University of Wisconsin–Madison

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Medicine

Assessing Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Species Barriers with an In Vitro Prion Protein Conversion Assay

Christopher J. Johnson¹, Christina M. Carlson², Aaron R. Morawski³, Alyson Manthei⁴, Neil R. Cashman⁵

¹USGS National Wildlife Health Center, ²Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, ³Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, ⁴Merial Veterinary Scholars Program, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison, ⁵Department of Neurology, University of British Columbia

Measuring the barrier to the interspecies transmission of prion diseases is challenging and typically involves animal challenges or biochemical assays. Here, we present an in vitro prion protein conversion assay with the ability to predict species barriers.

Biology

Genome-wide Mapping of Drug-DNA Interactions in Cells with COSMIC (Crosslinking of Small Molecules to Isolate Chromatin)

Graham S. Erwin¹, Matthew P. Grieshop¹, Devesh Bhimsaria^1,2, Asuka Eguchi³, José A. Rodríguez-Martínez¹, Aseem Z. Ansari^1,4

¹Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, ²Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, ³Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, ⁴The Genome Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Identifying the direct targets of genome-targeting molecules remains a major challenge. To understand how DNA-binding molecules engage the genome, we developed a method that relies on crosslinking of small molecules to isolate chromatin (COSMIC).