Forensic science takes advantage of population variability in autosomal Short Tandem Repeat (STR) lengths to establish human identification. The most common method for DNA profiling by STR is based on PCR, where the highly polymorphic STR regions are amplified and analysed using Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) or Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS). MPS determines not only the repeat length, but also the repeat structure and variations in the flanking regions, making this method superior in discriminatory power compared to CE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is so far the only disease-modifying therapy for allergy, resulting in a long-lasting tolerance. However, the existing safety concerns and the need for more efficacious alternatives that shorten the duration of treatment have stimulated research into the development of novel alternatives. Some of these novel alternatives involve modifying allergens with molecules that target innate immunomodulatory receptors to suppress the immune activity of immune cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacterial infection risk in work environments has been extensively reported for healthcare workers, while this risk is rarely researched in other occupations. This study aimed to identify occupational environments in Taiwan's agricultural and healthcare industries with elevated bacterial infection risks by comparing risks for general bacterial infections and pneumonia. Using labour and health insurance claim data from 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMassively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) has gained interest in the forensic community over the past decade. Most of the published MPS methods focus on specialty applications intended for use in a limited number of samples with protocols that are relatively laborious. Recent developments using Reverse-Complement PCR enable an efficient MPS protocol suited for routine analysis of high numbers of samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF