Credit: Courtesy of Matteo Pellegrini, University of California, Los Angeles" /> Credit: Courtesy of Matteo Pellegrini, University of California, Los Angeles Researcher: Matteo Pellegrini, assistant professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles Project:

Credit: Courtesy of Phillip Zamore, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Science." /> Credit: Courtesy of Phillip Zamore, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Science. Researcher: Phillip Zamore, Gretchen Stone Cook Professor of Biomedical Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester Project:

1. Try orthagonal approaches Every assay has strengths and weaknesses, so it's a good idea to try more than one, if possible. ChIP-on-chip is significantly cheaper than ChIP-Seq, but unless you tile the entire genome, you will miss any region not represented on your chip. HELP probes only a fraction of the genome, but a genome's worth of testable HpaII fragments will fit on a single array, making analysis relatively inexpensive. (Greally now uses a 1.32-million element Nimblegen array.)

Isolating and detecting glycosylated proteins

Researcher: Martin Larsen, research associate professor, University of Southern Denmark, Odense Related Articles Sweet Attachments Off-the-shelf glycoprotein detection methods Sugar ID Polyclonal Needle in a haystack Classic chemistry Project: Discovery of sialic acid (SA)-containing cancer biomarkers Prob

A model of erythropoietin, which exists as a mixture of glycosylated variants. This glycoform contains three N-linked oligosaccharides (purple) and one O-linked glycan (pink). Glycans contribute to a large percentage of the overall mass and surface area of glycoproteins. Credit: courtesy of Robert Woods, UGA, Athens" />A model of erythropoietin, which exists as a mixture of glycosylated varia

Control (left) and polyclonal antibody staining for anti-Neu5Gc (right) in a carcinoma cell line. Credit: courtesy of Nissi Varki, UCSD" />Control (left) and polyclonal antibody staining for anti-Neu5Gc (right) in a carcinoma cell line. Credit: courtesy of Nissi Varki, UCSD Researcher: Ajit Varki, distinguished professor of medicine and of cellular and molecular medicine, and co

Illustration of glycoproteins present on the highly glycosylated cell surface. These proteins, often specific to diseases, can be shed or secreted into the blood stream and so are ideal targets for biomarker discovery. Credit: courtesy of Ralph Schiess and Reto Ossola, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology" />Illustration of glycoproteins present on the highly glycosylated cell surface. These

A simple, quantitative method to identify glycans in plasma: Mass excess distribution of tryptic peptides is mapped as a function of monoisotopic mass. Red: highly populated areas; blue: unpopulated areas; black squares: mass excesses of glycans. Credit: courtesy of Michael Bereman, Taufika Williams, and David Muddiman, North Carolina State University" />A simple, quantitative method to identify glyc

The biological importance of glycoproteins has only partially translated into a wealth of detection reagents and kits. Commercial products are available, says UCSD's Ajit Varki, "But in general, the availability of reagents for the world of glycobiology is not as broad as standard molecular biology." Here are some basic off-the-shelf options: Related Articles Sweet Attachments Ph

How to get numbers from mass spectrometry

User: Catherine Fenselau, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park Related Articles Peak Addition Tips for Quantifying Mass Spec Clean targeting Multiplex counts Label-free Metabolic power Project: Identifying molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in breast cancer Problem: Fenselau works with several drug-resistant and drug-sensitive cell lines, and she wanted a cheap and simple