At Kerafast, our mission is to facilitate access to unique reagents developed by academic researchers. Together with our providing investigators, we get one-of-a-kind bioreagents into the hands of scientists worldwide who can use the materials to accelerate their own research. As we begin 2017, we took the opportunity to review how reagents in our catalog
Glioblastomas are tumors that develop from astrocytes and grow in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain. These tumors contain multiple cell types and are highly malignant. Glioblastomas rarely grow outside of the brain and most commonly lead to symptoms such as headache, nausea, vomiting and drowsiness. In some cases, memory, speech and vision can be
Zika, a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, became a significant global health concern last year. The threat emerged in Brazil and quickly spread to other parts of the world, causing microencephaly and other birth defects in babies born to infected mothers, as well as rare neurological conditions in adults. Although Zika has faded from
By Gail M. Seigel, Ph.D. University at Buffalo It’s the holiday season! But let’s take a break from the spiced cider for a moment to mull over strategies to create cell lines. As I sit here waxing nostalgic about the R28 and E1A-NR.3 retinal cell lines from my own lab, I’d like to share a
About 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society, making it the second-most common form of cancer in American men. Recently, a potentially promising new therapeutic target for the disease was identified by scientists from The Wistar Institute, one of Kerafast’s providing institutions. The
Huntington’s disease is a debilitating, progressive disease that is eventually fatal. Affecting nerves of the brain, Huntington’s disease (HD) deteriorates an individual’s mental and physical capabilities over time. A recent study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine by Stanford University researchers identified potential biomarkers to assess disease progression and analyze treatment effectiveness. Huntington’s disease
Crohn’s disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, most commonly in the small intestine. It is estimated that more than a half million people in the United States suffer from CD. The most common symptoms of Crohn’s disease include diarrhea, abdominal cramping and weight loss. The complications
Microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with smaller than normal heads, has been in the news lately due to its connection to the Zika virus. The condition can also be triggered by several different causes, including infection of the pregnant mother with other viruses, malnutrition and various genetic disorders. One disease known to
Here at Kerafast, our portfolio of available plasmids continues to grow; in recent months, for example, we’ve added Wnt pathway plasmids from the University of Rochester, hepatitis B virus expression plasmids from Penn State College of Medicine and human Bcl-xL plasmids from the University of Louisville. We thought we’d take this opportunity to review what
When a mosquito bites a mammal during the blood feeding process, saliva from the mosquito is injected into the host. The saliva may be infected with a virus, in which case the host also acquires the virus. It has been known that of the nearly one hundred proteins in mosquito saliva, some of them act