Asymmetric movements of cytoplasmic components in Caenorhabditis elegans zygotes.

Published in Journal of embryology and experimental morphology

Copper-zinc cross-modulation in prion protein binding.

Published in European Biophysics Journal

In this paper we report a systematic XAS study of a set of samples in which Cu(II) was progressively added to complexes in which Zn(II) was bound to the tetra-octarepeat portion of the prion protein. This work extends previous EPR and XAS analysis in which, in contrast, the effect of adding Zn(II) to Cu(II)-tetra-octarepeat complexes was investigat...

Impact of ferromanganese alloy plants on household dust manganese levels: implications for childhood exposure.

Published in Environmental Research

Adolescents living in communities with ferromanganese alloy plant activity have been shown to exhibit deficits in olfactory and fine motor function. Household dust may serve as an important manganese (Mn) exposure pathway to children, though dust Mn concentrations have not previously been measured to assess household contamination from ferromangane...

Linking cases of illegal shootings of the endangered California condor using stable lead isotope analysis.

Published in Environmental Research

Lead poisoning is preventing the recovery of the critically endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) and lead isotope analyses have demonstrated that ingestion of spent lead ammunition is the principal source of lead poisoning in condors. Over an 8 month period in 2009, three lead-poisoned condors were independently presented with bir...

FTIR spectroscopy of alanine-based peptides: assignment of the amide I modes for random coil and helix.

Published in Journal of Structural Biology

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been used to explore the thermal unfolding of three helical, alanine-based peptides. Each of the peptides follows the general sequence Ac-(AAAX)nA-NH2 where X is either Lys+ or Arg+ and n = 3 or 4. These particular peptides were chosen because they contain varying amounts of 3(10)- and alpha-helix....

A rapid and efficient protocol to purify biologically active recombinant proteins from mammalian cells.

Published in Protein Expression and Purification

Here, we describe a simple and efficient method for the expression and purification of active recombinant proteins in mammalian cells. This method uses the expression of T7 epitope-tagged proteins in transiently transfected 293T cells grown in monolayer, followed by anti-T7-agarose affinity chromatography. This procedure yields approximately betwee...

Isolation and analysis of microtubule motor proteins.

Published in Methods in Cell Biology

Isolation of microtubule motor proteins is needed both for the discovery of new motors and for characterization of the products of motor-related genes. The sequences of motor-related genes cannot yet be used to predict the mechanochemical properties of the gene products. This was illustrated by the first kinesin-related gene product to be character...

Analyzing microtubule motors in real time.

Published in Methods in Cell Biology

Competitive binding effects on surface-enhanced Raman scattering of peptide molecules.

Published in Chemical Physics Letters

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been conducted on tryptophan (W), proline (P) and tyrosine (Y) containing peptides that include W-P-Y, Y-P-W, W-P-P-P-Y, Y-P-P-P-W, W-P-P-P-P-P-Y, and Y-P-P-P-P-P-W to gain insight into molecular binding behavior on a metal substrate to eventually apply in protein SERS detection. The peptides are shown t...

Early life versus lifelong oral manganese exposure differently impairs skilled forelimb performance in adult rats.

Published in Neurotoxicology and Teratology

Recent studies of children suggest that exposure to elevated manganese (Mn) levels disrupts aspects of motor, cognitive and behavioral functions that are dependent on dopamine brain systems. Although basal ganglia motor functions are well-known targets of adult occupational Mn exposure, the extent of motor function deficits in adults as a result of...