Reproducibility and reliability are two important values for scientists that influence either credibility and the opportunity to obtain good results. A definition of reproducibility can be the ability to repeat a protocol (whatever kind of protocol) and gain the same conclusion. Reproducibility could evaluated into a laboratory when several operators perform at the same time or in different time an experiment.

A novel transgenic potato has been approved in Europe to be cultured and marketed. This potato is patented by BASF, an important German company that is a leader in antibiotic drug for agriculture and veterinary. Transgenic potato has a resistance versus carboxicillin and kanamycin, two antibiotics largely used to fight culture contamination and disruption.

Sardinia is an Italian island where thalassemia incidence is really high. Giving the complications of atherosclerotic disease and the necessity of frequent blood transfusions for thalassemic patients, scientists from the University of Cagliari (Italy) were interested in the relationship between these two diseases.

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 at the Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore because of an aggressive form of cervical cancer. She would be probably unknown now, if your cells hadn’t been extracted and cultured as HeLa cells. Scientists of every molecular biology and cellular lab know about these cells because they have used them at least one time or because they have studied their application on biology books.

Are you looking for a specific congress or for some award to fund your work? Have you already visited the NatureEvents.com website? This tool is important for both scientists and companies because is a melting point of several disciplines.

Natural antioxidant elements consist of carotenoids, vitamins, mineral salt contained in food. These components are important to remove free oxygen derived compounds that are highly reactive and generate lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. Lipid peroxidation is one cause of lipoprotein modifications.

Camelid derived single domain peptides are a novel form of antibody which maintain the same antigen binding properties but have greater stability and smaller size than traditional antibody. These molecules can be conjugate with several chromophores, for instance with green fluorescent protein for cellular imaging applications.

Scientists from the University of Michigan and the INSERM (France) identified Cxcr1 gene as differentially expressed in cancer stem cells in comparison with other cancer cells in breast malignancies. CXCR1 is the receptor for interleukin 8 and has been involved in tumour progression and metastasis in several kinds of cancers, such as prostate, glioma, ovarian and breast cancers.

Current antidepressants usually marketed compensate the low level of serotonin, the main cause of depression, anxiety and mood problems. These compounds selectively block the re-uptake of neurotransmitter into the synaptic space. Serotonin still longer available for the interaction with its receptors located onto the plasma membrane of post synaptic neurons. Unfortunately, clinical studies reported an high variability in the response and some patients acquired resistance after few months of treatment.

Promoter region is the regulatory portion of genes that controls transcription. Even if this portion is crucial for finely tuning protein expression, and is known that epigenetic alterations are dangerous for this control, poor knowledge are available about the role of point mutations. Indeed, several point mutations are identified in promoter region, their biological consequence is poorly understood and studied. Scientists of the University of Washington set up an array to screen the effect of mutation on promoter functionality.