CPC Class C12Q

The present application discloses a method of growing or proliferating nerve cells by contacting the cells with phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) lipid phosphatase inhibiting peptide.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of inducing pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into clinically applicable retinal ganglion cells.The present invention provides a method for inducing pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into retinal ganglion cells that can be used for clinical application. Such method is a method for producing retinal ganglion cells with elongated axons comprising the following steps: (a) a step of inducing pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into retinal progenitor cells via floating culture; (b) a step of inducing the retinal progenitor cells obtained in step (a) to differentiate into retinal ganglion cells via floating culture; and (c) a step of allowing axons to elongate via adhesion culture of the retinal ganglion cells obtained in step (b).

Modified viruses and methods for preparing the modified viruses are provided. Vaccines that contain the viruses are provided. The viruses can be used in methods of treatment of diseases, such as proliferative and inflammatory disorders, including cancer, and as anti-tumor and/or antiangiogenic agents. The viruses also can be used in diagnostic methods.

The present invention is directed to a polymerase activity assay that produces a strong optical signal when a primer-template complex is extended to full-length product. The assay uses Cy3 as the molecular beacon and Iowa Black® RQ as the quencher. The signal-to-noise-ratio (STNR) of this donor-quencher pairing is ˜200-fold over background, which is considerably better than other donor-quencher pairs (STNRs ˜10-20-fold). The STNR allows for solution-based monitoring of polymerase activity. Because the sensor functions via Watson-Crick base pairing, the polymerase activity assay may also be used to evolve polymerases to accept xeno nucleic acids as substrates.

The invention generally relates to methods for universal target capture.

The object of the invention is to provide a method for counting the number of nucleic acid molecules in a mixture of a plurality of nucleic acid molecules more highly accurately. This is a method for highly accurately counting the number of nucleic acid molecules by detecting the read errors that occur when determining a nucleic acid base sequence, wherein the method has: a step for adding a barcode-sequence-generating oligonucleotide to a mixture of a plurality of nucleic acid molecules, thereby linking barcode sequences unique to the nucleic acid molecules to the base sequences constituting each of the nucleic acid molecules; a step for determining the base sequences of the nucleic acid molecules to which the barcode sequences have been linked; a step for detecting read errors in the barcode sequences for which the base sequences have been determined; and a step for calculating the proportion of barcode sequences free of read errors to all of the barcode sequences for which the base sequences have been determined, on the basis of the number of reads of the barcode sequences for which the base sequences have been determined, the abovementioned barcode-sequence-generating oligonucleotide comprising a maximum of five bases, and the number of barcode sequences free of read errors indicating the number of nucleic acid molecules in the mixture.