Volume 12 Issue 5, May 2015

Birth-dating proteins and shaping an institute from the first building block.

Today's predictions are tomorrow's priors.

Two transcriptome-scale sequencing methods provide a more complete view of RNA structure in its native context.

Tool development facilitates deep-tissue photoacoustic imaging.

Two research groups show that the CRISPR system can be regulated by heterodimerizing a split Cas9.

Tiny, environmentally responsive, magnetic resonance active nanostructures serve as shape-changing MRI sensors.

Automation tools make large-scale fluor-escence correlation spectroscopy experiments feasible for a wide range of users.

Non-invasive neuronal stimulation deep within the brain is possible by tapping into an alternating magnetic field using magnetic nanoparticles.

Improved XFEL crystallography data processing methods enable structure determination from limited samples.

Antibody-targeted positron emission tomography (immunoPET) can visualize sites of HIV replication that are difficult to access by traditional means such as tissue biopsies.

Targeting a histone demethylase to specific enhancers with Cas9 allows modification of epigenetic marks at the enhancers.

A retrospective method to correct for uneven illumination in microscopy is reported in this paper.

Photoacoustic microscopy is a hybrid imaging technology based on the conversion of absorbed light into ultrasound emission. A single-wavelength pulse-width-based method allows fast functional imaging of the brain.

Two assays reveal the birthplace of target proteins. In both, an antibody against a protein is used alongside an antibody that marks recent translation. The close proximity of both antibodies indicates the newly synthesized target protein.

Measuring the expression of a GFP-based capacity monitor in E. coli enables assessment of the burden heterologous gene expression exerts on the cell and allows for forward design of constructs with improved growth.

A new metric, Correlation Map (CorMap), which provides a goodness-of-fit test for comparing one-dimensional spectra without the need of estimating experimental errors, is developed and applied to evaluate small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data from biological macromolecules.

Targeted enrichment and duplex sequencing yield extremely efficient, accurate and sensitive sequencing of rare subclonal mutations in small genomic target regions.

ImmunoPET/CT imaging using a labeled SIV-specific antibody can identify sites of viralinfection in SIV-infected macaques without the need for tissue biopsies, even if viral load in the blood is below the detection limit.

Using data from global run-on and sequencing (GRO-seq) or related methods, the dREG software identifies a new class of transcriptional regulatory elements with strong evidence for directing active transcription.

The biophotonic laser-assisted surgery tool (BLAST) enables the delivery of nearly any cargo type, including micrometer-sized live bacteria, into a wide variety of cell types with high efficiency, throughput and cell viability.

Cre recombinase and tdTomato expressed from a neutrophil-specific promoter allow highly specific genetic manipulation and labeling of neutrophils.

A computational method to identify cell types within a complex tissue, based on analysis of gene expression profiles, is described in this paper.

The combination of deep chromatin immunoprecipitation–sequencing with a statistical test that scores the correlation of peak height and allelic imbalance allows de novo discovery of histone acetylation quantitative trait loci without prior genotyping or genome sequencing.

This study extends the natural code by which transcription activation–like effector nucleases (TALENs) recognize DNA and uses the resulting expanded repertoire of repeat divariable residues (RVDs) to improve TALEN performance.