Semi-nested RT-PCR enables sensitive and high-throughput detection of SARS-CoV-2 based on melting analysis.

Background: Asymptomatic transmission was found to be the Achilles' heel of the symptom-based screening strategy, necessitating the implementation of mass testing to efficiently contain the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic. However, the global shortage of molecular reagents and the low throughput of available realtime PCR facilities were major limiting factors.

Methods: A novel semi-nested and heptaplex (7-plex) RT-PCR assay with melting analysis for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been established for either individual testing or 96-sample pooled testing.

Use of machine learning in prediction of granule particle size distribution and tablet tensile strength in commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing.

In the manufacturing of pharmaceutical Oral Solid Dosage (OSD) forms, Particle Size Distribution (PSD) and Tensile Strength (TS) are common in-process tests that are controlled in order to achieve the quality targets of the end-product. The Quality by Design (QbD) concept elaborates process understanding and sufficient controls. However, for older pharmaceutical products upscaled to commercial phase with Quality by Testing (QbT) approach, the knowhow of the product-specific critical parameters is often limited.

Long-term performance and stability of molecular shotgun lipidomic analysis of human plasma samples.

The stability of the lipid concentration levels in shotgun lipidomics analysis was tracked over a period of 3.5 years. Concentration levels in several lipid classes, such as phospholipids, were determined in human plasma lipid extracts.

Beyond LDL-C lowering: distinct molecular sphingolipids are good indicators of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) deficiency.

Objectives: Inhibition of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) has been proposed to be a potential new therapeutic target for treatment of hypercholesterolaemia. However, little is known about the effects of PCSK9 inhibition on the lipidome.

Methods: We performed molecular lipidomic analyses of plasma samples obtained from PCSK9-deficient mice, and serum of human carriers of a loss-of-function variant in the PCSK9 gene (R46L).

A novel method for assigning functional linkages to proteins using enhanced phylogenetic trees.

Motivation: Functional linkages implicate pairwise relationships between proteins that work together to implement biological tasks. During evolution, functionally linked proteins are likely to be preserved or eliminated across a range of genomes in a correlated fashion. Based on this hypothesis, phylogenetic profiling-based approaches try to detect pairs of protein families that show similar evolutionary patterns.

Inferring the physical connectivity of complex networks from their functional dynamics.

Background: Biological networks, such as protein-protein interactions, metabolic, signalling, transcription-regulatory networks and neural synapses, are representations of large-scale dynamic systems. The relationship between the network structure and functions remains one of the central problems in current multidisciplinary research. Significant progress has been made toward understanding the implication of topological features for the network dynamics and functions, especially in biological networks.

Evaluation of different domain-based methods in protein interaction prediction.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play an important role in many biological functions. PPIs typically involve binding between domains, the basic units of protein folding, evolution and function. Identifying domain-domain interactions (DDIs) would aid understanding PPI networks.