Efficient synthesis of the ketone body ester (R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate and its (S,S) enantiomer.

The ketone body ester (R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate and its (S,S) enantiomer were prepared in a short, operationally simple synthetic sequence from racemic β-butyrolactone. Enantioselective hydrolysis of β-butyrolactone with immobilized Candida antarctica lipase-B (CAL-B) results in (R)-β-butyrolactone and (S)-β-hydroxybutyric acid, which are easily converted to (R) or (S)-ethyl-3-hydroxybutyrate and reduced to (R) or (S)-1,3 butanediol. Either enantiomer of ethyl-3-hydroxybutyrate and 1,3 butanediol are then coupled, again using CAL-B, to produce the ketone body ester product.

Cerebral Autoregulation Real-Time Monitoring.

Cerebral autoregulation is a mechanism which maintains constant cerebral blood flow (CBF) despite changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP). Assessing whether this mechanism is intact or impaired and determining its boundaries is important in many clinical settings, where primary or secondary injuries to the brain may occur. Herein we describe the development of a new ultrasound tagged near infra red light monitor which tracks CBF trends, in parallel, it continuously measures blood pressure and correlates them to produce a real time autoregulation index.

X-Rank: a robust algorithm for small molecule identification using tandem mass spectrometry.

The diversity of experimental workflows involving LC-MS/MS and the extended range of mass spectrometers tend to produce extremely variable spectra. Variability reduces the accuracy of compound identification produced by commonly available software for a spectral library search. We introduce here a new algorithm that successfully matches MS/MS spectra generated by a range of instruments, acquired under different conditions.

Abstracts of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities 2007 meeting, Tampa, Florida, USA.

A number of protein and peptide identification software tools based on MS data are available to the proteomics researchers. They all share a common functionality: they process MS data and present in their output peptides and proteins that best match with the input data. Even if restricting to sequence search engines one can observe heterogeneity of approaches, of algorithms, of input parameters, of the use of available sequence databases, of output information (scores, confidence levels, details of interpretation, etc.

In vitro and in silico processes to identify differentially expressed proteins.

We present an integrated proteomics platform designed for performing differential analyses. Since reproducible results are essential for comparative studies, we explain how we improved reproducibility at every step of our laboratory processes, e.g.