The Immune System – Multimedia

MD simulation studies using NAMD of lipid bilayers supported on alpha-quartz (nanoparticles) and kaolinite with explicit water molecules will be presented to understand the physiochemical effects of nanoparticles on pulmonary surfactant.

A new laser-based nanoparticle tracking analysis system is now available which allows nanoscale particles such as viruses and virus aggregates to be directly and individually visualised in liquids in real-time, from which high-resolution particle size distribution profiles can be obtained.

This application note demonstrates the automation capabilities of Hamilton Robotics’ Microlab STARlet and how it can be used to prepare clinical serum samples for Vitamin D analysis quickly, reliably and cost effectively.

Biomolecular protocols covering the whole cloning process were implemented in liquid handler robots. When compared to the manual approach, it was found that automation significantly speeds up HT cloning.

Since the end of the 1990’s, the pharmaceutical industry has seen an increased interest in biologics, especially in the therapeutic areas of oncology and inflammation. Here we present the automation of two assays for the characterization and selection of potent antibody drug candidates. Both assays rely on HTRF® detection. The first assay quantifies the binding affinity of antibodies to their target antigen, on live cells.

Defined serum-free and feeder-free culture of mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells holds many advantages over the classical serum-containing feeder-dependent culture methods, ranging from decreased lot-to-lot variations to ease of culture.

Objectives of this project were to exploit the database in indian setting to determine nuclear antigens as target for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in patients of autoimmune hapatitis (AIH) type1.

Inflammation is accompanied by increased endothelial chemokine production and adhesion molecule expression, which may result in an extensive neutrophil infiltration. As such, the search for novel anti-inflammatory substances able to downregulate these parameters, as well as tissue damage, holds therapeutic promise.

The characterization of autoimmune disease-specific biomarkers are of primary importance for the development of diagnostic tools and the comprehension of pathogenetic mechanisms leading to autoimmunity. To this aim a protein microarray was employed to analyze serum samples from patients with autoimmune hepatitis (e.g. AIH & PBC) and of healthy as controls. A panel of autoantigens able to discriminate among the groups of patients was identified for potential use as biomarkers.

The Acumen eX3 can be used to study the process of cellular adhesion, whereby adherent cells types specifically, endothelial cells can be grown to confluence in microtitre plate wells and other cells types e.g. neutrophils added. The neutrophils can be differentially stained with calcein AM and the adhesion profile monitored and quantified. Cell adhesion can be determined simply by correlating retained fluorescence with cell number.