Creative Bios

  A precise diagnosis has been taken as one of the initial conditions for efficiently treating cancer, for which a technique called biopsy that used to remove a piece of solid tissue or a sample of cells for laboratory testing. Though traditional tumor biopsies can informatively identify diseases when   patients are experiencing certain signs and symptoms in an area of concern, they are not satisfying enough due to their  invasive nature, which could pose the risk of bleeding and infection to patients . Alternatively, the recent fluid biopsy technique combined with microfluidics can detect disease through blood or other body fluids rather than solid tissue, which increasingly receives attention in terms of its non-invasiveness and simplicity.   DNA Fragments for Cancer Diagnosis   The primary target of a liquid biopsy in cancer diagnosis is molecular markers known as cell-free DNA (cfDNA). cfDNA includes all non-encapsulated DNA, and these nucleic acid fragments...

  A buildup of fat in the liver could  cause an aggressive type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which is   a  condition with liver inflammation and damage. M ost of the time, it causes no symptoms and no problems, while in some worse cases, the fat causes inflammation and damages liver cells, affecting the normal function of the liver or even leading  to cirrhosis. Though the second leading indication for liver transplantation in the United States, NASH has no FDA-approved treatments currently. This  is drawing concerns from all stakeholders, including patients and providers, for which experts cal l for a great deal of focus on understanding and addressing this important liver disease that impacts clinical outcomes and the quality of life.   Diagnosis of  NASH   Because NASH are asymptomatic until patients are identified at advanced stages, a liver biopsy remains the gold standard for ma...

  Verification  of vaccine efficacy is necessary as it shows how well a candidate vaccine works in humans. However, testing vaccine efficacy in humans is costly, time-consuming, and complex because it may involve a large number of participants who might have geographic or demographic biases and it requires following cohorts of subjects for years to monitor protective efficacy. Moreover, vaccine efficacy studies in humans could get trouble in ethical issues when it comes to certain pathogens like HIV. Contrarily, model organisms, which are easy to maintain and breed in a laboratory setting with a short generation time, permit faster evaluation of promising vaccine candidates at a lower cost and risk compared with humans.   Some model organisms have similar genes or similar-sized genomes to humans, which means they can mimic the pathophysiology of human disease after being infected by a target pathogen and bear a resemblance to human immune responses. Theoretically, the imm...

  R ecent research conducted by researchers from Yale University is published in  Applied and Environmental Microbiology , suggesting  that natural bacteriophage, or phage, can kill dysentery-causing bacteria and reduce virulence in surviving bacteria. It's a piece   of  inspiring news as  treating dysentery has become a challenge with the rising antibiotic resistance.   Background   Shigella flexneri , the culprit causing contagious infection marked by inflammatory diarrhea and dysentery in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, kills about 160,000 people globally every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) takes priority to this pathogen in terms of increasing cases, antimicrobial resistance, and limited treatment options.   S. flexneri  is active primarily in low-income countries, like southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In these places, dirty drinking water is a concern causing dysentery, while antibiotics are expensive and unav...

  Bacteria  are covered by polysaccharides  at the outer surface   in the form of capsules, glycoproteins ,  or glycolipids.  Such a bacterial sugar coat constitutes the principal antigens in most pathogenic bacteria and plays an important role in host-pathogen interactions. With more understanding of polysaccharide biosynthesis and its interplay with polymer modification and synthesis, scientists have recognized the research potential of polysaccharides  in developing novel antibacterial strategies and novel applications like epidemiological markers.   Bacterial polysaccharides  mainly are carbohydrates like capsular polysaccharides (CPS) and lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Capsular polysaccharides are highly-hydrated homo- or hetero-polymers that are composed of repeating sugar units joined by glycosidic linkages. They usually are inserted into the cell surface of bacteria by covalent attachments to either phospholipid or lipid-A molecules. Lipo...

  The recognition and advancement of precision oncology are heavily attributed  to cancer genomics that can provide cancer molecular information, allowing researchers to tailor treatments and improve the outcome for a spectrum of cancer and other indications. To realize the promise of precision oncology, researchers take efforts to identify and discover relevant biomarkers using genomic profilin g , either for functional, diagnostic, predictive, or prognostic purposes.   The FDA's approval of two companion diagnostics  (CDx)—the Guardant360 CDx assay and the FoundationOne Liquid CDx test in 2020 led the testing of multi-gene mutations and biomarker profiling to a new level. Prior to the approval of these two companion diagnostics that involve a combination of liquid biopsy and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, researchers ha d been stuck with the low meaningful mutation frequency and the difficulty in finding biospecimens with specific mutations.   Tu...

  Antibodies (or immunoglobulins) are Y -shaped glycoproteins released by the immune system  to detect and bind to "foreign" substances , known as " antigens ", triggering a cascade of actions to destroy these foreign invaders. Scientists would develop different antibodies for research use, which basically can be classified into primary and secondary antibodies . However, how to choose the right type of antibodies for different immunoassays in experiment procedures, such as western blotting (WB), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), and immunoprecipitation (IP), is one of the most common questions for green hands in the laboratory.   P rimary A ntibod y vs. Secondary Antibody   Antibodies could be categorized into two types based on the binding capability and experimental applications— primary   antibodies   and  secondary antibodies.   The main difference between these two types of antibodies is that primary antibody binds specifically to ...