Detection of anthrax and other pathogens using a unique liquid array technology.
J Forensic Sci. 2013 Oct 22. [Epub ahead of print]
Schweighardt A, et al.
A bead-based liquid hybridization assay, the Luminex 100, was used to identify four pathogenic bacteria, Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium botulinum, Francisella tularensis subsp. Tularensis, and Yersinia pestis, and several close relatives. All target sequences were detected, even when the minor component was overshadowed by a tenfold excess of the major component.
HLA-B*13:01 and the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome.
N Engl J Med. 2013 Oct 24;369(17):1620-8.
Zhang F, et al.
The authors used Illumina Human660W-Quad BeadChips to study dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome, a condition that develops in individuals who are prescribed dapsone to treat infections and inflammatory diseases. A genome-wide association studies yielded the variant HLA-B*13:01 as a risk factor for the syndrome. According to the China-based research team. HLA-B*13:01 is present in between 2 and 20 percent of Chinese persons, 1.5 percent of Japanese persons, between 1 and 12 percent of Indians, and between 2 and 4 percent of Southeast Asians but is largely absent in Europeans and Africans.
BMC Ophthalmol. 2013 Oct 26;13(1):62. [Epub ahead of print]
Kulkarni B, et al.
The authors collected ocular surface epithelial tissue samples from the limbus, cornea, and conjunctiva of post-mortem cadaver eyes with a laser microdissection technique for use in gene-expression studies with spotted oligonucleotide microarrays and Affymetrix Gene 1.0 ST arrays. They claim their protocol improved the RNA yield of the in situ ocular surface epithelial regions for effective microarray studies.