From Cleanroom to Desktop: Emerging Micro-Nanofabrication Technology for Biomedical Applications

This review is motivated by the growing demand for low-cost, easy-to-use, compact-size yet powerful micro-nanofabrication technology to address emerging challenges of fundamental biology and translational medicine in regular laboratory settings. Recent advancements in the field benefit considerably from rapidly expanding material selections, ranging from inorganics to organics and from nanoparticles to self-assembled molecules. Meanwhile a great number of novel methodologies, employing off-the-shelf consumer electronics, intriguing interfacial phenomena, bottom-up self-assembly principles, etc., have been implemented to transit micro-nanofabrication from a cleanroom environment to a desktop setup. Furthermore, the latest application of micro-nanofabrication to emerging biomedical research will be presented in detail, which includes point-of-care diagnostics, on-chip cell culture as well as bio-manipulation. While significant progresses have been made in the rapidly growing field, both apparent and unrevealed roadblocks will need to be addressed in the future. We conclude this review by offering our perspectives on the current technical challenges and future research opportunities

Myb DNA binding inhibited by phosphorylation at a site deleted during oncogenic activation.

The c-Myb nuclear oncoprotein is phosphorylated in vitro and in vivo at an N-terminal site near its DNA-binding domain by casein kinase II (CK-II) or a CK-II-like activity. This in vitro phosphorylation reversibly inhibits the sequence-specific binding of c-Myb to DNA. The site of this phosphorylation is deleted in nearly all oncogenically activated Myb proteins, resulting in DNA-binding that is independent of CK-II. Because CK-II activity is modulated by growth factors, loss of the site could uncouple c-Myb from its normal physiological regulator

Multiple Origins of Neocortex: Contributions of the Dorsal Ventricular Ridge

The uniqueness of mammalian neocortex may ultimately only be clarified with improved understanding of the evolutionary origins of cortical structure and cortical functions. Comparative studies of the organization of the nonmammalian and mammalian telencephalon may provide valuable clues for understanding the evolution of neocortex. In the nonmammalian telencephalon, there are neuronal populations which correspond to cell groups in the neocortex of mammals in terms of connections, single unit-responses, and functions. Some of these populations lying within the dorsal ventricular ridge, however, are organized in a non-laminar, rather than laminar fashion. These observations suggest that the emergence of basic “cortical” circuit and laminar organization are distinct evolutionary events that can be differentiated and studied independently in order to understand each of their respective contributions to the cognitive functions of the neocortex. Moreover, in contrast to an argument that many cortical visual areas are derived from a single area by gene duplication (Allman, 1977, in press), the origins of neocortex can be separable into at least the precursors of non-laminar and laminar regions, and thus multiple evolutionary origins of neocortex are proposed