9th Molecular Biology Conference

Molecular biology

Re-Envisioning the History of Cellular and Molecular Biology

Response to “QF‐PCR as a substitute for karyotyping of cytotrophoblast for the analysis of chorionic villi: advantages and limitations from a cytogenetic retrospective audit of 44 727 first‐trimester prenatal diagnoses”

From the paradigm shifting observations of Harvey, Malpighi, and van Leeuwenhoek, blood vessels have become recognized as distinct and dynamic tissue entities that merge with the heart to form a closed circulatory system.1 Vessel structures are comprised predominantly of a luminal layer of endothelial cells that is surrounded by some form of basement membrane, and mural cells (pericytes or vascular smooth muscle cells) that make up the vessel wall. In larger more complex vessel structures the vessel wall is composed of a complex interwoven matrix with nerve components. Understanding the cellular and molecular basis for the formation, remodeling, repair, and regeneration of the vasculature have been and continue to be popular areas for investigation. The endothelium has become a particularly scrutinized cell population with the recognition that these cells may play important roles in maintaining vascular homeostasis and in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases.2 Although it has been known for several decades that some shed or extruded endothelial cells enter the circulation as apparent contaminants in the human blood stream,3 only more recent technologies have permitted the identification of not only senescent sloughed endothelial cells,4 but also endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which have been purported to represent a normal component of the formed elements of circulating blood5 and play roles in disease pathogenesis.6–9 Most citations refer to an article published in 1997 in which Asahara and colleagues isolated, characterized, and examined the in vivo function of putative EPCs from human peripheral blood as a major impetus for generating interest in the field.10 This seminal article presented some evidence to consider emergence of a new paradigm for the process of neovascularization in the form of postnatal vasculogenesis. Since publication of that article, interest in circulating endothelial cells, and particularly EPCs, has soared, …

Portugal, represented by the Portuguese Biochemical Society, has been a long-standing member of the IUBMB and a founding member of FEBS. It has organized several international meetings in the broad field of biochemistry and molecular biology, such as the 27th FEBS Meeting (Lisbon, 2001). In 2008, four international conferences on topics ranging from pattern recognition to proteomics are already scheduled to take place in Portugal, showing that the field is dynamic and diverse. Currently, 22 Portuguese higher education institutions (Table 1) offer nine undergraduate and 33 postgraduate programs with a strong emphasis on biochemistry and related fields. Specifically, undergraduate students can select study plans in biochemistry, biotechnology, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and health sciences. Graduate students can choose from 18 MSc and 15 PhD programs in the aforementioned areas as well as in structural and functional biochemistry, biomedical sciences, computational biology, neurosciences, and molecular genetics. Together with research institutions such as Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of Coimbra (CNC), Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC), Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC), Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB), and many others, they provide a framework for sustainable development of the biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) field in terms of teaching and research excellence. Here we will review some of the past and present contributions made by researchers in Portuguese scientific institutions to the BMB field. We will address current research trends and we will briefly discuss the opportunities and perspectives presented by them. MATERIALS AND METHODS Most publication and citation records were collected from the ISI Web of Knowledge (WoK) platform using the Science Citation Index Expanded (1900 to present) and the Essential Science Indicators databases. The number of projects approved in scientific areas overlapping the BMB field was collected at Portuguese funding agency (FCT). The list of higher education schools offering undergraduate and graduate programs with a strong emphasis on biochemistry and molecular biology was compiled from the respective institutional websites. This information was later cross-checked with data supplied by Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal. Most bibliographical references were limited to peerreviewed publications clearly catalogued as belonging to the BMB field. However, this approach excluded important scientific studies that shed light, for instance, on the molecular biology of the cell and metabolism. Therefore, in the sections reviewing specific contributions by scientists in Portuguese institutions, records catalogued as publications in cell biology, endocrinology/metabolism, plant biochemistry, microbiology, and/or neurosciences were included. As electronically stored information is dynamic, retrieval dates are given with reference to this and other information sources.

Biology's various affairs with holism and reductionism, and their contribution to understanding life at the molecular level

Increased risk after noninvasive prenatal screening on cell-free DNA circulating in maternal blood: does a new indication for invasive prenatal diagnosis require new criteria for confirmatory cytogenetic analysis?

Introduction Molecular Biology is the field of biology that studies the composition, structure and interactions of cellular molecules – such as nucleic acids and proteins that carry out the biological processes essential for the cell's functions and maintenance [1,8]. The field of molecular biology is focused especially on nucleic acids (e.g., DNA and RNA) and proteins—macromolecules that are essential to life processes—and how these molecules interact and behave within cells.6 Molecular biology also plays important role in understanding formations, actions, and regulations of various parts of cells which can be used to efficiently target new drugs, diagnose disease, and understand the physiology of the cell. Some of the most powerful new technologies include polymerase chain reaction (PCR) advances, “difference analysis” (that is, the discovery of different gene expression patterns between different cells), transgenic/gene knockout technology, and gene delivery to tissues/gene therapy [2] Molecular similarities provide evidence for the shared ancestry of life. DNA sequence comparisons can show how different species are related. ... Fossils provide evidence of long-term evolutionary changes, documenting the past existence of species that are now extinct.6 Disease prevention and treatment, generation of new protein products, and manipulation of plants and animals for desired phenotypic traits are all applications that are routinely addressed by the application of molecular biology methods [8]. Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry [3]. As of the early 2000s, the study of gene structure and function, molecular genetics, has been amongst the most prominent sub-field of molecular biology [5]. In the area of bacteriology molecular methods have been applied to resistance testing, the detection of infection due to fastidious bacteria, the more rapid detection of serious bacterial infections compared to conventional methods and the detection of bacterial infection after antibiotics have been administered [4,7]. Genes are segments of information stored on gigantic nucleic acid molecules and proteins are molecules in their own right, making both of these substances (and the relationship between them), extraordinarily important to study. Molecular biologists work to identify and understand the parts of biological pathways. Molecular Biological Tools (MBTs) are analyses used to estimate biodegradation at contaminated sites. They can provide key evidence about contaminant-degrading microorganisms and biodegradation processes at many phases associated with site remediation projects. Biotechnologies may be used to study the genetic material of viruses and bacteria to determine whether a disease is caused by particular disease-producing agents. Its techniques are also used to understand how genetic factors contribute to human disease in new era of molecular science and technology. Basic Methods in Cellular and Molecular Biology [8] • Using a Hemacytometer to Count Cells. ... • Passaging Cells. ... • PCR: The Polymerase Chain Reaction. ... • DNA Gel Electrophoresis. ... • Separating Protein with SDS-PAGE. ... • Bacterial Transformation: The Heat Shock Method. ... • Bacterial Transformation: Electroporation. ... • The ELISA Method. Sub disciplines of Molecular Biology [9] • Comparative Genomics. This is the study of human genetics by comparisons with model organisms such as mice, the fruit fly and the bacterium E. ... • DNA Forensics. ... • Functional Genomics. ... • Gene Therapy. ... • Genomics. ... • Molecular Genetics. ... • Pharmacogenomics. ... • Proteomics. Molecular and cell biology have a great deal to offer tropical medicine in the future. As well as helping to understand the population genetics and dynamics of both infectious and non-infectious diseases, they promise to provide a new generation of diagnostic and therapeutic agents, and to play a major role in the development of new vaccines and other approaches to the control of disease in new era [10]

Identification of the TIMP-2 binding site on the gelatinase A hemopexin C-domain by site-directed mutagenesis and the yeast two-hybrid system.

Numerous efforts have been made to genetically improve tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) cultivars using various conventional breeding methods, despite severe restrictions to improve some target traits. Molecular approaches such as metabolic genetic engineering and genome editing tools have been able to overcome the restrictions and have achieved the generation of tomatoes with improved, commercially important traits. Due to continuing global climate change and market competition, the molecular approaches have been greatly applied in genetic improvement of agronomic (e.g., biotic and abiotic stress tolerance) and fruit quality (e.g., antioxidant enrichment and prolongation of shelf-life) traits in tomato. In this review, we summarize the results of previous studies that achieved genetic improvement of tomato agronomic and fruit quality traits using the molecular approaches and highlight how the molecular approaches are crucial for the genetic improvement of tomato. In addition, this review describes the functional roles of genes that enhance fruit quality and improve biotic/abiotic stress tolerance; therefore, it will also provide information of the specific genes for further genetic improvement in other tomato cultivars or horticultural crops using the molecular approaches, thus allowing for a time-saving approach to advancing plant biology and the horticultural industry.

Despite the huge place molecular biology has acquired in biological research, it remains difficult to provide a definition of it. Is molecular biology a scientific discipline, or a new vision of organisms? When did it emerge? Is molecular biology still alive, or has this discipline died, and been replaced by new disciplines such as systems and synthetic biology? Were molecular biologists too reductionist? Three successive steps can be distinguished in the history of molecular biology: the 1930s, with the development of new technologies aimed at describing the structure of macromolecules, and an effort to ‘naturalize life’; a relatively short period (1940–1965) in which the main results were obtained; and the huge accumulation of molecular data that has modified biology since this time. Despite the fact that molecular explanations have in part reached their limits, I consider that molecular biology has succeeded in ‘naturalizing life’. Key concepts: Reductionism, to naturalize a phenomenon, systems biology, synthetic biology, mechanistic explanations, relations between molecular and evolutionary biology.

Review of Human Pathogenic Fungi: Molecular Biology and Pathogenic Mechanisms

This paper argues that the consensus physicalist antireductionism in the philosophy of biology cannot accommodate the research strategy or indeed the recent findings of molecular developmental biology. After describing Wolpert's programmatic claims on its behalf, and recent work by Gehring and others to identify the molecular determinants of development, the paper attempts to identify the relationship between evolutionary and developmental biology by reconciling two apparently conflicting accounts of bio-function - Wright's and Nagel's (as elaborated by Cummins). Finally, the paper seeks a way of defending the two central theses of physicalist antireductionism in the light of the research program of molecular developmental biology, by sharply reducing their metaphysical force. 1. The consensus anti-reductionist position in the philosophy of biology The consensus anti-reductionist position in the philosophy of biology begins with a close study of the relationship of Classical genetics (Mendelism and its successors), to the molecular biology of the nucleic acids, and their immediate protein products. This study reveals that there are in fact no laws of Mendelian genetics to be reduced to laws of molecular biology, and no distinctive laws in molecular biology to reduce laws of Mendelian genetics, that the kind terms of the two theories cannot be linked in general statements of manageable length that would systematically connect the two bodies of theory; and that neverthe- less, biologists continue to accord explanatory power to Mendelian genetics, while accepting that Mendelian genes and their properties are "nothing but" nucleic acids and their properties. The first three of these observations serve to completely undermine the thesis once held in the philosophy of biology that Mendelian genetics smoothly reduces to molecular genetics in accordance with some revision of the post-positivist account of reduction. The last two observations have been joined together as "physicalist antireductionism" - so called because

Vitamin A metabolism: new perspectives on absorption, transport, and storage

Oxy-radicals in molecular biology and pathology : UCLA Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology. New Series, Vol. 82 Edited by P.A. Cerutti, I. Fridovich and J. McCord A.R. Liss; New York, 1988 xx + 586 pages. $110 (£60 approx.)