| Announcing Winners of Genomic Pioneers Award |
Celebrating Primers of Genomic Research
 The winners of the maiden edition of the Genomic Pioneer Awards were announced at the HUGO’s 13th international meeting on the Human Genome on 30 September, 2008.
The Genomic Pioneers Award winners are:
Europe: Dr. Sylvie Chauvaux, Asst. Professor, Institut Pasteur, Paris.
Asia-Pacific: Dr. Juergen Pipper, Senior Scientist, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology Singapore.
India: Dr. Srikanta Kumar Rath, Scientist, Genotoxicity Laboratory, Central Drug Research Institute.
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| Introducing Sequencing Services |
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Enabling Cost-Effective Quality Sequencing
Introducing high throughput sequencing services and solutions to all core and research laboratories in academic, government, and medical institutions; as well as biotech and pharmaceutical laboratories. Using the gold standard 96-capillary 3730xl DNA Analyzer, Ocimum now provides various DNA analysis applications such as microsatellites, AFLP, SNP analysis, BAC fingerprinting, mutation detection, resequencing, LOH (loss of heterozygosity) and traditional DNA sequencing for animal, plant, and microbial genomes.
Ocimum with its team of trained bioinformaticians, sequencing experts, and statisticians can help you to achieve optimized assembly, accurate SNP analysis and better base calling. Our expert team also offers assistance for your genome sequence annotation and analysis, mutational analysis, and confidential sequencing data management. More... |
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| Research Article |
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Gene Expression in Human Hippocampus from Cocaine Abusers Identifies Genes which Regulate Extracellular Matrix Remodeling
Deborah C. Mash1,2, Jarlath ffrench-Mullen3, Nikhil Adi1, Yujing Qin1, Andrew Buck1, John Pablo1
1 Department of Neurology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America, 2 Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America, 3 Gene Logic (An Ocimum Biosolutions Company), Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America
Abstract:
The chronic effects of cocaine abuse on brain structure and function are blamed for the inability of most addicts to remain abstinent. Part of the difficulty in preventing relapse is the persisting memory of the intense euphoria or cocaine “rush”. Most abused drugs and alcohol induce neuroplastic changes in brain pathways subserving emotion and cognition. Such changes may account for the consolidation and structural reconfiguration of synaptic connections with exposure to cocaine. Adaptive hippocampal plasticity could be related to specific patterns of gene expression with chronic cocaine abuse. Here, we compare gene expression profiles in the human hippocampus from cocaine addicts and age-matched drug-free control subjects. Cocaine abusers had 151 gene transcripts upregulated, while 91 gene transcripts were downregulated. Topping the list of cocaine-regulated transcripts was RECK in the human hippocampus (FC = 2.0; p<0.05). RECK is a membrane-anchored MMP inhibitor that is implicated in the coordinated regulation of extracellular matrix integrity and angiogenesis. In keeping with elevated RECK expression, active MMP9 protein levels were decreased in the hippocampus from cocaine abusers. Pathway analysis identified other genes regulated by cocaine that code for proteins involved in the remodeling of the cytomatrix and synaptic connections and the inhibition of blood vessel proliferation (PCDH8, LAMB1, ITGB6, CTGF and EphB4). The observed microarray phenotype in the human hippocampus identified RECK and other region-specific genes that may promote long-lasting structural changes with repeated cocaine abuse. Extracellular matrix remodeling in the hippocampus may be a persisting effect of chronic abuse that contributes to the compulsive and relapsing nature of cocaine addiction. More... |
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