生物信息学技术

Studies on plant-mediated decontamination of polluted waters commonly rely on hydroponic bioreactor systems for the rapid screening of different plant species and the investigation of the phytoremediation mechanisms. This chapter describes the use of ebband-flow and sealed r ...

A plant useful for phytoremediation has first to grow in the presence of the target pollutant without being harmed. The plant must not only be resistant to the pollutant, but must also be able to remove it from the environment and transform it into nontoxic metabolites or end products. Differences in t ...

Phytoremediation of organic pollutants has become a topic of great interest in many countries because of the increasing number of recorded spill sites. When applying plant remediation techniques to unknown pollutant mixtures, information on the uptake rates as well as on the final fate of t ...

Despite the recent exploitation of high-throughput methodologies such as cDNA microarrays, the overall picture of plant metal tolerance, accumulation, and translocation is far from complete. Understanding of this network would be beneficial for the optimization of the phytore ...

Soils can be contaminated with heavy metals from various human activities and a num-ber of ex situ and in situ techniques have been developed to remove heavy metals from contaminated soils. Phytoremediation is a developing technology that aims to extract or inactivate metals, metalloids, a ...

Arsenic (As) is a pollutant of major concern throughout the world, and causes serious environmental problems in many areas including, for example, West Bengal, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Phytoremediation is potentially a cost-effective and environmentally benign method of extract ...

Arsenic (As) is a common pollutant of concern in environmental clean up because its contamination is recognized to lead to a variety of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and other health problems. Because Pteris vittata L. was discovered to hyperaccumulate As from soils, As hype ...

Phytoremediation is taking a prominent place in the processes of environmental cleanup from hazardous pollutants, and there is increasing interest among Russian scientists (and, quite importantly, among various organizations) in this technology. This chapter reviews the cur ...

In India, urbanization, excessive utilization of natural resources, and population growth are the causes for air, water, and soil contamination and pollution. Major environmental problems in India are land degradation (deforestation, overgrazing, overcultivation, faulty i ...

Phytoremediation in New Zealand and Australia stemmed from pioneering work by Professor R. R. Brooks on plants that hyperaccumulate heavy metals. Although original work focused on the extraction of heavy metals from contaminated sites, successful phytoremediation now employs pl ...

Purification of proteins using aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) has been successfully carried out on large scale for more than a decade (1–17). One of the major advantages of ATPS is that the scaling up is possible through the use of conventional extraction equipment used for organic-aqueous ex ...

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a technique which offers label-free measurement of cell electrophysiology by monitoring its movement in non-uniform electric fields. In this chapter, the theory underlying DEP is explored, as are the implications of the development of equipment for taking ...

A novel microfabricated flow cytometer for simultaneous impedance and optical measurement of single cells and particles is described in this chapter. We discuss the sensitivity of the system with regard to the impedance sensor and describe the optical setup. The relevant parameters re ...

One of the great challenges facing medicine is the repair of the damaged nervous system. Due to the limited capacity of the central (and to a lesser extent the peripheral) nervous systems to regenerate, damage such as spinal cord injury can often result in permanent paralysis. Researchers are atte ...

Controlling and manipulating liquids and analytes at the sub-millimeter scale is a challenge that frequently requires new methods to be developed. Indeed, scaling-down of traditional macroscopic ideas often fails. For instance, pumping liquids using pressure differences is oft ...

To develop a new generation of drugs, pharmaceutical companies need to be able to synthesise and screen novel chemicals with enhanced speed. New technology that would enable a cost neutral step change in the number of potential drug candidates would provide a distinct competitive advantag ...

This chapter describes the methods and specific procedures used to fabricate microstructures by soft lithography. These techniques are useful for the prototyping of devices useful for applications in biotechnology. Fabrication by soft lithography does not require specializ ...

Recent advances in the bio- and nanotechnologies have led to the development of novel microsystems for bio-particle separation and analysis. Microsystems are already revolutionising the way we do science and have led to the development of a number of ultrasensitive bioanalytical dev ...

In this chapter we review the fundamental techniques and processes underlying the fabrication of devices on the micron scale (referred to as “microfabrication”). Principles laid down in the 1950s now form the basis of the semiconductor manufacturing industry; these principles are eas ...

In this chapter we review the current capsule technology and the more conventional “gold standard” technologies against which the wireless devices are compared. Over the years there have been several implementations of capsule devices of growing sophistication as new technology has ...