Antibody News

The IKK complex, or inhibitor of NFkB kinase, is composed of IKK alpha and IKK beta.  These kinases are at the core of the NFkB signaling cascade.  The NFkB family is made up of transcription factors that are kept inactive in the cytoplasm through inhibitory IkB proteins. When various stimuli are activated, these IKK proteins go through phosphorylation, leading to polyubiquitination and subsequent degradation.  Without the presence of these inhibitory factors, NFkB can now enter the nucleus and turn on the transcription of a variety of genes that influence cellular proliferation, immune response, apoptosis, cancer pathways and more.  Recently, research has shed light on the yellow pigment from Curcuma longa, curcumin, as having potential therapeutic properties through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory characteristics.  The following experiments use an IKB alpha antibody to investigate the effects of...

This year the Novus team participated in an office food drive to help feed the homeless and families in need.  

In the Colorado, 1 in 8 people may not have enough money to buy food. For the children in Colorado, 1 in 5 may not know where their next meal may come from (source Hunger Free Colorado). 

We were able to collect over 247 pounds of food including:

• 3 large turkeys
• 27 pounds of potatoes
• 30+ canned food items from veggies to cranberry sauce
• 12+ boxes of stuffing

All the donations were delivered to Aurora Interchurch.

Thanks to all who donated and we hope that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Autophagy is a crucial cellular process that clears the cell of protein aggregates, toxins, and damaged cell products. Accumulation of toxins, damaged cell products and unwanted proteins has been proven to play a role in aging and many forms of disease and cancer. p62/SQSTM1, or sequestosome-1, is an autophagosome receptor that interacts with cargo tagged for degradation in order to turn on selective autophagy.  p62/SQSTM1 binds LC3 through the LC3 interacting region (LIR), which is necessary for degradation of sequestosomes.  p62/SQSTM1 is also required for the formation and degradation of polyubiquitin-containing bodies in autophagy. Outside of p62/SQSTM1’s role in autophagy, it has also been implicated in cell signaling that impacts differentiation, apoptosis and immune response.  Here we take a closer look at the proteins in the brain that may be required for autophagy, as well as defective autophagy in neurons, with the use of a...

1. Multicolor immunofluorescence staining is best carried out by sequentially incubating cells with unlabeled-primary and labeled-secondary antibodies. However when options are limited, it may also be performed by simultaneous incubation of cells with directly labelled primary antibodies.  
   
2. When picking fluorochrome colors for labeled primary or secondary antibodies, one must consider their fluorescent emission spectrum. Ensure that there is a minimal to negligible emission-spectra overlap between the selected fluorochromes. This will help eliminate bleed through effects during staining analysis.  
   
   
3. It is recommended to use the dimmest fluorochrome from one's available options to label the most abundant protein. Conversely, one should try detecting the least abundant protein with the fluorochrome having the highest quantum yield. These tips will help to efficiently/accurately detect multiple proteins...

Hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is a protein that plays an essential role in hypoxia, or low levels of cellular oxygen. HIF-1 is a heterodimeric protein that consists of a constitutively expressed beta subunit and oxygen related alpha subunit.  Both subunits have a basic helix-loop-helix domain that leads to dimerization, where HIF-1 alpha carries an oxygen-dependent degradation (ODD) domain.  Outside of the role of HIF-1 in hypoxia adaptation, it is also involved in cancer, inflammation and metabolism.  The HIF-1 alpha subunit is specifically degraded in normal oxygen environments, where it is not active and functioning until a hypoxic environment is sensed.  In some cases, HIF-1 alpha expression can be quite high, leading to angiogenesis and increased blood flow.  The link between HIF-1 alpha activity and retinal pathways has long been established, given that photoreceptors in the retina require a large amount of oxygen to function properly.  The use of a...

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is an important oncogenic transcriptional factor that mediates tumor induced immune suppression.  Specifically, STAT3 transmits signals from cytokines and growth factor receptors in the plasma membrane (PM) to the nucleus, where they alter gene transcription.  Because of this transcriptional regulatory role, STAT3 also plays a part in regulating transcription of many critical genes that are involved in apoptosis, cell differentiation, immune response, tumor formation and more.  Using a STAT3 antibody in the application of chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a very effective way to examine the relationship between genes and proteins in different molecular pathways and disease pathologies.  The next two studies used a...

TRPM8, or transient receptor potential melastatin 8, is a nonselective cation channel that is activated by cold environments and menthol-like cooling compounds.  While TRPM8 is best known for its location in peripheral nerve endings, it has functionality both inside and out of the nervous system.  Within the nervous system, TRPM8 is responsible for our response to cold and or menthol like stimuli.  Our reaction to cold sensation is involved in a variety of processes and can be a part of reactions such as asthma.  Outside of the nervous system, TRPM8 has shown high expression in prostate cancer tumors and is thought to potentially play a role in prostate cancer cell migration.  The TRPM8 protein is composed of six transmembrane domains with a transient receptor potential (TRP) domain at the C-terminal end.  In addition to cold temperatures (below 26 degrees Celsius) and menthol like compounds, antagonists such as capsazepine (synthetic analog of capsaicin, a heat...

Here at Bio-Techne we always look forward to the annual announcements of winners of the highly coveted Nobel Prize – the greatest award in science. How can you go about predicting which scientists might be in line for a life-changing phone-call from the Nobel Committee?

Well, looking at citations is one possible approach.

Thomson Reuters analysts annually mine scientific citation data to identify the researchers whose work is worthy of Nobel recognition, and are responsible for the world's most influential scientific innovations. These are the scholars and innovators, whose papers typically rank in the top 0.1% by citations within their field. Many of these go on to win the Nobel Prize for their contributions towards the advancement of science.

The list of 2016 Citation Laureates has been released, prior to the announcement of Nobel Prize winners, beginning on 3 October. Thomson Reuters has had a degree of success in predicting which scientists...

Similar to other cell processes, the balance between cell survival and cell death is an important equilibrium that when altered expression of genes can lead to a variety of disease.  For example, too little cell death can promote cell overgrowth and eventually cancer, whereas too much cell death can lead to neurodegeneration (among other things).  Bcl-2 in particular is a pro-survival protein that is part of the Bcl-2 family of proteins, consisting of Bax, Bid, PUMA, and Noxa.  While overexpression of Bcl-2 has rescued cells from certain toxic stimuli, such as hypoxia, of greater interest is its ability to prevent cell death during a chemotherapeutic treatment and its resistance to these drugs.  In fact, an upregulation of Bcl-2 family member proteins has been used as a light prognostic factor in diagnosing certain cancers.  Given this information, the use of Bcl-2 primary antibodies in research has been successful in elucidating...

Actin is essential for a wide range of cell functions, ranging from cell division and chromatin remodeling to vesicle trafficking and maintenance of cellular structure. In fact, mislocalization of actin to cell junctions during development leads to facial malformations such as cleft lip.  Actin is successful in the regulation of a variety of cell functions due to its high number of isoforms.  One such isoform of actin is alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA), which is plentiful in vascular smooth-muscle cells and plays an important role in fibrogenesis and fibrosis (the thickening of tissue). There are distinct phenotypes associated with a lack of alpha-SMA during and after development.  Studies have shown that mutated alpha-SMA during development results in disarray of cardiac muscles and intense muscle weakness in young rodent infants.  In adults, mutations in smooth muscle actin can lead to cardiac and blood pressure complications. 

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Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) are a family of endopeptidases involved in the breakdown of extracellular matrix (ECM) during both normal physiological and disease processes. MMP-2 is a zinc-dependent family member that selectively cleaves collagen and elastin, major structural components of the basement membrane. In addition, MMP-2 has been found to affect a number of non-matrix proteins such as big endothelin-1 (Fernandez-Patron et al., 1999), KISS (Takino et al., 2003), GSK3B (Kandasamy et al., 2009), and CHUK (Olivotto et al., 2013). This diverse activity has led MMP-2 to be linked to a wide variety of physiological processes.

While most MMP members must be proteolytically activated after secretion, MMP2 may be activated while still on the membrane. Specifically, pro-MMP-2 can be activated either extracellularly by proteases, or intracellularly via S-Glutathionylation (Okamoto et al., 2001). Researchers have speculated that MMP-2...

Ki67, also known as MKI67, is best known as the leading marker of cellular proliferation. Ki67 is regulated by a balance between synthesis and degradation, and often carries a very short half-life.  First discovered to be located to dividing cells, Ki67 has since been specifically localized to the G1, S, G2 and M phases of mitosis. Soon after, it was discovered that there was a high correlation of Ki67 alongside the p53 (tumor suppressing protein 53), suggesting an implication in cancer. What’s more, the expression of Ki67 is higher in malignant cells versus control cells. With this data, researchers are taking a closer look between the behaviors of Ki67 alongside proliferation in cancer cells.  In particular, the following articles use the Ki67 primary antibody when investigating the role of HIF-1 in different types of cancers.  Hif-1, or hypoxia inducing factor 1, controls our adaptive response...