Rensselaer Opens Doors of Biotechnology Center With First Biotechnology Public Interest Forum March 10

In an effort to increase engagement with the public, surrounding business community, and Rensselaer community in the life-saving and high-tech research ongoing at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) at Rensselaer, a series of regular open sessions with Rensselaer researchers will begin on March 10. The first forum, “Making Medications Safer,” will begin with a light breakfast outside the CBIS Auditorium at 8 a.m. The new series will be called the Biotechnology Public Interest Forums.

“CBIS stands among the foremost biotechnology research facilities in the world, but up to now there have been very limited opportunities for the community at large to experience the important discoveries of the center and learn about the life-saving work within our walls,” said CBIS Director and the Howard P. Isermann ’42 Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Jonathan Dordick.

“Our researchers and laboratories can serve as an exceptional source for information on the important medical and technologic issues we currently face as a society, as well as a driver for economic growth and public engagement,” Dordick added. “We welcome all to learn more about what we are looking to do at CBIS during the forums.”

Dordick will be joined by President Shirley Ann Jackson to introduce the first session, with fellow CBIS researchers Robert Linhardt and Angel Garcia. The forum will begin at 8:30 a.m., following the breakfast.

The program will include a brief introduction by each researcher on their work to make medications around the world safer for patients. Their remarks will be followed by a discussion led by CBIS Associate Director Glenn Monastersky, with ample opportunity for questions and interaction with the audience. Tours of the building will be available to all interested guests following the forum.

Linhardt is the Ann and John H. Broadbent Jr. ’59 Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer. Linhardt, who was named in 2009 as one the Scientific American 10 for his lifesaving work, is among the world’s foremost experts on the commonly used blood thinner heparin. His research has helped make the currently available heparin safer for patients and is leading the effort to create a safer alternative to the current heparin.

Garcia is a Senior Constellation Professor for Biocomputation and Bioinformatics at Rensselaer. His research uses high-powered computing tools to analyze biological data. This works helps researchers make predictions on a range of biological processes including how different drugs or drug ingredients will heal or harm human tissue and cells.

Future forum topics that are being planned include: Alzheimer’s research, stem cell research, nanotechnology in biotechnology, targeting cancer, and drug discovery.

Opened in 2004, the Rensselaer Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies is among the world’s most advanced biotechnology research facilities. CBIS provides a state-of-the-art platform for collaborative research. At CBIS, faculty and students in diverse academic and research disciplines are crossing the divide between the life sciences and engineering to encourage discovery and innovation. Four biotechnology research constellations — biocatalysis and metabolic engineering, functional tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, biocomputation and bioinformatics, and integrative systems biology — engage a multidisciplinary mix of faculty and students to help create new technologies that will save and improve the lives of people around the world.

“All-India cadre of agriculture service must be created”

The All-India Federation of Agricultural Associations is organising a march from India Gate to Jantar Mantar here on March 12 to press for its demands.

“The objective of the march is to impress upon the Central Government the need to create an all-India cadre of Indian Agriculture Service as recommended by various government-appointed committees. Since Independence, the government has created several all-India cadres of organised services even when the strength of their officers was much smaller... But no actions have been taken on the constitution of all-India cadre of Indian Agriculture Service,” noted a release issued by the Associations.

Yeddyurappa tables Rs 85,319-cr agriculture-focused budget

The Karnataka government on Thursday has put agriculture on top priority and increased allocation by more than half to Rs. 17,857 crore in a bid to revive the sector.

Calling it a first-of-its-kind ‘‘agricultural budget’’, chief minister BS Yeddyurappa also slashed interest on farm loans from co-operative institutions to 1% from 3% and plans to disburse upto Rs. 10,000 to 10 lakh small farmers ahead of the sowing season, among several new initiatives.

“The separate agricultural budget is an innovative step. This sector has the potential to generate more jobs and high income in the rural areas,” the CM told reporters after presenting the state budget on Thursday.

The focus on farmers, however, is also being seen as an attempt to win back popularity, coming close on the heels of a series of allegations over land allotments against Yeddyurappa who also narrowly survived a rebellion by party MLAs last October.

Ag scientists in India to address food shortages

FORT COLLINS - A group of Colorado State University soil and crop scientists is in India to share information about new farming techniques that might help the developing nation boost food production in the face of a booming population.

The trip illustrates a focus in the College of Agricultural Sciences on providing solutions to pressing and increasingly complex concerns regarding worldwide food supplies.

“Global food security is real, and CSU is willing to work collaboratively with colleagues in India and elsewhere to be instrumental in meeting this challenge of our times,” said Raj Khosla, recipient of a prestigious Monfort Professor Award in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.

Khosla is lead organizer of the first Indo-US Bilateral Workshop on Precision Agricultural Techniques and Technologies taking place at Punjab Agricultural University through March 3. A CSU delegation of eight is attending the event, which will involve about 100 researchers from the United States and India as well as industry and farming experts from the two countries.

“This workshop is a great example of researchers here in the College of Agricultural Sciences actively building and sharing their expertise to help solve challenges with global food supplies,” said Craig Beyrouty, college dean and soil scientist, who also is joining the trip.

Precision agriculture, the workshop’s theme, describes a range of farming techniques meant to improve crop production and protect the environment by understanding and adapting to specific variables within a farm field. Precision agriculture does for farming what tailoring does for a factory-made suit, fitting production inputs exactly to a field.

“In traditional systems, the entire field is treated as one unit – with the same plant population, the same amount of fertilizer, water, pesticides, labor and machinery across the entire field. Yet we know different parts of the field produce differently,” Khosla said. “Precision agriculture matches the inputs based on productivity of each and every part of the field. It takes into account specific soil and crop requirements. This avoids waste and enhances productivity, efficiency, profitability and overall sustainability.”

In the United States, farmers using precision agricultural techniques employ computer technology to “virtually” divide large fields into small grids, or management units, to make decisions about inputs. In India, however, farming is done on a much smaller scale. The workshop will investigate ways precision agriculture can be used to improve small-scale farm production that is critical to the nation’s food supply, Khosla said.

“They are open to innovative ideas to help them with food production,” he said. “Precision agriculture is part of the solution. Our challenge is to translate advances in the developed world to techniques that can be used there. This workshop is the first step in that direction.”

Khosla, president of the International Society of Precision Agriculture, has built a strong research and outreach program during the past decade. The new workshop is funded with grants from the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Khosla’s work also is supported by the Monfort Family Foundation; he won a Monfort Professor Award, one of CSU’s top faculty honors, in 2009.

Also in the CSU delegation is Cassandra Collins, a senior majoring in international soil and crop science who volunteered to join Khosla to gain a close-up look at global food challenges.

“This will give me a hands-on experience and will give me a much better sense of agriculture in the developing world. That’s not something you can fully learn in a classroom,” Collins said. “I’m very excited about this opportunity.”

2010 Molecule of the Year

Structure of the FOXM1 DNA binding. Source: Protein Data Bank.

The International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Research (ISMCBBPR) has recognized Forkhead box protein M1 (FOXM1) as the 2010 Molecule of the Year.

The ISMCBBPR selected FOXM1 because of its growing potential as a target for cancer therapies. Last year, in a paper published in Molecular Cancer, UK researchers detailed how FOXM1 overexpression destabilizes the cell cycle, causing the cells to grow uncontrollably toward cancer development. 

In 2002, FOXM1 was first labeled an oncoprotein, a protein that could cause cancer when overexpressed. Since then, researchers have linked FOXM1 overexpression to lung, liver, breast, and brain cancers. But researchers’ limited knowledge about how the protein’s overexpression promotes cancer growth was a roadblock to the development of cancer prevention treatments.

To understand the process better, a group of researchers led by Muy-Teck Teh—a lecturer in head and neck cancer at the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and author of the 2010 Cancer Research paper—overexpressed FOXM1 in normal adult human oral epithelial stem cells, pushing the cells toward hyperplasia, a proliferative stage that can lead to cancer.

Through this experiment, Teh and his team discovered that FOXM1 interferes with the stem cell’s growth cycle and division. Normal FOXM1 levels control cell growth. When cells divide regularly, FOXM1 coordinates the division of genetic material to the two daughter cells.

But when FOXM1 is overexpressed, Teh’s team found that the protein loses its control over cell growth, allowing cells to grow wildly. “If you overexpress FOXM1, it could possibly disturb this proper segregation of the chromosomes,” said Teh. “And that would also lead to cancer.”

FOXM1 expression is therefore becoming a popular target for the development of cancer prevention drugs. “If you get rid of FOXM1, you stop the cells from dividing,” said Teh. But elimination of the protein is not a viable option; FOXM1 is necessary for normal organ development. Previous groups observed that when the protein is removed from mice, pups die soon after birth from heart failure.

The problem becomes more complicated in humans who have three FOXM1 gene variants: FOXM1a, FOXM1b, and FOXM1c. These variants act as backups and could compensate when another variant malfunctions or is eliminated. The backups, however, may also predispose cells toward oncogenesis. “Most people study FOXM1b in cancer etiology,” said Teh. “But FOXM1c is also related to cancer but is less well known.” FOXM1a is inactive in normal human cells.

Teh and his team continue to investigate FOXM1’s function in the cell, hoping to understand how it instructs stem cells towards hyperplasia. He expects the 2010 Molecule of the Year to become an important diagnostic cancer biomarker in the near future. “We could use that information to determine whether a given biopsy contains malignant cells or not,” said Teh. 

Muy-Teck Teh. Image source: Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry .

A bacterial two-hybrid system that utilizes Gateway cloning for rapid screening of protein-protein interactions

S.L. Rajasekhar Karna, Xhavit Zogaj, Jeffrey R. Barker, Janakiram Seshu, Simon L. Dove, and Karl E. Klose
Karna et al. have adapted a bacterial two-hybrid system for use with Gateway entry clone sets, such that potential interactions between proteins encoded within these clone sets can be determined by new destination vectors. 

DNA sequencing results

02/24/2011

Kristie Nybo, Ph.D.

After checking my sequence by BLAST, I got 98% identity when sequencing from the forward primer and 93% from the reverse. Is this sufficient to confirm my results?

BioTechniques Molecular Biology Forum brings bench scientists together in an online community to ask for and share advice regarding laboratory problems. This week’s highlighted question comes from the Real-Time qPCR/qRT-PCR Methods forum.
Q: After checking my sequence by BLAST, I got 98% identity when sequencing from the forward primer and 93% from the reverse. Is this sufficient to confirm my results?

A1: First, trim off any bad sequence at the beginning and end of the sequence data and correct any other obvious sequencing artifacts you notice. Then align the forward and reverse sequences and check for… A2: If you have any changes from the known sequence, they may match polymorphisms already in the database. If you find sequence changes such as new polymorphisms, you should…

To read answers to this question or to ask or advise others on this or any molecular biology topic, visit http://molecularbiology.forums.biotechniques.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=30926.