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Widening the Proteolysis Bottleneck: A New Protein Sample Preparation Tool

Posted on by Kari Kenefick
The poster featured in this blog provides background information and data on development of Rapid Digestion-Trypsin.
The poster featured in this blog provides background information and data on the development of Rapid Digestion-Trypsin.

Improvements in Protein Bioprocessing

As more and more protein-based therapeutics enter research pipelines, more efficient protocols are needed. In particular, we need better protocols for the characterization of protein structure and function, as well as means of quantitation. One main step in this pipeline, proteolysis of these proteins into peptides, presents a bottleneck and can require optimization of multiple steps including reduction, alkylation and digestion time.

We have developed a new trypsin reagent, Rapid Digestion–Trypsin, that streamlines the protein sample preparation process. This new development significantly reduces the time to achieve proteolysis to about 1 hour, a remarkable improvement over existing overnight sample preparation times.

How Does it Work?

With this new trypsin product, proteolysis is performed at 70°C, incorporating both denaturation and rapid digestion. The protocol can be used with multiple protein types, including pure proteins and complex mixtures, and is compatible with digestion under native, reduced or nonreduced conditions.

Continue reading “Widening the Proteolysis Bottleneck: A New Protein Sample Preparation Tool”

Restoring Memory in Alzheimer’s Mice with Microbubbles and Ultrasound

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
Neurons with amyloid plaques.
Neurons with amyloid plaques.

Imagine driving in your car and suddenly not recognizing where you were going and having no idea how to find your way home. What if you looked across the breakfast table at your spouse and no longer recognized them?  Or maybe you have to brace yourself every time you visit your parent, waiting for the day when they won’t know who you are. This is the reality for the estimated 50 million (worldwide) Alzheimer’s disease sufferers and their families.

In a world with an aging population, Alzheimer’s is a growing problem. Recent estimates suggest that 11% of people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease. For people 85 and older, that number increases to 32% (1).

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating degenerative brain disease. It is the most common cause of dementia and is characterized by a decline in cognitive skills such as memory, language skills, communication and problem-solving abilities. These symptoms make it difficult for people with Alzheimer’s to perform everyday activities. It also is difficult to diagnose, even more, difficult to treat, and, as of now, impossible to cure.

Continue reading “Restoring Memory in Alzheimer’s Mice with Microbubbles and Ultrasound”

On the Road with the Biotechnology Field Trips Program

Posted on by Promega
BFT-a

The On the Road (OTR) BTC Institute Biotechnology Field Trips (BFT) program is rolling right along!  We are doing our best to brave the winter weather to take hands-on science activities all over the state of Wisconsin.

The BTC Institute BFT program served over 3,400 students last year, most of them here at the BTC in Fitchburg.  That said, each year the OTR part of the program is growing in order to serve schools that cannot travel here for various reasons, such as distance, bus costs and the need to minimize out-of-school time.

Continue reading “On the Road with the Biotechnology Field Trips Program”

Gut Microbes and Hypertension: Demonstrating a Causal Link

Posted on by Kari Kenefick

Most of us are aware that the human body is covered by and full of microorganisms. And we understand that most of these microorganisms are helpful, both in terms of competition with and protection against invading microorganisms, and in the gut, as agents of digestion.

Bacillus subtilis, an example of Firmicutes, and not a good gut microbe. By Y tambe (original uploader) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49528
Bacillus subtilis, an example of Firmicutes, and not a good gut microbe. By Y tambe (original uploader) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49528

In the past decade, however, research has brought compelling details implicating gut microbes in obesity, cancer, insulin resistance and such central nervous system disorders as depression, austism spectrum disorder and multiple sclerosis (Adnan, S. et al.). Yet the mechanisms and details of these associations have not been fully demonstrated.

Gut microbes have been proven to be connected to thickening of heart vasculature, known as atherosclerosis. Researchers have demonstrated that bacteria metabolize choline and L-carnitine from food to trimethylamine, which crosses the gut barrier into circulation and reaches the liver. In the liver, trimethylamine is metabolized to the atherogenic molecule triethylamine-N-oxide (Gregory, J.C. et al., Brown and Hazen). These studies are among the few that provide a direct connection between gut microbes and a pathological condition.

Continue reading “Gut Microbes and Hypertension: Demonstrating a Causal Link”

Writing Scientific Papers: Is There More To This Story?

Posted on by Nicole Sandler
science & storytelling

The tactic of “telling a good story” is nothing new within the business of selling, marketing and even educating about science. The word itself, “storytelling,” achieved buzzword status a few years ago in the corporate world, so it’s no surprise that it now touches industry scientists.  But the importance of telling a good story within the realm of peer-reviewed scientific papers?  That is something new, and it may impact how scientists write up their results from this point forward.

In a provocative scientific study published in PLOS ONE in December 2016, researchers from the University of Washington showed that “Narrative Style Influences Citation Frequency in Climate Change Science.” Perhaps the results they report are unique to climate change science—an area of science especially susceptible to public perception. But then again, perhaps not. This paper may be worth considering no matter what field of science you call your own.

The authors—Ann Hillier, Ryan Kelly, and Terrie Klinger—used metrics to test their hypothesis that a more narrative style of writing in climate change research papers is more likely to be influential, and they used citation frequency as their measure of influence. A sample of 732 abstracts culled from the climate change literature and published between 2009 and 2010 was analyzed for specific writing parameters. The authors concluded that writing in a more narrative style increases the uptake and influence of articles in this field of science and perhaps in scientific literature across the board.

Continue reading “Writing Scientific Papers: Is There More To This Story?”

Travelogue Galapagos Part II: An Incredible Experience in Paradise

Posted on by Promega

In 2014, Promega created a special incentive to reward field science consultants who help the scientific community take advantage of our on-site stocking program. The winners had to meet ambitious criteria to receive 2 round-trip tickets to anywhere in the world, a week of paid vacation and spending money. Our four winners will share photos and stories about their journeys on the Promega Connections Blog.

Today’s travelogue is Part II of the adventures of Amy Parman, a regional sales manager, who used her award to travel to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

Day 7: Urbina Bay, Isabela Island & Punta Mangle, Fernandina Island – Today was another early morning wake up, this time to the soothing strains of Journey. We had a quick breakfast and jumped in the dinghy for an exploratory ride. We passed a tree full of so many pelicans covering the branches that they looked as though they could be fruit, ripe for the picking. Our dinghy slowly passed many more sea turtles, golden cownose rays, small eagle rays, marine iguanas and Sally Lightfoot crabs (stunningly red against the black lava).

We also came across several sea lions sleeping away the morning in a comfy mangrove branch bed. More striated herons were perched in the mangroves hunting fish below and three playful sea lion pups swam right up to our feet dangling over the dinghy as if to say, “jump out and play with us.” Bayron said they are likely around ten months old and their mother has left them in the protected bay while she goes out to fish.

32178451-dec-12-part-two-image-2-600x400-web
Sea lion pup in Urbina Bay, Isabela Island.

After the ride, we had a chance to snorkel for a couple of hours and did, in fact, swim right along with a very fast and playful sea lion. The sea lions were pretty big, and seemed even more so when we were in the water with them. It was quite the experience to have him dart all around us while we swam. Marine iguanas were also swimming with us and clinging to the lava eating seaweed off the rocks about eight feet deep. There were loads of fish all around and by now we’ve had a few shark sightings among the group. Interestingly, the shark species around the Galapagos, while numerous, do not regard humans as a food source. It has become a tour goal to find as many as we can and, while a challenge, we do catch glimpses of the hammerheads and reef sharks that are never too far away. Continue reading “Travelogue Galapagos Part II: An Incredible Experience in Paradise”

A Big Protective Step Forward for A Rare Bee

Posted on by Sara Klink
A rusty-patched bumblebee on Culver’s root in the UW–Madison Arboretum. Photo Copyright: SUSAN DAY/UW-MADISON ARBORETUM
A rusty-patched bumblebee on Culver’s root in the UW–Madison Arboretum. Photo Copyright: SUSAN DAY/UW-MADISON ARBORETUM

Bees have been in the news many times over the past several years. Much of the concern has been focused on the collapse of honey bee colonies because these bees collect nectar to create honey and can be transported for use as pollinators for farmers. Alongside the plight of the honey bee are the declines in the population of native bees in the United States. These bees include insects like the big, fuzzy bumble bees, tiny, iridescent green sweat bees and dark blue mason bees. The native bees live in different conditions. They may be solitary, have a small colony or even nest close together in a communal arrangement, but never in the numbers likely to be seen for a honey bee colony. These lower-density populations can make seeing a change in native bee numbers more difficult. While honey bees have gained the majority of bee decline attention, native bees have suffered dramatic population loss with long-term consequences for the plants they pollinate and the animals that depend upon those plants.

On January 11, 2017, in a landmark decision by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the one of the rarest native bees called the rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) has been listed as threatened, and this designation will go into effect February 10, 2017. This is the first bee in the U.S. that has been placed on the Endangered Species list. The rusty-patched bumble bee derived its name from the rust-colored patch found on its back.

Continue reading “A Big Protective Step Forward for A Rare Bee”

More Than Just a Belt—The Benefits of Practicing Martial Arts

Posted on by Kelly Grooms

Two years ago my, then ten-year-old, daughter and I started a journey together. We joined a local dojo (karate school). At the time my daughter was still looking for ‘her’ activity, and after trying both girl scouts and 4H as well as several intramural sports, I reached back into her early childhood when she had enjoyed participating in karate classes as a three and four year old. I was hoping to find an activity that we could share (much as her brother and father share camping and outings with Boy Scouts) that we would both find challenging and enjoyable—and maybe part of me had secretly always wanted to be a ninja.

A number of friends, family and even acquaintances have expressed surprise that this was the activity that my daughter and I settled on, or more specifically, that I was taking up karate as an adult. We tend to associate karate with classes of kids in white gis, or with high-intensity, high-level competitive martial artists, which we typically think of as male. But this is not a “kid only” or “male only” sport. According to the New York City-based research firm, Simmons Market Research, over 18.1 million Americans participated in karate or some other form of martial art at least once, and roughly 9.4 million were adults. The study also found that gender is pretty evenly split between men (52%) and women (48%). Karate is popular globally, with an estimated 50 to 100 million practitioners worldwide (Japan web and World Karate Federation, respectively), and was one of five new sports added to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

karate girl in mirrorMartial Arts Improves Physical and Cognitive Performance in Youth

It is easy to find the reasons why people enroll their children in martial arts training. Participation in karate has been shown to improve physical performance in children and young adults as measured by such things as better coordination, reaction speed time, explosive leg strength and muscle endurance (1, 2). At the same time, children participating in karate also score better than their peers on executive functions, working memory and visual selective attention (1). Karate has also shown promise in helping with behavior issues by improving self-regulation and executive function (3).

When you look at the literature, though, it is clear that the benefits of martial arts such as karate are not limited to children and teens. Continue reading “More Than Just a Belt—The Benefits of Practicing Martial Arts”

Did Dinosaurs Take Too Long to Hatch?

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

A different approach to dinosaur embryology has revealed another layer to our understanding of the demise of dinosaurs and rise of mammals as a result of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event. In a 2017 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper, a group of researchers led by Gregory Erickson hypothesized that dinosaur eggs may have growth lines present on embryonic teeth that could be used to determine incubation times.

dinosaur-embryo

Not much is understood about dinosaur embryology, aside from what is known about birds. This is in part because fossils of dinosaur eggs, especially those containing embryonic skeletons, are among the rarest in the world. Despite this difficulty, using these fossils to refine estimated incubation times of dinosaur embryos can shed light on their development, life history and evolution.

Historically, paleontologists have assumed that dinosaur incubation periods were rapid based on their extant counterparts, birds. Considered living dinosaurs, birds are a logical surrogate from which to extrapolate dinosaur incubation times. It is important to note that embryonic incubation in birds is different from other living relatives of dinosaurs, modern reptiles. While reptile embryos develop slowly, birds differ by laying fewer, larger eggs with rapid incubation.

Continue reading “Did Dinosaurs Take Too Long to Hatch?”

Travelogue Galapagos Part I: Realizing a Lifelong Dream

Posted on by Promega

In 2014, Promega created a special incentive to reward field science consultants who help the scientific community take advantage of our on-site stocking program. The winners had to meet ambitious criteria to receive 2 round-trip tickets to anywhere in the world, a week of paid vacation and spending money. Our four winners will share photos and stories about their journeys on the Promega Connections Blog.

Today’s travelogue is Part I of the adventures of Amy Parman, a regional sales manager, who used her award to travel to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.32178451-dec-12-image-1-600x400-web

Day 1: Seattle to Miami – Today we tied up a few last minute details, tested the satellite phones, checked that Grandma and Grandpa had all the info and resources they needed for anything that should arise while we were inaccessible (the manual we left was slightly thicker than War and Peace, and way less interesting), loaded up the car, put on the out-of-office alerts, kissed the kiddos good-bye and headed to SeaTac for a red-eye flight to Miami. We’re off!

Day 2: Miami to Guayaquil, Ecuador – Today (Was it day? After a red-eye, who knows?) we arrived in Miami in the very wee hours. We snagged a quick breakfast and a hotel right in the Miami airport which rents rooms for the day, which was our first experience with an hourly hotel—ahem! Our nine hour layover included lunch, mani/pedis and a much needed nap. We boarded our flight to Guayaquil and made full use of some particularly goofy-looking, newly-purchased neck pillows. My husband created a little excitement as we boarded the plane—he couldn’t find his passport as the flight attendant was readying the flight doors for departure. Our local seatmates and two flight attendants helped to find it quickly as it had slipped between the window seat and the floor. Phew! The flight was smooth as a wet seal and we arrived in Guayaquil to find the Hilton shuttle waiting for us. We checked into our room and grabbed some midnight sangria and flautas while we listened to an awesome Ecuadorian jazz band in the hotel bar. This trip is off to a fabulous start! Continue reading “Travelogue Galapagos Part I: Realizing a Lifelong Dream”