G-Quadruplex-Filtered Selective Ion-to-Ion Current Amplification for Non-Invasive Ion Monitoring in Real Time.

Living cells efflux intracellular ions for maintaining cellular life, so intravital measurements of specific ion signals are of significant importance for studying cellular functions and pharmacokinetics. In this work, de novo synthesis of artificial K -selective membrane and its integration with polyelectrolyte hydrogel-based open-junction ionic diode (OJID) is demonstrated, achieving a real-time K -selective ion-to-ion current amplification in complex bioenvironments. By mimicking biological K channels and nerve impulse transmitters, in-line K -binding G-quartets are introduced across freestanding lipid bilayers by G-specific hexylation of monolithic G-quadruplex, and the pre-filtered K flow is directly converted to amplified ionic currents by the OJID with a fast response time at 100 ms intervals.

De novo selected hACE2 mimics that integrate hotspot peptides with aptameric scaffolds for binding tolerance of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The frequent occurrence of viral variants is a critical problem in developing antiviral prophylaxis and therapy; along with stronger recognition of host cell receptors, the variants evade the immune system-based vaccines and neutralizing agents more easily. In this work, we focus on enhanced receptor binding of viral variants and demonstrate generation of receptor-mimicking synthetic reagents, capable of strongly interacting with viruses and their variants. The hotspot interaction of viruses with receptor-derived short peptides is maximized by aptamer-like scaffolds, the compact and stable architectures of which can be in vitro selected from a myriad of the hotspot peptide-coupled random nucleic acids.

Recent Advances in Droplet-based Microfluidic Technologies for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Recently, droplet-based microfluidic systems have been widely used in various biochemical and molecular biological assays. Since this platform technique allows manipulation of large amounts of data and also provides absolute accuracy in comparison to conventional bioanalytical approaches, over the last decade a range of basic biochemical and molecular biological operations have been transferred to drop-based microfluidic formats. In this review, we introduce recent advances and examples of droplet-based microfluidic techniques that have been applied in biochemistry and molecular biology research including genomics, proteomics and cellomics.

A Korean kindred with autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy and mental retardation.

Background: A Korean family had distinctive clinical and neuroimaging features and carried the same genetic mutation that was found in a previously described Japanese kindred with autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy.

Objective: To describe the first Korean family with autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy.

Methods: Members of a large family, including 9 affected individuals from 3 generations, underwent a comprehensive genetic, clinical, electroencephalographic, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging evaluation.