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A method of detecting DNase I hypersensitive sites ((DHS) in a single cell or very small number of cells, including cells recovered from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue slides of patient samples. DHS has revealed a large number of potential regulatory elements for transcriptional regulation in various cell types. The application of DNase-Seq techniques to patient samples can elucidate pathophysiological mechanisms of gene function in a variety of diseases as well as provide potentially important diagnostic and prognostic information.

A new and highly advantageous method of purifying polar organic compounds using affinity countercurrent chromatography, has been created. This invention permits separation of very hydrophilic organic compounds using countercurrent chromatography in which a ligand for the desired analytes is used to enhance the partitioning of polar species into the organic layer of an aqueous-organic solvent mixture.

This application describes an apparatus and method of convection-enhanced delivery of drugs into the brain and other solid tissue structures. The method involves positioning the tip of an infusion catheter within a tissue structure and supplying an agent through the catheter while maintaining a pressure gradient from the tip of the catheter during infusion. The catheter is connected to a pump which delivers the desired drug and maintains a desired pressure gradient throughout delivery of the agent.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) occurs in 28,000 people per year in North America. Symptomatic vasospasm occurs in the majority of individuals suffering SAH and is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients reaching neurological care. Specifically, vasospasm causes cerebral ischemia or stroke, and the prevention of vasospasm could prevent stroke and death as well as allow physicians more freedom in scheduling surgery when the operative risks are lower.

This invention describes several novel MRI "stains" to measure and display water diffusion anisotropy data obtained by diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI). One problem that this invention overcomes is that it significantly reduces the statistical bias in the mean and variance of the measured anisotropy of water diffusion caused by background noise in the MR images. These benefits are achieved by exploiting the idea that fiber tracts exhibiting diffusion anisotropy vary continuously in most regions.

The invention provides for a novel ultrasound-based imaging modality that is based on the interaction of a static magnetic field and conductive moieties in the imaged sample under electrical excitation. The invention also provides a novel ultrasound-based imaging modality that provides a contrast mechanism which reflects the conductivity distribution of the medium being imaged.

ADP-ribosylation of arginine residues in proteins may be involved in cell adhesion and is crucial for the action of cholera toxin and E. coli heat-labile enterotoxin, agents involved in the pathogenesis of cholera and traveller's diarrhoea, respectively. ADP-ribosylation is reversed by ADP-ribosylarginine hydrolases, which cleave the ADP-ribose-arginine bond. ADP-ribosylarginine hydrolases from a variety of mammalian species and tissues were isolated, and the coding regions for the hydrolases were cloned and expressed.

Cell transplantation therapy typically involves transplanting primary cells or immortalized cells into patients. The promising but still inconsistent data stemming from those clinical trials using primary cells in Parkinson's disease are believed to be due to an insufficient number, function and uniformity of the transplanted cells. In an effort to overcome these problems an improved method for isolating, growing and differentiating precursor cells into dopaminergic neurons has been developed.

Vitamin D receptor (VDR) is a nuclear receptor that is activated by calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D. It is best known for regulating dietary calcium uptake necessary for bone growth, but it also affects cell proliferation and differentiation. Therefore, it was thought that treatment with calcitriol or its derivatives could be useful to treat the uncontrolled proliferation typical of cancer cells. However, this approach has been unsuccessful to date because it leads to toxic levels of calcium in the blood.

Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) has been shown to trigger sequence-specific gene silencing in a wide variety of organisms, including plant, nematode and invertebrate species. Recent intense work in the field has shown that small dsRNAs mediate sequence specific RNA degradation in the process known as RNA interference (RNAi).

This invention provides for synthetic dsRNAs (20-25 nucleotides in length) and methods that can inhibit gene-specific expression in mammalian cells.