Latest Posters

The reported incidence of Type II Diabetes Mellitus (TIIDM) in Oji-Cree Natives is the highest in the world. This poster presents the impact of the PCK1 gene on TIIDM incidence in Oji-Cree Natives with particular attention to the role of SNP 232C→G on the transcription rate of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinease (PPCK1).

The EasyBeacons™ presented here are based on the novel technology Intercalating Nucleic Acid, INA®, linked to a fluorophore and a quencher. INA® is composed of normal DNA nucleotides and Intercalating Pseudo Nucleotides (IPNs). The fact that the EasyBeacons™ are mostly composed of normal DNA nucleotides means that in many respects EasyBeacons™ behave like DNA based probes, allowing use of standard buffers, primers and enzymes and hence reduces the optimisation efforts.

Metabolomic approaches including Fourier- transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) were used to elucidate changes during susceptible and resistant interactions of Magnaporthe grisea with B. distachyon. Following data mining, discriminatory analytes (m/z) were shown to be phospholipids (PL) by ESIMS-MS. We are now moving to correlate transcriptional and metabolomic changes, concentrating on PL-based regulation.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has developed a micro/nano particle trap that allows surface-functionalized magnetic or non-magnetic particles to be trapped with subsequent perfusion of sample, reagents and wash solutions, yielding significant (up to 5-fold) improvements in assay speed and sensitivity, while significantly reducing sample matrix effects.

The resistance in potato cultivars against late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans is classified into vertical and horizontal. Several metabolites associated with resistance have been detected: phytoalexins such as rishitin, phytuberin, lubimin, solavetivone etc. Metabolite profiling is a novel technology for the discrimination of quantitative resistance in plants against pathogen stress.

In the present paper we describe results obtained using a miniaturized ProtE instrument and its comparison to the mini- PROTEAN 3-cell (Bio-Rad). Our device is able to perform sodium dodecylsulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) in less than 11 min.

Combined with extensive bioinformatics analyses, our joint analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics data has generated interesting findings which led to further laboratory verification, such as potential genes associated with alkaloid production.

In this study we use high-speed photography as a feedback mechanism for adjusting the Nanodrop instrument dispense settings to improve the positional dispense accuracy of low volume (nanoliter) drops. These same parameters can be investigated, with various fluid classes, to reduce deleterious effects on dispensing performance such as deflected streams, satellite formation, secondary pulses and drop deformation.

To evaluate the efficacy of the traditionally used herbal remedy Radal a metabolite profile of the original plant material was established. The EtOAc extract of the leaves and found to be active against the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans (MIC = 8 µg/ml). Cinnamic acid (2) and vanillic acid (5) were identified as the major constituents in the tea by GC-MS along with other phenolic derivatives.

Although metabolomics is and should remain an integrated approach by itself, its complexity requires analogous approaches focused on its components, such as lipidomics. Lipid profiling by NMR without sample extraction, should be seen as only the first stage in lipidomic analysis. Subsequent analysis should involve extraction of the lipids from the biofluid or tissue prior to further profiling using a multi-technique metabolomic approach involving both NMR and MS.