Molecular BioSystems

doi: 10.1039/b920312ppmid: N/A

doi: 10.1039/b920313npmid: N/A

doi: 10.1039/b920314cpmid: N/A

doi: 10.1039/b919131npmid: N/A

The following authors, whose papers are published in this issue, were invited to submit their work for the 2009 Emerging Investigators issue. Unfortunately they didn’t make the dedicated issue in time (See: ), but we publish them in this issue and profile them below.

Kamrava, Mitchell; Bernstein, Michael B.; Camphausen, Kevin; Hodge, James W.

doi: 10.1039/b911313bpmid: 19823740

With the advent of new cancer therapies in the last few years, the goals of reducing disease burden and improving quality of life are frequently achieved. Yet despite the advances seen with numerous monotherapies, a multimodality approach that targets different aspects of tumor biology may yield the greatest clinical benefit for patients with late-stage disease. Many such strategies have been employed with varying degrees of success. The addition of immunotherapy to standard-of-care radiation therapy has shown evidence of efficacy in some preclinical models and in the clinical setting. However, exploiting these two modalities safely and effectively remains an ongoing challenge. It is feasible that the addition of another therapeutic modality could further enhance the antitumor effects of these treatments. The recent addition of angiogenesis inhibitors to the cancer treatment armamentarium represents an attractive option, especially since these agents have been shown to be most effective when combined with other therapies. This review examines preclinical and clinical data on the interaction between immunotherapy and radiation, and discusses the potential synergy between these two modalities and angiogenesis inhibitors.

Friedel, Caroline C.; Dölken, Lars

doi: 10.1039/b911233bpmid: 19823741

Gene expression profiling to analyze cellular responses against different stimuli or conditions is generally performed at the total cellular RNA level. This results in poor resolution of the temporal kinetics of the cellular response and a bias towards detecting up-regulation of short-lived transcripts. Furthermore, changes in transcription rate and RNA stability cannot be distinguished. These problems can be addressed by analyzing nascent RNA instead of total cellular RNA. Throughout the last few years methods have been developed for metabolic tagging and purification of nascent RNA. In this article, we review these experimental procedures and discuss their implications for large-scale gene expression profiling.

Alford, Raphael; Ogawa, Mikako; Choyke, Peter L.; Kobayashi, Hisataka

doi: 10.1039/b911307jpmid: 19823742

Advancements in medical imaging have brought about unprecedented changes in the in vivo assessment of cancer. Positron emission tomography, single photon emission computed tomography, optical imaging, and magnetic resonance imaging are the primary tools being developed for oncologic imaging. These techniques may still be in their infancy, as recently developed chemical molecular probes for each modality have improved in vivo characterization of physiologic and molecular characteristics. Herein, we discuss advances in these imaging techniques, and focus on the major design strategies with which molecular probes are being developed.

Murtas, Giovanni

doi: 10.1039/b906541epmid: 19823743

Synthetic Biology approaches can assemble and/or reconstruct cell parts in synthetic compartments. A minimal cell as a model for early living cells can be artificially constructed in the laboratory resuming the main properties of a basic cell living system: a synthetic cell compartment or liposome to host a minimal metabolism based on protein synthesis, and a shell and core reproduction mechanism, all in an artificial cell assembly and remaining in the realm of minimal living. It is becoming realistic to construct artificial cells, starting from a minimal cell assembly, and deliver cell-like bioreactors to synthesize pure proteins/enzymes or isolate single pathways. These artificial cell-like systems could perform different tasks in antimicrobial drug development, drug delivery and diagnostic applications.

Fenn, Larissa S.; McLean, John A.

doi: 10.1039/b909745gpmid: 19823744

Simultaneous glycoproteomic characterization using rapid (μs to ms) structural separations provided by ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) is described. Advantages from using both ESI and MALDI ion sources are presented with future implications toward high throughput glycan and glycoconjugate characterization.

Lamm, Ashley N.; Liu, Shih-Yuan

doi: 10.1039/b904120fpmid: 19823745

The stability of 1,2-dihydro-1,2-azaborines toward oxygen and water was investigated as a function of their ring substituents: while generally 1,2-dihydro-1,2-azaborines are compatible with water, their stability toward oxygen is dependent on the boron and the C(3) substituents, and we found that electron withdrawing groups enhanced the heterocycle’s ability to resist oxidative degradation.