The smoking gun of gene transfer

The smoking gun of eugenics

0231 - Gene Gun-mediated Gene Transfer to Intervertebral Disc Cells

INTRODUCTION: Gene therapy using retroviral and, more recently, adenoviral vectors is gaining interest in orthopedics. Particle-mediated gene transfer with a gene gun is a novel non-viral alternative that carries great promise [1]. The basic principle of particle-mediated gene transfer is to use high velocity DNA-coated gold particles that are accelerated by high pressure helium gas to penetrat...

Gravity’s Smoking Gun?

We present a new constraint on the biased galaxy formation picture. Gravitational instability theory predicts that the two-point mass density correlation function, ξ(r), has an inflection point at the separation r = ro, corresponding to the boundary between the linear and nonlinear regime of clustering, ξ ≃ 1. We show how this feature can be used to constrain the biasing parameter, b ≡ ξg(r)/ξ(...

Transfection of adipocytes by gene gun-mediated transfer.

Studies of the gene expression, metabolism and intracellular signaling of adipocytes have been hindered by the difficulty of transfecting cultured adipocytes using standard methods. Here, we demonstrate the utility of gene gun-mediated genetic transfer for transfection of differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Transfection of adipocytes with the Helios Gene Gun yielded a transfection efficiency that...

Editorial: Aluminum – Alzheimer's Smoking Gun?

It is becoming apparent that with an aging population comes an increase in the incidence of mental impairment. In death certificates of people over 75 years of age, the number listed as having dementia has increased by a factor of 20 in the last 15 years (Forbes, Lessard, & Gentleman, 1995, appearing in the present issue). Most of this increase is probably the result of heightened diagnostic se...