Publications by authors named "Stephen Simkins"

Background: The Papanicolaou (Pap) screen has been successful in reducing cervical cancer; but exhibits low sensitivity when detecting cervical dysplasia. Use of molecular biomarkers in Pap tests may improve diagnostic accuracy.

Design: Monoclonal antibodies to Minichromosome Maintenance Protein 2 (MCM2) and DNA Topoisomerase II α (TOP2A) were selected for use in IHC based on their ability to differentiate normal from diseased cervical tissues in tissue microarrays.

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The chromosomal translocation t(8;21) often found in acute myeloid leukemia generates an oncogenic fusion protein AML1-ETO. This chimeric oncoprotein disrupts wild-type AML1 function and dysregulates genes important for normal myelopoiesis. Monoclonal antibodies that can capture and detect the AML1-ETO fusion protein would help with early diagnosis and treatment prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the use of antibodies targeting minichromosome maintenance proteins MCM6 and MCM7 to improve the detection of cervical disease, as current screening methods like the Papanicolaou test miss some cases.
  • Researchers screened hybridoma clones against tissue samples to identify specific antibodies, ultimately selecting two (2E6.7 for MCM7 and 9D4.3 for MCM6) based on their strong performance in recognizing abnormal cervical cells with minimal interference from normal tissues.
  • Findings include the successful characterization of the antibodies' epitopes and their high affinity, suggesting potential for enhanced sensitivity in cervical cancer detection through immunocytochemistry.
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Quality control is paramount to reproducibly achieving oligonucleotide therapeutics and diagnostics of superior value. However, incomplete deprotection of nucleoside reactive groups after the automated chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides would result in diminished antisense activity and in erroneous array analysis of gene expression. Mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis are used to detect aborted sequences of oligonucleotides, but not to identify and quantify incompletely deprotected oligonucleotides.

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