Rapid, sensitive and specific diagnostic assays play an indispensable role in determination of HIV infection stages and evaluation of efficacy of antiretroviral therapy. Recently, our laboratory developed a sensitive Europium nanoparticle-based microtiter-plate immunoassay capable of detecting target analytes at subpicogram per milliliter levels without the use of catalytic enzymes and signal a...

Many DNA binding proteins are known to regulate gene expression. When that binding is altered, a disease state can result. A common method for measuring DNA binding, namely electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) is often used but it is not amenable to rapid screening of many samples. As an alternative method, we have developed a DNA binding assay for the tumor suppressor protein p53 in a 9...

All methane-producing Archaea (methanogens) are strict anaerobes, but the majority of species are tolerant to oxidants. Methanosarcina species are important environmental and industrial methanogens as they are one of only two genera capable of producing methane with acetate. Importantly, Methanosarcina species appear to be the most oxidant-tolerant; however, the mechanisms underlying this toler...

Optically transduced microfluidic immunoassays have proven to be a highly sensitive and rapid method to assess the concentrations of analytes within biological samples. Although microfluidic immunoassays facilitate higher throughput and automation than standard microtiter plates, the immunoreaction within such devices remains diffusion limited unless there is a way to achieve recursive or conti...

A method was developed to enhance the sensitivity of a Listeria monocytogenes PCR detection system by in vitro transcription of amplicons incorporating bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase promoter sequences in one of the priming oligonucleotides. The resulting transcript can be detected by hybridization with a DNA probe immobilized in the wells of a microtiter plate, followed by immunoenzymatic ass...

We report a method enabling intensity-based readout for label-free cellular assays, and realize a reader device with the same footprint as a microtiter plate. For unambiguous resonance intensity measurements in resonance waveguide grating (RWG) sensors, we propose to apply resonances near the substrate cutoff wavelength. This method was validated in bulk refractive index, surface bilayer and G ...

Objective(s): This study aimed to investigate the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-np) on biofilm formation and expression of the flu gene in uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) strains. Materials and Methods: Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of ZnO-np was determined by agar dilution method. The effect of MIC and sub-MIC concentrations of ZnO-np on biofilm formation were determin...