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We present the first electrochemical detection, characterization, and kinetic study of the aggregation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) amyloid beta peptides (Abeta-40, Abeta-42) using three different voltammetric techniques at a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). This method is based on detecting changes in the oxidation signal of tyrosine (Tyr) residue. As the peptides aggregate, there are structure conformational changes, which affect the degree of exposure of Tyr to the molecular surface of the peptides. The results show significant differences in the aggregation process between the two peptides, and these correlate highly with established techniques. The method is rapid and label-free, and the principle can be universally applied to other protein aggregation studies related to diseases, such as Huntington's, Parkinson's, and Creutzfeldt Jacob (CJD). This method could also be explored in screening for the effectiveness of AD therapies.

Cell differentiation is a complex process involving multiple steps, from initial cell fate specification to final differentiation. Procambial/cambial cells, which act as vascular stem cells, differentiate into both xylem and phloem cells during vascular development. Recent studies have identified regulatory cascades for xylem differentiation. However, the molecular mechanism underlying phloem differentiation is largely unexplored due to technical challenges. Here, we established an ectopic induction system for phloem differentiation named Vascular Cell Induction Culture System Using Arabidopsis Leaves (VISUAL). Our results verified similarities between VISUAL-induced Arabidopsis thaliana phloem cells and in vivo sieve elements. We performed network analysis using transcriptome data with VISUAL to dissect the processes underlying phloem differentiation, eventually identifying a factor involved in the regulation of the master transcription factor gene APL. Thus, our culture system opens up new avenues not only for genetic studies of phloem differentiation, but also for future investigations of multidirectional differentiation from vascular stem cells.

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In this report, we developed a new optical biosensor in connection with a gold-deposited porous anodic alumina (PAA) layer chip. In our sensor, we observed that the gold deposition onto the chip surface formed a "caplike" layer on the top of the oxide nanostructures in an orderly fashion, so we called this new surface formation a "gold-capped oxide nanostructure". As a result of its interferometric and localized surface plasmon resonance properties, the relative reflected intensity (RRI) at surface of the chip resulted in an optical pattern that was highly sensitive to the changes in the effective thickness of the biomolecular layer. We demonstrated the method on the detection of picomolar quantities of untagged oligonucleotides and the hybridization with synthetic and PCR-amplified DNA samples. The detection limit of our PAA layer chip was determined as 10 pM synthetic target DNA. The capability of observing both RRI increment and wavelength shift upon biomolecular interactions promises to make our chip widely applicable in various analytical tests.