Search results for "lcsh:Biotechnology"
showing 10 items of 126 documents
Art‐omics: multi‐omics meet archaeology and art conservation
2020
Summary Multi‐omics can informally be described as the combined use of high‐throughput techniques allowing the characterization of complete microbial communities by the sequencing/identification of total pools of biomolecules including DNA, proteins or metabolites. These techniques have allowed an unprecedented level of knowledge on complex microbial ecosystems, which is having key implications in land and marine ecology, industrial biotechnology or biomedicine. Multi‐omics have recently been applied to artistic or archaeological objects, with the goal of either contributing to shedding light on the original context of the pieces and/or to inform conservation approaches. In this minireview,…
Current research in biotechnology: Exploring the biotech forefront
2019
Abstract Biotechnology is an evolving research field that covers a broad range of topics. Here we aimed to evaluate the latest research literature, to identify prominent research themes, major contributors in terms of institutions, countries/regions, and journals. The Web of Science Core Collection online database was searched to retrieve biotechnology articles published since 2017. In total, 12,351 publications were identified and analyzed. Over 8500 institutions contributed to these biotechnology publications, with the top 5 most productive ones scattered over France, China, the United States of America, Spain, and Brazil. Over 140 countries/regions contributed to the biotechnology resear…
Does Probiotic Yeast Act as Antigenotoxin?
2005
The effect of probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii on genotoxicity induced by the well-known mutagen 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide (4-NQO), as well as antibacterial (furazolidone) and antibiotic (nalidixic acid) drugs, has been studied using the short-term bacterial assay, SOS chromotest, with Escherichia coli PQ 37 as the test organism. It has been shown that S. boulardii possesses antigenotoxic activity, revealed by SOS chromotest, when coincubated with these genotoxins. A weaker antigenotoxic activity against the same compounds was observed with S. carlsbergensis, too.
The formation of hybrid complexes between isoenzymes of glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase regulates its aggregation state, the glycolytic acti…
2019
The glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) has been traditionally considered a housekeeping protein involved in energy generation. However, evidence indicates that GAPDHs from different origins are tightly regulated and that this regulation may be on the basis of glycolysis‐related and glycolysis‐unrelated functions. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Tdh3 is the main GAPDH, although two other isoenzymes encoded by TDH1 and TDH2 have been identified. Like other GAPDHs, Tdh3 exists predominantly as a tetramer, although dimeric and monomeric forms have also been isolated. Mechanisms of Tdh3 regulation may thus imply changes in its oligomeric state or be based in its abil…
SALMO and S3M: A Saliva Model and a Single Saliva Salt Model for Equilibrium Studies.
2014
A model of synthetic saliva (SALMO, SALiva MOdel) is proposed for its use as standard medium inin vitroequilibrium and speciation studies of real saliva. The concentrations come out from the literature analysis of the composition of both real saliva and synthetic saliva. The chief interactions of main inorganic components of saliva, as well as urea and amino acids, are taken into account on the basis of a complex formation model, which also considers the dependence of the stability constants of these species on ionic strength and temperature. These last features allow the modelling of the speciation of saliva in different physiological conditions deriving from processes like dilution, pH, a…
Poly-sarcosine and poly(ethylene-glycol) interactions with proteins investigated using molecular dynamics simulations
2018
Nanoparticles coated with hydrophilic polymers often show a reduction in unspecific interactions with the biological environment, which improves their biocompatibility. The molecular determinants of this reduction are not very well understood yet, and their knowledge may help improving nanoparticle design. Here we address, using molecular dynamics simulations, the interactions of human serum albumin, the most abundant serum protein, with two promising hydrophilic polymers used for the coating of therapeutic nanoparticles, poly(ethylene-glycol) and poly-sarcosine. By simulating the protein immersed in a polymer-water mixture, we show that the two polymers have a very similar affinity for the…
3D polylactide-based scaffolds for studying human hepatocarcinoma processes in vitro
2012
We evaluated the combination of leaching techniques and melt blending of polymers and particles for the preparation of highly interconnected three-dimensional polymeric porous scaffolds for in vitro studies of human hepatocarcinoma processes. More specifically, sodium chloride and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were used as water-soluble porogens to form porous and solvent-free poly(L,D-lactide) (PLA)-based scaffolds. Several characterization techniques, including porosimetry, image analysis and thermogravimetry, were combined to improve the reliability of measurements and mapping of the size, distribution and microarchitecture of pores. We also investigated the effect of processing, in PLA-ba…
Effect of environmental conditions on the durability of polycarbonate for the protection of cultural heritage sites.
2019
Polycarbonate is a good material for covering and protecting cultural heritage sites because of its durability, mechanical properties, and transparency. However, polycarbonate degrades under environmental weathering with a significant decrease of physical and mechanical properties and loss of transparency. In this work, the contemporary presence of ultraviolet irradiation and different temperature and moisture conditions have been taken into account to study the environmental degradation of this polymer with regard to its mechanical and optical properties. The photo-oxidation reactions cause a decrease in the molecular weight and the formation of many oxygenated species. The hydrolytic sci…
Effect of Chlorotriphenyl Derivatives of Sn and Pb upon Biophysical Properties of Membranes
2009
Biophysical activity of two twin organometallic compounds Triphenyltin chloride (TPhT) and Triphenyllead chloride (TPhL) in their interreaction with model membranes, as well as with yeast cellsSaccharomyces cerevisiae, was investigated. Four measurement methods were used in the experiments: two physical methods (spin probes method and the electric method); two biological methods (minimal inhibitory concentration /MIC/ and yeast survival test). It has been found that the activity of TPhT in interaction with model membranes and yeast cells is distinctly greater than that of TPhL. The activity manifests itself by considerable increase in the fluidity of the middle part of liposome bilayer, cha…
Fragmentation and Coverage Variation in Viral Metagenome Assemblies, and Their Effect in Diversity Calculations
2015
Metagenomic libraries consist of DNA fragments from diverse species, with varying genome size and abundance. High-throughput sequencing platforms produce large volumes of reads from these libraries, which may be assembled into contigs, ideally resembling the original larger genomic sequences. The uneven species distribution, along with the stochasticity in sample processing and sequencing bias, impacts the success of accurate sequence assembly. Several assemblers enable the processing of viral metagenomic data de novo, generally using overlap layout consensus or de Bruijn graph approaches for contig assembly. The success of viral genomic reconstruction in these datasets is limited by the de…