Season one
The jellyfish protein that lit up a world of new discoveries
How did a humble jellyfish launch a life science research revolution? It all started when researchers including Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien developed methods to utilize green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a glowing biological reporter in living cells. First commercialized by Clontech Laboratories (now Takara Bio USA, Inc.), GFP has illuminated countless scientific explorations and shed light on many previously dark secrets of biology. That’s Good Science!
1.02 | Quantifying population size by the hairs of the bears
Asian black bears live in the Himalayas, parts of Asia, and the Japanese islands Honshu and Shikoku. Related to now-extinct bear species and classified as vulnerable, Asian black bears are of keen interest to conservation biologists. But they're also aggressive, and researchers weren't eager to get up close and personal. So, how to estimate population size accurately while minimizing bear interaction? Hair traps and a sensitive PCR assay using PrimeSTAR GXL polymerase. That's Good Science!
1.03 | RNA-seq shows its sensitive side
Next-generation sequencing has led to diverse RNA-seq methods, but one drawback is sensitivity. Conventional RNA-seq requires >10 ng of RNA from 50–100 cells. But increasingly, researchers are interested in profiling gene expression in single cells. Ramskold and colleagues used the SMARTer Ultra Low Input RNA Kit for Illumina Sequencing to investigate gene expression in a single circulating tumor cell, starting with a mere 10 pg of RNA. That's Good Science!
1.04 | A pathway to beautiful bananas
Behold the banana, plucked from tropical plantations and hurried around the globe at the height of golden perfection. But getting millions of tons of bananas from tree to table is complex; the window for ripeness is narrow. Wei Shan et al. found banana homologs of NAC transcription factors and used the Matchmaker Gold Yeast Two-Hybrid System to confirm their involvement in ethylene signaling—one step to understanding mechanisms of banana ripening. That's Good Science!
1.05 | Turning immune cells into cancer-fighting ninjas
What if your own immune cells could fight off cancer? That's the idea behind cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Steven Rosenberg's group at the National Cancer Institute uses RetroNectin reagent to introduce T-cell receptor genes recognizing specific cancer antigens into a patient's own lymphocytes. These engineered cells are then returned to the patient, where they specifically target cancer cells expressing the antigen. That's Good Science!
1.06 | Sustaining science through green initiatives
Science can be sustainable. For example, the University of Washington—located near temperate rainforests—is home to top laboratories that are not only generating new discoveries but also lots of trash. UW's Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability program encourages the use of energy-saving, waste-reducing reagents that are shipped and stored at room temperature, such as EcoDry products. Reducing fuel consumption and landfill waste: That's Good Science!
1.07 | Getting the skinny on fat with an inducible mouse model
To understand the physiology of adipocytes, constitutive loss-of-function models can offer a tantalizing glimpse but are an imprecise tool for differentiating short- and long-term effects. Enter the FAT-ATTAC mouse model developed by researchers in Philipp Scherer's lab. They created a clever construct: caspase-8 catalytic domains under the control of an adipocyte-specific promoter that assemble in response to B/B Homodimerizer. Thus, fat cells can be obliterated at will. That's Good Science!
1.08 | Stem cells let biologists become time travelers
Nobel Prize winners John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka have revolutionized our understanding of mammalian cell differentiation. Turning back the developmental clock, Dr. Gurdon showed that differentiated frog cells could become pluripotent. Dr. Yamanaka induced pluripotency in mouse and human fibroblasts by introducing just four factors. Marker gene expression in human iPS cells was analyzed with Takara Ex Taq polymerase in a paper cited >5,000 times. That's Good Science!
1.09 | Fighting mosquitoes and dengue fever with a RIDL
Mosquitoes are much despised, especially in areas hard-hit with Dengue fever. Researchers used the Tet-Off system to develop the Release of Insects carrying a Dominant Lethal, or RIDL (pronounced "riddle") approach. The joke is on the bugs: engineered mosquitoes have a Tet-regulated transcriptional activator needed for wing development. When released into the wild, species-specific inhibition of female wing formation occurs. Tests in the Grand Cayman Islands reduced mosquitoes by 80%. That's Good Science!
1.10 | Hitting back at Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B not only hijacks cells to make legions of new infectious particles, it also establishes long-term infections and leads to hepatocellular carcinoma. Wu and colleagues examined how expression of the oncogenic Hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) alters miRNA expression in cultured liver cells. Using a PrimeScript RT-PCR kit with green intercalating dye to measure miRNAs via real-time PCR, they observed down-regulation of miR-16 members involved in cell-cycle regulation. Reintroducing miR-16 to HBx-expressing cells suppressed key hallmarks of cancer. That's Good Science!
1.11 | Boning up on miRNA-regulated osteoclast development
Bone tissue is a matter of balance: osteoblasts add fresh layers of bone and osteoclasts remove bone tissue. These cells normally work in harmony, but diseases such as osteoporosis or osteopetrosis represent an upset in this balance. Sugatani and colleagues identified upregulation of miR-21 during osteoclastogenesis. They used the Lenti-X system to show that osteoclasts don't form when miR-21 levels are low, suggesting new strategies to promote healthy bones. That's Good Science!
Simplifying flu vaccine research
Constant genetic variation is the norm for influenza. Learn how a clever team of researchers overcame this challenge using In-Fusion Cloning for accurate, fast, and standardized subcloning—cutting the time from outbreak to vaccine: That's Good Science!
How the leopard lost its spots
Why do the offspring of some leopards hide their spots, resulting in black panthers? An international team of researchers focused on ASIP, a gene that causes dark coat coloration in other felines. Takara Bio's LA Taq with GC Buffer was used to sequence a tricky stretch of exon 4 in leopards and Asian golden cats, identifying SNPs associated with melanistic coat color. Scientists can now answer the curious question of how leopards produce panthers. That's Good Science!
The critical pursuit of rare disease alleles
NOMID is a potentially fatal disease that is easily detected in infants with germline mutations in the NLRP3 gene. However, nongermline cases are difficult to detect, since a blood sample may bear only a few copies of the disease allele. Learn how scientists greatly improved the identification of NLRP3 somatic mosaicism.
1.15 | Building better biological systems
What happens when you take an engineer's view of biology? You might start tinkering with genetic material, using the tools of molecular biology to create genetic circuitry that behaves in a reliable, predictable, and precisely engineered way. That's the goal of synthetic biology, where DNA units called BioBricks are designed to fit together interchangeably like Legos. In-Fusion Cloning systems make the mix-and-match assembly process quick and easy, allowing researchers to create entirely new activity in bacterial systems. That's Good Science!
1.16 | Researchers seek early signs of neural tube defects
Neural tube defects (NTDs) cause malformations in a fetus' spine or skull, causing limited lifespan or significant lifelong disabilities. Early detection may help physicians and parents prepare for treatments such as spinal surgery to prevent further damage related to the condition. To understand the disorder scientists are analyzing pregnancy-associated biomarkers for NTDs. Using a microarray analysis validated using PrimeScript Reverse Transcriptase and a Takara-brand qPCR kit with green intercalating dye, researchers focused on miRNA content in maternal serum and identified 17 miRNAs expressed at significantly different levels in women carrying NTD fetuses versus women with healthy pregnancies. In this preliminary study, expression of these 7 miRNAs could accurately distinguish NTD from healthy cases. That's Good Science!
1.17 | Heading into bat caves on a rescue mission
Bats may have a "spooky" reputation, but one bat disease is causing widespread fear among wildlife biologists: White Nose Syndrome caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans. With a mortality rate near 100%, the disease is devastating bat populations. Daniel Lindner and colleagues used Takara Ex Taq polymerase to screen for G. destructans in soil samples from bat hibernacula, gathering data and developing testing methods to help bats everywhere. That's Good Science!
1.18 | Tricking toxins: a fishing tale
The marine puffer fish can blow up like a holiday ornament. It also packs a punch: tetrodotoxin (TTX), a deadly alkaloid. How does the fish leverage the poison without succumbing to it? Researchers analyzed puffer fish genes up-regulated by TTX using suppression subtractive hybridization and verified results by RT-PCR. Most genes encoded acute phase proteins, suggesting that a stress response protects against cellular damage. That's Good Science!
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