Plant viral vectors have great potential for rapid production of important pharmaceutical proteins. High-yield production, however, of hetero-oligomeric proteins that require the expression and assembly of two or more protein subunits often is problematic due to the competing nature of viral vectors derived from the same virus. Researchers at the...

Dolastatin compounds, isolated from the sea hare (sea slug) Dolabella auricularia, have been shown to have remarkable anticancer properties. In particular, dolaststin 16 has been shown to be an extraordinarily potent cancer cell growth inhibitor. Its 3-dimensional structure, however, has heretofore remained unknown. Researchers at Arizona State...

The remarkable anticancer properties of dolastatin 10, isolated from the sea hare (sea slug) Dolabella auricularia, have led to interest in closely related derivatives (auristatins) suitable for clinical trials. Most recently, such auristatins have been linked to antibodies for delivery. In many indications, however, it would be desirable to deliver...

Mitochondrial diseases are a group of disorders caused by dysfunctional mitochondria, often caused by genetics or mutations to the mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial defects are damaging, particularly to tissues with high energy demands, such as neural and muscle tissues. Energetic defects have been implicated in forms of movement disorders, cardiomyopathy,...

West Nile virus (WNV), a member of the Flavivirus genus, can cause severe neurological disease, long-term morbidity, and death. In the last decade, nearly 30,000 cases of severe WNV infection have been diagnosed in the U.S. Historically, there has been a lack of effective and specific antiviral treatment for flavivirus infection; current treatment...

Live attenuated vaccines are considered among the most powerful tools for disease control and potentially disease eradication. Although vaccines have made a major contribution to public health, there are still significant deaths from diseases for which vaccines are not available. There is a need to develop better, safer, and cheaper vaccines capable...

The accurate measurement of potassium ion levels in biological samples is essential given the impact such ion levels have on many aspects of homeo-stasis. Normal potassium levels are important for the maintenance of heart and nervous system function. Traditionally, potassium ions have been measured in plasma or serum using ion-selective electrodes,...

Cell culture is an indispensible tool in many fields including cell biology, immunology, microbiology, cancer and infectious disease research. However, conventional two-dimensional culture, which involves growing cells as monolayers on solid, impermeable surfaces, may lead to the loss of key phenotypic and functional cell characteristics, and often...

Protein microarrays have the potential to revolutionize proteomics research for vaccine development, drug discovery, and diagnosis. However, this potential is far from being realized mainly due to technical complexity of protein array fabrication and uncertainties about the functionality and integrity of proteins once immobilized onto a solid surface....

Infectious diseases are one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world. However, these infectious diseases are becoming increasingly difficult to treat due to the growing abundance of antibiotic-resistant pathogens and insufficient development of new antibacterial agents. The development of novel and inexpensive treatment options...