AlleleNews- In pursuit of global information and communication

Allele’s ardent endeavor to create a platform for relevant, technical, biology news is paying off with the potential for everyone to benefit from our philosophy that all researchers should be given an opportunity to talk to the world about their discoveries while being able to learn about techniques they might otherwise have never heard of.

Our news site which provides the latest updates of Allele Biotech business and product developments is now also a platform for the global scientific community to introduce their techniques, products, and various other discoveries. While we still provide these news releases on our blog site and other social networking venues, we will utilize this multichannel approach for news announcements to cater to the assortment of appetites around the globe.

Our most recent addition to the “News Releases from Other Companies” section of the AlleleNews site is from Randox Laboratories announcing their development of a rapid, multi-marker screen for illegal drugs that requires as little as 7ul of urine for the screening of up to 10 drug classes. They postulate that this innovating technology will eliminate time and cost for high throughput laboratories at the rate of 1088 tests per hour!

We encourage all to contribute to and look to AlleleNews as an archetype for the exchange of cutting edge news from around the world. For submission approval please email oligo@allelebiotech.com with “AlleleNews Submission” in the subject line.

Tags: biotech news, cooperation in biotechnology, global science, lattest techniques, post your news, research around the world

Allele Biotech Spotlight Promo for ASCB Dec 09 Meeting!

This year our President and CEO, Dr. Jiwu Wang Ph.D., will be presenting at the American Society for Cell Biology meeting in San Diego, December 5th through 9th. Dr. Wang will be presenting results of two studies that involved the Allele Biotech Fluorescent Proteins and iPSC product lines:

Monomeric photoconvertable fluorescent protein variants produced by directed evolution for brightness and efficient photoconversion – a collaborative effort with the Campbell lab at the University of Alberta

Increased efficiency and speed of reprogramming of human cells into induced stem cells using high-titer lentiviral vectors encoding cell cycle progression and survival genes – a collaborative effort with the Chang lab at the University of Florida

In honor of this prestigious occasion Allele Biotech is having a Spotlight Promotion on all Fluorescent Protein and iPSC Products! The promotions, which will vary from product to product, will include 10% and 20% off price reductions, FREE shipping, and even “Buy 2 get one Free” deals!

Products eligible for the Spotlight Promotions begin with:

ABP-FP-____ Catalog

ABP-SC-____ Catalog

To qualify for these promotions you must be attending the ASCB meeting in San Diego and provide us with a copy of your registration form or be one of our loyal facebook, twitter, or myspace friends. Any questions can go to oligo@allelebiotech.com

Call for details and ask for info on the Spotlight Promotions! Offers good now through December, 9th 2009!

New Product of the Month 11/23-29/09: ThermoExp500 PCR machine (thermocycler) $4,250.00, with almost twice as fast temperature ramping as MJ’s TC1000, and more reliability.

Tags: Allele Biotech Promotions, Allele Biotech Sales, American Society for Cell Biology, ASCB San Diego 2009, fluorescent proteins discount, free shipping, iPSC discount, MJ research, PCR machine, TC1000, thermocycler

RNAi Design, Validation and Target Screening

Since Tuschl et al. published the first empirical guidelines on how to design effective siRNA [1], the most significant advancement (based on the understanding of biochemical mechanisms of RNAi such as how RISC is assembled) is the recognition of asymmetric thermostability of the 5’ end of the antisense strand (AS) relative to that of the sense strand (SS) [2, 3]. siRNAs with an A/T-rich AS 5’ end can be more easily integrated into RISC. By biasing against the sense strand for RISC loading, the off-target effects due to the presence of the SS (as one of the sources of off-targets effects) can also be minimized. In recent years datasets of increased number of siRNAs and shRNAs became available and statistical analysis suggested additional rules for RNAi design. These newer rules in general define the siRNA prediction parameters in more detail, for instance, the number of bases of the 5’ ends that should be included when calculating asymmetric thermostability, base preferences at each particular position, and the identity of the 2 nt 3’ overhang [4, 5]. Computer programs and websites are developed based on these features also resulting from NIH funded research through universities and organizations. Among the well-known ones, Design of SIRna (DSIR at biodev.extra.cea.fr/DSIR/DSIR.html) and the shRNA search program at the Broad Institute (broadinstitute.org/genome_bio/trc/publicSearchForHairpinsForm.php) are freely available.

Several companies such as Open Biosystems, System Biosciences, Dharmacon/ThermoFisher, Sigma-Aldrich, Invitrogen/LifeTech, provide premade RNAi reagents against various numbers of human and rodent genes. Although some product lines from these suppliers are labeled as validated RNAi reagents, apparently only one reveals clone sequences and only a few hundred among the claimed 4,500 shRNA clones. It is not possible to find what shRNAs are used against any target gene from most companies even though many of them claim to have a few hundred pre-validated constructs. Some of them may provide additional information upon purchase.

Even with the recent advancement of RNAi design technologies, prediction of effective RNAi is still far from accurate. Depending on the datasets used to score the success rates of the programs at DSIR, Broad or any other software, the general consensus is that about 50% of predicted RNAi target sequences will be effective, resulting in better than 70% gene knockdown. Allele Biotech uses a software that was trained with known RNAi results to predict siRNA target candidates on a given mRNA, and then applies an additional set of rules to pick the most promising candidates. Off-target effects caused by partial-matching between AS strand and untended targets are reduced by searching the chosen site against the NCBI gene base. The basic rules Allele Biotech uses include most currently known ones and are similar to what are listed by The RNAi Consortium (TRC) program at the Broad Institute.

Criteria for RNAi design:
(1) Overall GC content is between 30-55%
(2) The 4 bases at the 5’ of AS is more AT-rich than those of the SS
(3) The first base of AS and SS 5’ is preferably A/T and G/C, respectively
(4) “U” is preferred at the 10th position of the antisense from the 5’ end
(5) “C” is to be avoided as the last base of an overhang
(6) Avoid 4-nt mono-nucleotide regions
(7) Avoid 6-nt GC-rich regions
(8) If possible, do not include those with apparent secondary structures

These selected rules are based on a number of publications (for example, [4-6]), but it is impossible to include all known rules, many of which conflict with each other. In case of conflicting rules we rely more on recent discoveries and our own experience from providing RNAi service during the past 8 years.

Allele Biotech provides RNAi validation and screening services to customers using synthetic siRNA, linear DNA cassettes with engineered Pol III promoter, and shRNA expressing lentiviral vectors in high throughput formats. In a unique design, all RNAi target candidate sequences of a gene transcript are fused consecutively to a bright green fluorescent protein, mWasabi, on a lentiviral vector. Instead of analyzing gene silencing by QPCR, the initial selection of effective RNAi can be performed by measuring fluorescence.

RNAi screening has been conducted to identify correlations between gene functions and cellular phenotypes such as synthetic lethality among DNA damage signaling and repair pathway factors. Successfully performing high throughput screenings requires capabilities of efficient RNAi design, viral packaging, fluorescent proteins, and advanced cell culture and analysis techniques. In addition to these capabilities, Allele’s RNAi services are provided with access to commercial use of Allele’s own patents on Pol III promoter driven shRNA expression, and licensed patents on lentiviral vector, packaging, and fluorescent proteins.

New Product/Service of week Nov 16-22, 09:

RNAi validation/screening service.

1. Tuschl, T., P.D. Zamore, R. Lehmann, D.P. Bartel, and P.A. Sharp, Targeted mRNA degradation by double-stranded RNA in vitro. Genes Dev, 1999. 13(24): p. 3191-7.
2. Khvorova, A., A. Reynolds, and S.D. Jayasena, Functional siRNAs and miRNAs exhibit strand bias. Cell, 2003. 115(2): p. 209-16.
3. Schwarz, D.S., G. Hutvagner, T. Du, Z. Xu, N. Aronin, and P.D. Zamore, Asymmetry in the assembly of the RNAi enzyme complex. Cell, 2003. 115(2): p. 199-208.
4. Vert, J.P., N. Foveau, C. Lajaunie, and Y. Vandenbrouck, An accurate and interpretable model for siRNA efficacy prediction. BMC Bioinformatics, 2006. 7: p. 520.
5. Zhou, H. and X. Zeng, Energy profile and secondary structure impact shRNA efficacy. BMC Genomics, 2009. 10 Suppl 1: p. S9.
6. Ui-Tei, K., Y. Naito, F. Takahashi, T. Haraguchi, H. Ohki-Hamazaki, A. Juni, R. Ueda, and K. Saigo, Guidelines for the selection of highly effective siRNA sequences for mammalian and chick RNA interference. Nucleic Acids Res, 2004. 32(3): p. 936-48.

Tags: cell based assays, DNA damage repair, gene knockdown, gene silencing, lentiviral vector, Pol III promoter, RNAi, RNAi design, RNAi screening, RNAi service, RNAi targets, shRNA, siRNA, Synthetic lethal

Highly Efficient and Non-Integrating Vectors for Generating iPSC

The Challenge and Potential Impact

The proliferative and developmental potential of human stem cells offer virtually unlimited access to the differentiated cells that make up the human body [1]. Stem cell has become one of fastest moving areas biomedical research has ever seen. Tests at all stages ranging from cell differentiation to animal models to human clinical trials have begun within a very short period of time aiming at treating a host of diseases. The excitement generated by the vast potential of stem cells is not only felt by members of the health research community but also has caused great interest and awareness from the general population. Until recently, embryonic stem (ES) cells, derived from the inner mass of blastocysts, have been used for these studies. The use of human embryos in creating human ES cells, however, faces ethical controversies.

As a major advancement in the stem cell field, it has recently been shown that mouse and human differentiated cells may be reprogrammed into stem-like, pluripotent cells by the introduction of defined transcription factors [2-4]. The availability of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells or iPSCs) could provide an ethically acceptable and relatively easy-to-access alternative to human ES cells. Furthermore, it is anticipated that therapies developed with iPSCs could circumvent the problem of tissue rejection following transplantation in patients by creating patient- or even tissue-specific pluripotent stem cells.

Still, great challenges stand between the current methods for generating iPSCs and their therapeutic potential. The use of integrating viral vectors has limited therapeutic potential due to the increased risk of tumor formation. It is therefore important to develop safe, effective and efficient targeting and delivery systems to produce iPSCs.

Because of this importance, multiple methods have been published within the last year that used delivery systems other than the retroviral or lentiviral vectors employed in the original iPSC publications. However, these newly reported methods have not addressed all of the known difficulties facing iPSCs creation. For instance, very low efficiency of transient transfection of selected cDNAs plasmids into primary cells lowers the already abysmal percentage of adult cells that can be reprogrammed with retroviral vectors [5]. Non-integrating adenovirus has a very short cDNA expression time period and thus requires repeated deliveries [6]. The application of episomal expression element such as oriP/EBNA1 helps sustaining longer expression time, but presently it is carried on a plasmid vector and does not improve transfection efficiency. Transposase and the Cre recombinase were used to remove integrated transgenes after the induction is completed, but the integration nevertheless occurred at multiple sites and requires careful and stringent analysis to make sure the reversion is complete; even so, elements of the vector may remain in the iPSCs genome [7, 8].

We wish to take this challenge and use it as an opportunity to develop a synthetic targeting and delivery system that will have the advantages of safe handling, no integration, prolonged and efficient reprogramming gene expression, and high transduction efficiency into broad cell types.

Baculovirus has been used in mammalian cells for many years (e.g. the BacMam system). Engineered baculovirus expression vectors (EBEV) will be exploited as a carrier for reprogramming genes for deriving induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) from human adult cells. It has been well established that baculovirus can infect mammalian cells with broad tropism yet are very safe for regular laboratory handling.The elements planned for Allele Biotech’s new iPS generating system will be novel in the following aspects:

a) Promoter and mRNA structures for maximum level of cDNA expression in mammalian cells
b) Extended presence in the nucleus for sustained cDNA expression for weeks
c) Cleavable fluorescent protein for cell tracking and sorting
d) Auxiliary packaging constructs for increasing tropism to infect a broad range of human adult cells

Allele Biotech’s Design of Baculovirus for iPSCs

A) Mammalian Expression: In order to express reprogramming cDNAs in human cells, a mammalian promoter cassette will be inserted into the transfer vector to be used with Allele Biotech’s Sapphire Baculovirus genomic DNA. This system, derived from Autographa californica multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), has been provided commercially for 10 years by our team and proved to be one of the best baculovirus systems because of its ease to use and high efficiency. Heterologous promoters have been used by us and others to create baculoviral vectors with dual or triple promoter for protein expression in insect, mammalian, and even bacterial cells such as Novagen’s pTriEx vectors and Allele’s pMBEVS. For the purpose of this proposal, we will remove insect expression cassette altogether and use a CAG promoter for driving expression solely in human cells.

B) Broader Tropism: Baculoviruses has been used for gene delivery to various hepatic and nonhepatic mammalian cells albeit the transduction of certain nonhepatic human cells is about 10-100 fold less effectively than hepatic cells [9]. Incorporating vesicular stomatitis virus G protein (VSVG) in the viral particle surface can greatly increase their effective transduction in a much broader range of mammalian cells [10]. For pseudotyping baculovirus, we will use a coinfection protocol with a recombinant baculovirus expressing VSVG. We expect that incorporating VSVG will ensure that human skin fibroblasts would be infected efficiently for Aim 1; and that different human cells could also be reprogrammed to become iPSCs via the proposed pathway in Aim 3 (see below). Different proteins or peptides might be tried as backup methods for pseudo-typing should VSVG not provide satisfactory results.

C) Fluorescent Marker: We will insert a fluorescent protein (FP) either expressed on a separate cassette or driven by an IRES downstream of reprogramming genes. This feature will facilitate tracking the infected cells, monitoring transgene expression, and enriching infected cells. Allele Biotech is one of the few suppliers/developers of fluorescent proteins. Our exclusive mTFP1 (cyan) and mWasabi (green) proteins are about 3 times brighter than EGFP and true monomers with great photostability and pH insensitivity, which should make them great choices for EBEV.

D) Promoter: The CAG promoter, which has been shown to be a strong promoter in mammalian cells and preferred for BacMam expression, will also be used in the EBEV vectors. We have previously designed pMBVES, a baculovirus vector for glycoprotein expression in mammalian cells that contains such a CAG enhancer/promoter. The CAG composite promoter also encompasses an exon1-intron-exon2 segment that will help mRNA processing and export to cytoplasm for translation. We will clone this fragmentfrom pMBVES into the proposed EBEV vectors.

E) RNA Elements: The 5’ UTR region on the mRNA will be examined and any hairpin structures with ??G < 30 kcal/mol or even <20 kcal/mol but with >65% GC will be disrupted. This step will ensure that maximum production be achieved at the translational level [11]. Post-transcriptional regulatory element (PRE) will be included to further boost gene expression. It has been shown that Woodchuck hepatitis virus (WPRE) increases transgene expression by many folds for various viral vectors, and there has been at least one case for a BacMam vector [12]. WPRE will be cloned from Allele Biotech’s existing HiTiter Lentiviral Vectors and inserted in the 3’ UTR upstream of the SV40 polyA signal.

F) Episomal Expression: Originally derived from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), phophoprotein nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) ensures that oriP-containing DNA replicate once per S-phase during cell circle and is maintained in the nucleus as episomes. Although mostly applied to plasmid vectors, such as in one of the iPSC reports [13], the oriP/EBNA1 system can be incorporated into baculovirus systems for sustained mammalian expression [14]. Aside from episomal maintenance, oriP/EBNA1 could further up-regulate transcription of adjacent genes [14]. For these reasons, we will clone the oriP sequence together with the EBNA1 expression cassette from Allele Biotech’s Phoenix Retrovirus vector pBMN-GFP to EBEV vector.

Bibliography and Reference Cited
1. Thomson, J.A., J. Itskovitz-Eldor, S.S. Shapiro, M.A. Waknitz, J.J. Swiergiel, V.S. Marshall, and J.M. Jones, Embryonic stem cell lines derived from human blastocysts. Science, 1998. 282(5391): p. 1145-7.
2. Takahashi, K. and S. Yamanaka, Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors. Cell, 2006. 126(4): p. 663-76.
3. Takahashi, K., K. Tanabe, M. Ohnuki, M. Narita, T. Ichisaka, K. Tomoda, and S. Yamanaka, Induction of pluripotent stem cells from adult human fibroblasts by defined factors. Cell, 2007. 131(5): p. 861-72.
4. Yu, J., M.A. Vodyanik, K. Smuga-Otto, J. Antosiewicz-Bourget, J.L. Frane, S. Tian, J. Nie, G.A. Jonsdottir, V. Ruotti, R. Stewart, Slukvin, II, and J.A. Thomson, Induced pluripotent stem cell lines derived from human somatic cells. Science, 2007. 318(5858): p. 1917-20.
5. Okita, K., M. Nakagawa, H. Hyenjong, T. Ichisaka, and S. Yamanaka, Generation of mouse induced pluripotent stem cells without viral vectors. Science, 2008. 322(5903): p. 949-53.
6. Stadtfeld, M., N. Maherali, D.T. Breault, and K. Hochedlinger, Defining molecular cornerstones during fibroblast to iPS cell reprogramming in mouse. Cell Stem Cell, 2008. 2(3): p. 230-40.
7. Woltjen, K., I.P. Michael, P. Mohseni, R. Desai, M. Mileikovsky, R. Hamalainen, R. Cowling, W. Wang, P. Liu, M. Gertsenstein, K. Kaji, H.K. Sung, and A. Nagy, piggyBac transposition reprograms fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature, 2009. 458(7239): p. 766-70.
8. Kaji, K., K. Norrby, A. Paca, M. Mileikovsky, P. Mohseni, and K. Woltjen, Virus-free induction of pluripotency and subsequent excision of reprogramming factors. Nature, 2009. 458(7239): p. 771-5.
9. Stanbridge, L.J., V. Dussupt, and N.J. Maitland, Baculoviruses as Vectors for Gene Therapy against Human Prostate Cancer. J Biomed Biotechnol, 2003. 2003(2): p. 79-91.
10. Tani, H., M. Nishijima, H. Ushijima, T. Miyamura, and Y. Matsuura, Characterization of cell-surface determinants important for baculovirus infection. Virology, 2001. 279(1): p. 343-53.
11. Babendure, J.R., J.L. Babendure, J.H. Ding, and R.Y. Tsien, Control of mammalian translation by mRNA structure near caps. Rna, 2006. 12(5): p. 851-61.
12. Mahonen, A.J., K.J. Airenne, S. Purola, E. Peltomaa, M.U. Kaikkonen, M.S. Riekkinen, T. Heikura, K. Kinnunen, M.M. Roschier, T. Wirth, and S. Yla-Herttuala, Post-transcriptional regulatory element boosts baculovirus-mediated gene expression in vertebrate cells. J Biotechnol, 2007. 131(1): p. 1-8.
13. Yu, J., K. Hu, K. Smuga-Otto, S. Tian, R. Stewart, Slukvin, II, and J.A. Thomson, Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Free of Vector and Transgene Sequences. Science, 2009.
14. Shan, L., L. Wang, J. Yin, P. Zhong, and J. Zhong, An OriP/EBNA-1-based baculovirus vector with prolonged and enhanced transgene expression. J Gene Med, 2006. 8(12): p. 1400-6.

Tags: bacmam, baculovirus, BVES, iPS cells, iPSC, iPSCs, non-integration, stem cells, therapeutic iPS cells

Take advantage of the brightest GFP for studying gene expression regulations

As most Allele’s customers and website visitors already know, mWasabi is the brightest green fluorescent protein. Unlike commonly used EGFP, mWasabi is a true monomer that does not have the tendency to associate with each other even at high concentrations. It has been validated as an efficient tag in more than 20 fusions located in different cellular compartments.

For studying factors that regulate mammalian gene expression, enzymes such luciferase and lacZ are traditionally used as reporters when operationally linked to promoters and enhancers. Fluorescent proteins are becoming more and more popular for such applications as instruments for reading fluorescence emitted from treated cells are becoming more available. Using fluorescent proteins as reporter eliminates the need for performing enzyme reactions with assay substrate kits. More importantly, fluorescence readings can be taken at any time point on LIVE cells.

Allele Biotech introduces to the market a set of gene expression reporter constructs based on mWasabi and its cyan relative mTFP1, as the new product of the week of 11/09/09 to 11/15/09. Choosing different versions within this vector group, promoters, enhancers, or DNA binding protein binding sites can be easily inserted and their effects of gene expression compared to those of controls.

Promotion of the week: Lentiviral particles expressing commonly used human cytokines at one-time discount.

News article in AlleleNews (to be published Thursday): Using GFP-tag in Immunoprecipitation to study DNA repair pathway factors.