Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Question: Can death (predefined) be induced without damage? Can an otherwise healthy living subject be terminated in the empirically verifiable absence of physical "damage" contributable to the subject’s termination? Barring any limitations of technical proficiency or of equipment in analyzing and identifying the root cause of the subject’s death. Axiom: There exists some absolute minimum number of cells (Qn: n->0) that may be terminated in any complex organism whereby such cells may be scientifically established to be the root and only cause of death of the subject organism with no premortem adverse effects to other cells in the subject. Practical Test: Perf…

I have a somewhat rookie request. Recently I was offered a 2 year research position in a lab funded by the Gates foundation. My work will primarily be with a certain species of algae and working on ways to optimise output of various commercially valuable fatty acids, though there will also be some organic chem work in there somewhere for the pharmaceutical branch of the institute. Most people who have been here long enough will know that my background is in organic chemistry. I have a decent enough understanding of the broader concepts of molecular biology and have some practical experience in genetics labs, though it was limited to RNA extraction, library preps for N…

Hi: I am a PhD student, I am trying to get Whole Human Genome Restriction with Mfl I. My conditions are: 10x L Buffer-------2 µl DNAg ---------------1 microgr Water deionized----up 20 µl Mfl I-----------------1 µl (10u/µl) 37º C--------18 hrs 65º C--------15 minutes But I have not obtained restriction of the genome. For that reason I am consulting you about this. Maybe I am doing something wrong or I need to do something more. I appreciate your advices. Thank you.

Hello everyone, In our lab we have been attempting to cleave FCP1 protein from its GST tag by using TEV protease. So far, several batches of TEV protease have been tried, but we have not gotten a significant amount of FCP1. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions or ideas for alternative methods for cleaving FCP1 from its GST tag that have produced good results. Thanks for any ideas.

Hello all, Does anyone has developed a modofied blastocidin resistance gene modified at BglII site (a silent mutation) at the promoter region of it. I needed this for gene disruption using a technique called REMI.

Hi all Anyone out there know how to isolate total protein from respiratory mucus, namely sinus snot? I have a long method that removes cells (dint want them in there, just mucus protein!), using DTT, followed by an acetone precipitation. Its way labor intensive and uses allot of acetone to work. I want a kit or a nice short method that takes into accout removing cells. Anything??? Cheers GeneMan

It seems as if places that have information on enzymes and proteins tend to only tell you the ribbon structure and not tell you what atoms they are made up of or how those atoms connect to each other. That is what I am truly interested in studying. In particular I am trying to find information on the molecular structures of Tyrosine Hydroxylase and Aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase. Any information would be helpful.

Hello everybody, In my research ,I used the Homeostastic Model Assessment (HOMA) to calculate the Insulin Sensitivity/Resistance and beta cell function.And I used the original equation in calculation , but when I used the computer model (HOMA calculator) I got different results ! for example: for glucose= 75 mg/dl and Insulin= 4.24 microIU/L BY ORIGINAL equation , HOMA beta =16.85 and HOMA IR =0.79 But by HOMA calculator, HOMA beta =92.4 and HOMA IR =0.53 If anyone have an explanation for this ,or used the HOMA in his/her research I will be grateful Best regards

Ik this is kind of extreme. http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/pnnl-18284.pdf Above is a link to the process So it has to go through "pre-treatment" (ground and dried), fast pyrolisis, hydrotreating, and then hydrocracking. Can anyone give me insight into these stages and how one would do them without a factory? I may post updates on new things I find as I'm going to keep researching... I just know helpful people are usually on these forums.

Hello, I am new to this forum, so I am sorry if this sort of posting already exists or if it is posted in the wrong category. I am currently struggling with my Biochemistry homework to get my bachelors in Nursing. I need to locate where in the citric acid cycle a hypothetical defect of an enzyme could occur that would decrease the overall ATP production, including the consequences of the defect. Im also looking to explain the effect of the defect in one of the 8 citric acid enzymes (ie. Citrate, Cis-Aconitate, D-Isocitrate, etc) on ATP generation. If somebody could attempt to help me, explain the kreb's cycle to me, or even appoint me to a place that could efficiently exp…

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140625201934.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_science+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+Science+News%29 "With the continuing need for very small devices in therapeutic applications, there is a growing demand for the development of nanoparticles that can transport and deliver drugs to target cells in the human body." I have been reading several articles about scientists zeroing in on specifically-selected cells to deliver medicines to particular sites, the aim being to treat only the area that needs treating (specific cancer cells) without spreading the medicine…

Hello everyone, I am having a hard time figuring this one out. I know that N-formylmethionine is the "start" amino acid during prokaryotic translation. But WHY does the methionine have to formylated? What is the point of formylating it, only for it to be deformylated, or completely cleaved, later during protein modifications? Thank you so much for reading my post! I greatly appreciate it.

I 'm searching for good scientific information on this topic : "the interaction between human Norovirus and gastrointestinal microbial environment". I don't find enough relevant articles on the free databases on internet. Can someone advise me some good & free databases or send me good articles ? + is there some software to organise articles in order to save all the articles and sites I found and to make it easier to make the acknowledgement when writing a paper? Thanks a lot! (english is not my native english.. but i'm working on it. the articles have to be in english.)

I have to use ATP solution daily and with time there is an increase in Pi in the solution, as observed by Malachite Green Reagent addition. Currently I am making 1 mM solution of ATP in 50 mM Tris HCl buffer pH 8.0 containing 50 mM NaCl and 5 mM MgSO4 and storing at 4 degree.

A person is sitting in a room. Suddenly, an urge develops in him that he should drink tea. It is told that neurons in his brain direct his body to do various actions that enable him to make tea and satisfy his urge. Who/What tells the neurons to give all these instructions?

My concerns is, If DNA gives absorption at 260 nm and protein at 280 nm, then why colorimetric estimation is done for the nucleic acid and protein concentration determination, instead of just taking the OD at the respective lambda max and making the calculations

While surfing the net i chanced upon what could be termed as a revelation of sorts....there exists a hormone oxytocin which defines the bridge between socially acceptable behaviors and those that are anti-social. Psychosis occurs when the person is deprived of this hormone. Gregarious individuals secrete it in abundance. Is this then the key to nip the mind of the potential felon in the bud? Does this hold any promise? Or is the research too inconclusive at this stage? Any pointers?

Hello, I apologize if this post is in the wrong section. Currently, I am doing some research and looking for economically friendly chemicals that will achieve the same outcome as HCl for demineralization and NaOH for deproteinization. Using the aforementioned chemicals for the process is an old art, and is unfortunately quite hazardous. I thought about using, perhaps, an organic acid such as acetic acid, but thought this may be too "weak" to achieve proper demineralization. Any thoughts, ideas? Thanks.

Hello everyone, I just started as a research intern at a lab (at the undergraduate level), and I am reviewing a protocol I will be implementing, and I was just wondering what the term "batch bind" means. Does it have to do with allowing one substance to bind to another in a "batch" at a specified temperature? Thanks for your help, Robert

Do healthy organs , have any sediment of electrolytes on the outer membrane when the person is still alive? and reworded - Question - can organs have a potassium build up on the surface, or calcium build up or any of the electrolyte substances build up on that organ?

Although I'm still learning about synthetic biology and biohacking, I heard a few things about how DNA and cells are being programmed on computers in labs. Obviously, the typical computer user doesn't have an USB device they can plug in, script, and have a tiny form of life pop out when they press Enter... despite hearing that something similar is supposedly possible to some extent. Still, that doesn't mean there aren't interesting things programs alone can do in this domain. So I was wondering what exists in regard to PC software. Are there any applications available for computers, that can be used to program cells or code your own DNA sequences? Even if just for pre…

Hi there, I am in a genetics lab and do not have much experience in biochemistry and please excuse my naive question. I am planning to look at if my protein A is stabilized by another protein B in cell culture system. So I am going to do a pulse-chase experiment to compare the turn-over rate of protein A in the presence and absence of protein B. I will transfect cells with either A or A+B, radioactively label them, replace the radioactive media and them harvest the cell at different time points after media replacement. Cell lysates will be immunoprecipitated with anti-A antibody. Then the half-life of protein A will be monitored by SDS-PAGE. So my question is: if my…

hello everyone, I would like to quantify my favorite protein from plant among different samples and the best strategy for me is to go to western blotting. Unfortunately, no antibody is now avaibable neither commercially nor in a home-made to target this protein. However, a company offered me the possibility to use an antiserum they produced in rabbit against my favorite protein. I will first check with the unpurified serum its specifity (I have some under- and overexpressing lines that I can use as control) but in the worse case (and the most probable), this serum will not be specific enough. My idea is then to purify the antibodies targetting my protein epitopes. T…

Today I happened to hear in a bit more detail about synthetic biology and biohacking. It sounds like a fascinating domain, and I already have a lot of questions to wonder about. One of them, which wasn't specified directly in the documentaries and articles I saw, is what are the greatest achievements of this new technology... in terms of modifying or creating new forms of life? What are the most complex living being created / altered by scientists at this day? Were any entineered species created to any extent? Could any animals be given improvements that evolution didn't offer them, for example? Or can the technology be used to improve a human body beyond what one can hav…

Quite some time ago, I saw a documentary about understanding the brain and its nervous system. At one point it spoke about the struggle of scientists to understand the connections between the millions of nerves located in the brain. They said tracking and pathing them is a difficult task, hence why it's taking long for science to understand how the brain actually works. But it also said something else: That one scientist came up with the idea to turn the process into an online game of sorts. There was supposedly a website anyone could access, where they would be presented with images of brain scans. The person's job is to draw lines across what they see as neurons, in…