Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University

5 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Biology

Monitoring Acupuncture Effects on Human Brain by fMRI

Kathleen K. S. Hui¹, Vitaly Napadow¹, Jing Liu¹, Ming Li¹, Ovidiu Marina^1,2, Erika E. Nixon¹, Joshua D. Claunch¹, Lauren LaCount¹, Tara Sporko¹, Kenneth K. Kwong¹

¹Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, ²William Beaumont Hospital

FMRI and physiological monitoring is used to study the effects of Acupuncture on the central and peripheral nervous systems. Acupuncture mobilizes a limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network, with great overlap with the default mode network, to modulate neurological activity, possibly related to its autonomic effect in the peripheral nervous system.

Immunology and Infection

SILAC Based Proteomic Characterization of Exosomes from HIV-1 Infected Cells

Collins Cheruiyot¹, Zemplen Pataki¹, Robert Williams¹, Bharat Ramratnam^2,3, Ming Li³

¹Brown University, ²COBRE Center for Cancer Research, Lifespan Laboratories, Rhode Island and Miriam Hospitals, ³Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University

Here, we describe a quantitative proteomics method using the technique of stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) to analyze the effects of HIV-1 infection on host exosomal proteomes. This protocol can be easily adapted to cells under different stress or infection conditions.

Genetics

Embryo Microinjection and Transplantation Technique for Nasonia vitripennis Genome Manipulation

Ming Li^1,2, Michelle Bui^1,2, Omar S. Akbari^1,2

¹Department of Entomology and Riverside Center of Disease Vector Research, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, ²Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego

Microinjection of Nasonia vitripennis embryos is an essential method for generating heritable genome modifications. Described here is a detailed procedure for microinjection and transplantation of Nasonia vitripennis embryos, which will greatly facilitate future genome manipulation in this organism.

Neuroscience

Evaluation of Hemisphere Lateralization with Bilateral Local Field Potential Recording in Secondary Motor Cortex of Mice

Yunan Chen^1,2, Ming Li³, Ying Zheng³, Li Yang¹

¹School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, ²Institute for Brain Research and Rehabilitation, South China Normal University, ³School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University

We present in vivo electrophysiological recording of the local field potential (LFP) in bilateral secondary motor cortex (M2) of mice, which can be applied to evaluate hemisphere lateralization. The study revealed altered levels of synchronization between the left and right M2 in APP/PS1 mice compared to WT controls.

Genetics

Embryo Microinjection Techniques for Efficient Site-Specific Mutagenesis in Culex quinquefasciatus

Michelle Bui¹, Ming Li¹, Robyn R Raban¹, Nannan Liu², Omar S Akbari^1,3

¹Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, San Diego, ²Department of Entomology and Plant Patholog, Auburn University, ³Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, University of California, San Diego

This protocol describes microinjection procedures for Culex quinquefasciatus embryos that are optimized to work with CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tools. This technique can efficiently generate site-specific, heritable, germline mutations that can be used for building genetic technologies in this understudied disease vector.