Duke Scientists Use Rat Co-Culture Model to Screen Neurodegenerative Therapies

January 16, 2009

By Charlotte LoBuono

A Duke official told CBA News that the assay closely recapitulates the in vivo environment, while allowing the investigators to screen compound libraries at a high throughput.

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In this issue of Cell-Based Assay News

Young Investigator Profile

Sumit Chanda

Associate Professor
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

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The Chanda lab is studying cellular proteins required for both influenza A and retrovirus/HIV infection as well as novel molecules that regulate, or respond to, Pattern Recognition Receptor (PRR) signaling. In order to elucidate the repertoire of host proteins required for viral infection, and understand the molecular strategies adapted by these viruses as countermeasures to innate immune response, his lab uses a series of systems-level approaches, including genome-wide RNAi, proteomics and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis, and high content imaging. This approach is helping them to build a comprehensive cellular 'roadmap' exploited by these viruses to enable their propagation within a cell.
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Regulation and Function of miR-218 in Gastric Cancer Metastasis
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Method to Label and Isolate N-terminal Peptides from Human Plasma
Wildes and Wells, PNAS
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People on the Move

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Professor Leena Peltonen-Palotie died this week of cancer at her home in Finland, according to the Sanger Institute. Peltonen-Palotie was head of human genetics at Wellcome Trust, and she held appointments at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland.

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Adrian Dillon will resign from his job as executive VP of finance and administration and CFO of Agilent Technologies to become chief financial and administrative officer at Skype. He will be replaced at the beginning of April by Didier Hirsch, who currently is VP of corporate controllership and taxes and who will serve as acting CFO.
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Bruker will acquire certain mass spectrometry and chromatography product lines from Varian, clearing the way for Agilent to complete its $1.5 billion acquisition of Varian. The divestitures were part of conditions set by EU authorities for approval of the merger.
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HHS expects that in 2010 NIH will spend another roughly $5.2 billion overall in stimulus funds that were left over from ARRA's first year. NIH still has more than $1.6 billion to spend in stimulus funds for lab construction and renovation, buildings and facilities, and shared instruments.
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Duke Scientists Use Rat Co-Culture Model to Screen Neurodegenerative Therapies

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