African civil society initiatives to drive a biobanking, biosecurity and infrastructure development agenda in the wake of the West African Ebola outbreak.

This paper describes the formation of a civil society consortium, spurred to action by frustration over the Ebola crises, to facilitate the development of infrastructure and frameworks including policy development to support a harmonized, African approach to health crises on the continent. The Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium, or GET, is an important example of how African academics, scientists, clinicians and civil society have come together to initiate policy research, multilevel advocacy and implementation of initiatives aimed at building African capacity for timely and effective mitigations strategies against emerging infectious and neglected pathogens, with a focus on biobanking and biosecurity. The consortium has been able to establish it self as a leading voice, drawing attention to scientific infrastructure gaps, the importance of cultural sensitivities, and the power of community engagement.

Down-modulation of SEL1L, an unfolded protein response and endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation protein, sensitizes glioma stem cells to the cytotoxic effect of valproic acid.

Valproic acid (VPA), an histone deacetylase inhibitor, is emerging as a promising therapeutic agent for the treatments of gliomas by virtue of its ability to reactivate the expression of epigenetically silenced genes. VPA induces the unfolded protein response (UPR), an adaptive pathway displaying a dichotomic yin yang characteristic; it initially contributes in safeguarding the malignant cell survival, whereas long-lasting activation favors a proapoptotic response. By triggering UPR, VPA might tip the balance between cellular adaptation and programmed cell death via the deregulation of protein homeostasis and induction of proteotoxicity.

Cell and tissue microarray technologies for protein and nucleic acid expression profiling.

Tissue microarray (TMA) and cell microarray (CMA) are two powerful techniques that allow for the immunophenotypical characterization of hundreds of samples simultaneously. In particular, the CMA approach is particularly useful for immunophenotyping new stem cell lines (e.g.

Comprehensive outsourcing biobanking facility to serve the international research community.

The validity of results from biomarker studies using archived specimens depends on the integrity of the specimens and the manner in which they are collected, processed, and stored. The management of a huge amount of biomaterial generated from research studies and clinical trials is becoming a very demanding task and many organizations are facing the choice between in-house storage and processing and outsourcing some activities. Storage and logistic functions are the prime targets for outsourcing, because to sustain these critical assets organizations must have the expertise, the dedicated qualified personnel, the proper quality control programs, and available resources to fulfill the mandatory requirements to maintain the integrity of the samples.

mSEL-1L (Suppressor/enhancer Lin12-like) protein levels influence murine neural stem cell self-renewal and lineage commitment.

Murine SEL-1L (mSEL-1L) is a key component of the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation pathway. It is essential during development as revealed by the multi-organ dysfunction and in uterus lethality occurring in homozygous mSEL-1L-deficient mice. Here we show that mSEL-1L is highly expressed in pluripotent embryonic stem cells and multipotent neural stem cells (NSCs) but silenced in all mature neural derivatives (i.

Sub-Saharan centralized biorepository for genetic and genomic research.

Quality-assessed biomedical samples are essential for academia- and industry driven research on human diseases. The etiologies and the molecular genetic factors relevant in African diseases, including both infections and complex degenerative diseases as well as cancer, need to be studied using well annotated and well-preserved biosamples acquired from native African ethnic groups and compare the results with non-African populations and/or with Afro-Americans. However, a number of difficulties negatively impact on the possibility to obtain clinically annotated biological samples in most Sub-Saharan African countries.

Systematic chromosomal analysis of cultured mouse neural stem cell lines.

The potential use of neural stem cells (NSCs) in basic research, drug testing, and for the development of therapeutic strategies is dependent on their large scale in vitro amplification which, however, introduces considerable risks of genetic instability and transformation. NSCs have been derived from different sources, but the occurrence of chromosomal instability has been monitored only to a limited extent in relationship to the source of derivation, growth procedure, long-term culture, and genetic manipulation. Here we have systematically investigated the effect of these parameters on the chromosomal stability of pure populations of mouse NSCs obtained after neuralization from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or directly from fetal or adult mouse brain.