Antibody News

By Michalina Hanzel, PhD

Astrocytes are a type of macroglia found in the central nervous system that regulate a vast array of essential brain functions, ranging from synaptogenesis, ion homeostasis and maintenance of the blood-brain barrier, to buffering of neurotransmitters and secretion of neuroactive agents. Considering the plethora of roles that astrocytes...

By Christina Towers, PhD

The majority of cancer patients die from metastatic disease at secondary sites. The threshold to undergo metastasis is high. Only a minority of cancer cells acquire invasive phenotypes like motility and the ability to survive under detached conditions. Consistently, only few cancer cells acquire stem cell like properties, including a more mesenchymal morphology...

By Michalina Hanzel, PhD

FUS mutations in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Fused in sarcoma (FUS) is a ribonucleoprotein that continuously shuttles between the nucleus and the cytoplasm to regulate pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA stability and mRNA transport. Mutations in FUS are found in 4% familial and 1% sporadic cases of amyotrophic lateral...

By Jamshed Arslan, Pharm. D., PhD.

Stroke    is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Cellular players – neurons, astrocytes, endothelial and stromal cells – involved in post-stroke repair through angiogenesis...

By Victoria Osinski

Lymphocytes, monocytes, and granulocytes, oh my!

There are many different immune cells (leukocytes) that are found in circulation along with other cellular components such as platelets and red blood cells. Red blood cells (RBCs) are the most abundant, followed by neutrophils and lymphocytes. The immune cells can be categorized as either mononuclear cells (monocytes and lymphocytes...

By Jamshed Arslan, Pharm. D., PhD.

Protein phosphorylation refers to a reversible post-translational modification in which a protein kinase adds a phosphate group to an amino acid residue of a target protein. Protein phosphorylation, especially tyrosine phosphorylation, is one of the early events in signal transduction in all eukaryotic cells.

Once a cell is lysed, proteases and phosphatases are released that can degrade or...

By Rosa Moreno, PhD.

This new introductory guide to methods and techniques in immunohistochemistry is written by Dr. Alexander E. Kalyuzhny, Bio-Techne, for the Springer series: Techniques in Life Science and Biomedicine for the Non-Expert   . This guide provides a comprehensive introduction along with conceptual and methodological basics for new users to ensure a clear understanding upon which researchers may build their expertise in ...

By Michalina Hanzel, PhD

Alexander disease is a progressive and fatal neurological disease with phenotypes ranging from myelination abnormalities, gait ataxia and megalencephaly to predisposition to seizures. It is an autosomal dominant disease with mutations in the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene that result in astrocytic cytoplasmic inclusions, termed Rosenthal fibers, which contribute to the global neurological...

By Jennifer Sokolowski, MD, PhD.

Microglia play important roles in the brain in both homeostatic and pathological conditions, acting to clear debris and dying cells. There is evidence to suggest that microglial dysfunction contributes to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and modulation of microglial activity may be a method to treat such diseases.¹ Cell-based therapies represent a novel approach whereby the introduction of microglia that possess the desired phenotype could potentially be...

By Jennifer Sokolowski, MD, PhD.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be used to create models of human organ systems and are useful for a) ascertaining the mechanisms underlying pathological conditions and b) developing and testing therapeutics. For example, studies have used iPSCs from human patients with diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to test the influence of pathological isoforms of proteins as well as the efficacy of genetic rescue.^1,2

Optimized protocols to turn induced pluripotent stem cells...

By Victoria Osinski

What are PAMPs and DAMPs

Inflammation results from stimuli signaling damage or infection. The immune system inflammatory response can be beneficial or harmful depending on the type and duration of stimuli. The source, structure, and abundance of these stimuli vary quite a bit. One major category of inflammatory stimulation, or "signal 0s" is the family of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs).^1,2 These patterns are found on bacterial cell walls, DNA, lipoproteins, carbohydrates, or other structures. While many DAMPs and PAMPs have been identified, they stimulate...