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Simple minicircle vectors carrying four reprogramming factors induce pluripotency in adult human adipose stem cells and in neonatal fibroblasts without integration into the genome.
The fates of cultured neural progenitor cells can be predicted by algorithmic information theory-based computational analysis of time-lapse images of the cells.
A Cre-loxP–based technique allows triggering of heritable coexpression of a fluorescent marker along with any desired transgene, providing a versatile tool for clonal analysis of gene function in the zebrafish.
The use of membrane-tethered toxins to selectively block ion channel function in vivo is demonstrated. The approach is applied to blockade of voltage-gated calcium channels for inhibition of neurotransmission in the mouse.
Conventional extracellular electrode recordings are generally limited to monitoring action potentials. But use of extracellular gold microelectrodes with microspines that are engulfed by a neuron generates efficient electrical coupling and allows detection of both action potentials and subthreshold synaptic potentials with a signal-to-noise ratio similar to that of conventional intracellular recordings.
Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) is applied in live cells and reveals the conformational changes of individual SNARE proteins upon entering a SNARE complex.
Microwestern arrays combine the advantages of scalability of reverse phase protein arrays and the information content of western blotting for analyzing protein abundance and modification state with high sensitivity and throughput. The method is demonstrated for analyzing phosphorylation state changes in the EGF receptor signaling network using Bayesian network modeling.
Lifetime screening of fluorescent protein variants by fluorescent lifetime imaging microscopy of bacterial colonies identifies bright, high-quantum-yield fluorescent protein variants including a cyan fluorescent protein named mTurquoise that is 1.5-fold brighter than mCerulean and has a mono-exponential fluorescence decay.
By using a reverse transcriptase for the bridge-amplification step on the Illumina Genome Analyzer, RNA conversion to cDNA and sequencing take place directly in the flowcell and yield highly accurate strand-specific sequences.
Short sequence reads are grouped based on the long genomic fragments from which they derive, enabling efficient local assembly of the long fragments and therefore accurate de novo genome assembly and metagenome sequencing.
Reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing, optimized for DNA amounts as low as 30 nanograms and robust enough to process DNA extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue, allows genome-scale mapping of DNA methylation in many samples.