Notice for Contributors of Cell Research

Aims and scopesCell Research, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes worldwide new original achievements articles of basic research in English, plus reviews, features and special report or analyses of current research in Cell and Molecular Biology, aims to the promotion of scientific exchanges between China and all other parts of the world. Our offices in Shanghai, Bethesda, MD, Piscataway, N.I, Toronto, Oxford and London welcome submissions from scientists of all parts in the world.     

Notice for Contributors of Cell Research

Cell Research, a peer-reviewed journal in English that publishes worldwide significant original achievements in cell research, plus reviews, features and special reports of current cell research, either describes novel molecular and cellular processes and events or address biological mechanisms. The journal is indexed in Index Medicus, MEDLINE on MEDLARS system, BIOSIS database, ISI Science Citation Index Expandedtm-available as SciSearchtm and ISI Web of Science, etc. Full text of the journal is online at Web site: http:// www.cell-research.com which has been linked with PubMed in NCBI of NLM USA. Articles published in the journal are regularly announced to the international library and bioscience communities. Editors in Shanghai, Bethesda, Piscataway, Toronto, Oxford and London welcome submissions from all over the world.     

What kind of lamp for the cultivation of algae?

A method for quantitative evaluation of light sources from the point of their suitability for algal cultivation is described. Two parameters are used for the evaluation:

A bill of health for biometrics?

Few industries have such a need to promote privacy, fight fraud and cut costs at so many different levels as the healthcare market. Yet despite readily available biometric solutions on offer to combat these issues, Btt reveals this potentially lucrative sector is not yet yielding returns.     

A glimmer of hope for diabetics?

Diabetes affects 150 million people worldwide and results from abnormal function of pancreatic islets. The scarcity of human tissue donors has focused interest in developing renewable sources of insulin-producing cells appropriate for engraftment. Advances in stem cell technology and transdifferentiation techniques have provided powerful tools to study pancreatic development, function and disease. Recent results from these two approaches could have significant implications for future therapies of diabetes.     

Exploitation of Dunaliella for β-carotene production

Halotolerant microalga Dunaliella, which is exploited for the production of dried biomass or cell extract, is used as a medicinal food. With the advancement in this field in recent years, the production of bio-organic compounds such as β-carotene is established in many countries. Large-scale production of β-carotene is controlled by numerous stress factors like high light intensity, high salinity, temperature and availability of nutrients. The state-of-the-art strategies in industries in closed systems under new set of inductive factors will additionally promote the ease of commercial production of β-carotene. This review mainly focuses on the different methodologies employed recently for the optimum production of β-carotene from Dunaliella species.     

Interferon-beta for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis?

IFN-beta treatment is emerging as a potentially effective form of therapy in various immune-mediated conditions. The present review addresses the possible role of IFN-beta in immune-mediated diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Several placebo-controlled trials are discussed, as are the available immunological data that are relevant to this field. Review of these data provides evidence that IFN-beta has some beneficial therapeutic effect in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and might also have antirheumatic potential. This notion is supported by recent studies showing a critical role for IFN-beta in bone homeostasis.     

Synthesis of β-Diketone DNA Derivatives for Affinity Modification of Proteins

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry - Diketone DNA derivatives have been proposed to modify the guanidine group of Arg in proteins. The β-diketo group at the C2' atom of the sugar...     

Physiology of biofilms of thermophilic bacilli—potential consequences for cleaning

Thermophilic Bacillus species readily attached and grew on stainless steel surfaces, forming mature biofilms of >10^6.0 cells/cm² in 6 h on a surface inoculated with the bacteria. Clean stainless steel exposed only to pasteurized skim milk at 55 °C developed a mature biofilm of >10^6.0 cells/cm² within 18 h. When bacilli were inoculated onto the steel coupons, 18-h biofilms were 30 m thick. Biofilm growth followed a repeatable pattern, with a reduction in the numbers of bacteria on the surface occurring after 30 h, followed by a recovery. This reduction in numbers was associated with the production of a substance that inhibited the growth of the bacteria. Variations in the environment, including pH and molarity, affected the viability of the cells. Chemicals that attack the polysaccharide matrix of the biofilm were particularly effective in killing and removing cells from the biofilm, demonstrating the importance of polysaccharides in the persistence of these biofilms. Treatment of either the biofilm or a clean stainless steel surface with lysozyme killed biofilm cells and prevented the attachment of any bacteria exposed to the surface. This suggests that lysozyme may have potential as an alternative control method for biofilms of these bacteria.     

The use of β-propiolactone for the sterilization of heat-labile materials

A short literature survey on chemical sterilization with -propiolactone is given. The auto-inactivatio 1 of this compound in aqueous solution appears to be one of its main advantages.Time-kill studies have been carried out with bacterial cells and spores, and with fungal spores. The compatibility of BPL with textiles and plastics was also studied to some extent. It is concluded that heat-sensitive materials can be sterilized with a 1.0% aqueous solution of BPL within one hour at room temperature. The compatibility of BPL with the materials studied does not appear to offer serious problems.     

Introduction of Standard for the operation of European Biological Resource Centers

(Continued)The equipment and environment in the premises must conform to European legislation meeting quality standards as well as health and safely requirements. The following conditions must be met:Ⅰ. BRC laboratories are clean and well itⅡ. No source of excessive or unusual microbial contamination is introducedⅢ. Adequate bench and storage space is provided, consistent with the type and volume of work,Ⅳ. An appropriate containment facility is available to protect the work and worker from potential release of aerosols containing microorganisms or hazardous chemicals.     

Efficiency of neural networks for prediction of in vitro culture conditions and inoculum properties for optimum productivity

This study represents an ANN based computational scheming of physical, chemical and biological parameters at flask level for mass multiplication of plants through micropropagation using bioreactors of larger volumes. The optimal culture environment at small scale for Glycyrrhiza plant was predicted by using neural network approach in terms of pH and volume of growth medium per culture flask, incubation room temperature and month of inoculation along with inoculum properties in terms of inoculum size, fresh weight and number of explant per flask. This kind of study could be a model system in commercial propagation of various economically important plants in bioreactors using tissue culture technique. In present course of study the ANN was trained by implementing MATLAB neural network. A feed-forward back propagation type network was created for input vector (seven input elements), with single hidden layer (seven nodes) and one output unit in output layer. The ‘tansig’ and ‘purelin’ transfer functions were adapted for hidden and output layers respectively. The four training functions viz. traingda, trainrp, traincgf, traincgb were randomly selected to train four networks which further examined with available dataset. The efficiency of neural networks was concluded by the comparison of results obtained from this study with that of empirical data obtained from the detailed tissue culture experiments and designated as Target set (mean fresh weight biomass per culture flask after 40 days of in vitro culture duration). Efficiency of networks for better training initialization was judged on the basis of comparative analysis of ‘Mean Square Error at zero epoch’ for each network trained in which the least error at initial point was observed with trainrp followed by traincgb and traincgf. A comparative assessment between experimental target data range obtained from wet lab practice and all trained network output range for the efficiency of trained networks for least deviation from target range revealed the output range of network ‘trainrp’ was closest to the empirical target range while least comparison was worked out from network ‘traincgb’ which had output range more than the target decided and ultimately showed meaningless result.