Publications by authors named "Hugo C Gramajo"

Article Synopsis
  • Over two decades, initiatives have aimed to enhance STEM undergraduate outcomes, with the inclusive Research Education Community (iREC) emerging as a scalable reform model that supports STEM faculty in implementing course-based research to improve student learning.
  • This study utilized pathway modeling to describe the HHMI Science Education Alliance (SEA) iREC, identifying how faculty engagement leads to sustainable adoption and improvement of new teaching strategies through feedback from over 100 participating faculty members.
  • The findings indicate that iREC fosters a collaborative environment where STEM faculty can share expertise and data, thereby enhancing their teaching practices and contributing to the overall evolution of undergraduate science education.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the ability of marine microorganisms in coastal sediments to produce wax esters (WE) and triacylglycerols (TAG), which are important types of neutral lipids.
  • Researchers collected and analyzed sediment samples from subantarctic and Antarctic environments, finding a high abundance and diversity of bacteria capable of synthesizing these lipids, specifically looking at the gene associated with the key enzyme WS/DGAT.
  • The findings suggest that the observed lipid synthesis is linked to broader metabolic processes like fatty-acid metabolism and carbon recycling, highlighting the ecological significance of these bacteria in marine ecosystems.
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A new expression system was developed by introducing two major modifications into the genome of Escherichia coli: a deletion in the gal operon (DeltagalEKT) to allow the use of the inexpensive compound galactose as a gratuitous inducer and the introduction of the gal P2 promoter driving the expression of the T7 RNA polymerase. The novel JRR10 strain containing these two features gives high-level expression of a reporter gene cloned under the T7 phi10 promoter in high cell density cultures. The cost of the induction of this novel system is more than 30 times lower than that of the IPTG-induced system of the widely used BL21 strain.

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An important characteristic of promoters used in recombinant protein production in Escherichi coli is their inducibility in a simple and cost-effective manner. The IPTG inducible promoters lac, tac, and trc are powerful and widely used for basic research. However, the use of IPTG in large-scale production is undesirable due to its high cost and toxicity.

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Refolding of proteins from inclusion bodies is a field of increasing interest for obtaining large amounts of active enzymes. Consequently, the development of inexpensive and scalable processes is required. This is particularly challenging in the case of eukaryotic proteins containing cysteines, which may form disulfide bonds in the native active protein.

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The first characterization of fatty acid uptake in a Gram-positive bacterium is reported. Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) utilizes fatty acids of different chain length (C4-C18) as sole carbon and energy sources. In vivo beta-oxidation studies and the assay of two enzymes of the beta-oxidation cycle proved that fatty acid degradation is constitutive in this micro-organism.

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