Francisella tularensis is a highly virulent facultative intracellular bacterium. The lack of a safe and efficient vaccine makes antibiotics the preferred treatment. F. tularensis antibiotic susceptibility tests are based on the in vitro standard CLSI-approved microdilution method for determining the MIC. However, limited data are available regarding the minimal inhibitory extracellular concentr...

A qPCR array was designed to facilitate forensic serological identification of unknown stains and fluids. In our approach, the flow-through of a DNA purification column is further purified for total RNA. Therefore, the DNA preparation is fully available for forensic DNA analysis whereas the RNA fraction is processed for serological examination by mRNA analysis. The RNA fraction is first subject...

Neurons aremetabolically protected against degeneration using low-level methylene blue and nearinfrared light interventions. Both of these novel interventions act by a cellular mechanism involving enhancement of the electron transport chain in mitochondria, which promotes energy metabolism and neuronal survival (Gonzalez-Lima et al., 2014). Methylene blue preferentially enters neuronal mitochon...

Human enteric viruses are recognized as the main causes of food- and waterborne diseases worldwide. Sensitive and quantitative detection of human enteric viruses is typically achieved through quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR). A nanofluidic real-time PCR system was used to develop novel high-throughput methods for qualitative molecular detection (RT-qPCR array) and quantification of human pathogeni...

Protocol: Reactions were performed as described (2) using 1 ng of DNA and 100 pmoles of each primer. DNA was amplified for 20 cycles using a Perkin Elmer Cetus DNA Thermal Cycler: denaturation, 94°C, 1 min; annealing, 60°C, 1 min; and extension, 70°C, 1.5 min. Ten /il of the reaction was analyzed directly on a 2.5 % NuSieve GTG agarose gel run in Tns-borate buffer. The amplified DNA fragments v...

PURPOSE We aim to fabricate a thermoplastic poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) Lab-on-a-Chip device to perform continuous- flow polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) for rapid molecular detection of foodborne pathogen bacteria. METHODS A miniaturized plastic device was fabricated by utilizing PMMA substrates mediated by poly(dimethylsiloxane) interfacial coating, enabling bonding under mild conditio...

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is produced by Aspergillus flavus growing in feedstuffs. Early detection of maize contamination by aflatoxigenic fungi is advantageous since aflatoxins exert adverse health effects. In this study, we report the development of an optimized conventional PCR for AFB1 detection and a rapid, sensitive and simple screening Real-time PCR (qPCR) with SYBR Green and two pairs of prim...

BACKGROUND Growing amount of scientific evidence suggests that microbes are involved in the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The predominant fecal microbiota composition of IBS subjects has been widely studied with DNA-based techniques but less research has been focused on the intestinal pathogens in this disorder. Here, we optimized a highly sensitive panel of 12 quantitative...

A 44 year old man presented with classical pattern of bipolar disorder with a fortnightly cycle of mania and depression for last many years. The patient was not responding to chronic lithium therapy but responded to a combination of carbamazepine and nifedipine.

In this paper, we predict the aging of the PCR thermocycler by analyzing the heating and cooling rates of the PCR thermocycler. Two kinds of methods were applied to calculate the rise times of the heating and cooling protocol sections that were inversely related to the heating or cooling rates. The temporal changes of the rise times were investigated over several months. For three thermal cycle...