• Title/Summary/Keyword: Biological systems

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Design and Control of a New Micro End-effector for Biological Cell Manipulation

  • Shim, Jae-Hong;Cho, Sung-Yong;Cho, Young-Im;Kim, Deok-Ho;Kim, Byung-Kyu
    • 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2003.10a
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    • pp.2445-2450
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    • 2003
  • Recently, biological technology industry shows great development. Instruments and systems related biological technology have been developed actively. In this paper, we developed a new micro end-effector for biological cell manipulation. The existing micro end-effector for biological cell manipulation has not any force sensing mechanism. Usually, excessive contact force occurring when the end-effector and a cell collide might make a damage on the cell. However, unfortunately, user can not notice the condition in case of using the existing end-effector. In order to overcome we proposed the improved micro end-effector having a force sensing mechanism. This paper presents the design concepts of the new micro end-effector. We carried out calibration of the force sensor and tested the performance of the proposed micro end-effector. Through a series of experiments the new micro end-effector shows the possibility of application for precision biological cell manipulation such as DNA operation

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Quantitative Frameworks for Multivalent Macromolecular Interactions in Biological Linear Lattice Systems

  • Choi, Jaejun;Kim, Ryeonghyeon;Koh, Junseock
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.45 no.7
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    • pp.444-453
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    • 2022
  • Multivalent macromolecular interactions underlie dynamic regulation of diverse biological processes in ever-changing cellular states. These interactions often involve binding of multiple proteins to a linear lattice including intrinsically disordered proteins and the chromosomal DNA with many repeating recognition motifs. Quantitative understanding of such multivalent interactions on a linear lattice is crucial for exploring their unique regulatory potentials in the cellular processes. In this review, the distinctive molecular features of the linear lattice system are first discussed with a particular focus on the overlapping nature of potential protein binding sites within a lattice. Then, we introduce two general quantitative frameworks, combinatorial and conditional probability models, dealing with the overlap problem and relating the binding parameters to the experimentally measurable properties of the linear lattice-protein interactions. To this end, we present two specific examples where the quantitative models have been applied and further extended to provide biological insights into specific cellular processes. In the first case, the conditional probability model was extended to highlight the significant impact of nonspecific binding of transcription factors to the chromosomal DNA on gene-specific transcriptional activities. The second case presents the recently developed combinatorial models to unravel the complex organization of target protein binding sites within an intrinsically disordered region (IDR) of a nucleoporin. In particular, these models have suggested a unique function of IDRs as a molecular switch coupling distinct cellular processes. The quantitative models reviewed here are envisioned to further advance for dissection and functional studies of more complex systems including phase-separated biomolecular condensates.

Role of Diazotrophic Bacteria in Biological Nitrogen Fixation and Plant Growth Improvement

  • Shin, Wansik;Islam, Rashedul;Benson, Abitha;Joe, Manoharan Melvin;Kim, Kiyoon;Gopal, Selvakumar;Samaddar, Sandipan;Banerjee, Somak;Sa, Tongmin
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.49 no.1
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    • pp.17-29
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    • 2016
  • Though there is an abundant supply of nitrogen in the atmosphere, it cannot be used directly by the biological systems since it has to be combined with the element hydrogen before their incorporation. This process of nitrogen fixation ($N_2$-fixation) may be accomplished either chemically or biologically. Between the two elements, biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a microbiological process that converts atmospheric di-nitrogen ($N_2$) into plant-usable form. In this review, the genetics and mechanism of nitrogen fixation including genes responsible for it, their types and role in BNF are discussed in detail. Nitrogen fixation in the different agricultural systems using different methods is discussed to understand the actual rather than the potential $N_2$-fixation procedure. The mechanism by which the diazotrophic bacteria improve plant growth apart from nitrogen fixation such as inhibition of plant ethylene synthesis, improvement of nutrient uptake, stress tolerance enhancement, solubilization of inorganic phosphate and mineralization of organic phosphate is also discussed. Role of diazotrophic bacteria in the enhancement of nitrogen fixation is also dealt with suitable examples. This mini review attempts to address the importance of diazotrophic bacteria in nitrogen fixation and plant growth improvement.

Inferring Transcriptional Interactions and Regulator Activities from Experimental Data

  • Wang, Rui-Sheng;Zhang, Xiang-Sun;Chen, Luonan
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.307-315
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    • 2007
  • Gene regulation is a fundamental process in biological systems, where transcription factors (TFs) play crucial roles. Inferring transcriptional interactions between TFs and their target genes has utmost importance for understanding the complex regulatory mechanisms in cellular systems. On one hand, with the rapid progress of various high-throughput experiment techniques, more and more biological data become available, which makes it possible to quantitatively study gene regulation in a systematic manner. On the other hand, transcription regulation is a complex biological process mediated by many events such as post-translational modifications, degradation, and competitive binding of multiple TFs. In this review, with a particular emphasis on computational methods, we report the recent advances of the research topics related to transcriptional regulatory networks, including how to infer transcriptional interactions, reveal combinatorial regulation mechanisms, and reconstruct TF activity profiles.

OPTIMIZATION OF PARAMETERS IN MATHEMATICAL MODELS OF BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

  • Choo, S.M.;Kim, Y.H.
    • Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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    • v.26 no.1_2
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    • pp.355-364
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    • 2008
  • Under pathological stress stimuli, dynamics of a biological system can be changed by alteration of several components such as functional proteins, ultimately leading to disease state. These dynamics in disease state can be modeled using differential equations in which kinetic or system parameters can be obtained from experimental data. One of the most effective ways to restore a particular disease state of biology system (i.e., cell, organ and organism) into the normal state makes optimization of the altered components usually represented by system parameters in the differential equations. There has been no such approach as far as we know. Here we show this approach with a cardiac hypertrophy model in which we obtain the existence of the optimal parameters and construct an optimal system which can be used to find the optimal parameters.

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Structure Formation in Multilayered Films Prepared by the Layer-by-Layer Deposition using PAA and HM-PEO

  • Seo, Jin-Hwa;Lutkenhaus Jodie L..;Kim, Jun-Oh;Hammond Paula T.;Char Kook-Heon
    • Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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    • 2006.10a
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    • pp.295-295
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    • 2006
  • In present study, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and hydrophobically modified poly(ethylene oxide) (HM-PEO) multilayers based on the hydrogen bonding between the component polymer pair have been prepared by the LbL deposition method. Dip assembled HM-PEO/PAA multilayers yield unique film morphologies in comparison with PEO/PAA multilayers due to the micellar formation of HM-PEO owing to the hydrophobic attraction between alkyl chains end-capped with the PEO chains. Individual HM-PEO micelles were connected through the bridging PEO chains to form temporary networks on multilayer surface and induced peculiar surface morphology on HM-PEO/PAA multilayers above the critical number of bilayers.

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Orientation of Poly(styrene-b-methylmethacrylate) thin films deposited on Self-Assembled Monolayers of phenylsilanes

  • Kim, Rae-Hyun;Bulliard, Xavier;Char, Kook-Heon
    • Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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    • 2006.10a
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    • pp.311-311
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    • 2006
  • The morphology of Poly(styrene-b-methylmethacrylate) (P(S-b-MMA)) block copolymer thin films deposited on silicon wafers was controlled by treating the substrates with Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAM) of phenylsilanes with different alkyl chain lengths. It was found that the treatment with SAM strongly modified the substrates properties, especillay the surface energy, as compared with bare silicon oxide. By futher adjusting the molecular weight of P(S-b-MMA), a variety of morphologies could be generated, including a perpendicular orientation of lamellea of PS and PMMA, which is required for industrial applications.

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Design of Intelligent Information Processing Layer based on Brain (뇌 정보처리 원리 기반 지능형 정보처리 레이어 설계)

  • Kim Seong-Joo
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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    • 2006.05a
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    • pp.45-48
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    • 2006
  • The system that can generate biological brain information processing mechanism more precisely may have several abilities such as exact cognition, situation decision, learning and inference, and output decision. In this paper, to implement high level information processing and thinking ability in a complex system, the information processing layer based on the biological brain is introduced. The biological brain information processing mechanism, which is analyzed in this paper, provides fundamental information about intelligent engineering system, and the design of the layer that can mimic the functions of a brain through engineering definitions can efficiently introduce an intelligent information processing method having a consistent flow in various engineering systems. The applications proposed in this paper are expected to take several roles as a unified model that generates information process in various areas, such as engineering and medical field, with a dream of implementing humanoid artificial intelligent system.

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Magnetic Bead-Based Immunoassay on a Microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip

  • Park, Jin-Woo;Chong H. Ahn
    • The Magazine of the IEIE
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    • v.29 no.3
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    • pp.41-48
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    • 2002
  • This paper presents a basic concept of lab-on-a-chip systems and their advantages in chemical and biological analyses. In addition, magnetic bead-based immunoassay on a microfluidic system is also presented as a typical example of lab-on-chip systems. Rapid and low volume immunoassays have been successfully achieved on the demonstrated lab-on-a-chip using magnetic beads, which are used as both immobilization surfaces and bio-molecule carriers. Total time required for an immunoassay was less than 20 minutes including sample incubation time, and sample volume wasted was less than $50{\mu}l$ during five repeated assays. Lab-on-a-chip is becoming a revolutionary tool for many different applications in chemical and biological analysis due to its fascinating advantages (fast and low cost) over conventional chemical or biological laboratories. Furthermore, simplicity of lab-on-a-chip systems will enable self-testing capability for patients or health consumers overcoming space limitation.

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