Serum creatinine concentration is an important clinical measure of kidney function. However, standard methods detection, such as the Jaffe method or enzymatic assays, suffer several disadvantages, including non-specificity and procedural complexity, high cost, respectively. In this work, we propose use nano-molecularly imprinted polymers (nMIPs) in conjunction with novel Heat Transfer Method (H...

Mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) are convenient sources for biochemical studies when cell number in mouse embryos is limiting. To derive the imprinting signature of MEFs and potentially detect novel imprinted genes we performed strand- and allele-specific RNA deep sequencing. We used sequenom allelotyping in embryo and adult organs to verify parental allele-specific expression. Thirty-two known ...

For imitating the active site of antioxidant selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase (GPx), an artificial enzyme selenosubtilisin was employed as a scaffold for reconstructing substrate glutathione (GSH) specific binding sites by a bioimprinting strategy. GSH was first covalently linked to selenosubtilisin to form a covalent complex GSH-selenosubtilisin through a Se-S bond, then the GSH molecule wa...

A glass slide covered with bacteria is pressed into another glass slide coated with partially cured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The PDMS is hardened and the cells are removed to create a textured surface whose indentations preferentially capture the same type of bacteria when a mixture of bacteria is flowed over it. Overcoating the cell-imprinted PDMS with methylsilane groups causes the result...

Femtosecond laser-induced backward transfer of transparent photopolymers is demonstrated in the solid state, assisted by a digital micromirror spatial light modulator for producing shaped deposits. Through use of an absorbing silicon carrier substrate, we have been able to successfully transfer solid-phase material, with lateral dimensions as small as ~6 μm. In addition, a carrier of silicon in...

We developed a hybrid nanoimprint-soft lithography technique with sub-15 nm resolution. It is capable of patterning both flat and curved substrates. The key component of the technology is the mold, which consists of rigid features on an elastic poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) support. The mold was fabricated by imprinting a reverse image onto the PDMS substrate using a UV-curable low-viscosity pr...

The mouse Kcnq1 imprinted domain is located on distal chromosome 7 and contains several imprinted genes that are paternally repressed. Repression of these genes is regulated by a non-coding antisense transcript, Kcnq1ot1, which is paternally expressed. Maternal repression of Kcnq1ot1 is controlled by DNA methylation originating in the oocyte. Some genes in the region are imprinted only in the p...

In female mammals, one of two X chromosomes is epigenetically inactivated for gene dosage compensation, known as X inactivation (Xi). Inactivation occurs randomly in either the paternal or maternal X chromosome in all embryonic cell lineages, designated as random Xi. By contrast, in extra-embryonic cell lineages, which are segregated from somatic cell lineages in pre-implantation development, t...

Some human embryonic stem cell lines have shown genomic instabilities over long-term culture. To study the controversial origin of the SCNT-hES-1 line, which was derived from autologous somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), we compared the expression and methylation patterns of imprinted genes in the SCNT-hES-1 cells with the donor's somatic cells by semi-quantitative RT-PCR, real-time PCR and ...