Project description:This project analyzes peripheral blood profiles of melanoma cancer patients. Since miRNAs are known to be valuable diagnostic markers we asked whether respective patterns of melanoma patients can be detected in peripheral blood samples rather than in biopsies. The project aimed at an improved understanding of complex profiles rather than single markers. Thus, a high-throughput technique was necessary, profiling all known miRNAs integratively. Top markers have been validated by using qPCR.
Project description:The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans stops feeding and moving during a larval transition stage called lethargus and following exposure to cellular stressors. These behaviors have been termed 'sleep-like states'. We argue that these behaviors should instead be called sleep. Sleep during lethargus is similar to sleep regulated by circadian timers in insects and mammals, and sleep in response to cellular stress is similar to sleep induced by sickness in other animals. Sleep in mammals and Drosophila shows molecular and functional conservation with C. elegans sleep. The simple neuroanatomy and powerful genetic tools of C. elegans have yielded insights into sleep regulation and hold great promise for future research into sleep regulation and function.
Project description:Study description:This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/ Schistosomes are blood dwelling digenean trematodes that mature as adults in the intestinal or urinary veins, predominantly of mammals. Adult female Schistosomes produce eggs of which approximately 40% fail to pass into faeces or urine (species-dependent) but are dispersed by the blood stream into different organs where they provoke severe inflammation. This parasitic infection is known as schistosomiasis and considered by the WHO as the second most socioeconomically devastating parasitic disease, next only to malaria, with hundreds of millions infected worldwide. As the eggs represent the causative pathogenic agents, the understanding of egg forming processes, and therefore of the schistosomal reproductive biology in general, is of fundamental interest. Additionally the differences between immature (pre-mating) and mature (post-mating) adult worms are of significant interest; adults only reach maturity upon mating. Trasncriptomic sequencing of gonad-specific cellular material will help to unravel signal transduction cascades involved in e.g. gametogenesis and/or vitellogenesis. This project aims to characterize the transcriptome profiles of immature and mature adult ovaries and adult testes.