This protocol describes a method to quantify mouse sociability. Mice are videotaped as they move and interact in a special cage. Movie processing allows for the automated quantification of sociability with excellent accuracy and reliability.
Substrates with stiffness in the kilopascal-range are useful to study the response of cells to physiologically relevant micro-environment stiffness. Using just a widefield fluorescence microscope, the Young's modulus of soft silicone gels can be determined using an indentation with a suitable sphere.
Here, we describe a method for purifying histidine-tagged pyrophosphokinase enzymes and utilizing thin layer chromatography of radiolabelled substrates and products to assay for the enzymatic activity in vitro. The enzyme activity assay is broadly applicable to any kinase, nucleotide cyclase, or phosphor-transfer reaction whose mechanism includes nucleotide triphosphate hydrolysis.
This article introduces a simple method for expeditious production of giant unilamellar vesicles with encapsulated cytoskeletal proteins. The method proves to be useful for bottom-up reconstitution of cytoskeletal structures in confinement and cytoskeleton-membrane interactions.
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