Behind the Paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
Filtered by: Bioengineering & Biotechnology
Measuring the impact of chromatin context on transcription factor binding affinities
We have designed a new method, Binding Affinities to Native Chromatin by sequencing (BANC-seq), to determine transcription factor concentrations needed to bind regulatory elements in the genome. We show that chromatin context and DNA accessibility are key regulators of transcription factor binding.
Membrane-anchored DNA nanojunctions enable closer APC-T cell contact in elevated T-cell receptor triggering
Yulin Du, Liping Qiu*, and Weihong Tan* et al. from Hunan University develop membrane-anchored geometrically stable DNA nanojunctions to decrease intermembrane spacing at the close contact zone, leading to the exclusion of tyrosine phosphatase CD45 protein and enhancement of T-cell signalling.
Heterogeneous EPR in tumour
The enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect of tumours is a topic of debate in nanomedicine community. To address this, we established a single-vessel quantitative analysis method (nano-ISML) to reveal heterogeneity of tumour vascular permeability.
EnzymeML: seamless data flow and modelling of enzymatic data
The design of biocatalytic reaction systems is highly complex due to the dependency of the estimated kinetic parameters on the enzyme, the reaction conditions, and the modelling method. Consequently, reproducibility of enzymatic experiments and re-usability of enzymatic data are challenging.
We developed the XML–based markup language EnzymeML to enable storage and exchange of enzymatic data such as reaction conditions, time course of substrate and product, kinetic parameters, and kinetic model, thus making enzymatic data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). The feasibility and usefulness of the EnzymeML toolbox is demonstrated in six scenarios, where data and metadata of different enzymatic reactions are collected and analysed.
EnzymeML serves as a seamless communication channel between experimental platforms, electronic lab notebooks, tools for modelling of enzyme kinetics, publication platforms, and enzymatic reaction databases. EnzymeML is open, transparent, and invites the community to contribute. All documents and codes are freely available at https://enzymeml.org/.