Beyond Fat Mass: Exploring the Role of Adipokines in Rheumatic Diseases

The cloning of leptin in 1994 by Zhang et al. introduced a novel concept about white adipose tissue (WAT) as a very dynamic organ that releases a plethora of immune and inflammatory mediators, such as adipokines and cytokines, which are involved in multiple diseases. Actually, adipokines exert potent modulatory actions on target tissues involved in rheumatic diseases including cartilage, synovial, bone and immune cells. The goal of this paper is to elucidate the recent findings concerning the involvement of adipokines in rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

Transcriptome (ESTs) of Avocado “Native” Mexicano Early Seed Development Shows Abundance of Regulatory, Antioxidant and Defense Genes

Avocado native “Mexicano” (Persea americana var drymifolia) has been a really important species in agricultural and indigenous medicine. In the agricultural world, it has been the germplasm source for the generation of economically important cultivars like Hass and it is the main source of rootstocks for the world production of Hass avocado fruit. In spite of its importance, little is known about the molecular network of seed-fruit development. The aim of this work was to know the expressed genes (ESTs) during the early avocado native “Mexicano” seed development. Using total RNA we constructed cDNA libraries of fourth months seed development, sequencing, assembling and bioinformatic analysis was made. For validation, a semi-quantitative PCR experiments with the most abundant genes were made. About 5005 ESTs from the 5’ representing 1653 possible unigenes were isolated. After assembling process, we have 171 genes that are closely related to Nelumbo nucifera sequences. The transcriptome is dominating by one bHLH transcription factor, three metallothioneins and snakin, suggesting its main role in seed development. Until now, there are no molecular studies in avocado seed development

Gestión del conocimiento : Una revisión teórica y su asociación con la universidad

RESUMEN: En este trabajo se resumen algunos aportes teóricos a un área de gestión que ha recibido atención sólo recientemente: la Gestión del Conocimiento. Ésta tiene mayor relevancia en instituciones que nacen y se desarrollan históricamente para ese propósito: las Universidades. Desde el punto de vista de la gestión de estas instituciones, especialmente las latinoamericanas, parece estar llegando el momento de implementar sistemas explícitos y específicos para gestionar y poner en valor los conocimientos que poseen. En este trabajo se explican brevemente los desafíos que enfrentan las universidades a partir de la década de los 90, en el contexto de lo que se ha llamado “nueva economía”; se explican algunas definiciones y conceptos que se comienzan a hacer comunes en esta área de gestión y se muestran las relaciones que estos tienen con las principales actividades universitarias.ABSTRACT: This paper show some theoretical contributions in management area that, only recently, has been paid attention: knowledge management. This is even more important when it is the case of institutions being created and developed historically for that purpose, i.e.: the universities. From the point of view of these university management, specially the latinamerican ones, it seems that the moment has come to implement explicit and specific systems in order to add value the knowledgements they are really possessing. This paper briefly explains the challenges the universities are facing, starting from the decade of the '90, within the context called “new economy”; some of the definitions and concepts explain to be starting in a common way in this management area and showing relations that these are having with the principle university activities

The way towards the patents in the universities

RESUMEN: En los últimos 25 años se le ha dado importancia creciente a la producción de tecnología y otras formas de creación de conocimientos con valor comercial en las universidades en todo el mundo. En este trabajo se evalúa el desempeño de las universidades chilenas como productoras de conocimientos con valor comercial restringido a la propiedad intelectual con aplicaciones industriales en los últimos 10 años. La expresión cuantificable de esto son las patentes industriales, los modelos de utilidad y los diseños industriales. Además se realiza una síntesis de la forma en que están incorporando este aspecto del trabajo académico las principales universidades chilenas. Finalmente se comparan los resultados relativos observados en Chile con los obtenidos en EE.UU. y Europa.ABSTRACT: In the last 25 years, growing importance has been given to technology production and other forms of knowledge creation, that is produced by universities throughout the world and has commercial value. In this paper, the last ten years’ performance of Chilean universities as producers of knowledge with commercial value, and industrial applications, as well as restricted to intellectual property, are evaluated. Industrial patents, models of utility and industrial designs are considered as quantifiable referents. A synthesis of the way the main Chilean universities are incorporating this aspect of the academic work is presented. Finally, the relative results observed in Chile are compared with those obtained in the USA and Europe

Modeling of business processes for the management of patents in universities

RESUMEN: El objetivo del trabajo presentado fue elaborar un modelo de procesos de negocios para la gestión de las patentes resultantes de las ideas y proyectos que surgen en las universidades. Para abordar el diseño de este modelo, se realizaron entrevistas, encuestas y visitas a sitios Web de diversas universidades con el fin de determinar el conjunto de actividades desde que surge una idea susceptible de ser patentada hasta que la patente es explotada en el mercado. Esta identificación de actividades y su análisis fue efectuada mediante el modelo de procesos por regulación, el que posteriormente fue traducido a un modelo en BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation). Se muestra que el modelo propuesto facilita la gestión de las patentes en las universidades. Palabras clave: procesos de negocios, derechos de propiedad intelectual, gestión de patentes,ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper was the proposal of a business process model for the management of patents resulting from ideas or projects developed in universities. For the design of the model, several actions were developed: surveys, interviews, and analysis of web sites, with the aim of determining the set of activities followed in other institutions from the original idea until patent exploitation. This information and its analysis were done using the process modelling by regulation, later translated into a model in BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation). It is shown that the proposed model facilitates the management of patents in universities. Keywords: business process, intellectual property rights, patents management, process model

Cloning and characterization of a pectin lyase gene from Colletotrichum lindemuthianum and comparative phylogenetic/structural analyses with genes from phytopathogenic and saprophytic/opportunistic microorganisms

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Microorganisms produce cell-wall-degrading enzymes as part of their strategies for plant invasion/nutrition. Among these, pectin lyases (PNLs) catalyze the depolymerization of esterified pectin by a β-elimination mechanism. PNLs are grouped together with pectate lyases (PL) in Family 1 of the polysaccharide lyases, as they share a conserved structure in a parallel β-helix. The best-characterized fungal pectin lyases are obtained from saprophytic/opportunistic fungi in the genera <it>Aspergillus </it>and <it>Penicillium </it>and from some pathogens such as <it>Colletotrichum gloeosporioides</it>.</p> <p>The organism used in the present study, <it>Colletotrichum lindemuthianum</it>, is a phytopathogenic fungus that can be subdivided into different physiological races with different capacities to infect its host, <it>Phaseolus vulgaris</it>. These include the non-pathogenic and pathogenic strains known as races 0 and 1472, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we report the isolation and sequence analysis of the <it>Clpnl2 </it>gene, which encodes the pectin lyase 2 of <it>C. lindemuthianum</it>, and its expression in pathogenic and non-pathogenic races of <it>C. lindemuthianum </it>grown on different carbon sources. In addition, we performed a phylogenetic analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence of Clpnl2 based on reported sequences of PNLs from other sources and compared the three-dimensional structure of Clpnl2, as predicted by homology modeling, with those of other organisms. Both analyses revealed an early separation of bacterial pectin lyases from those found in fungi and oomycetes. Furthermore, two groups could be distinguished among the enzymes from fungi and oomycetes: one comprising enzymes from mostly saprophytic/opportunistic fungi and the other formed mainly by enzymes from pathogenic fungi and oomycetes. Clpnl2 was found in the latter group and was grouped together with the pectin lyase from <it>C. gloeosporioides</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The <it>Clpnl2 </it>gene of <it>C. lindemuthianum </it>shares the characteristic elements of genes coding for pectin lyases. A time-course analysis revealed significant differences between the two fungal races in terms of the expression of <it>Clpnl2 </it>encoding for pectin lyase 2. According to the results, pectin lyases from bacteria and fungi separated early during evolution. Likewise, the enzymes from fungi and oomycetes diverged in accordance with their differing lifestyles. It is possible that the diversity and nature of the assimilatory carbon substrates processed by these organisms played a determinant role in this phenomenon.</p

The processes involved in a management model for university patents

RESUMEN: Las tendencias actuales de fortalecimiento de los derechos de propiedad intelectual; y el surgimiento de nuevos campos científi- co–tecnológicos como las nanotecnologías, la biotecnología, la telemática y el desarrollo de software, exigen que las universi- dades tengan suficiente conocimiento de la protección de los resultados de sus investigaciones y que cumplan un papel de lide- razgo en sus entornos regionales, para que en alianza con los demás agentes sociales generen estrategias competitivas de inno- vación. Sin embargo, las universidades deben promover valores éticos, de respeto y defensa del patrimonio ecológico y cultural de sus países cuando impulsan derechos de propiedad intelectual. Por estas razones, se propone aquí un modelo de gestión de los derechos de propiedad industrial de las universidades centrado en las patentes, con el objetivo de mejorar las estrategias de contribución al desarrollo científico y tecnológico de las universidades de América Latina, y con ello contribuir al desarrollo de sus países. El modelo es uno de los resultados relevantes derivados del marco teórico de la investigación llevada a cabo por el equipo entre los años 2003-2007 y en el estudio empírico llevando a cabo en dos fases: la primera de ellas se realizó con una encuesta cuyo objetivo era detectar aspectos críticos de la gestión de patentes y licencias de las universidades de Colombia, Chile y España. La segunda fase empírica se efectuó mediante entrevistas en profundidad hechas a los gestores de patentes de las universidades de mejor desempeño en los tres países mencionados.ABSTRACT: Current tendencies in strengthening intellectual property rights and the emergence of new scientific–technological fields (such as nanotechnologies, biotechnology, telematics and software development) have forced universities to acquire sufficient knowledge aimed at protecting their research results and fulfilling a leadership role within their regional settings so that they may generate competitive innovation strategies in alliance with other social agents. However, universities must promote ethical values, respect- ting and defending their countries’ ecological and cultural heritage when intellectual property rights are being promoted. A mo- del for managing universities’ industrial property rights is thus proposed here; it is centred on patents so as to improve strategies contributing towards Latin-American universities’ scientific and technological development and thereby contribute towards their countries’ development. The model is one of the relevant results derived from the theoretical framework for research carried out by the team from 2003-2007 and from the empirical study carried out in two phases. The first phase consisted of a survey whose objective was to detect critical aspects regarding managing patents and licenses for universities in Colombia, Chile and Spain. The second empirical phase consisted of holding in-depth interviews with those managing the patents for the universities having the best performance in the three aforementioned countries

Identification of novel adipokines in the joint.Differential expression in healthy and osteoarthritis tissues

OBJECTIVES: Emerging data suggest that several metabolic factors, released mainly by white adipose tissue (WAT) and joint tissues, and collectively named adipokines, might have a role in the pathophysiology of OA. Recently, novel adipokines such as SERPINE2, WISP2, GPNMB and ITIH5 have been identified in WAT. The main goal of this study was to analyse the expression of these novel adipokines in synovium, infrapatellar fat pad and chondrocytes and to compare the expression of these molecules in healthy and OA tissues. METHODS: Synovial tissues, infrapatellar fat pad and chondrocytes were obtained from 36 OA patients (age 52-85; mean BMI 28.9) who underwent total knee replacement surgery. Healthy synovial tissues and infrapatellar fat pad were obtained from 15 traumatic knee patients (age 23-53; mean BMI 23.5). mRNA and protein expression were determined by qRT-PCR and western blot analysis respectively. RESULTS: All the novel adipokines, matter of our study, are expressed in OA synovium, infrapatellar fat pad and chondrocytes. Moreover, we detected a differential expression of SERPINE2 and ITIH5 in OA synovial tissues as compared to healthy samples. Finally, we also observed an increased expression of WISP2 in OA infrapatellar fat pad in comparison to healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: In this study we demonstrated for the first time the expression of four novel adipokines in different joint tissues and how these molecules are differentially expressed in healthy and OA joint tissues.Xunta de Galicia/SERGASInstituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)Fundación Ramón DomínguezMinisterio de Educación de Españ

An approach to the concept of technology transfer in universities and their different manifestations

RESUMEN: La sociedad formalmente le ha asignado a las universidades y a los centros de investigación la misión casi exclusiva de producción de conocimiento; sin embargo, en la actualidad se tiende a extender su misión a la solución de problemas y demandas del sector empresarial, y de la sociedad en general. Esta ampliación del propósito a su vez, ha exigido a las universidades una reconceptualización y reordenamiento organizativo para realizar los procesos de producción, almacenamiento y transferencia del conocimiento, siendo permeados por la lógica del mercado e incorporándole al conocimiento características propias de los productos transables. En este trabajo se pretende mostrar un panorama coherente de la transferencia tecnológica, partiendo de una exploración de la literatura y seleccionando autores que se consideraron altamente significativos por la trayectoria, profundidad e investigaciones empíricas realizadas en la materia.ABSTRACT: Historically, Society has formally given universities and research centers the almost exclusive mission of knowledge production; however, nowadays the trend is to expand this mission in order to meet the demands of the economically productive sectors and the society in general. This broadening of the purpose has, in turn, demanded the universities a re- conceptualization and organizational re-configuration so as to be able to perform the processes of production, storage and transfer of knowledge, thus inserting market logics into the academic environments and turning knowledge into a tradable product. This paper intends to show a coherent panorama of the concept of technology transfer, starting from an exploration of the literature and selecting authors that are remarkable for their trajectory, depth and the empirical research they’ve realized in the subject