What You’ve Missed This Week in Life Sciences

Article: Research into Cellular Stress Can Curb Cancer Progression

Dr Eric Chevet, INSERM, shares his research goals in understanding the molecular mechanisms of ER stress in cancer.

When misfolded proteins accumulate in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the cell’s headquarters for folding proteins, a state of cellular stress is activated. The unfolded protein response (UPR) is then triggered with a goal of restoring proteostasis, an equilibrium in protein folding. More recently, research has shown that ER stress can provide an advantage to cancer cells... Read More»

Video Interview: Understanding Zika Virus Infection: The Development of an Animal Model

Dr. Mukesh Kumar, of the University of Hawaii, tells SelectScience about the guinea pig model for Zika virus infection his team has developed and the role this model may play in future research.

Eighty percent of individuals infected with Zika virus present no symptoms, however infection has been linked to development of severe fetal abnormalities, including stillbirth and microcephaly. A critical step to understanding Zika virus pathogenesis is the development of an animal model... Watch Interview»

News: New Multimode Plate Reader Will Help Simplify and Accelerate Disease Research

PerkinElmer, Inc. has announced the launch of its new VICTOR^® Nivo™ multimode plate reader.

Designed to fit almost any lab space, this compact, lightweight instrument provides high performance detection modes and easy-to-use software, which enables scientists to be able to accelerate biochemical and cell-based assays for disease research... Read More»

Method: Defining the Microbial Composition of Environmental Samples Using Next-Generation Sequencing

Discover a protocol for using NGS of the 16S rRNA gene to analyze the microbiome of complex environmental samples.

For classification of bacteria, the 16S rRNA gene is commonly used because of its ubiquitous presence among prokaryotic organisms. Due to its small size of approximately 1,500 bp and its alternating structure of highly conserved and hypervariable regions, the 16S rRNA gene is well suited for identification and phylogenic analysis of organisms... Download Method»

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