Molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases /

Populations of the western world are now healthier and enjoying higher life expectancy than ever. They are beginning to benefit from an array of costly new therapies made possible through recent rapid advances in medical science and technology, and their demands on modern medicine are rising. Meanwhile, healthcare systems are struggling with their outdated legacy models of the m- th 20 century and are experiencing ever-increasing financial pressure from g- ernments and health insurance organizations. The equation is no longer in balance, and this predicament is forcing societies to explore new approaches to managing healthcare in the future. Since the first edition of Molecular Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases was published, we have witnessed the sequencing of the (almost) complete human genome and a shift in medical research from an emphasis on genetics to the advancement and useful application of proteomics. Bioinformatics has become the key tool for managing and analyzing the upsurge of data, and faster and more effective test methods and technologies have opened up new prospects for ind- try and academia. The tools of modern genomics and proteomics are now being utilized to specifically guide the discovery of drugs for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of human disease. They may also help us to find a way out of the current healthcare calamity.

Part I. Protein-Based Identification of Antigens Proteomic Approaches to Antigen Discovery Karen M. Dobos, John S. Spencer, Ian M. Orme, and John T. Belisle Immunoproteomics Alexander Krah and Peter R. Jungblut Immunoprecipitation and Blotting: The Visualization of Small Amounts of Antigens Using Antibodies and Lectins Stephen Thompson Part II. DNA-Based Identification of Antigens Representational Difference Analysis of cDNA Lucas D. Bowler Microarray Data Analysis and Mining Silvia Saviozzi, Giovanni Iazzetti, Enrico Caserta, Alessandro Guffanti, and Raffaele A. Calogero Expression Cloning Michael J. Lodes, Davin C. Dillon, Raymond L. Houghton, and Yasir A. W. Skeiky Part III. Identification of Epitopes and Immunomodulatory Components Determination of Epitopes by Mass Spectrometry Christine Hager-Braun and Kenneth B. Tomer Identification of T Cell Epitopes Using ELISpot and Peptide Pool Arrays Timothy W. Tobery and Michael J. Caulfield Virus-like Particles: A Novel Tool for the Induction and Monitoring of Both T-Helper and Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Activity Ludwig Deml, Jens Wild, and Ralf Wagner Application of Single-Cell Cultures of Mouse Splenocytes as an Assay System to Analyze the Immunomodulatory Properties of Bacterial Components Ludwig Deml, Michael Aigner, Alexander Eckhardt, Jochen Decker, Norbert Lehn, and Wulf Schneider-Brachert Part IV. Expression of Recombinant Proteins High-Throughput Expression and Purification of 6xHis-Tagged Proteins in a 96-Well Format Jutta Drees, Jason Smith, Frank Schafer, and Kerstin Steinert Production of Antigens in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Green Microalgae as a Novel Source of Recombinant Proteins Markus Fuhrmann Codon-Optimized Genes that Enable Increased Heterologous Expression inMammalian Cells and Elicit Efficient Immune Responses in Mice after Vaccination of Naked DNA Marcus Graf, Ludwig Deml, and Ralf Wagner Part V. Purification, Modification, and Renaturation of Recombinant Proteins Purification and Immunological Characterization of Recombinant Antigens Expressed in the Form of Insoluble Aggregates (Inclusion Bodies) Udo Reischl Purification of Recombinant Proteins with High Isoelectric Points Raffaele A. Calogero and Anna Aulicino Refolding of Inclusion Body Proteins Marcus Mayer and Johannes Buchner Small-Molecule-Protein Conjugation Procedures Stephen Thompson Part VI. Characterization of Recombinant Proteins Structural Characterization of Proteins and Peptides Rainer Deutzmann Determination of Kinetic Data Using Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensors Claudia Hahnefeld, Stephan Drewianka, and Friedrich W. Herberg Affinity Measurements of Biological Molecules by a Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) Biosensor Uwe Schaible, Michael Liss, Elke Prohaska, Jochen Decker, Karin Stadtherr, and Hans Wolf Part VII. Evaluation of Recombinant Proteins in Immunological Test Systems Solid Supports in Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay and Other Solid-Phase Immunoassays John E. Butler Design and Preparation of Recombinant Antigens as Diagnostic Reagents in Solid-Phase Immunosorbent Assays Alan Warnes, Anthony R. Fooks, and John R. Stephenson Basic Problems of Serological Laboratory Diagnosis Walter Fierz Molecular Diagnostics Resources on the Internet Larry Winger Part VIII. Recombinant Receptor Molecules Cloning Single-Chain Antibody Fragments (scFv) from Hybridoma Cells Lars Toleikis, Olaf Broders, and Stefan Dubel Index

Includes bibliographical references and index.