Life sciences: general issues

The discovery of stem and progenitor cells in the adult mammalian CNS challenged the long standing "e;no new neuron"e; doctrine and opened the door to the potential for cell replacement therapy.

Estimation of the metabolite complement of plant material involves a wide range of techniques and technologies and that breadth continues to increase.

Focusing on two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), this book sets forth the principles and recent developments of sample preparation and fractionation tools in expression proteomics.

Recent improvements in the efficiency, quality, and cost of genome-wide sequencing have prompted biologists and biomedical researchers to move away from microarray-based technology to ultra high-throughput, massively parallel genomic sequencing (Next Generation Sequencing, NGS) technology.

With the ultimate goal of systematically and robustly defining the specific perturbations necessary to alter a cellular phenotype, systems metabolic engineering has the potential to lead to a complete cell model capable of simulating cell and metabolic function as well as predicting phenotypic response to changes in media, gene knockouts/overexpressions, or the incorporation of heterologous pathways.

New high throughput techniques in neuroscience and psychiatry have enhanced the development of experimental, customizable animal models that are predictive of human neuropsychiatric pathology and give vital insights on the mechanisms and pathways involved.

Plant genomics is a growing and constantly evolving field of study, one which has gained much ground in past years through the development of advanced research and data management tools.

In Protein Dynamics: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers in the field detail both experimental and computational methods to interrogate molecular level fluctuations.

Cytogenetic studies of malignancy have become an essential tool in the clinical management of cancer patients.

The transfer of hereditary information from genes to proteins is one of the essential pr- esses in all living organisms on our planet.

Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (FISH) belongs to that special category of well-established molecular biology techniques that, since their inception a few decades ago, have succeeded in keeping a prominent position within the constantly expanding list of laboratory pro- dures for biomedical research and clinical diagnostics.

With the detailed genomic information that is now becoming available, we have a plethora of data that allows researchers to address questions in a variety of areas.

Metagenomics has proven to be a powerful tool for exploring the ecology, metabolic profiling, and comparison of complex microbial communities as well as its important applications in the mining of metagenomes for genes encoding novel biocatalysts and drug molecules for bioindustries.

Molecular modeling has undergone a remarkable transformation in the last 20 years, as biomolecular simulation moves from the realm of specialists to the wider academic community.

Integrated bioinformatics solutions have become increasingly valuable in past years, as technological advances have allowed researchers to consider the potential of omics for clinical diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic purposes, and as the costs of such techniques have begun to lessen.

Systems biology is the study of interactions between assorted components of biological systems with the aim of acquiring new insights into how organisms function and respond to different stimuli.

Chemogenomics aims toward the systematic identification of small molecules that interact with the products of the genome and modulate their biological function.

Metabolomics: Methods and Protocols examines the state-of-the-art in metabolomic analysis.

Together with early theoretical work in population genetics, the debate on sources of genetic makeup initiated by proponents of the neutral theory made a solid contribution to the spectacular growth in statistical methodologies for molecular evolution.

Due to their novel concepts and extraordinary high-throughput sequencing capacity, the "e;next generation sequencing"e; methods allow scientists to grasp system-wide landscapes of the complex molecular events taking place in various biological systems, including microorganisms and microbial communities.

Chemical library technologies have brought about dramatic changes in the drug discovery process, and, though still evolving, they have become an integral part of ongoing drug discovery research.

Phytoplasmas are a group of bacteria that are capable of multiplying and causing severe diseases in a wide range of plant species and are transported between plants by insect vectors in which the bacteria can also multiply.

In this new volume, renowned authors contribute fascinating, cutting-edge insights into microarray data analysis.

Transcriptomics and proteomics, studying the profile of the expression of nucleic acids and proteins respectively, are increasingly applied to gain a mechanistic insight into a wide spectrum of investigation, and the use of expression profiling studies for the central nervous system and brain function aids in the understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and tumor development mechanisms.

Due to their versatility, along with the diminishing costs of library synthesis and the growth of commercial support, peptide microarrays will likely expand beyond being just a research tool into an adaptable and powerful platform to be harnessed for wider drug discovery and point-of-care applications.

Protein microarrays have been used for a wide variety of important tasks, such as identifying protein-protein interactions, discovering disease biomarkers, identifying DNA-binding specificity by protein variants, and for characterization of the humoral immune response.

Most life science researchers will agree that biology is not a truly theoretical branch of science.

Patch Clamp Methods and Protocols surveys the typical patch clamp applications and advises scientists on identifying problems and selecting the best technique in each instance.

Gene regulatory networks play a vital role in organismal development and function by controlling gene expression.

Plants are amazing organisms to study, some are important sources for pharmaceuticals, and others can help to elucidate molecular mechanisms required for a plant's development and its interactions with the biotic or abiotic environment.

Computational biology is an interdisciplinary field that applies mathematical, statistical, and computer science methods to answer biological questions, and its importance has only increased with the introduction of high-throughput techniques such as automatic DNA sequencing, comprehensive expression analysis with microarrays, and proteome analysis with modern mass spectrometry.

Bringing together techniques and methods currently being applied to the study of exocytosis, Exocytosis Methods collects chapters from experts in the field, examining this fundamental process essential to functions ranging from protein secretion to hormone release and neurotransmission.

Since the discovery of DNA structure and throughout the ensuing "e;DNA era"e;, the field of DNA replication has expanded to cover a vast number of experimental systems.

The discovery of wide-spread RNA-based regulation in bacteria has led to new evaluations of the importance of bacterial regulatory RNA in every aspect of bacterial physiology.

Many fundamental discoveries concerning epigenetics and the elucidation of mechanisms of epigenetic regulation have developed from studies performed in plants.

With an ever-increasing elderly population and the resultant rising levels of dementia-related disorders, preclinical research based on animal models is pivotal to our knowledge of underlying molecular mechanisms and drug discovery aiming at the development of therapeutic strategies alleviating or preventing the neurological devastation.

Societal, ethical, and cost-related issues, not to mention the need for sound scientific methods, have led to new and refined methods for the evaluation of health risks associated with neurotoxic compounds, relevant and predictive of exposure, relatively inexpensive, and ideally amenable to high throughput analysis and a reduction in animal use.

Drosophila melanogaster has been the model system of choice for many inv- tigators over the past hundred years.

The existence of genes for RNA molecules not coding for proteins (ncRNAs) has been recognized since the 1950's, but until recently, aside from the critically important ribosomal and transfer RNA genes, most focus has been on protein coding genes.

The goal of the characterization and discovery of G protein-coupled receptors, arguably the most important class of signaling molecules in humans and other vertebrates, has spawned numerous vital methodologies.

Over the past twenty years, the development of chromatin immunoprecipitation, or ChIP, assays has immensely enhanced the biological significance of the multifaceted DNA-binding proteins.

Lymphomas are lymphoid malignancies derived from B or T lymphocytes, and their study has been and still is paradigmatic for many aspects of cancer research.

The post-genomic revolution is witnessing the generation of petabytes of data annually, with deep implications ranging across evolutionary theory, developmental biology, agriculture, and disease processes.

Affecting over a hundred million individuals worldwide, retinal diseases are among the leading causes of irreversible visual impairment and blindness, and appropriate study models, especially animal models, are essential to furthering our understanding of the etiology, pathology, and progression of these endemic diseases.

From basic performing of sequence alignment through a proficiency at understanding how most industry-standard alignment algorithms achieve their results, Multiple Sequence Alignment Methods describes numerous algorithms and their nuances in chapters written by the experts who developed these algorithms.

As a model organism, zebrafish (Danio rerio) offer an opportunity to perform steadfast scientific investigations in a robust and high-throughput manner.

Two decades have passed since trinucleotide repeat expansion was first discovered in genes responsible for certain neurological diseases.

Central to the synthesis of proteins, the performance of catalysis, and many other physiological processes, the aberrant expression of which can be linked to human diseases including cancers, RNA has proven to be key target for therapeutics as well as a tool for therapy.

Nervous system development evolves from the well-orchestrated processes of neural induction, cell proliferation, differentiation, cell migration, survival, and synapse formation.