Josh: In research, everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes, these mistakes can cost hours, days, or even weeks of work. By allowing a long, usually overnight process to take place in a mere minute, it allows researchers to recover from mistakes much faster. Not only that, but it should also allow more samples to be prepared simultaneously, also cutting down the time required.

Many coaches inspire better performance by pressuring their teams. Now, proteomics researchers are using pressure to improve the performance of their analyses. In a simple solution to a time-consuming problem, the researchers have found that adding pressure early in their protocol squeezes four hours of waiting into a minute.

“We were really happy to see how well it worked,” said biochemist Daniel Lopez-Ferrer, a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “We’re determining when and how to incorporate it into our analyses.” Lopez-Ferrer and his colleagues reported their findings in July 8, 2008 Journal of Proteome Research. … Continue Reading »

Although the human genome has been sequenced, research into mechanism of action of genes has been hampered by the fact that most human genes have not been isolated. This is true for even the most common class of cancer-associated genes, the protein kinases, which mediate the majority of signaling events in cells by phosphorylating and modulating the activity of other proteins. It has been estimated by systematic gene sequencing efforts that up to a quarter of kinases may play a role in human cancers.

In a study published in the 2nd of May issue of Cell, a research teams led by Professor Jussi Taipale from the National Public Health Institute and University of Helsinki, Finland, Professor Olli Kallioniemi from Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), and Dr. Wei-Wu He from the US-based biotechnology company Origene Technologies, Inc., report cloning of nearly all predicted human protein kinase genes in functional form, and generation of a corresponding set of kinases lacking catalytic activity that are necessary for functional studies. They further used the kinome collection in several high-throughput screens, including a screen which identified two novel kinases regulating the Hedgehog signaling pathway – a key pathway linked to multiple types of human cancer. In addition, together with the group of Dr. Päivi Ojala, University of Helsinki, they identified a novel kinase required for activation of Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus.

“The isolated kinase genes form a resource that scientist can now use to systematically map kinase signaling networks in different cellular disease models. The kinases are also promising targets for therapeutic intervention in the treatment of various cancers”, Professor Taipale states.

Source: University of Helsinki

Markku Varjosalo, Mikael Björklund, Fang Cheng, Heidi Syvänen, Teemu Kivioja, Sami Kilpinen, Zairen Sun, Olli Kallioniemi, Hendrik G. Stunnenberg, Wei-Wu He, Päivi Ojala and Jussi Taipale Cell, Volume 133, Issue 3 2 May 2008

One day soon patients may spit in a cup, instead of bracing for a needle prick, when being tested for cancer, heart disease or diabetes. A major step in that direction is the cataloguing of the “complete” salivary proteome, a set of proteins in human ductal saliva, identified by a consortium of three research teams, according to an article published today in the Journal of Proteome Research. Replacing blood draws with saliva tests promises to make disease diagnosis, as well as the tracking of treatment efficacy, less invasive and costly. … Continue Reading »