Alfred Nobel--his life and work.

December 2001 marks 100 years since the first Nobel prizes were awarded. But who was Alfred Nobel, and how and why were the prizes that bear his name established?

Intracellular localisation of the Ro 52kD auto-antigen in HeLa cells visualised with green fluorescent protein chimeras.

Autoantibodies to the Ro/SSA and La/SSB antigens are found in patients with Sjogren's syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus. The Ro/SSA autoantigen consists of a 52 kD and a 60 kD protein, complexed with one of four small RNA molecules. The La protein can associate with the complex.

Ro/SS-A and La/SS-B antibody level variation in patients with Sjögren's syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus.

To examine both possible correlations between anti-Ro/SS-A and anti-La/SS-B levels and their correlation with clinical disease activity in patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an ELISA was developed using purified recombinant Ro 60 kDa, Ro 52 kDa and La antigens. The ELISA was used for testing sequential serum samples from 16 patients with either SS or SLE. The patients were followed for periods between 15 and 128 months, and 3-15 serum samples per patient were analysed and compared with clinically apparent disease activity at the time of sampling in 14 patients.

Intracellular distribution of an integral nuclear pore membrane protein fused to green fluorescent protein--localization of a targeting domain.

The 121-kDa pore membrane protein (POM121) is a bitopic integral membrane protein specifically located in the pore membrane domain of the nuclear envelope with its short N-terminal tail exposed on the luminal side and its major C-terminal portion adjoining the nuclear pore complex. In order to locate a signal for targeting of POM121 to the nuclear pores, we overexpressed selected regions of POM121 alone or fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in transiently transfected COS-1 cells or in a stably transfected neuroblastoma cell line. Microscopic analysis of the GFP fluorescence or immunostaining was used to determine the intracellular distribution of the overexpressed proteins.