Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Harvey Coates
The University of Western Australia, Australia
Keynote: Initial results of a pilot trial of tissue engineered myringoplasties in Western Australia
Biography:
Harvey Coates, AO is a Paediatric Otolaryngologist and Clinical Professor in the School of Pediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia. He trained at the Mayo Clinic, USA and has several research degrees and over 100 publications. His research is in otitis media in Aboriginal children and his team discovered the first middle ear biofilm as well as intracellular bacteria and NETs in the middle ear. His most recent research has been to trial tissue engineered myringoplasty in children, a major issue in Australia where over 100,000 people have chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM). He has been awarded many community honours for his work with Aboriginal children's ear disease.
Abstract:
Background: A traumatic tympanic membrane perforation (TMP) often regenerates spontaneously, but only heals in two layers, where the absence of the central, firm and elastic layer can lead to retraction pockets and cholesteatoma. The currently available myringoplasty requires theatre time, sophisticated equipment and general anesthetic. Furthermore, outcomes are variable and inconsistent. Thus, new strategies in reconstruction of TM are desperately needed.
Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of new tissue engineering myringoplasty techniques using basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF) alone, or in combination with a variety of scaffolds, in adults and children.
Methods: This is a prospective cohort study, designed into 4 groups: topical use of b-FGF alone; topical use of b-FGF in combination with gelatin sponge (Gelfoam®); topical use of b-FGF in combination with silk fibroin scaffold (TymPaSil®) and; topical use of b-FGF in combination with collagen scaffold (Celgro®). To date, 18 adults and 12 children have been recruited from the Otolaryngology Departments of two major Western Australian Hospitals. Patients were randomized in the first 3 groups, being the latter (Celgro®) in final stage of safety assessment. The procedure is a modification of the technique devised by Kanemaru, et al. The surgeries were performed under local anesthesia in adults and under general anesthesia in children. Serial video-otoscopy and audiometry was performed post-operatively and outcomes and results determined. Inclusion suitability for the study involved the application of defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and informed consent.
Results: Overall there was a success rate in patient terms of 83%, with the success rate in children similar. However, in terms of treatment, the children required 1.3 treatments, on average, and the adults 1.0. The major reason for the reduction in the success rate in children was related to post-operative infection or non-compliance with water precautions. In those patients with pre-operative hearing loss there was a 90% improvement in hearing. There was no safety issues related to the procedure.
Conclusion: We are reporting the safety and efficacy of b-FGF combined with different scaffolds, in an effective and short procedure with comparable success to conventional myringoplasty, in both adults and pediatric patients.
Keynote Forum
Sharon Mendel Williams
Coventry University, UK
Keynote: The use of bioinformatics to discover the hidden world of the Twin arginine transport (Tat) system’s signal peptides
Biography:
Sharon Mendel Williams joined Coventry University as a Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences in the year 2014. She has worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in both departments of Chemistry and Biology, Warwick University. Her research focuses on biophysics and biochemistry of proteins, and understanding the mechanisms of enzymes. She has a wide range of experience in molecular biology, biochemistry, and chemistry. She is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has been awarded a grant from the RSC research fund to accomplish her research work
Abstract:
A project in bioinformatics will significantly increase the portfolio of skills in science research on top of an already extensive set of laboratory skills you have achieved until now. The twin arginine transport (Tat) system transports folded proteins across bacterial and thylakoid membranes. In gram-negative organisms, it is encoded by tatABC genes and the system recognizes substrates bearing signal peptides with a conserved twin-arginine motif. Most gram-positive organisms lack a tatB gene, indicating major differences in organisation and/or mechanism. The essential targeting determinants that are recognized by a Bacillus subtilis TatAC-type system, TatAdCd have been characterized. Substitution by lysine of either of the twin-arginine residues in the TorA signal peptide can be tolerated, but the presence of twin-lysine residues blocks export completely. The DmsA signal peptide (sequence SRRGLV) appears to play an equally important role and substitution by alanine or phenylalanine blocks export by both the B. subtilis and E. coli systems. These data identify three distinct determinants, whose importance varies depending on the signal peptide in question. The data also show that the B. subtilis TatAdCd and E. coli TatABC systems recognize very similar determinants within their target peptides, and exhibit surprisingly similar responses to mutations within these determinants. In the current project you will use bioinformatics in order to find other signal peptides that can be used by the Tat systems and you will use different prediction methods and compare the results.
- Tissue Regeneration | Bone and Cartilage Tissue Engineering| Novel Approaches in Guided Tissue Regeneration | Tissue Engineering and 3D Printing | Materials and Designs for Tissue Engineering | Scaffolds | Systems Biology | Synthetic Biology
Location: Olimpica 2
Chair
Harvey Coates
The University of Western Australia, Australia
Session Introduction
Sharon Mendel Williams
Coventry University, UK
Title: Exploring unique compounds from lignin degradation using Mutated DyP-type peroxidase enzymes.
Biography:
Sharon Mendel Williams has joined Coventry University as a Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences in 2014. She has worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in both departments of Chemistry and Biology at Warwick University. Her research focuses on biophysics and biochemistry of proteins, and understanding the mechanisms of enzymes. She has a wide range of experience in molecular biology, biochemistry and chemistry. She is a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has been awarded a grant from the RSC research fund to accomplish her research work
Abstract:
Lignin is an organic polymer found in the cell walls of plants. Lignin can be used to create biofuels, or used as an organic hydrocarbon source for a large variety of chemicals and polymers. However, lignin is very robust and current industrial processes for using it are inefficient. Therefore, a useable biological process for degrading lignin would be of great benefit. Microbial degradation of lignin has been mainly studied in basidiomycete fungi: white-rot fungi such as Phanerochaete chrysosporium produce extracellular lignin peroxidase and manganese peroxidase enzymes that can oxidize lignin and some fungi produce extracellular lactases that can also attack lignin. Despite reports of bacterial oxidation of lignin until recently the enzymology of bacterial lignin breakdown was poorly understood. Using a colorimetric assay method, it has been reported a screening method for isolation of lignin-oxidizing bacterial strains from environmental soil samples. In the current project DyP-type peroxidases from gram-negative Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5 and different mutants were created around the Mn active site and cloned into E. coli. The expressed enzymes were purified and characterized and the kinetic parameters were measured with different substrates. Other reaction compounds were tested after mixing with lignin, hard wood and soft wood. The reaction compounds were analyzed by reverse phase HPLC/GC-MS. Some interesting results have been observed and will be presented in the conference. The goal is to improve the effectiveness of the enzymes, increase the production of the enzymes, or degrade the lignin into different and more useable compounds. Any of these goals would be of valuable scientific and commercial benefit.
Zulqurnain Khan
Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture , Pakistan
Title: CRISPR/Cas-based virus resistance in cotton
Time : 12:00-12:25
Biography:
Zulqurnain Khan has completed his PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He is an Assistant Professor in Biotechnology in the Institute of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology (IPBB) at MNS University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan. He has been working in the field of genome editing in plants since 2012. He has published five research/review articles in international peer reviewed journals.
Abstract:
Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is one of the major factors for low yield of cotton in Pakistan. Engineering resistance in cotton cultivators against CLCuD through RNA-directed Cas9 is a powerful tool to tackle the viral disease in cotton. We have targeted coding and non-coding regions of viral DNA individually with Cas9 and dCas9 and found promising potential target sites for viral interference. On the basis of screening results of gRNAs tested in transient assay in N. benthamiana, we designed multiplex gRNA for targeting three most promising sites simultaneously with Cas9 and dCas9. We found that targeting non-coding regions of virus is more effective for virus suppression than targeting coding regions. In transient assay, we found 70-90% decrease in accumulation of virus. Stable transformation of cotton has been optimized with DsRED and transformation with multiplex gRNAs is under progress.
Sarmad Frogh Arshad
Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture , Pakistan
Title: Dissection of QTLs related to biomass traits on sorghum chromosomes 6 and 9 using association mapping
Time : 12:25-12:50
Biography:
Sarmad Frogh Arshad has completed his PhD from the Centre for Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology (CABB) at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. His research domain is Population Genetics and Association Mapping. He is working as an Assistant Professor at Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan. He has published more than two papers and one book chapter in reputed journals and he is designated as Biosafety Officer at MNSUAM on additional charge.
Abstract:
Association mapping analysis was performed on a set of 94 diverse sorghum genotypes to dissect the genetic background of biomass related traits. These genotypes were characterized with 23 and 19 SSR loci on chromosomes 6 and 9 respectively. 14 biomass related traits were evaluated under normal field conditions. Structure analysis yielded four admixture subpopulations with the help of 20 unlinked markers. The pairwise syntenic r2 ranged from 0.0000 to 0.502 on chromosome 6 and 0.0000 to 0.2305 for chromosome 9. LD extent was 10 Mb and 50 Kb for chromosome 6 and 9, respectively, with the critical value of 0.02. A total of seven markers trait associations were detected through mixed linear model approach and phenotypic variability ranged from 9.13 to 13.9% for chromosome 6 and 6.25 to 23.05% for chromosome 9. The marker Xgap07 was associated with days to 50% flowering and plant height on chromosome 6. While the markers SB3789 and xtxp265 exhibited association with leaf length and plant height, respectively on chromosome 6 for the two growing seasons. The SSR primer xtxp283 showed association with two different traits plant height and days to 50% flowering and SB5040 was found to be associated with leaf length on chromosome 9. The present study provided novel quantitative trait loci for biomass-related traits which can be utilized for marker assisted breeding for better biomass production in sorghum.