Which gene did you mean?

Computational Biology needs computer-readable information records. Increasingly, meta-analysed and pre-digested information is being used in the follow up of high throughput experiments and other investigations that yield massive data sets. Semantic enrichment of plain text is crucial for computer aided analysis. In general people will think about semantic tagging as just another form of text mining, and that term has quite a negative connotation in the minds of some biologists who have been disappointed by classical approaches of text mining. Efforts so far have tried to develop tools and technologies that retrospectively extract the correct information from text, which is usually full of ambiguities. Although remarkable results have been obtained in experimental circumstances, the wide spread use of information mining tools is lagging behind earlier expectations. This commentary proposes to make semantic tagging an integral process to electronic publishing

Clinical molecular genetics in the UK c.1975-c.2000

seminar transcriptChaired by Professor Martin Bobrow and introduced by Professor Bob Williamson, this Witness Seminar included geneticists from a broad range of research and clinical specialities. Discussions of molecular research into haemoglobin disorders, and the development of probes for related genes in the 1970s, included particular acknowledgment of Southern blotting as a critical tool for such research. Also noted was a landmark conference in Crete in 1978 that emphasized the special significance of research work on thalassaemia, as well as providing fruitful networking opportunities for scientists from around the world. Similarly, in 1982, a key course at Leiden University introduced molecular techniques to geneticists from across Europe. In that same year the first prenatal diagnosis by chorionic villus sampling was published, and the emotional aspects of such genetic diagnoses for patients, families and clinicians were frequently discussed during the seminar. Other issues, including the funding of research, and especially the role of patient support groups; the establishment and growth of professional interest groups and bodies such as the Clinical Molecular Genetics Society; and the development of national genetics

My journey in the discovery of nucleotide sugar transporters of the Golgi apparatus

Indexación: Scopus.I decided to do a second, 2-year postdoc in Phil Robbins’ lab at MIT. I applied for a 1-year extension of my Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Fellowship and was advised by the director that while this was not unprecedented, I had to convince the Board of Scientific Advisors that I deserved this extra year more than new applicants who had never had a fellowship. I still wince at this, but as luck would have it, I had an ally in Joan Lusk. Joan, as mentioned previously, had been a former student in Kennedy’s lab and had moved on to a postdoc position in Salvador (Salva for short) Luria’s lab at MIT. Luria happened to be on the Board of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, and Joan had told him about our cardiolipin synthase results. I was able to get a third year of fundingI had received money, for what amounted to approximately half an NIH grant, from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research to start up my independent laboratory. Salva wanted to know whether I would return the unspent money to the Fund if I received an NIH grant during the firstChemicals and CAS Registry Numbers: 4,4' diisothiocyanatostilbene 2,2' disulfonic acid, 53005-05-3; adenosine 3' phosphate 5' phosphosulfate, 482-67-7; adenosine triphosphate, 15237-44-2, 56-65-5, 987-65-5; casein, 9000-71-9; edetic acid, 150-43-6, 60-00-4; fucose, 3615-37-0, 3713-31-3; fucosyltransferase, 56626-18-7; glycosyltransferase, 9033-07-2; guanosine diphosphate, 146-91-8; guanosine phosphate, 29593-02-0, 5550-12-9, 85-32-5; mannose, 31103-86-3, 3458-28-4; sphingosine, 123-78-4; Adenosine Triphosphate; Nucleotide Transport Proteins; Nucleotides; SugarsDefects in protein glycosylation can have a dramatic impact on eukaryotic cells and is associated with mental and developmental pathologies in humans. The studies outlined below illustrate how a basic biochemical problem in the mechanisms of protein glycosylation, specifically substrate transporters of nucleotide sugars, including ATP and 3-phosphoadenyl-5-phosphosulfate (PAPS), in the membrane of the Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum, expanded into diverse biological systems from mammals, including humans, to yeast, roundworms, and protozoa. Using these diverse model systems allowed my colleagues and me to answer fundamental biological questions that enabled us to formulate far-reaching hypotheses and expanded our knowledge of human diseases caused by malfunctions in the metabolic processes involved. © 2018 Hirschberg Published under exclusive license by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.http://www.jbc.org/content/293/33/12653.ful

Cystic Fibrosis

First published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2004. ©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2004. All volumes are freely available online at: www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 11 June 2002. Introduction by Professor John Dodge.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 11 June 2002. Introduction by Professor John Dodge.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 11 June 2002. Introduction by Professor John Dodge.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 11 June 2002. Introduction by Professor John Dodge.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 11 June 2002. Introduction by Professor John Dodge.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 11 June 2002. Introduction by Professor John Dodge.In the 1930s, when cystic fibrosis (CF) was first clearly recognised, it was a disorder that inevitably led to death in early childhood from respiratory failure and malnutrition. Since that time, antibiotic treatment and improving nutrition have brought increasing hope to sufferers from the disorder, so that increasing numbers of children have lived on into adult life. Chaired by Professor John Walker-Smith, and attended by a group of leading experts in field at the time, this transcript discusses the history and development of treatment as a result of the establishment of multidisciplinary teams working at special CF centres. Participants also discussed the role of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and the identification in 1989 of the defective gene, which made antenatal diagnosis possible and suggests that gene therapy might become feasible in the future. Christie D A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2004) Cystic fibrosis, Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 20. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London is funded by the Wellcome Trust,which is a registered charity, no. 210183

Discussion required for correct interpretation

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the editorial by Romero and colleagues [1], which raises a number of important and interesting questions. Such discussion is mandatory if results of scientific techniques such as gene array are to be correctly interpreted and used as the basis for future improvements in patient care

A Cobalt-Containing Eukaryotic Nitrile Hydratase

Nitrile hydratase (NHase), an industrially important enzyme that catalyzes the hydration of nitriles to their corresponding amides, has only been characterized from prokaryotic microbes. The putative NHase from the eukaryotic unicellular choanoflagellate organism Monosiga brevicollis (MbNHase) was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. The resulting enzyme expressed as a single polypeptide with fused α- and β-subunits linked by a seventeen-histidine region. Size-exclusion chromatography indicated that MbNHase exists primarily as an (αβ)2 homodimer in solution, analogous to the α2β2 homotetramer architecture observed for prokaryotic NHases. The NHase enzyme contained its full complement of Co(III) and was fully functional without the co-expression of an activator protein or E. coli GroES/EL molecular chaperones. The homology model of MbNHase was developed identifying Cys400, Cys403, and Cys405 as active site ligands. The results presented here provide the first experimental data for a mature and active eukaryotic NHase with fused subunits. Since this new member of the NHase family is expressed from a single gene without the requirement of an activator protein, it represents an alternative biocatalyst for industrial syntheses of important amide compounds

A Lost Dream: Worker Control at Rath Packing

[Excerpted from Introduction by Gene Daniels] The story of Rath Packing Company of Waterloo, Iowa, is alternately a model of the American Dream and the story of a dream turned nightmare. Started in Iowa in 1891 with a work force of 22, Rath employed 8,000 people at its peak. In 1944, workers at Rath slaughtered 12,000 hogs, cattle and sheep a day. It was the largest and most modern packing house in the world. In the 1950s and early 1960s, however, Rath\u27s management failed to make several strategic moves. They failed to market Rath\u27s products to supermarkets, thinking Mom & Pop stores would remain the backbone of community grocery shopping. Little attention was paid to the growing conglomeration within the meatpacking industry itself And, management failed to re-invest in new machinery and processes and failed to build a new facility like the single-story buildings being constructed by competitors. All these factors combined to provide Rath with short-term prof its and long-term headaches. By the 1970s the company was in deep trouble