University of California Riverside

3 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Biology

Transfecting and Nucleofecting Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Papri Chatterjee¹, Yuri Cheung¹, Chee Liew¹

¹UCR Stem Cell Center, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, University of California Riverside

Despite recent advancements in genetic modification, transfection of human embryonic stem cells (HESCs) remains a capricious process. To our knowledge, systematic and efficient methods to transfect human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have not been reported. Here, we describe robust protocols to efficiently transfect and nucleofect human iPSCs.

Neuroscience

Inducing Plasticity of Astrocytic Receptors by Manipulation of Neuronal Firing Rates

Alison X. Xie¹, Kelli Lauderdale¹, Thomas Murphy¹, Timothy L. Myers¹, Todd A. Fiacco^2,3

¹Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of California Riverside, ²Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, University of California Riverside, ³Center for Glial-Neuronal Interactions, University of California Riverside

Here we describe an adaptation of protocols used to induce homeostatic plasticity in neurons for the study of plasticity of astrocytic G protein-coupled receptors. Recently used to examine changes in astrocytic group I mGluRs in juvenile mice, the method can be applied to measure scaling of various astrocytic GPCRs, in tissue from adult mice in situ and in vivo, and to gain a better appreciation of the sensitivity of astrocytic receptors to changes in neuronal activity.

Bioengineering

Automating Citrus Budwood Processing for Downstream Pathogen Detection Through Instrument Engineering

Deborah Pagliaccia^*1,6, Douglas Hill^*2, Emily Dang¹, Gerardo Uribe¹, Agustina De Francesco¹, Ryan Milton², Anthony De La Torre², Axel Mounkam², Tyler Dang¹, Sohrab Bodaghi¹, Irene Lavagi-Craddock¹, Alexandra Syed¹, William Grover³, Adriann Okamba^4,5, Georgios Vidalakis^*1

¹Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California Riverside, ²Technology Evolving Solutions (TES), ³Department of Bioengineering, University of California Riverside, ⁴Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs Léonard de Vinci ESILV, ⁵University of California Riverside, ⁶California Agriculture and Food Enterprise (CAFÉ), University of California Riverside

We engineered, fabricated, and validated an instrument that rapidly processes phloem-rich bark citrus budwood tissues. Compared to current methods, the budwood tissue extractor (BTE) has increased sample throughput and decreased the required labor and equipment costs.