1/06
- Dr.
Tika Adhikari is an Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology at
North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. Currently, his laboratory
is involved in fungal leaf spot diseases (e. g., Tan spot, and Septoria
complex) of wheat. These diseases can cause significantly yield
losses in wheat in the Northern Great Plains of the United States.
Sources of resistance to these diseases of wheat have been identified
and provided some measure of control. However, little is known about
the molecular and genetic mechanisms of disease resistance in wheat
and pathogenicity in the pathogens. His research projects are mainly
focused on marker-assisted selection breeding for Tan spot and Septoria
diseases of wheat, understanding the genetic structure of these
pathogen populations, and elucidating the mechanisms of resistance
or susceptibility to fungal leaf pathogens in wheat. He was granted
a TBS-380 Fluorometer to quantitate DNA, RNA, and cDNA from plant
and fungi for molecular mapping, population genetics, and gene expression
analysis.
08/05 - Dr.
Rech's research at interests lie in the area of environmental
microbiology and microbial diversity. Currently her laboratory is
involved in two active research projects. The first project focuses
on the isolation of bromination enzymes from bacteria in marine
or high salt environments. Her students have isolated microorganisms
capable of brominating organics from a salt evaporation pond as
well as the slime of a marine invertebrate worm classified as an
acorn worm. Studies involve the identification of the bacteria by
isolating and sequencing their 16SrRNA genes as well as the isolation
and characterization of the bromination enzymes, which include bromoperoxidases.
The second project focuses on the investigation of the microbial
diversity in the soil of salt marshes in the process of natural
restoration as well as the role of the denitrifying organisms in
this process. Currently she is using restriction fragment length
polymorphism (RFLP) to begin to understand the diversity throughout
the growing season. This technique involves the extraction of the
total community DNA from the soil followed by the amplification
of the bacterial 16SrRNA genes. The amplified genes are grouped
into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) using patterns resulting
from restriction digests and representatives are sequenced. Dr.
Rech is examining three marshes in the San Francisco Bay area, which
are in various restoration stages ranging from a mud flat to an
almost completely restored wetland. Both projects require the isolation
and quantification of DNA and protein using a highly sensitive method.
This research will be greatly supported by the grant of a fluorometer
from Turner Biosystems.
07/05 - Martin
Smilkstein, MD, is a researcher in the laboratory of Mike Riscoe,
PhD, at the Portland VA Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. The
primary focus of the Riscoe lab is antimalarial drug discovery,
including ongoing synthesis and testing of numerous novel compounds,
and investigation of novel combinations of existing drugs. Previously,
in vitro testing of antimalarials required the use of radioactive
compounds, but the lab has recently developed and published a simple
and inexpensive fluorescence-based assay. This one-step assay, utilizing
SYBR green I, decreases the cost of drug assays 100-fold and is
far simpler, thus making high-throughput antimalarial drug testing
affordable and practical for the first time.
Unfortunately,
many of the laboratory researchers in nations afflicted with malaria
(e.g., sub-Saharan Africa) lack the resources to obtain a fluorescence
plate reader at current prices. Dr. Smilkstein has done preliminary
work showing that the TBS-380 (a single tube instrument) can serve
as an alternative to a 96-well plate reader in the laboratory setting
using culture-adapted parasites, and plans to investigate whether
the same method will succeed in on-site drug resistance testing
of clinical isolates by the end of 2005. (Pending)
01/05 - Viola
Manning is a Faculty Research Assistant at Oregon State University
in Corvallis, OR. She was granted a TBS-380 Fluorometer that will
help her colleagues to quantitate DNA and RNA from plant and fungi.
Their lab's research is focused on the study of plant-pathogen interaction,
specifically P.tritici-repentis/wheat interaction.
12/04 - Professor
Gyorgy Hegyi is at the Biochemistry Department at Eotvos Lorand
University in Budapest Hungary. He has been granted a TBS-380 Fluorometer
for his studies in proteins and the proteomics of proteases. He
will be measuring enzyme activity with fluorophore substrates and
quantitating DNA and proteins.
12/04 - Professor
Robert Sah at the Bioengineering Department at University of
California in San Diego, was granted a TBS-380 for DNA quantitation
and other applications. It will be used to educate students about
Fluorometry in undergraduate Biotechnology Laboratories. The courses
will be in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Bioreactor Design, and
Tissue Engineering.
11/04 - Jay
Vavra, of High Tech High School in San Diego was granted a TBS-380
Fluorometer. He teaches biotechnology to underrepresented high school
students from urban San Diego. His goal is to promote an interest
in the biological sciences and to support the growing biotech industry
in California. He is also developing project-based learning curricula
for Project Lead the Way with their new course titled "Biotechnical
Engineering." Within these research projects students will
form pharmaceutical companies and use GFP (Aquorea victoria) production
in modified bacteria as a model for understanding drug production
and purification. Other students will be developing new molecular
techniques for innovative science fair projects with the TBS-380.
Currently, High Tech High School is a leader in science fair projects
in the San Diego Science and Engineering Fair.
10/04 - Dr.
Michael Ahrens of Orthocell was granted a TBS-380 Fluorometer
for his research in Degenerative Disc Disease, one of the leading
causes of back pain. To elucidate the role of loading of the spine,
he will compare disc specimens from scoliosis surgery where the
discs in the curve apex have a lateral compression and distraction
zone (inner and outer part of the curve). Orthocell is a small startup
company working in cooperation with the academic Hospital Neustadt
Spine Surgery Department (University Luebeck). He will be using
the TBS-380 to measure DNA and Proteins.
09/04 - Melissa
Micou is a Research Assistant Professor at The Cooper Union
for the Advancement of Science and Art. She was granted a TBS-380
Fluorometer to use in the Biomedical Engineering Department. Cooper
Union is developing a biomedical engineering research program that
promotes basic science research and facilitates the transfer of
this knowledge to industrial biomedical applications. Of particular
interest is the investigation of mechanical interactions of cells
with their extracellular environment in scenarios relevant to tissue
engineering. The TBS-380 will be used to quantify DNA to determine
cellularity of engineered tissues.
08/04 -Professor Vladim
Vasilyev of the Institute for Experimental Medicine at the Russian
Academy of Medical Sciences will be setting up a program of biochemical
screening of high-risk families for Tay-Sachs Syndrome in St. Petersburgh.
The ability to test parents and to do prenatal testing would reduce
the number of children born with this devastating terminal condition.
The next step would be to test adults with degenerative neurological
conditions who do not have a clear diagnosis for the possibility
of late onset Tay-Sachs Syndrome.
05/04 - Professor
Stanley Lin of Wesleyan University was granted a TBS-380 Fluorometer.
He is a visiting Scholar in the Department of Biology and will be
using this instrument to measure neuronal cell death in a transfected
population with EGFP.
04/04 - Professor
Tamara Hendrickson of Johns Hopkins University has been granted
a TBS-380 Fluorometer for detecting and quantifying the GPI transamidase.
Her lab is developing the first soluble assay for the transamidase
that attaches gpi anchors to proteins in yeast. The ultimate aim
is to manipulate this enzyme so that it can be used to generate
new biopolymers.
03/04 - Dr.
Sean Graham is an Assistant Professor at the University of British
Columbia Botanical Garden, Centre for Plant Research, and Department
of Botany. His lab group works on plant systematics and evolution.
They are researching the land-plant portion of the Tree of Life
and applying reliable phylogenies to various evolutionary questions.
They are also working on the characterization of biodiversity in
understudied lineages. All of these studies rely on DNA sequences
as the primary source of phylogenetic data.
02/04 - Dr.
Anton Krumm is in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the
University of Washington. He has been granted a TBS-380 Fluorometer,
which will be used to explore the mechanisms that lead to the deregulation
of oncogene expression. The goal of his research is to understand
the role of chromatin in transcriptional regulation and in the genesis
of neoplastic disease.
01/04 - Professor
David Speckhard at the Loras College Department of Chemistry
was granted a TBS-380 Mini-Fluorometer. He will be using it for
determination of the strength of the binding constant to various
DNA segments and transformation efficiency via GFP production.
10/03 - Dr.
Manuel Aybar of the National University of Tucuman, Department
of Developmental Biology, in Argentina was awarded a TBS-380 Mini-Fluorometer.
He will be measuring RNA and DNA that will be microinjected into
living embryos. He is researching the participation of different
genes in the establishment and differentiation of neural crest lineages
in Xenopus laevis.
09/03 - Dr.
Peter Zalewski of the University of Adelaide in Australia has
been granted a TBS-380 Mini-Fluorometer for his research in imaging
zinc in cells and tissues of asthmatics in Australia, Indonesia
and Vietnam.
07/03 - Dr.
Rajendra Kumar of the Bayor College of Medicine received a TBS-380
Mini-Fluorometer for this work with Green Fluorescent Proteins and
DNA replication and repair.
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