Analogs of steroid hormones have been a fruitful source of a variety of drug therapies as theyeasily cross cell membranes and modulate transcriptional activity via their nuclear hormone receptors(NHR). The identification of nematode steroid hormones, and subsequently their analogs, could be… More

Protein kinases play a key role in the regulation of metabolic activities in eukaryotic cells. A laprotein kinases have been isolated and characterized, but we are still in the early stages of undersphosphorylation on the target proteins. Better tools are needed to study protein kinases and the… More

Restriction endonucleases are of great importance to molecular DNA cloning, DNA diagnostics and genengineering. There is an ever increasing demand for a larger repertoire of recognition specificitiesendonuclease field is at point where the engineering of cleavage specificities is approachable.… More

Not Available A method is proposed for production of high density, refractory ceramic materials using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). Conventional methods of solid freeform fabrication have been used to produce ceramic materials, but it is difficult to make a material that sinters to its full… More

Not Available Materiel handling is critical to many enterprises, from military operations to shipboard loading. However, materiel handling is time-consuming and expensive, primarily because it requires extensive human labor. When working with hazardous environments or materials, the expense… More

Restriction endonucleases are essential tools in genetic engineering, cloning and DNA diagnostics. N.BstNBI is a natural occurring nicking endonuclease which only breaks one strand of double-stranded DNA, and it is the only nicking enzyme that is commercially available. The proposed research is… More

Restriction endonucleases are essential tools in genetic engineering, cloning and DNA diagnostics. N.BstNBI is a natural occurring nicking endonuclease which only breaks one strand of double-stranded DNA, and it is the only nicking enzyme that is commercially available. The proposed research is… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is aimed towards cloning, expression and engineering of DNA nicking enzymes. Two nicking enzymes CviNY2A and CviNYSI have been found in Chlorella-like algae virus strains NY2A and NYSI with three-nucleotide recognition sequence. The cloning and… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to amplify and subsequent detection a target sequence with a limited length may satisfy the need for diagnosing some of the diseases. Nevertheless, much biomedical research, such as cloning genes and analysis of genetics variation, often demands… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Parasitic nematodes are responsible for a number of severe diseases in humans and animals. Approximately $600 million is spent each year in drugs to treat nematode infections in animals. These drugs are not completely effective so the discovery of new therapies… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In Phase I, the cviPIIM, cviPIINt, cviQXIM, cviQXINt genes were cloned and sequenced. Recombinant Nt.CviPII was expressed in E.coli and purified. Nt.CviQXI was expressed in E.coli and by an in vitro transcription/translation system. Nt.Sapl and Nb.Sapl were… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the project is to use a novel approach to prevent recombinant protein misfolding and aggregation during overexpression in E. coli. The system used in this project consists of an aggregation-prone protein fused to a reporter protein (green fluorescent… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this proposal is to engineer universal restriction endonucleases with tailored cleavage specificities. The universal endonucleases will contain two functional components: 1) a specificity determinant and 2) a cleavage domain. The DNA binding… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Parasitic nematodes are responsible for a number of severe diseases in humans, animals and plants. Approximately $600 million is spent each year on drugs to treat nematode infections in animals. These drugs are not completely effective so the discovery of new… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): With the increasing interest in epigenetic modification of DNA there is a need for research reagents to help study the phenomenon. Of especial interest would be an enzyme able to demethylate DNA that might provide a direct way to measure the extent of methylation… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to control expression of a cloned gene both temporally and quantitatively is critical to the study of its function. For two interacting genes or gene products, the ability to control both the timing and leve l of expression, independently, is… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Restriction enzymes are essential laboratory tools for analyzing and cloning DNA. Two principal kinds exist in nature that differ in the way they cleave the substrate. Type II restriction enzymes cleave DNA at fixed pos itions with respect to their recognition… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The characterization of integral membrane proteins is limited most by the inability to isolate such proteins in sufficient quantities. The isolation of eukaryotic membrane proteins is especially problematic. We propose to address this issue by developing a… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project concerns the design, construction and publication of a comprehensive database on DNA polymerases - DNAPolBase. DNAPolBase will serve as a freely available, high quality resource of DNA polymerase biochemistry, biology, genetics and structure. The… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Directed protein evolution is a powerful technology for generating proteins with desired properties, such as thermostability. There is currently no effective in vitro method to select proteins with enhanced thermostabil ity. Thermostable proteins have a wide… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project concerns the design, construction and publication of a comprehensive database on DNA polymerases - DNAPolBase. DNAPolBase will serve as a freely available, high quality resource of DNA polymerase biochemist ry, biology, genetics and structure. The… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Epigenomics studies represent the next wave of efforts to decode the information embedded in genomes beyond the nucleotide sequences. Dynamic epigenomic changes, such as DNA methylation are key processes in cell differe ntiation, development and many pathological… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will undertake engineering Escherichia coli to "breathe" (respire) using an electrode instead of oxygen. An increasing number of industrial bioprocesses use engineered E. coli strains for the production of fuels and chemicals… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) hold great promise in human health with applications ranging from therapeutic agents that target cancer cells, to diagnostic biomarkers that can detect trace levels of a given antigen. Thispromise is best reflected in global sales of… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Epigenomics studies represent the next wave of efforts to decode the information embedded in genomes beyond the nucleotide sequences. Dynamic epigenomic changes, such as DNA methylation are key processes in cell differentiation, development and many pathological… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Directed protein evolution is a powerful technology for protein engineering. It generally involves generating a library of protein variants and identifying those with desired properties by selection or screening. In terms of library complexity, in vitro selection… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is recently discovered that a significant portion of the modified cytosines in mammalian genomes is 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC), an oxidation product of 5-methylcytosine (5-mC). Current methods including bisulfite conversion cannot distinguish or… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project aims to find novel restriction enzymes that will be useful in many aspects of molecular biology research. One particular focus will be on restriction endonucleases that are able to recognize modified DNA, especially DNA containing 5-methylcytosine… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is recently discovered that a significant portion of the modified cytosines in mammalian genomes is 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC), an oxidation product of 5-methylcytosine (5-mC). Current methods including bisulfite conversion cannot distinguish or… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project aims to find novel restriction enzymes that will be useful in many aspects of molecular biology research. One particular focus will be on restriction endonucleases that are able to recognize modified DNA, especially DNA containing 5-methylcytosine… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project takes advantage of a DNA sequencing technology newly developed by Pacific Biosciences called SMRT sequencing. In addition to providing the DNA base sequence, this approach also allows the detection of modified bases. DNA methyltransferases have… More