Amoebae are unicellular phagocytes that feed on microorganisms in their environment. Some amoebae have the largest genome size currently known on earth. They phagocytose any inert particle larger than 0.5 microm. Phagocytic amoebae can harbor different bacteria, fungi and giant viruses within the same cell. There is evidence of lateral gene transfer between the amoeba and its microbiological ho...

DNA-double strand breaks activate the serine/threonine protein kinase ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) to initiate DNA damage signal transduction. This activation process involves autophosphorylation and dissociation of inert ATM dimers into monomers that are catalytically active. Using single-particle electron microscopy (EM), we determined the structure of dimeric ATM in its resting state....

An analytical and nonperturbative approach to SU(2) and SU(3) Yang-Mills thermodynamics is developed and applied. Each theory comes in three phases: A deconfining, a preconfining, and a confining one. We show how macroscopic and inert scalar fields form in each phase and how they determine the ground-state physics and the properties of the excitations. While the excitations in the deconfining a...

We investigated in vitro a mechanism by which particulate debris may induce bone resorption and cause implant loosening. We first studied two standard particles: latex, which is considered to be inert, and zymosan, which is inflammatory. Macrophages that phagocytosed either particle became activated, and stimulated 15 times as much bone resorption as did control macrophages. For activation to o...

We developed micropore membrane inlet mass spectrometer (MMIMS) probes to rapidly measure inert-gas partial pressures in small blood samples. The mass spectrometer output was linearly related to inert-gas partial pressure (r(2) of 0.996-1.000) and was nearly independent of large variations in inert-gas solubility in liquid samples. We infused six inert gases into five pentobarbital-anesthetized...

We have functionalized the sides of fd bacteriophage virions with oligonucleotides to induce DNA hybridization driven self-assembly of high aspect ratio filamentous particles. Potential impacts of this new structure range from an entirely new building block in DNA origami structures, inclusion of virions in DNA nanostructures and nanomachines, to a new means of adding thermotropic control to ly...

Integrating signals from multiple receptors allows cells to interpret the physiological context in which a signal is received. Here we describe a mechanism for receptor crosstalk in which receptor-induced increases in actin dynamics lower the threshold for signalling by another receptor. We show that the Toll-like receptor ligands lipopolysaccharide and CpG DNA, which are conserved microbial mo...

Solid dispersion refers to the dispersion of one or more active ingredients in an inert carrier in a solid state, frequently prepared by the melting method, solvent method, or fusion solvent method. The oral bioavailability of poorly water soluble drug remains as the most challenging aspects of drug development. Solid dispersion approach is to reduce particle size, therefore increases the disso...

The central pore of a nuclear pore complex (NPC) is filled with unstructured proteins that contain many FG-repeats separated by hydrophilic regions. An example of such protein is nsp1. By simulating an array of nsp1 segments, we identified, in an earlier study, a spontaneously formed brushlike structure that promises to explain selective transport in the NPC channel. Here we report four (350,00...