Splenic Nerve Neuromodulation Reduces Inflammation and Promotes Resolution in Chronically Implanted Pigs.

Neuromodulation of the immune system has been proposed as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. We recently demonstrated that stimulation of near-organ autonomic nerves to the spleen can be harnessed to modulate the inflammatory response in an anesthetized pig model. The development of neuromodulation therapy for the clinic requires chronic efficacy and safety testing in a large animal model.

Tuneable plasmonic gold dendrimer nanochains for sensitive disease detection.

We report the development of a tuneable plasmonic nanochain immunoassay with increased sensitivity over traditional monodisperse nanoparticle lateral flow tests. Our approach takes advantage of the unique self-assembling properties of polyamidoamine dendrimers with gold nanoparticles in aqueous media to create one-dimensional nanochains, with a distinct red to blue colour change, attributable to a longitudinal plasmon resonance, which can be readily detected by eye and a digital camera. We optimise and characterise nanochain formation and stability using UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering.

A Geographically Diverse Collection of Schizosaccharomyces pombe Isolates Shows Limited Phenotypic Variation but Extensive Karyotypic Diversity.

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has been widely used to study eukaryotic cell biology, but almost all of this work has used derivatives of a single strain. We have studied 81 independent natural isolates and 3 designated laboratory strains of Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Schizosaccharomyces pombe varies significantly in size but shows only limited variation in proliferation in different environments compared with Saccharomyces cerevisiae.