Embodied Energy Audit of Residential Building

Buildings consume a vast amount of energy during the life cycle stages of construction, use and demolition. Total life cycle energy use in a building consists of two components: embodied and operational energy. Embodied energy is expended in the processes of building material production, on-site delivery, construction, maintenance, renovation and final demolition. Operational energy is consumed in operating the buildings. In this paper the review is given about energy consumption of the residential building. Energy required for various materials is calculated and energy efficient alternatives are suggested. Studies have revealed the suggestion of energy efficient alternatives materials and comparison of energy consumed by using each material. Current interpretations of embodied energy are quite unclear and vary greatly as change in site source of raw materials and embodied energy databases suffer from the problems of variation and incomparability

Rapid generation of endogenously driven transcriptional reporters in cells through CRISPR/Cas9

CRISPR/Cas9 technologies have been employed for genome editing to achieve gene knockouts and knock-ins in somatic cells. Similarly, certain endogenous genes have been tagged with fluorescent proteins. Often, the detection of tagged proteins requires high expression and sophisticated tools such as confocal microscopy and flow cytometry. Therefore, a simple, sensitive and robust transcriptional reporter system driven by endogenous promoter for studies into transcriptional regulation is desirable. We report a CRISPR/Cas9-based methodology for rapidly integrating a firefly luciferase gene in somatic cells under the control of endogenous promoter, using the TGFβ-responsive gene PAI-1. Our strategy employed a polycistronic cassette containing a non-fused GFP protein to ensure the detection of transgene delivery and rapid isolation of positive clones. We demonstrate that firefly luciferase cDNA can be efficiently delivered downstream of the promoter of the TGFβ-responsive gene PAI-1. Using chemical and genetic regulators of TGFβ signalling, we show that it mimics the transcriptional regulation of endogenous PAI-1 expression. Our unique approach has the potential to expedite studies on transcription of any gene in the context of its native chromatin landscape in somatic cells, allowing for robust high-throughput chemical and genetic screens

Genomic modelling of the ESR1 Y537S mutation for evaluating function and new therapeutic approaches for metastatic breast cancer

Drugs that inhibit estrogen receptor-α (ER) activity have been highly successful in treating and reducing breast cancer progression in ER-positive disease. However, resistance to these therapies presents a major clinical problem. Recent genetic studies have shown that mutations in the ER gene are found in >20% of tumours that progress on endocrine therapies. Remarkably, the great majority of these mutations localize to just a few amino acids within or near the critical helix 12 region of the ER hormone binding domain, where they are likely to be single allele mutations. Understanding how these mutations impact on ER function is a prerequisite for identifying methods to treat breast cancer patients featuring such mutations. Towards this end, we used CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to make a single allele knock-in of the most commonly mutated amino acid residue, tyrosine 537, in the estrogen-responsive MCF7 breast cancer cell line. Genomic analyses using RNA-seq and ER ChIP-seq demonstrated that the Y537S mutation promotes constitutive ER activity globally, resulting in estrogen-independent growth. MCF7-Y537S cells were resistant to the anti-estrogen tamoxifen and fulvestrant. Further, we show that the basal transcription factor TFIIH is constitutively recruited by ER-Y537S, resulting in ligand-independent phosphorylation of Serine 118 (Ser118) by the TFIIH kinase, cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)7. The CDK7 inhibitor, THZ1 prevented Ser118 phosphorylation and inhibited growth of MCF7-Y537S cells. These studies confirm the functional importance of ER mutations in endocrine resistance, demonstrate the utility of knock-in mutational models for investigating alternative therapeutic approaches and highlight CDK7 inhibition as a potential therapy for endocrine-resistant breast cancer mediated by ER mutations

The effect of electroporation pulses on functioning of the heart

Electrochemotherapy is an effective antitumor treatment currently applied to cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors. Electrochemotherapy of tumors located close to the heart could lead to adverse effects, especially if electroporation pulses were delivered within the vulnerable period of the heart or if they coincided with arrhythmias of some types. We examined the influence of electroporation pulses on functioning of the heart of human patients by analyzing the electrocardiogram. We found no pathological morphological changes in the electrocardiogram; however, we demonstrated a transient RR interval decrease after application of electroporation pulses. Although no adverse effects due to electroporation have been reported so far, the probability for complications could increase in treatment of internal tumors, in tumor ablation by irreversible electroporation, and when using pulses of longer durations. We evaluated the performance of our algorithm for synchronization of electroporation pulse delivery with electrocardiogram. The application of this algorithm in clinical electroporation would increase the level of safety for the patient and suitability of electroporation for use in anatomical locations presently not accessible to existing electroporation devices and electrodes

CRISPR-Cas orthologues and variants: optimizing the repertoire, specificity and delivery of genome engineering tools

Robust and cost-effective genome editing in a diverse array of cells and model organisms is now possible thanks to the discovery of the RNA-guided endonucleases of the CRISPR-Cas system. The commonly used Cas9 of Streptococcus pyogenes shows high levels of activity but, depending on the application, has been associated with some shortcomings. Firstly, the enzyme has been shown to cause mutagenesis at genomic sequences resembling the target sequence. Secondly, the stringent requirement for a specific motif adjacent to the selected target site can limit the target range of this enzyme. Lastly, the physical size of Cas9 challenges the efficient delivery of genomic engineering tools based on this enzyme as viral particles for potential therapeutic applications. Related and parallel strategies have been employed to address these issues. Taking advantage of the wealth of structural information that is becoming available for CRISPR-Cas effector proteins, Cas9 has been redesigned by mutagenizing key residues contributing to activity and target recognition. The protein has also been shortened and redesigned into component subunits in an attempt to facilitate its efficient delivery. Furthermore, the CRISPR-Cas toolbox has been expanded by exploring the properties of Cas9 orthologues and other related effector proteins from diverse bacterial species, some of which exhibit different target site specificities and reduced molecular size. It is hoped that the improvements in accuracy, target range and efficiency of delivery will facilitate the therapeutic application of these site-specific nucleases

HEATR2 Plays a Conserved Role in Assembly of the Ciliary Motile Apparatus

Cilia are highly conserved microtubule-based structures that perform a variety of sensory and motility functions during development and adult homeostasis. In humans, defects specifically affecting motile cilia lead to chronic airway infections, infertility and laterality defects in the genetically heterogeneous disorder Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD). Using the comparatively simple Drosophila system, in which mechanosensory neurons possess modified motile cilia, we employed a recently elucidated cilia transcriptional RFX-FOX code to identify novel PCD candidate genes. Here, we report characterization of CG31320/HEATR2, which plays a conserved critical role in forming the axonemal dynein arms required for ciliary motility in both flies and humans. Inner and outer arm dyneins are absent from axonemes of CG31320 mutant flies and from PCD individuals with a novel splice-acceptor HEATR2 mutation. Functional conservation of closely arranged RFX-FOX binding sites upstream of HEATR2 orthologues may drive higher cytoplasmic expression of HEATR2 during early motile ciliogenesis. Immunoprecipitation reveals HEATR2 interacts with DNAI2, but not HSP70 or HSP90, distinguishing it from the client/chaperone functions described for other cytoplasmic proteins required for dynein arm assembly such as DNAAF1-4. These data implicate CG31320/HEATR2 in a growing intracellular pre-assembly and transport network that is necessary to deliver functional dynein machinery to the ciliary compartment for integration into the motile axoneme

Systems biology discoveries using non-human primate pluripotent stem and germ cells: novel gene and genomic imprinting interactions as well as unique expression patterns

The study of pluripotent stem cells has generated much interest in both biology and medicine. Understanding the fundamentals of biological decisions, including what permits a cell to maintain pluripotency, that is, its ability to self-renew and thereby remain immortal, or to differentiate into multiple types of cells, is of profound importance. For clinical applications, pluripotent cells, including both embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells, have been proposed for cell replacement therapy for a number of human diseases and disorders, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal cord injury and diabetes. One challenge in their usage for such therapies is understanding the mechanisms that allow the maintenance of pluripotency and controlling the specific differentiation into required functional target cells. Because of regulatory restrictions and biological feasibilities, there are many crucial investigations that are just impossible to perform using pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) from humans (for example, direct comparisons among panels of inbred embryonic stem cells from prime embryos obtained from pedigreed and fertile donors; genomic analysis of parent versus progeny PSCs and their identical differentiated tissues; intraspecific chimera analyses for pluripotency testing; and so on). However, PSCs from nonhuman primates are being investigated to bridge these knowledge gaps between discoveries in mice and vital information necessary for appropriate clinical evaluations. In this review, we consider the mRNAs and novel genes with unique expression and imprinting patterns that were discovered using systems biology approaches with primate pluripotent stem and germ cells

Coupling changes in cell shape to chromosome segregation

Animal cells undergo dramatic changes in shape, mechanics and polarity as they progress through the different stages of cell division. These changes begin at mitotic entry, with cell–substrate adhesion remodelling, assembly of a cortical actomyosin network and osmotic swelling, which together enable cells to adopt a near spherical form even when growing in a crowded tissue environment. These shape changes, which probably aid spindle assembly and positioning, are then reversed at mitotic exit to restore the interphase cell morphology. Here, we discuss the dynamics, regulation and function of these processes, and how cell shape changes and sister chromatid segregation are coupled to ensure that the daughter cells generated through division receive their fair inheritance