Clinico-pathological association of delineated miRNAs in uveal melanoma with monosomy 3/Disomy 3 chromosomal aberrations

PURPOSE: To correlate the differentially expressed miRNAs with clinico-pathological features in uveal melanoma (UM) tumors harbouring chromosomal 3 aberrations among South Asian Indian cohort. METHODS: Based on chromosomal 3 aberration, UM (n = 86) were grouped into monosomy 3 (M3; n = 51) and disomy 3 (D3; n = 35) by chromogenic in-situ hybridisation (CISH). The clinico-pathological features were recorded. miRNA profiling was performed in formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) UM samples (n = 6) using Agilent, Human miRNA microarray, 8x15KV3 arrays. The association between miRNAs and clinico-pathological features were studied using univariate and multivariate analysis. miRNA-gene targets were predicted using Target-scan and MiRanda database. Significantly dys-regulated miRNAs were validated in FFPE UM (n = 86) and mRNAs were validated in frozen UM (n = 10) by qRT-PCR. Metastasis free-survival and miRNA expressions were analysed by Kaplen-Meier analysis in UM tissues (n = 52). RESULTS: Unsupervised analysis revealed 585 differentially expressed miRNAs while supervised analysis demonstrated 82 miRNAs (FDR; Q = 0.0). Differential expression of 8 miRNAs: miR-214, miR-149*, miR-143, miR-146b, miR-199a, let7b, miR-1238 and miR-134 were studied. Gene target prediction revealed SMAD4, WISP1, HIPK1, HDAC8 and C-KIT as the post-transcriptional regulators of miR-146b, miR-199a, miR-1238 and miR-134. Five miRNAs (miR-214, miR146b, miR-143, miR-199a and miR-134) were found to be differentially expressed in M3/ D3 UM tumors. In UM patients with liver metastasis, miR-149* and miR-134 expressions were strongly correlated. CONCLUSION: UM can be stratified using miRNAs from FFPE sections. miRNAs predicting liver metastasis and survival have been identified. Mechanistic linkage of de-regulated miRNA/mRNA expressions provide new insights on their role in UM progression and aggressiveness

Portable Microfluidic Integrated Plasmonic Platform for Pathogen Detection

Timely detection of infectious agents is critical in early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. Conventional pathogen detection methods, such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), culturing or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) require long assay times, and complex and expensive instruments, which are not adaptable to point-of-care (POC) needs at resource-constrained as well as primary care settings. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop simple, rapid, and accurate methods for detection of pathogens at the POC. Here, we present a portable, multiplex, inexpensive microfluidic-integrated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) platform that detects and quantifies bacteria, i.e., Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) rapidly. The platform presented reliable capture and detection of E. coli at concentrations ranging from ~105 to 3.2 × 107 CFUs/mL in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) fluid. The multiplexing and specificity capability of the platform was also tested with S. aureus samples. The presented platform technology could potentially be applicable to capture and detect other pathogens at the POC and primary care settings

Textos de dos mujeres y una crítica de la Plantación

Con relación a dos novelas escritas por mujeres, el texto ofrece una lectura que demuestra cómo pueden funcionar juntas una lectura ambiental y una lectura feminista. Los dos textos (de Jean Rhys y de Arundhati Roy), presentan la plantación tropical como un espacio queencarna la mirada colonial. A la vez exuberantes y traicioneros, los trópicos se vuelven sitio de explotación y lugar de peligro y horror sin nombre. Las mujeres, en tanto hijas de y víctimas del patriarcado de la plantación, que funciona conjuntamente con el patriarcado colonial, sonrepresentadas textualmente de modos sugestivos en relación con la casa de la plantación como propiedad. En medio de su drama de despojo,de expropiación del hogar, y a la vez, un amor y una lealtad feroces hacia su casa de la plantación, el mensaje feminista toma forma. Tal despojo tiene bases históricas legales en Antigua y Kerala, respectivamente. Esta lectura sugiere un acercamiento analítico –la pos-plantación– que arroja luz sobre las similitudes de ambas novelas, tanto en cuanto a contexto sociocultural como a método narrativo

Textos de dos mujeres y una crítica de la Plantación

Con relación a dos novelas escritas por mujeres, el texto ofrece una lectura que demuestra cómo pueden funcionar juntas una lectura ambiental y una lectura feminista. Los dos textos (de Jean Rhys y de Arundhati Roy), presentan la plantación tropical como un espacio queencarna la mirada colonial. A la vez exuberantes y traicioneros, los trópicos se vuelven sitio de explotación y lugar de peligro y horror sin nombre. Las mujeres, en tanto hijas de y víctimas del patriarcado de la plantación, que funciona conjuntamente con el patriarcado colonial, sonrepresentadas textualmente de modos sugestivos en relación con la casa de la plantación como propiedad. En medio de su drama de despojo,de expropiación del hogar, y a la vez, un amor y una lealtad feroces hacia su casa de la plantación, el mensaje feminista toma forma. Tal despojo tiene bases históricas legales en Antigua y Kerala, respectivamente. Esta lectura sugiere un acercamiento analítico –la pos-plantación– que arroja luz sobre las similitudes de ambas novelas, tanto en cuanto a contexto sociocultural como a método narrativo

Textos de dos mujeres y una crítica de la Plantación

Con relación a dos novelas escritas por mujeres, el texto ofrece una lectura que demuestra cómo pueden funcionar juntas una lectura ambiental y una lectura feminista. Los dos textos (de Jean Rhys y de Arundhati Roy), presentan la plantación tropical como un espacio queencarna la mirada colonial. A la vez exuberantes y traicioneros, los trópicos se vuelven sitio de explotación y lugar de peligro y horror sin nombre. Las mujeres, en tanto hijas de y víctimas del patriarcado de la plantación, que funciona conjuntamente con el patriarcado colonial, sonrepresentadas textualmente de modos sugestivos en relación con la casa de la plantación como propiedad. En medio de su drama de despojo,de expropiación del hogar, y a la vez, un amor y una lealtad feroces hacia su casa de la plantación, el mensaje feminista toma forma. Tal despojo tiene bases históricas legales en Antigua y Kerala, respectivamente. Esta lectura sugiere un acercamiento analítico –la pos-plantación– que arroja luz sobre las similitudes de ambas novelas, tanto en cuanto a contexto sociocultural como a método narrativo

Atlantic Gandhi, Caribbean Gandhian

Presented on April 2, 2009, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm, Skiles building room 2, Georgia Tech campus.Sponsored by GT's Writing and Communication Program and the Gandhi Foundation of USA.Nalini Natarajan was born in Madras (now Chennai) and raised in New Delhi and Bombay (now Mumbai). Upon graduation with an MA from Delhi University, she taught at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. She obtained her Ph.D as a British Council Scholar and a recipient of the Fellowship from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the United Kingdom from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K. Thereafter, she was hired into a tenured faculty position at Miranda House, Delhi, and taught there for a while. After a short stint as a postdoctoral scholar at Yale University, she moved to Puerto Rico in 1987 with her husband, tropical ecologist John Parrotta. Through her background and domicile, she combines an interest in India and its many regions, local languages and cultures, British domestic and imperial culture in the Nineteenth Century, feminist theory, and Caribbean and Latin American issues. She has proposed innovative courses in these areas, including her latest ones focusing on the city. She is the author/editor of two books and numerous articles. She is working on a book scheduled for publication with Callejon Press entitled The Resonating Island, a series of intercultural essays on the Caribbean and South Asia. She currently divides her time between San Juan and Washington DC where she occasionally helps coordinate the panels on a yearly South Asia Literary festival of new authors in conjunction with the Smithsonian

Textos de dos mujeres y una crítica de la Plantación

Con relación a dos novelas escritas por mujeres, el texto ofrece una lectura que demuestra cómo pueden funcionar juntas una lectura ambiental y una lectura feminista. Los dos textos (de Jean Rhys y de Arundhati Roy), presentan la plantación tropical como un espacio queencarna la mirada colonial. A la vez exuberantes y traicioneros, los trópicos se vuelven sitio de explotación y lugar de peligro y horror sin nombre. Las mujeres, en tanto hijas de y víctimas del patriarcado de la plantación, que funciona conjuntamente con el patriarcado colonial, sonrepresentadas textualmente de modos sugestivos en relación con la casa de la plantación como propiedad. En medio de su drama de despojo,de expropiación del hogar, y a la vez, un amor y una lealtad feroces hacia su casa de la plantación, el mensaje feminista toma forma. Tal despojo tiene bases históricas legales en Antigua y Kerala, respectivamente. Esta lectura sugiere un acercamiento analítico –la pos-plantación– que arroja luz sobre las similitudes de ambas novelas, tanto en cuanto a contexto sociocultural como a método narrativo

Structural means of assessing the association of hamartin and tuberin

mTOR pathway is one of the most important and well-studied signalling cascades with respect to cancer. The majorcontrollers of mTOR are the tumour suppressors Hamartin (TSC1) and Tuberin (TSC2), which lies in the heart of this cellularsignalling pathway. Mutation in any of these genes will render them unsuccessful to possess tuberin's GTPase activitytowards Rheb, a small G-protein, which eventually keeps the mTOR activated. Such mutations lead to tuberous sclerosiscomplex, a multi-organ disease characterized by non-cancerous tumours in brain, skin, liver, kidney, lungs and heart. Also, itputs an individual at a higher risk of developing cancer in these organs.Several inhibitors are designed and still being designed for mTOR, while the actual source of the problem (TSC1 & TSC2) isleft unchecked. The main reason for this is the lack of structure for both TSC1 and TSC2. Owing to its large size, Hamartin(1164 aa) and Tuberin (1804 aa) cannot be expressed under a bacterial expression system. Hence the major focus of ourstudy is in the interaction regions of these two proteins. Since it is a small portion of these proteins, its expression isfeasible in E.coli. Hamartin's interaction region of tuberin is predicted to possess a potential leucine zipper region (81-121aa) and a putative coiled-coil domain (346-371 aa). Recent studies have structurally proven the presence of a newcomponent to the Tuberous sclerosis protein complex, which is known as TBC1D7. Many studies have been made with Tscmutated cohorts and the researchers have tried to analyze the etiology of the disease biochemically. Yet, deciphering thestructure of this tumor suppressor complex would not only satiate the search for answers in mTOR pathway but also throwlimelight on the plethora of protein-protein interactions in various other significant pathways. Knowing the structure wouldenable us to envisage the design of agonist for these proteins to enhance their tumour suppressor activity.by Nalini Natarajan and Vijay Thiruvenkata