Mapping DNase-I hypersensitive sites (HS) was used in the past to identify regulatory elements of specific genes. More recently, thousands of HS were identified in the human genome by using high-throughput methods. These approaches showed a general enrichment of HS near or within known genes, within CpG islands, within human-mouse conserved regions and in GC-rich regions of the genome. Here we ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage among a cohort of pilgrims during 2004 Hajj season. METHODS Pilgrims attending the 2004 Hajj season were recruited and screened for carriage of MRSA. Standard microbiological techniques were used to screen for the presence of MRSA. RESULTS Out of 411 individuals screened, 85 (20.6%) were posi...

Capturing microbial growth on a macroscopic scale is of great importance to further our understanding of microbial life. However, methods for imaging microbial life on a scale of millimeters to centimeters are often limited by designs that have poor environmental control, resulting in dehydration of the agar plate within just a few days. Here, we created MOCHA (microbial chamber), a simple but ...