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Cardiac Gene Expression: Methods and Protocols presents both cutting-edge and established methods for studying cardiac gene expression. The protocols provide a template for solid research, and cover the process through screening, analysis, characterization, and functional confirmation of novel genes or known genes with a new function. Section I, Cardiac Gene Expression Profiling: The Global Perspective, discusses several different approaches to examining, identifying, and analyzing changes in transcriptome gene expression. Section II, Cardiac Gene Regulation: Gene-Specific mRNA Measurement in the Myocardium, outlines more sensitive and gene-targeted expression methods. Section III, Cardiac Gene Regulation: Promoter Characterization in the Myocardium, provides protocols for the study of underlying gene regulation mechanisms by focusing on the interaction of transcription factors with their cognate cis binding elements. Section IV, In Silico Assessment of Regulatory cis-Elements and Gene Regulation, and Section V, Cardiac Single Network Polymorphisms, emphasize new analytical approaches for deciphering the functional elements buried in the 3 billion nucleotides of the human genome and other model genomes. The concluding section, Gene Overexpression and Targeting in the Myocardium, highlights methods that facilitate overexpression or cardiac-specific targeted gene deletion.

Animal Cell Biotechnology: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition constitutes a comprehensive manual of state-of-the-art and new techniques for setting up mammalian cell lines for production of biopharmaceuticals, and for optimizing critical parameters for cell culture considering the whole cascade from lab to final production. The volume is divided into five parts that reflect the processes required for different stages of production. In Part I, basic techniques for establishment of production cell lines are addressed, especially transduction techniques, cells for gene therapy and antibody production. Part II addresses basic cultivation techniques, such as microcarrier culture and encapsulation. Part III covers cell characterization and analysis, including flow cytometric applications, NMR-based techniques, and biochemical and cytometric techniques. Part IV details cultivation techniques, such as disposable bioreactors, hollow fiber cell culture, fixed bed reactors, and configuration of bioreactors. Part V covers downstream techniques such as membrane filtration techniques, while Part VI describes special applications, including retroviral vectors. Animal Cell Biotechnology: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition provides a compendium of techniques for scientists in industrial and research laboratories that use mammalian cells for biotechnology purposes.

The promise of gene therapy can be realized only if workable vectors can be found to deliver therapeutic genes. In Viral Vectors for Gene Therapy: Methods and Protocols, leading researchers from academia and biotechnology describe proven molecular methods for the construction, development, and use of virus vectors for gene transfer and gene therapy. Offering detailed step-by-step instructions to ensure successful results, these experts detail the use of herpes viruses, adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, simple and complex retroviruses, including lentiviruses, and other virus systems for vector development and gene transfer. Additional chapters demonstrate the use of virus vectors in the brain and central nervous system. Each protocol includes a discussion of the principles involved, numerous charts and tables, ample references, and notes on possible problems, troubleshooting, and alternative procedures. Comprehensive and highly practical, Viral Vectors for Gene Therapy: Methods and Protocols provides not only researchers with the basic tools needed to design targeted gene delivery vectors, but also clinicians with an understanding of how to apply viral vectors to the treatment of genetic disorders.

Significant advances in gene transfer technology and the completion of sequencing the human genome offer much renewed hope that gene therapy will provide novel approaches to the treatment of inherited and acquired diseases. In this fully updated and revised 2nd edition of the warmly received Gene Therapy Protocols, leading experts from academic and industrial laboratories around the world detail their most effective viral and nonviral methods of gene transfer, as well as discuss their applications in different organ systems. The methods range from those in which new molecular conjugates show great promise for targeting targeting gene transfer and regulating transgene expression, to those used in such exciting applications as the delivery of therapeutic proteins, vaccination, and tissue engineering. In addition, there are completely revised methods based on retroviruses and adenoviruses, as well as new and promising methods based on lentiviruses and adeno-associated viruses. The quantitative aspects of gene therapy are strongly emphasized, and the book reflects the many significant recent improvements in gene transfer efficiency, gene regulation, and vector production. Up-to-date and highly practical, Gene Therapy Protocols, 2nd Edition, offers a rich compilation of the revolutionary advances that have recently occurred in gene transfer technology, with each article providing proven step-by-step laboratory procedures that enable successful therapeutic application. --

In Gene Targeting Protocols, a panel of innovative investigators present in readily reproducible detail the latest techniques for gene replacement, gene knockout, and gene repair in both animals and plants. These expert researchers review the best gene transfer vehicles (liposomes, PEI, and EPD), discuss the parameters that affect vector uptake, and detail successful methods for gene targeting (Cre-ox, and adeno and adeno-associated viruses). The methods include two fundamentally different approaches to gene targeting- one using a fusion protein to deliver a vector to a virus for possible therapeutic effect, and one entailing an episomal-based Epstein-Barr vector that can modulate the chromatin assembly process, and thus overcome a serious barrier to therapeutic gene targeting. The book also has several techniques for using oligonucleotides in gene targeting, a methodology that may revolutionize the entire field. Innovative and wide ranging, Gene Targeting Protocols offers today's researchers robust and proven gene-targeting techniques that are essential to understanding and regulating biological processes at the genetic level.