Connexin 36 mediates blood cell flow in mouse pancreatic islets.

The insulin-secreting β-cells are contained within islets of Langerhans, which are highly vascularized. Blood cell flow rates through islets are glucose-dependent, even though there are no changes in blood cell flow within in the surrounding exocrine pancreas. This suggests a specific mechanism of glucose-regulated blood flow in the islet.

Molecular mechanisms of chronic kidney transplant rejection via large-scale proteogenomic analysis of tissue biopsies.

The most common cause of kidney transplant failure is the poorly characterized histopathologic entity interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IFTA). There are no known unifying mechanisms, no effective therapy, and no proven preventive strategies. Possible mechanisms include chronic immune rejection, inflammation, drug toxicity, and chronic kidney injury from secondary factors.

Real-time, multidimensional in vivo imaging used to investigate blood flow in mouse pancreatic islets.

The pancreatic islets of Langerhans are highly vascularized micro-organs that play a key role in the regulation of blood glucose homeostasis. The specific arrangement of endocrine cell types in islets suggests a coupling between morphology and function within the islet. Here, we established a line-scanning confocal microscopy approach to examine the relationship between blood flow and islet cell type arrangement by real-time in vivo imaging of intra-islet blood flow in mice.

Applying genomics to organ transplantation medicine in both discovery and validation of biomarkers.

The field of biomarker discovery made a significant leap over the past few decades. As we enter the Era of the Human Genome, thousands of biomarkers can be identified in a relatively high-throughput fashion. While such magnitude and diversity of biomarkers can be seen as a challenge by itself, the field is being moved forward by new advances in bioinformatics and Systems Biology.

Carbohydrate microarray for profiling the antibodies interacting with Globo H tumor antigen.

Understanding the specificity of cell-surface carbohydrates interaction with antibodies and receptors is important for the development of new therapeutics and high-sensitivity diagnostics. This approach is, however, limited to the availability of natural and truncated sequences of the oligosaccharides and the sensitivity of the assay system. Reported here is the synthesis of the cancer antigen Globo H hexasaccharide, an epitope found on the cell surface of breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers, and its truncated sequences by using the programmable one-pot synthesis strategy.

Printed covalent glycan array for ligand profiling of diverse glycan binding proteins.

Here we describe a glycan microarray constructed by using standard robotic microarray printing technology to couple amine functionalized glycans to an amino-reactive glass slide. The array comprises 200 synthetic and natural glycan sequences representing major glycan structures of glycoproteins and glycolipids. The array has remarkable utility for profiling the specificity of a diverse range of glycan binding proteins, including C-type lectins, siglecs, galectins, anticarbohydrate antibodies, lectins from plants and microbes, and intact viruses.