Promega News and Events

Prairie Dogs: Small Creatures, Big Vocabulary

Posted on by Kari Kenefick

It is summer, July already! Vacation time for kids and the people that love them.

Though many years past, I recall fondly one of our first family trips to the Black Hills of South Dakota. While en route, we stopped in the Badlands National Park. Though the Badlands might appear a barren, treeless desert (and believe me, in the western summer sun it feels that way), the area is loaded with animal life. Particularly intriguing to me were some small rodent residents, the prairie dogs.

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The Ongoing Legacy of the Human Genome Sequence

Posted on by Sara Klink

When the first draft sequence of the human genome was announced, I was a research assistant for a lab that was part of the Genome Center of Wisconsin where I created shotgun libraries of bacterial genomes for sequencing. Of course, the local news organizations were all abuzz with the news and sought opinions on what this meant for the future, including that of the lab’s PI and oddly enough, my own. While I do not recall the exact words I offered on camera, I believe they were something along the lines of this is only the first step toward the future of human genetics. Ten years later, we have not fulfilled the potential of the grandiose words used to report the first draft sequence but have gained enough knowledge of what our genome holds to only intrigue scientists even more.

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Human Microbiome Project

Posted on by Isobel Maciver
coliform bacteria

Did you know that the microorganisms living in and on the human body (most on the skin, in the gut, and in the mouth) outnumber all our human cells by a factor of ten? But read on before you grab the hand sanitizer and schedule a colonic, these “germs” may be an integral part of what makes you… well “you”. Indeed, the profile of microorganisms happily living in and on your body may be as unique a signature as your DNA profile or your fingerprints—perhaps more so.

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Finding the Next Generation of Antibiotics: Closthioamide

Posted on by Sara Klink
Closthioamide

Mention the word penicillin and it conjures up images of mold growing on bacterial culture plates and Dr. Alexander Fleming observing that the mold had killed the surrounding bacteria, ushering in the age of antibiotics. Bacterial infections could easily be treated with penicillin or any one of the bewildering array of new antibiotics continually being discovered. The result of using these antimicrobial drugs: numerous lives were saved and human health improved. However, bacteria are clever organisms and as quickly as humans developed an antibiotic to treat infection, the microbes would find a way around the bacteriostatic or bacteriocidal compound. It is a scary world where antibiotics are rendered impotent and fewer and fewer weapons are left in the arsenal to treat multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and hospital-acquired drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (e.g., Acinetobacter baumannii).

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Vitamin D and Asthma

Posted on by Kari Kenefick

We all like sunshine, right? In fact this time of year, some people pay a pack of moola and travel great distances in search of stronger solar.

Research reports continue to tout the benefits of vitamin D (1). In several studies from 2009, researchers found that patients with low blood levels of vitamin D had worse asthma symptoms than patients with higher serum vitamin D levels. In addition, patients with low vitamin D levels didn’t respond as well to asthma therapies as the patients with higher vitamin D levels.

A study done at National Jewish Health Center in Denver, Colorado, found that that low vitamin D levels influence a number of aspects of asthma, including lung function, bronchospasm and response to steroids. Results of this study are soon to be published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (2). Continue reading “Vitamin D and Asthma”

What’s in the H1N1 Vaccine Anyway?

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

I’m a microbiologist. I wash my hands often, I don’t eat canned green beans or any home-canned food (due to a horrible botulism example given in a bacteriology class), I don’t ask for antibiotics if I just have a cold, and I believe in vaccination programs.

Recently, due to the various controversies surrounding the H1N1 vaccine, and because I just gave permission for my children to be vaccinated at school, I have been thinking about vaccination rather a lot. Even though I believe absolutely in the benefits of vaccination, I also have the usual concerns when considering whether to accept a new vaccine for my children. So, when I read or hear sensational press coverage over emphasizing vaccination risks, I worry, and I want to hear a balanced viewpoint.

So I thought I would share what I have learned about the H1N1 vaccine.

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Better Living through Design

Posted on by Sam Jackson
ClearviewHwy in use on road signs in Madison, WI
ClearviewHwy in use on road signs in Madison, WI

Perhaps this is a sign that I need a more interesting life, but I was thrilled to see some of the highway signage in and around Madison, WI, start to change over to Clearview, a typeface designed specifically for road signs.

Nearly everyone who’s driven a car knows the limitations of the current standard for road signs, FHWA Series fonts (it is affectionately called “Highway Gothic” by typophiles). At night, the letters seem to blur together and glow, and some characters are difficult to distinguish from others.

Clearview is the result of nearly a decade of work, making a typeface that is more readable without increasing the dimensions of the existing road signs.

You can read about Clearview on the official website, and of particular interest is the Research section.

A Sensitive, Universal Kinase Assay Ideal for Use with Low-Turnover Enzymes

Posted on by Sara Klink
ADP-Glo™ Kinase Assay flowchart

Promega carries a large array of luminescent-based assays to measure cellular events such as viability, cytochrome P450 activity and apoptosis. Recently, we launched a new universal, homogeneous, high-throughput screening method called the ADP-Glo™ Kinase Assay, which measures kinase activity by quantifying the amount of ADP produced during a kinase reaction. While we already offer the Kinase-Glo™ Assays for assessing the quantity of ATP remaining after a kinase reaction, these assays are not ideal for use with low-activity kinases.

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H1N1 Influenza

Posted on by Isobel Maciver
swine_flu_headline

It’s hard not to panic in the light of recent pandemic fears and the frightening possibilities conjured up by the thought of a novel flu virus with the propensity for person-to-person spread (1-3). The specter of the 1918 pandemic has raised its ugly head, and we are left feeling intensely vulnerable to an invisible and ever-changing enemy. Have science and history left us more prepared to combat this virus than those who suffered during the devastating 1918 outbreak?

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Cells, Specificity and the Seven-Year-Old Brain

Posted on by Kelly Grooms

We would all agree that being specific is important.  But sometimes what it is important to be specific about is not so easy to agree upon.

My seven-year-old son is a good example.

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