Probing Nucleic Acid-Protein Interactions with EMSA The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) is a powerful technique for detecting specific-binding of nucleic acid-protein complexes. Over the past 30 years, EMSA has been the “go to assay” to investigate the qualitative interactions between nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) and nucleic-acid binding proteins. Through the use of radio-labeled…

Alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) are one of the major types of lung cells that can be used to analyze the response of lung epithelia to external agents. AECs from mouse lungs can thus be utilized as an in vitro model of diseases. AECs are indispensable for studying lung development, injury, and repair. People working on…

Estimates indicate that there may be up to 2 billion living species of organisms, each with conserved and unique biological mechanisms that are vital for survival. How do scientists understand them all? Enter model organisms. Model organisms, as the name implies, are living things which are used as representative models for understanding other organisms. They…