Preclinical Safety Evaluation in Rats of a Polymeric Matrix Containing an siRNA Drug Used as a Local and Prolonged Delivery System for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy.

Conventional chemotherapy treatments for pancreatic cancer are mainly palliative. RNA interference (RNAi)-based drugs present the potential for a new targeted treatment. LOcal Drug EluteR (LODER(TM)) is a novel biodegradable polymeric matrix that shields drugs against enzymatic degradation and releases small interfering RNA (siRNA) against G12D-mutated KRAS (siG12D).

The WASp-based actin polymerization machinery is required in somatic support cells for spermatid maturation and release.

WASp family proteins serve as conserved regulators of branched microfilament array formation via the Arp2/3 actin polymerization machinery. We have identified a specific role during spermatogenesis for the Drosophila WASp homolog (Wsp) and associated elements. Spermatogenesis within the fly testis is carried out in cysts, where a pair of somatic cyst cells encloses differentiating sperm.

Flybow: genetic multicolor cell labeling for neural circuit analysis in Drosophila melanogaster.

To facilitate studies of neural network architecture and formation, we generated three Drosophila melanogaster variants of the mouse Brainbow-2 system, called Flybow. Sequences encoding different membrane-tethered fluorescent proteins were arranged in pairs within cassettes flanked by recombination sites. Flybow combines the Gal4-upstream activating sequence binary system to regulate transgene expression and an inducible modified Flp-FRT system to drive inversions and excisions of cassettes.

Neural circuitry that governs Drosophila male courtship behavior.

Male-specific fruitless (fru) products (Fru(M)) are both necessary and sufficient to "hardwire" the potential for male courtship behavior into the Drosophila nervous system. Fru(M) is expressed in approximately 2% of neurons in the male nervous system, but not in the female. We have targeted the insertion of GAL4 into the fru locus, allowing us to visualize and manipulate the Fru(M)-expressing neurons in the male as well as their counterparts in the female.

Synchronization of interphase events depends neither on mitosis nor on cdk1.

Human HT2-19 cells with a conditional cdk1 mutation stop dividing upon cdk1 inactivation and undergo multiple rounds of endoreplication. We show herein that major cell cycle events remain synchronized in these endoreplicating cells. DNA replication alternates with gap phases and cell cycle-specific cyclin E expression is maintained.