Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2004

The collection of articles published under the motto “The way down from single genes and proteins to single molecules” is covering the results of groundbreaking developments of the recent years. They include single molecule detection yielding ultimate sensitivity and closely linked to the analysis of molecular noise by correlation spectroscopy. Several important examples from the field of nucleic acid as well as protein ana Read More

RNA interference (RNAi) has emerged as a powerful tool for the silencing of gene expression in animals and plants. RNAi is mediated by approximately 21-nt small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which are originally produced from larger double stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) in vivo through the action of Dicer. Recently, many groups have reported systems designed to express siRNAs in mammalian cells through transfection of ei Read More

Immunoassays, or assays that are using antibodies as the specific binding reagents, have become one of the most common methodologies in diagnostic laboratories. In this paper we review different configurations of immunoassays as applied to a variety of analytes and sensitivity limits, along with common detection techniques and strategies. Progress in developing of ultra high affinity antibodies as a direction to improve Read More

This paper reviews progress towards the customised generation of proteins for applications as therapeutics, diagnostics and in proteomics. It particularly focuses on combinatorial approaches where proteins with pre-defined biochemical and biophysical characteristics are selected from large variant libraries.

Peptides are key to modern drug discovery. This article reviews the requirements for bulk production of peptides and how it affects research and production of smaller scales. Peptides, as modern drugs, are currently produced in millions in mg-scale for research purpose, in order to better understand the function of biological systems. Some newly discovered sequences form the basis of modern drugs and are now produce Read More

The early diagnosis of cancer at a curable stage is crucial for the successful treatment of this disease. Most of the currently used tumor assays appear too late and rely on single biomarkers with high false-negative and/or falsepositive rates. As an additional burden for the patient, the traditional assays often require biopsy material instead of less invasively taken samples like serum. With the hope for more reliable DNA- Read More

The most challenging and fruitful biomedical research endeavor of this decade will be the mapping of cell signaling systems and establishing their linkages to normal and disease-related processes. Amongst other things, the Human Genome Sequencing Project has greatly facilitated MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry identification of proteins that have been resolved by standard 2D gel electrophoresis. However, the low abundance Read More

Proteomics technologies are under continuous improvements and new technologies are introduced. Nowadays high throughput acquisition of proteome data is possible. The young and rapidly emerging field of bioinformatics in proteomics is introducing new algorithms to handle large and heterogeneous data sets and to improve the knowledge discovery process. For example new algorithms for image analysis of two dime Read More

So far, chemists, molecular biologists and biochemists have reaped the greatest benefits from mass spectrometry (Aebersold et al., 2003). This type of analysis could, however, be useful in many fields. Mass spectrometry is on its way to the doctor's office (Pusch et al., 2003; Foldes-Papp et al., 2002; Henry 1999). The article is focused on laser-activated microprobe mass analysis (LAMMA) and inductively coupled argon plasm Read More

Moderate hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis, thrombosis and neurodegenerative diseases. Homocysteine accumulation in the blood can be due to many underlying causes, which may interact with each other, e.g. genetic disposition and B-vitamin status. The role of the sulfur-containing amino acid homocysteine in the pathogenesis of diseases remains unclear, even if many Read More

Much research effort has been made to realize a single-molecule sequencing. Central to this project are two enzymatic tasks that challenged several biochemists during the last years. They searched for polymerases for copying a DNA target into completely fluorophore-labeled DNA as well as for handling this new DNA derivative. Furthermore, they studied exonucleases for the sequential hydrolysis of completely dye-labeled Read More