Assessment of Invadopodium Formation and Gelatin Degradation in Vitro.

Some cancer cells form highly regulated structures, termed invadopodia, which mediate local, enzymatic degradation of extracellular matrix and facilitate cancer cell invasion and migration during metastatic progression. Understanding invadopodium formation and function in cancer cells is therefore an important strategy to find novel clinical approaches to interfere with metastasis. Invadopodia are F-actin-rich protrusions that form on the advancing edge of cells, supported by complex molecular interactions at the cell membrane.

Development of Primers Specific for Detection of , the Causal Agent of Beech Leaf Disease, in Plant Tissue.

Beech leaf disease (BLD), an emerging threat to American beech () in the northern United States and Canada, was recently confirmed to be caused by the nematode subsp (hereafter ). Consequently, there is a need for a rapid, sensitive, and accurate method for detecting for both diagnostic as well as control purposes. This research developed a new set of DNA primers that specifically amplify and allow for accurate detection of the nematode in plant tissue.