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123 posts · 160,543 views
Blog of Promega Corporation designed to engage scientists in conversations about scientific research and issues that affect scientists.
Promega Corporation
18 posts
Kelly Grooms
12 posts
Terri Sundquist
15 posts
Caroline Sober
8 posts
Sara Klink
27 posts
Isobel Maciver
5 posts
Kari Kenefick
11 posts
Michele Arduengo
0 posts
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- October 3, 2012
- 09:36 AM
- 867 views
The Healing Power of Yogurt
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
There has been much made of probiotics regulating digestive health in the news and repeatedly hawked by people sharing the benefits of yogurt with special bacteria that will change your life. I was advised by my mother that when I was taking antibiotics, eating yogurt would help counteract some of the negative consequences of oral [...]... Read more »
Uchida Masayuki, Shimizu Kimiko, & Kurakazu Keiko. (2010) Yogurt Containing Lactobacillus gasseri OLL 2716 (LG21 yogurt) Accelerated the Healing of Acetic Acid-Induced Gastric Ulcer in Rats. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 74(9), 1894. DOI: 10.1271/bbb.100287
- September 26, 2012
- 10:17 AM
- 975 views
It’s a Jungle in There: ENCODE and the Redefinition of the Gene
by Isobel Maciver in Promega Connections
September 5th saw the simultaneous publication of more than 30 papers in Nature, Genome Research and Genome Biology detailing the findings of the ENCODE project (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements)—an international collaborative research effort involving the work of more than 400 scientists in 32 groups over the last eight years. Building on the work of the [...]... Read more »
ENCODE Project Consortium, Bernstein BE, Birney E, Dunham I, Green ED, Gunter C, & Snyder M. (2012) An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome. Nature, 489(7414), 57-74. PMID: 22955616
Gerstein MB, Bruce C, Rozowsky JS, Zheng D, Du J, Korbel JO, Emanuelsson O, Zhang ZD, Weissman S, & Snyder M. (2007) What is a gene, post-ENCODE? History and updated definition. Genome research, 17(6), 669-81. PMID: 17567988
- September 14, 2012
- 09:39 AM
- 906 views
Don’t Wear Your Retro Polyester Pantsuit into the Ecuadorian Rainforest (or a new player in the bioremediation of plastics)
by Promega Corporation in Promega Connections
Plastics are really cool. They keep you from having slippery glass shampoo bottles in the shower that can drop and break. They have allowed us to get rid of glass thermoses from student’s lunches. They are lightweight, making shipping and packaging of goods cheaper and lighter, and often, safer. The plastics industry, according to the [...]... Read more »
Russell J. R., Huang J., Anand P., Kucera K., Sandoval A. G., Dantzler K. W., Hickman D., Jee J., Kimovec F. M., & Koppstein D. (2011) Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 77(17), 6084. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00521-11
- August 27, 2012
- 09:59 AM
- 953 views
Molecular Connections Between Sleep Deprivation and Inflammation
by Isobel Maciver in Promega Connections
Anyone who has travelled across time zones knows how unpleasant it is when the regular rhythm of your biological clock is disrupted. Jetlag results when the body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm is out of sync with external cues for “day and “night”, resulting in insomnia, extreme tiredness, difficulty concentrating and various other unpleasant symptoms. [...]... Read more »
Narasimamurthy R, Hatori M, Nayak SK, Liu F, Panda S, & Verma IM. (2012) Circadian clock protein cryptochrome regulates the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(31), 12662-7. PMID: 22778400
- August 20, 2012
- 08:52 AM
- 832 views
The Redhead’s Natural Defense Against Melanoma
by Terri Sundquist in Promega Connections
It seems fitting that, as I write this blog entry, I am soaking up a bit of sun on a dock on a small northern Wisconsin lake. I’ve deployed many of my normal defenses against the sun’s harmful rays, including a big floppy hat and plenty of sunscreen. Recently, I learned that, as a redhead, [...]... Read more »
Davies, J.R. et al. (2012) Inherited variants in the MC1R gene and survival from cutaneous melanoma: A BiogenoMEL study. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res., 384-394. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-148X.2012.00982.x
- August 10, 2012
- 10:57 AM
- 1,090 views
Protein Profiling of a Lung Infection in a 500-Year-Old Mummy
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
I am fascinated by all the ways that scientists are taking sensitive techniques and using them to look into our past. For example, scientists constructed the entire genome of Yersinia pestis, the caustive agent of the Black Death, from teeth and bone samples of plague victims from the 14th century. Without methods like polymerase chain [...]... Read more »
Corthals A, Koller A, Martin DW, Rieger R, Chen EI, Bernaski M, Recagno G, & Dávalos LM. (2012) Detecting the immune system response of a 500 year-old inca mummy. PloS one, 7(7). PMID: 22848450
- August 8, 2012
- 08:55 AM
- 890 views
Hypomethylation in the Hippocampus: Can Age-Related Cognitive Decline in Mice Be Reversed by the Activity of One Gene?
by Promega Corporation in Promega Connections
Buried in the middle of the August issue of Nature Neuroscience is an article (1) by Oliveira, Hemstedt and Bading that caught my eye. It isn’t often that I see a paper about gene rescue in a neuroscience journal, especially in a study about cognitive decline. I looked for a News and Views summary of [...]... Read more »
Oliveira Ana M M, Hemstedt Thekla J, & Bading Hilmar. (2012) Rescue of aging-associated decline in Dnmt3a2 expression restores cognitive abilities. Nature Neuroscience, 15(8), 1113. DOI: 10.1038/nn.3151
- July 13, 2012
- 10:08 AM
- 971 views
Curcumin Moderates the Health Effects of Diesel Exhaust
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
The majority of the ground transporation in the United States runs on diesel fuel. It powers most of the fleet of large vehicles that travel around Wisconsin and across country moving products and people. My family uses diesel fuel in all the large tractors that plant and harvest the 1,200+ acres of crops on the [...]... Read more »
Nemmar A, Subramaniyan D, & Ali BH. (2012) Protective effect of curcumin on pulmonary and cardiovascular effects induced by repeated exposure to diesel exhaust particles in mice. PloS one, 7(6). PMID: 22745783
- June 13, 2012
- 09:53 AM
- 1,016 views
Methylation of Your Genome Decreases as You Age
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
If asked what are the differences between a grandfather and his newborn granddaughter, I would reply with the obvious ones: size (the grandfather is larger than his granddaughter), condition of the skin (babies have soft, smooth skin and elders have age spots and wrinkles) and life expectancy. Other visual cues may seem more similar than [...]... Read more »
Heyn H, Li N, Ferreira HJ, Moran S, Pisano DG, Gomez A, Diez J, Sanchez-Mut JV, Setien F, Carmona FJ.... (2012) Distinct DNA methylomes of newborns and centenarians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 22689993
- June 4, 2012
- 11:54 AM
- 932 views
Awwww, Ain’t That Sweet?
by Amy Hendricksen in Promega Connections
There are many things that I love about summer…being out on the water, puttering around in my garden, and local festivals top the list. But the best, the absolute best, is the produce. I could (and have!) spent hours at the farmer’s market, admiring the myriad of colors and varietals laid out under crisp white [...]... Read more »
Tieman, D., Bliss, P., McIntyre, L., Blandon-Ubeda, A., Bies, D., Odabasi, A., Rodríguez, G., van der Knaap, E., Taylor, M., Goulet, C.... (2012) The Chemical Interactions Underlying Tomato Flavor Preferences. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.04.016
- May 30, 2012
- 03:31 PM
- 1,035 views
The Fat You Wish You Had
by Kari Kenefick in Promega Connections
Brown fat, white fat…isn’t all adipose tissue the same? Previously thought of as the domain of infants and hibernating bears, brown adipose tissue has been identified in the adult human body as well. Two papers that appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2009 reported that adult humans have brown fat, found in small [...]... Read more »
Boström P, Wu J, Jedrychowski MP, Korde A, Ye L, Lo JC, Rasbach KA, Boström EA, Choi JH, Long JZ.... (2012) A PGC1-α-dependent myokine that drives brown-fat-like development of white fat and thermogenesis. Nature, 481(7382), 463-8. PMID: 22237023
- May 25, 2012
- 10:19 AM
- 824 views
Forgot Something? Maybe Your Diet, not Your Age, is to Blame
by Terri Sundquist in Promega Connections
Have trouble finding your car keys this morning because you forgot where you left them? Or maybe you can’t remember the name of the new person who just joined the department down the hall? Before you blame age for your faulty memory, take a look at your diet. New research suggests that low levels of [...]... Read more »
Agrawal R, & Gomez-Pinilla F. (2012) 'Metabolic syndrome' in the brain: deficiency in omega-3 fatty acid exacerbates dysfunctions in insulin receptor signalling and cognition. The Journal of physiology, 590(Pt 10), 2485-99. PMID: 22473784
- May 16, 2012
- 11:09 AM
- 967 views
Autophagy: The Intersection of Vitamin D, HIV and Tuberculosis
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
With the warmer season in full swing in Wisconsin, the grass needs mowing and the weeds need pulling. As a consequence, I am outside in the sun, synthesizing Vitamin D (and watching my freckles multiply). The benefits of this vitamin have been discussed in the news (e.g., may help prevent cancer, maintains a healthy working [...]... Read more »
Campbell, G., & Spector, S. (2012) Vitamin D Inhibits Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in Macrophages through the Induction of Autophagy. PLoS Pathogens, 8(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002689
- April 18, 2012
- 10:53 AM
- 1,261 views
Tracking the Progression of Plague Using Bioluminescence
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
Sequencing Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that caused the Black Plague in Europe during 1348–50, is an amazing accomplishment. Y. pestis infection still occurs sporatically and causes fatalities despite the Age of Antibiotics. Even with animal models, there are questions remaining about the progression of infection. Nham et al. used in vivo imaging to examine the [...]... Read more »
Nham T, Filali S, Danne C, Derbise A, & Carniel E. (2012) Imaging of Bubonic Plague Dynamics by In Vivo Tracking of Bioluminescent Yersinia pestis. PLoS ONE, 7(4). PMID: 22496846
- March 26, 2012
- 10:15 AM
- 1,275 views
Making Antibiotics More Effective Against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
The Age of Antibiotics may prove to be our downfall as more and more microbes find a way around the compounds we use to treat bacterial infections. A potential antibiotic is no more tested, synthesized, clinically tested and approved than a bacterial strain finds a way to circumvent its action and shares this solution with [...]... Read more »
Worthington, R.,, Bunders, C.,, Reed, C., & Melander, C. (2012) Small Molecule Suppression of Carbapenem Resistance in NDM-1 Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae . ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/ml200290p
- March 9, 2012
- 12:29 PM
- 1,123 views
A Food for Happiness? Go Fish
by Kari Kenefick in Promega Connections
We’ve heard that omega-3 fatty acids, such as those from various fish sources, have important anti-inflammatory, as well as cardiac health benefits. In fact, WebMD has an Omega-3 Fatty Acid Fact Sheet with so much positive health information that you may add “Buy wild-caught salmon” to your list of things to do on the way home [...]... Read more »
Lafourcade M, Larrieu T, Mato S, Duffaud A, Sepers M, Matias I, De Smedt-Peyrusse V, Labrousse VF, Bretillon L, Matute C.... (2011) Nutritional omega-3 deficiency abolishes endocannabinoid-mediated neuronal functions. Nature neuroscience, 14(3), 345-50. PMID: 21278728
- March 7, 2012
- 09:11 AM
- 1,236 views
The Daughters of King Tutankhamun
by Terri Sundquist in Promega Connections
The pharaoh Tutankhamun ruled ancient Egypt during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom (circa 1550–1295 BC), one of the most powerful royal houses in ancient Egypt. Although he sat on the throne for only 9 years and died at the young age of 19, he is one of the most well known pharaohs, due [...]... Read more »
Hawass, Z. and Saleem, S.N. (2011) Mummified daughters of King Tutankhamun: Archaeologic and CT studies. . Am. J. Roentgenol. . info:/22021529
- March 2, 2012
- 10:21 AM
- 1,243 views
Could the Next Chemotherapy be Derived from a Weed?
by Sara Klink in Promega Connections
As much as I may complain about weeds, one that I enjoy (in moderation and not among my vegetables) is dandelions. The bright yellow flowers herald spring, and the seed puffballs, while not as visually interesting, offer entertainment as I watch birds landing on the shaft, bending it and eating the seeds. When I am [...]... Read more »
Ovadje, P., Hamm, C., & Pandey, S. (2012) Efficient Induction of Extrinsic Cell Death by Dandelion Root Extract in Human Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML) Cells. PLoS ONE, 7(2). PMID: 22363452
- February 24, 2012
- 12:32 PM
- 1,184 views
“Baby, you have the dreamiest antibodies…”
by Caroline Sober in Promega Connections
There’s likely a percentage of the readers of this blog who, if presented with a photo montage of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Daniel Craig, Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling and other celebrity heartthrobs, might have to take a moment (or several) just to sit back, breathe deeply and appreciate the view. And who could [...]... Read more »
Rantala, M., Moore, F., Skrinda, I., Krama, T., Kivleniece, I., Kecko, S., & Krams, I. (2012) Evidence for the stress-linked immunocompetence handicap hypothesis in humans. Nature Communications, 694. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1696
- February 21, 2012
- 08:19 AM
- 1,109 views
Of Lysosomes, Glucocorticoids and Inflammation
by Promega Corporation in Promega Connections
Review of peer-reviewed paper on glucocorticoid signaling published in Science Signaling... Read more »
He Y, Xu Y, Zhang C, Gao X, Dykema KJ, Martin KR, Ke J, Hudson EA, Khoo SK, Resau JH.... (2011) Identification of a lysosomal pathway that modulates glucocorticoid signaling and the inflammatory response. Science signaling, 4(180). PMID: 21730326
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