmodium reichenowi . The analysis is based on amplification of entire mitochondrial genomes of malarial parasites that use humans, rodents, birds, and lizards as their hosts. "This is the first time that ...

New research shows how gene function drives natural selection in important class of genetic elements

... that this class of mobile DNA comprises more than half of most plant genomes and has led the way in determining the extraordinary rates of both amplification and removal of this type of repetitive element," said Regina Baucom, a genetics post-doctoral research assistant at UGA and lead author of the ...

Oral rinses used for tracking HPV-positive head and neck cancers holds promise for cancer screening

... papillomavirus (HPV)-positive head and neck cancers. In the study, researchers at Johns Hopkins University used oral rinses and targeted DNA amplification to track and identify oral HPV infections in patients with HPV16-positive and negative head and neck carcinomas (HNSCC) before and after therapy. ...

Researchers to study lyme-like illness in Texas

... to identify organisms associated with STARI in Texas and other states within the south central United States. They will use techniques such as DNA amplification methods, high throughput DNA sequencing and novel culture media and conditions in an attempt to identify and culture Borrelia from ticks and ...

UI and ISU establish shared DNA sequencing instrumentation

... aimed at investigating human microbial flora diversity," he added. The new sequencers use an approach called single molecule detection with amplification whereby hundreds of thousands of DNA fragments are sequenced concurrently to generate hundreds of millions to billions of bases of sequence ...

The epigenetics of increasing weight through the generations

... Overweight mothers give birth to offspring who become even heavier, resulting in amplification of obesity across generations, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston who found that chemical changes in the ways genes are expressed ...

UCLA researchers locate and image prostate cancer as it spreads to lymph nodes

... and infected the prostate cancer cells and produced the imaging protein. As part of this study, Wu co-developed TSTA, a two-step transcriptional amplification method, which increased the expression of the genetic payload inside the cancer cells in effect boosting the imaging signals and potential killing ...

Biomarkers allow doctors to match therapy to patient

... this disease. Researchers observed 209 patients with untreated neuroblastoma. As expected, they confirmed that older age, advanced stage and MYCN amplification were all associated with highly aggressive disease and poor clinical outcomes. In a subsequent animal study, researchers tested whether inhibiting ...

MRSA in hospital intensive care -- what's growing where?

... patients and help to manage any future superbug outbreaks. Our technique allows us to characterise the genes from micro-organisms using a gene amplification technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This lets us expand tiny samples enough to identify individual strains of bacteria, and to spot ...

Black carbon pollution emerges as major player in global warming

... Ramanathan and Carmichael said the conservative estimates are based on widely used computer model simulations that do not take into account the amplification of black carbons warming effect when mixed with other aerosols such as sulfates. The models also do not adequately represent the full range of ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Jan. 16, 2008

... that can be used outside the lab. The study describes a new PCR technique that uses electrochemical DNA sensors to provide simultaneous DNA amplification and detection on a silicon-glass microchip. Their performance tests show that the new technique, called electrochemical real-time PCR (ERT-PCR), is ...

Recurrent genetic deletion linked to autism

... region is flanked on both sides by bands of segmental duplications, short strings of nearly identical DNA that predispose to the loss, shuffling or amplification of this region during genetic recombination. "Many human diseases are caused by these types of chromosomal rearrangements, however, this is the first ...

Scientists melt million-year-old ice in search of ancient microbes

... between 10-100 microbes per milliliter compared to approximately 1 million microbes per milliliter for most lakes, Cary said. Novel whole genome amplification techniques will be applied, which provide insight into the genetic diversity of a community of organisms when only small numbers of organisms are ...

Atmospheric measuring device for understanding smog formation

... the device during flight. "The chemiluminescence produced in solution creates a strong and readily detectable signal without the need for complex amplification procedures," said Lloyd. The device has been tested in a mountaintop setting, but has not yet been deployed on an aircraft for a sampling mission. ...

Safeway Inc. and PCF to fund landmark prostate cancer research collaboration

... Inc. and the Prostate Cancer Foundation today announced they will collectively donate $6 million to fund the S.T.A.R. Program (for Special Team amplification of Research), an innovative research initiative focused on exploring the role of targeted heat in cancer therapy to treat prostate cancer, as well as ...

Iowa State researchers develop technology for early detection of viruses

... improves current technology by eliminating a step to amplify DNA samples for testing. Although the current test is efficient and well understood, the amplification can cause small contaminants to create test errors. Yeungs single molecule spectroscopy technique involves creating chemical reagents that ...

Understanding, combating foodborne pathogens E. coli 0157 and salmonella

... to other bacteria. Our primary objective is to develop a synergistic program to evaluate the role of the cattle industry on the prevalence, amplification and spread of antimicrobial resistance." ...

Smiths Detection to launch a portable diagnostic system for foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu

... has worked closely with the laboratory of Professor Larry Wangh at Brandeis University, near Boston, Massachusetts, that invented a novel DNA amplification and analysis technique called Linear After The Exponential PCR (LATE PCR). Smiths Detection holds an exclusive license to this technology. LATE PCR ...

'Genes and environment' grant funds close look at nature-nurture overlap in common diseases

... teamed up to offer high-throughput genotyping as well as other services necessary for genome-wide association studies, including DNA isolation, amplification and quantitation, which will be offered as part of the GEI program. Among other approaches, Hopkins CIDR specialists and the members of the GEI ...

Herr receives Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment

... a masters degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard. Today, his work at the MIT Media Lab focuses on human amplification and rehabilitation systems technologies that interact with human limbs, mimicking biological performance and amplifying function. While there was a ...

MGH researchers describe new way to identify, evolve novel enzymes

... his co-author Burckhard Seelig, PhD, used a technique called mRNA display previously developed in Szostaks lab that allows the identification and amplification of proteins that fit particular criteria. In order to create an enzyme that would stimulate or catalyze the joining of two segments of RNA in a way ...

St. Jude study solves mystery of mammalian ears

... cochlea hair cells dominates the process of sound amplification in the mammalian ear, while movement of the cilia ... whether the cilia are the main engine of sound amplification in both mammals and non-mammals. One group of ... somatic motility itself appears to dominate the amplification process in the mammalian cochlea, while the cilia ...

UCSD researchers discover internal compass of immune cell

... set out to identify the key mechanisms of signal amplification that must occur in order for neutrophils to ... They found that neutrophils possess a built-in amplification system that is an integral part of the internal ... source of chemoattractants. At the core of the amplification system is the chemical adenosine triphosphate ...

New strategy developed to combat West Nile Virus

... by continual summer rainfall is critical for the amplification and transmission of West Nile Virus and a similar ... secondary transmission away from the original amplification sites, the researchers pointed out. With this ... incidence of the diseases. "Drought-induced amplification may be somewhat unique to southern Florida, where ...

Scientists uncover rules for gene amplification

... Gene amplification plays an important role in causing cancers via ... of the chromosome will determine the fate of the amplification event Gene amplification is the increase in copy number of a particular ...

Analysis of breast-cancer gene role offers promising target

... "All the work has been on the protein and enzymatic activity and not amplification of the gene, which is a very reliable and easy-to-use diagnostic test ... Dr. Tripathy. "The other important finding is that HER-2 and uPAR gene amplification tend to co-exist, and this has implications in new strategies to address ...

Yale researchers find environmental toxins disruptive to hearing in mammals

... the outer hair cell." Sensitive hearing in mammals relies on cochlear amplification resulting from the motor activity of outer hair cells. They are the only ... of chloride in the outer hair cells and caused profound changes in sound amplification in the inner ear. In his previous study using TBT on isolated cells ...

New test to detect rare proteins in blood

... detecting molecules by the new method, called FACTT, short for Florescent amplification Catalyzed by T7-polymerase Technique, is five orders of magnitude (100,000 ... at an early stage." The FACTT technology uses a different enzyme amplification system so quantitative signals can be obtained from even a few protein ...

New technique rapidly detects illness-causing bacteria

... Current biosensors rely on a time-consuming technique called gene amplification that requires costly equipment: Technicians take a piece of DNA from a ... test. The entire process takes only 35 minutes, while traditional gene amplification techniques may take many hours. Promising early results suggest the ...

Loss of a universal tRNA feature reported

... sequences revealed that a group of alphaproteobacteria fails to encode a G (guanylate) at the -1 position of the tRNA as all other bacteria do. amplification and tRNA sequencing approaches were used to confirm the findings. Sinorhizobium meliloti and Caulobacter crescentus are members of the ...

Ebola outbreaks killing thousands of gorillas and chimpanzees

... between gorilla or chimpanzee social groups are rare. Therefore, when reports of large ape die-offs first surfaced in the late 1990s, outbreak amplification was assumed to be through "massive spillover" from some unknown reservoir host. The new study, conducted by researchers from the Max Planck Institute ...