Available Technology from UC Irvine

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have synthesized new chemical entities that selectively bind to regions in the brain that accumulate Aβ-amyloid plaques. (more...)

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have found a new use for a known compound for treatment of fatty liver disease which has been shown to be effective in animal studies. (more...)

Cyanide is a highly toxic and rapidly acting poison that is infamous due to its use in murders, suicides, wars and attempted genocide.In the present day, cyanide may be responsible for up to 10,000 deaths annually in the United States due to smoke inhalation.Cyanide may also be used as a terrorist weapon. Prior methods to measure cyanide in the blood have involved acidifying the blood after lysis of red blood cells.However, this method is time consuming (takes at least a few hours) and tedious, and thus, inadequate for rapid detection of cyanide toxicity in field or hospital settings.Field or laboratory devices capable of rapidly measuring cyanide levels in blood or body fluids are not currently available, however such field or laboratory devices would be highly useful. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a method to rapidly measure cyanide in biological samples, which can be carried out in field settings.This method is based on measuring cyanide based on spectral changes that occur when cyanide binds to the reagent.Advantages of this method are its ease of use, stability, and applicability across a wide range of cyanide concentrations and may be used with ease in the field or on laboratory devices. (more...)

The Overman laboratory at the University of California, Irvine has generated a library of ~1,200 unusually diverse small drug-like molecules. (more...)

Thrombin is an enzyme in the blood that plays a key role in platelet formation during injury. While blood coagulation is essential for a surface wound, platelet activation underlies various pathological situations such as unstable angina pectoris, myocardial infarction and stroke. Thrombin is mediated by protease activated receptor-1 (PAR-1) which is expressed in the nervous system and in platelets. Once activated by thrombin, PAR-1 induces rapid and dramatic changes in cell morphology that is controlled by a series of localized ATP-dependent reactions. (more...)

The ability to resist nonspecific protein adsorption (protein resistance) is an indicator of a material's biological inertness or biocompatibility. Protein resistant biomaterials such as the commonly used poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) have been used in a number of applications such as prostheses, contact lenses, implanted devices, microfluidic systems, drug delivery, and substrates for assays. However PEG has two major limitations. First PEG can only be functionalized at the chain ends, and second PEG is not biodegradable. (more...)

Preservation of posttranslational modifications during purification is crucial for successful mass spectrometric analyses of protein modifications. Current tandem-affinity purification strategies require native conditions and are therefore susceptible to loss of posttranslational modifications during cell lysis and purification because modifying as well as de-modifying enzymes remain active under these conditions. (more...)

The highly abundant GTP binding protein elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) fulfills multiple roles in bacterial protein biosynthesis. EF-Tu also binds other ligands, including four structurally distinct families of antibiotics. The lack of sequence homology among the identified EF-Tu ligands demonstate promiscuous peptide binding by EF-Tu. (more...)

In the past decade, droplets have been intensively used by the industries as an agent for drug preparations, for plastic polymerizations, and chemical processing. Recent advancements in microfluidic droplet technology has enabled the precise sampling and processing of small volumes of fluids (picoliter to femtoliter) by the controlled viscous shearing in microchannels. Microfluidic technologies has transformed droplets to be used as liquid reaction vessels for screening protein crystallization conditions, as micro templates for assisting self-assembling of materials, as molds for curing polymeric micro spheres, and as components for micro electrical actuator. Programmable fluidic assays for sampling glucose concentration of human physiological fluids, DNA analysis, nano particle synthesis machinery have been individually demonstrated using droplet based microfluidic system. However two drawbacks limit the use of these technologies: 1) the generation of satellite droplets have always being a problem limiting the volume and accuracy of the metered fluid sample. 2) Generation of monodispersed droplets smaller than 1?m has been difficult to achieve. The solution to both problem lies in the use of satellite sorting technologies, in which, satellite droplets, the by product of droplet generation can not only be filtered but also simultaneously be used as a production mechanism for nano-particle synthesis. (more...)

University of California researchers are investigating a protein scaffold system for molecular transport, namely, the E2 protein of Bacillus stearothermophilus in the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. This model system has many features that make it attractive as a generalizable scaffold for drug delivery. Although it is a large complex, it self-assembles from smaller subunits that are easily heterologously expressed in E. coli. Since it is derived from a thermophilic organism, it is quite stable. In contrast to other self-assembling spherical complexes (such as icosahedral viral capsids) the core can accommodate large foreign peptides and proteins that are genetically engineered to the surface while retaining its self-assembling capabilities. This allows targeting regions to be easily incorporated into the system.UC researchers will engineer self-assembled protein complexes to encapsulate and transport drug molecules with varying chemical properties. To engineer this complex for solubilization and delivery of drug molecules, the characteristics of the protein will be investigated. Molecular modeling of the structure will aid the selection of amino acid targets. UC researchers will also test cell targeting and internalization by peptides and proteins. One important advantage of this system over other caged protein systems for drug delivery is the ability to genetically use foreign peptides and proteins without critically affecting the self-assembly behavior of the icosahedral core. UC researchers will also determine the molecular parameters in the self-assembly of the engineered protein scaffold. Understanding the reasons behind this protein self-assembly and stability is key to the development of an engineered complex based on human E2. This aim will investigate the important interactions which promote the self-assembly and themostability of the E2 protein. (more...)

CRAC stands for Ca2+-Release Activated Ca2+. When Ca2+ from the endoplasmic reticulum (a major store of Ca2+) is depleted, a CRAC channel, is activated to slowly replenish the endoplasmic reticulum. The CRAC channel is critical to the activation of T lymphocytes, mast cells and other hematopoietic cells, as it provides the primary route for the influx of calcium into these cells. Inhibition of the CRAC channel could, therefore, provide one of the most direct means of modulating the immune response for the treatment of multiple diseases and disorders. (more...)