State University of New York System

About: State University of New York System is a education organization based out in Albany, New York, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 54077 authors who have published 78070 publications receiving 2985160 citations.

pSAT vectors: a modular series of plasmids for autofluorescent protein tagging and expression of multiple genes in plants

Abstract: Autofluorescent protein tags represent one of the major and, perhaps, most powerful tools in modern cell biology for visualization of various cellular processes in vivo. In addition, advances in confocal microscopy and the development of autofluorescent proteins with different excitation and emission spectra allowed their simultaneous use for detection of multiple events in the same cell. Nevertheless, while autofluorescent tags are widely used in plant research, the need for a versatile and comprehensive set of vectors specifically designed for fluorescent tagging and transient and stable expression of multiple proteins in plant cells from a single plasmid has not been met by either the industrial or the academic communities. Here, we describe a new modular satellite (SAT) vector system that supports N- and C-terminal fusions to five different autofluorescent tags, EGFP, EYFP, Citrine-YFP, ECFP, and DsRed2. These vectors carry an expanded multiple cloning site that allows easy exchange of the target genes between different autofluorescence tags, and expression of the tagged proteins is controlled by constitutive promoters, which can be easily replaced with virtually any other promoter of interest. In addition, a series of SAT vectors has been adapted for high throughput Gateway recombination cloning. Furthermore, individual expression cassettes can be assembled into Agrobacterium binary plasmids, allowing efficient transient and stable expression of multiple autofluorescently tagged proteins from a single vector following its biolistic delivery or Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation.

A pilot study in non-human primates shows no adverse response to intravenous injection of quantum dots

Abstract: Quantum dots have been used in biomedical research for imaging1,2, diagnostics3,4 and sensing purposes5,6. However, concerns over the cytotoxicity of their heavy metal constituents7,8 and conflicting results from in vitro7,9 and small animal10,11,12,13,14 toxicity studies have limited their translation towards clinical applications. Here, we show in a pilot study that rhesus macaques injected with phospholipid micelle-encapsulated CdSe/CdS/ZnS quantum dots do not exhibit evidence of toxicity. Blood and biochemical markers remained within normal ranges following treatment, and histology of major organs after 90 days showed no abnormalities. Our results show that acute toxicity of these quantum dots in vivo can be minimal. However, chemical analysis revealed that most of the initial dose of cadmium remained in the liver, spleen and kidneys after 90 days. This means that the breakdown and clearance of quantum dots is quite slow, suggesting that longer-term studies will be required to determine the ultimate fate of these heavy metals and the impact of their persistence in primates. Six rhesus macaques injected with a cadmium-based quantum-dot formulation survived without any evidence of toxicity, but cadmium remained in certain organs after 90 days.

A Common Molecular Basis for Rearrangement Disorders on Chromosome 22q11

Abstract: The chromosome 22q11 region is susceptible to rearrangements that are associated with congenital anomaly disorders and malignant tumors. Three congenital anomaly disorders, cat-eye syndrome, der(22) syndrome and velo-cardio-facial syndrome/DiGeorge syndrome (VCFS/DGS) are associated with tetrasomy, trisomy or monosomy, respectively, for part of chromosome 22q11. VCFS/DGS is the most common syndrome associated with 22q11 rearrangements. In order to determine whether there are particular regions on 22q11 that are prone to rearrangements, the deletion end-points in a large number of VCFS/DGS patients were defined by haplotype analysis. Most VCFS/DGS patients have a similar 3 Mb deletion, some have a nested distal deletion breakpoint resulting in a 1.5 Mb deletion and a few rare patients have unique deletions or translocations. The high prevalence of the disorder in the population and the fact that most cases occur sporadically suggest that sequences at or near the breakpoints confer susceptibility to chromosome rearrangements. To investigate this hypothesis, we developed hamster-human somatic hybrid cell lines from VCFS/DGS patients with all three classes of deletions and we now show that the breakpoints occur within similar low copy repeats, termed LCR22s. To support this idea further, we identified a family that carries an interstitial duplication of the same 3 Mb region that is deleted in VCFS/DGS patients. We present models to explain how the LCR22s can mediate different homologous recombination events, thereby generating a number of rearrangements that are associated with congenital anomaly disorders. We identified five additional copies of the LCR22 on 22q11 that may mediate other rearrangements leading to disease.

Coexistence of WiFi and LiFi toward 5G: concepts, opportunities, and challenges

Abstract: Smart phones, tablets, and the rise of the Internet of Things are driving an insatiable demand for wireless capacity. This demand requires networking and Internet infrastructures to evolve to meet the needs of current and future multimedia applications. Wireless HetNets will play an important role toward the goal of using a diverse spectrum to provide high quality-of-service, especially in indoor environments where most data are consumed. An additional tier in the wireless HetNets concept is envisioned using indoor gigabit small-cells to offer additional wireless capacity where it is needed the most. The use of light as a new mobile access medium is considered promising. In this article, we describe the general characteristics of WiFi and VLC (or LiFi) and demonstrate a practical framework for both technologies to coexist. We explore the existing research activity in this area and articulate current and future research challenges based on our experience in building a proof-of-concept prototype VLC HetNet.