daisy

I would suggest you google on Pharmacogenetics. Ethnic populations have diverse genotypes which impact on their ability to cope with xenobiotic challenges. That's why as a white Celtic/Nordic person I may very well succumb to several diseases. Poor me....

I have no real sense of what's happening in the USA regarding stem cell research...and even here in the UK I'm not sure of the regulations because my area of research does not encompass this issue. What I will say is this....if stem cells can be harvested from an EMBRYO (note: EMBRYO) which is at the pre-implantation stage then I see no problem with this. I totally hate the way pro-life activists refer to a ball of 4/8/16 cells as a "life" ....it's a ball of cells for Pete's sake....no mystery. I'm a firm believer in stem cell research.

GM (geneticallymodified) foods are grossly misunderstood in my view. People think if they eat them they will be at risk....this is obviously nonsense. You don't become genetically modified if you eat a cow do you? The problem lies in the introduction of GM crops. Do we know how GM crops will impact the insect population, and how will that affect pollination, will this select for new pests, will this impact on native species of plants...etc...etc. If I eat a GM tomato, it WILL NOT change my DNA...every day I encounter "alien" DNA, in the form of food that I take in but I have not (yet) turned into a vegetable or anything else for that matter.

You're having a laugh aren't you...?? artificial hair as in wigs is probably mostly nylon or something like that whereas natural hair is keratin based. Artificial wool is mostly acrylic based I think? Natural wool is pretty much like hair in a way and keratin based. Why do you ask? If this is a homework question then you are lazy.

Sorry, but this is a bit close to home for me.

I will only reiterate what others have said....if apricot kernel/seed was going to cure everyone then I'm guessing no-one from apricot growing countries who ate the damn things would ever have cancer. Oh how stupid of me....people don't eat seeds do they, especially not hard ones...that must be it ....that's why we are all dying of cancer. Sorry for the sarcasm but really people...try a PubMed search on this topic and you will be bombarded by all sorts of studies. I happen to have a firm belief in properly researched conventional medicine....you can shove alternative therapies where the sun don't shine as far as I'm concerned UNTIL they have been properly researched. Sorry if this offend but I've had my fill of earnest alternative crap merchants. I'm being a bit strong here I know but I have my reasons.

OK......I know this is deeply boring and I really am stupid but can some kind soul tell me why, when I click on SFN chatroom the window comes up but that's it....it only gives me archive or forum options and no chat. I know I'm stupid about puters...no need to tell me but PLEASE can I have a moron's guide (note:..not idiot but MORON). I really do miss the old times when I used to chat to you guys....I have not figured this out and I know I'm too old for all this. Please help

Why would anyone think it's NOT useful?......that's a challenge by the way. Any doubters out there?

Biological systems have active/passive forms of ion transport. Think of the sodium pump, calcium pump, anion exchangers. Many ions are actively pumped into and out of a cell...it's not passive by any means. Thats how hoemostasis works after all. It's not really such a huge leap to imagine that there really MUST be a water channel at work....everything is obvious once it's pointed out to us!! I remember my PhD examiner asking me if I thought homeostatic regulation was due to regulation of either water or ion transport...i.e. which was the real driving force? I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on this ....?

Detergents permeabilise cell membranes. That means they will disrupt cell membranes to some degree and will therefore interfere with homeostasis in a living cell because they will "punch holes " in the membrane and allow the influx/efflux of ions, water and other solutes etc. Therefore, ion pumps, exchangers, water channels etc. will all be affected and the balance of ions and water inside the cell will be affected.

Well....let's hazard a guess here. If the retinal pigments were too big to be absorbed by the cells in the phloem (?) .....trying hard to remember undergrad botany here!...then no, they would not be taken up. It would depend on what transporters/channels were present in the plant cell membrane. If they could be absorbed, then maybe they could be photobleached by light but equally they may emit "colour" if they fluoresce at the wavelength of visible light. I may have this totally wrong being somewhat hazy on optical physics and botany etc. but at least I tried to answer your question.

Or how about doing something on pharmacogenomics....very relevant with regards to drug response in individuals etc.

I would re-iterate what CharonY says and add that transfer of genetic material (plasmids) containing antibiotic resistance genes occurs between bacteria. This happens in the "natural world" but can also be utilised in research to select bacterial clones for experimental purposes when resistance can be deliberately conferred for said selection purposes.

when I looked at the basal cell image I didn't see why you said it was a skin cell (keratinocyte) ....it could have been anything. I'm a bit confused as to why you are asking people to name the organelles etc. when you can find this in any textbook worth it's salt. Do you have no access to decent textbooks? What exactly is the problem? I could name the organelles for you but you better give me a good reason why I should...since you can access this site then you can access good online texts with explanations etc. I really don't think people should do other folks homework for them. If you have a genuine problem with a theory or concept that's different....you've tried to understand and have difficulties...otherwise, the basics of cell biology are present on the web and in numerous seminal textbooks, such as Alberts Molecular biology of the Cell.

From what I know the Aquaporin field has kind of ballooned. There are all sorts of isoforms etc. which function in different ways in tissues. I'm susrprised that if you were studying ion transport etc. in 2002 that aquaporins weren't talked about because they were certainly out there and known about before that....a colleague of mine was researching them in 1998/2000 after they were discovered. Do a pub-med search on Peter Agre to find out when he first published about them.

liver cells are hepatocytes

You can get all the info m/z refers to on NCBI in my experience.

you need gene analysis software....such as GeneRunner, BioEdit, Gene Jockey, DNAstar etc....there are some free downloads out there that will let you do all the basic manipulations you need. Just try a Google search for free DNA analysis software.

you'll need to go to a general laboratory supplier

I'd suggest your try PubMed to search for journal articles on this subject. I only remember that COX-1 and 2 are involved in the inflammatory response and I think acetaminophen is paracetamol which is obviously a NSAID....beyond that I'm no use

Try this web page: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com.au/tec_mel.htm. Maniatis has a similar formula but you nedd to remember that if you use formamide you can decrease the hybridisation temperature so they say: The Tm is depressed by 0.63 degrees for each percentage of formamide where the G+C content of the probe and target is 30-75%. Hope that helps a bit.

de-clawing cats IS barbaric as YT said. Why the hell would anyone have a cat if they didn't expect scratching...it's what cat's do for crying out loud. And yes, de-clawing involves removal of the digit up to the first knuckle which is most definitely NOT just clipping their claws. I also fail to understand the US and Canadian by-laws which prohibit cats being allowed to roam...they have to be tied up or kept indoors....totally cruel in my opinion. Cats are roaming animals and should never be indoor animals. If you live in an apartment block/high-rise flats you should NOT have a cat if you can't let it outside. We have a cat but we live in a rural area and she roams free, gets in fights, does her own thing and only pays attention to us when she needs to be fed, which is exactly as it should be.

Well you do that by trying different temps and wash stringencies...as I there are calculations you can use based on melting/annealing temperatures but I usually just try a range of temps. for hybridisation. Southerns are not really my area...I know about Northerns and in-situ hybridisation. I'm not by any means saying you shouldn't calculate...I'm just saying that I don't. If you can get access to a copy of Maniatis/Sambrooks lab manual they will no doubt have formulae that will help you achieve a range of temps to try ....I have my own set of volumes so if you are prepared to wait until I'm back at work after the weekend I can look this up and see if they have any tips on this topic.

If you run a denaturing gel you are ensuring that you have no secondary structure problems which would interfere with sizeing. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by testing mRNA stability (do you mean quality?)...I only run RNA gels to test for degradation (or to do Northerns), but you can really only do that if you run total RNA when you see obvious 18s and 28s RNA bands which should be clear and distinct in good quality RNA preps.

Is it possible there are high levels of savinase in BSA or something? Could you try milk as a blocker. Maybe you could explain a bit further about what you mean by background....how do you detect that in ELISA absorbance readings unless it was in the blanks, which you zero anyway. Or do you mean there are very high readings in your protein standards...sorry but a bit more info might help sort it out.