ELISPOT

2008-03-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

I started reading a library book on biotechnology. To cut a long story short, I think that the author could have really used a good editor. Some of his paragraphs could have easily been cut into two or three, and some of his grammar is just pretty sloppy. (Yeah, I know. People make mistakes. I'm not blaming him for that; I'm just saying that the book could have used a lot more editing.)

2007-11-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

I discovered this video on YouTube.com. Some fella created an educational video on the ELISPOT process. I think that he's speaking Vietnamese, but I'm not sure.

The introductory text was clearly taken from the Wikipedia entry on the ELISPOT process. Later on, he steps the user through an animated depiction of an ELISPOT assay. This animation was clearly downloaded from this site, where it is available as both an MPEG movie and an interactive PowerPoint file. (The producer of that video was clearly using the PowerPoint version.)

2007-05-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

There's a popular animated presentation of the ELISPOT process on this page right here. It has had a Shockwave depiction of a typical cytokine ELISPOT assay, and a great number of pages elsewhere on the web were linking to it.

This page now contains a link to an MPEG depiction of this process. (The MPEG version is slightly modified, since Shockwave animation can be interactive whereas MPEGs cannot.) The same page also contains a link to a downlaodable MS PowerPoint file which contains another (also slightly modified) version of the same animation. Very, very cool.

2007-04-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

This article talks about how the US government is attempting to develop a new, safer vaccine against smallpox. This is part of an attempt to protect the country against the threat of bioterrorism--that is, the use of weaponized pathogens.

The article talked about how monkeys have been used to test the efficacy of the vaccine. Inoculated monkeys are exposed to the monkeypox virus, which closely resembles smallpox. The researchers then determine if the vaccine provides any protection against the virus.

Obviously, it would be unethical to test the vaccine on humans in the same fashion. (Heck, it's hard enough testing them on monkeys! How tragic.) Fortunately, the ELISPOT technique allows the immune response to be monitored ex vivo; that is, without injecting any pathogens into a human host.

2007-04-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

One company is having a promotional offer in which they help customers donate their older ELISPOT analyzers to a worthy laboratory in Africa or South America. That's a delightful sentiment, and there are surely many needy labs in those regions that could use the assistance.

I wonder if it might be possible to donate some of these items to other third-world nations, though -- possibly in some parts of Asia, perhaps? I'm sure that there are commercial reasons why these options aren't being offered. Electrical issues doubtlessly come into play, for example; after all, not all countries use the same electrical ratings. India, for example, uses these oddball plugs that are quite annoying.

Oh, well. Anyway, it's a delightful sentiment, and I hope that it gets a lot of attention.

2007-04-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Cell-Bio Biotechnology Co. Ltd. is another company that I came across. I'd like to introduce them to some of the people back home. I wish that more companies back home would seek to do this sort of work, but sadly, the enterpreneurial spirit over there is severely lacking.

This firm has been around for a long time now, and they do some pretty diverse work, including a lot of reagent kits and ELISPOT-related offerings. I wish I could understand more of what they say, but of course, I can't read much of the language.

2007-04-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

I found the hospitalpharma.com site yesterday. Pretty interesting. The press releases section looks really useful, and it appears to mirror some (if not all) of the releases from Pharmiweb.

The careers section is also pretty nice. I wish I had known about this back when I was job-hunting. Of course, back then, I didn't have as much experience with biotechnology.

Oh, and I like the fact that it has a features section as well. I could get information overload from looking at this site... and it'd be pretty tempting, too. (Yeah. Like I don't have enough to read.)

2006-10-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

A new Japanese ELISPOT company here. It closely resembles the other European, Chinese and North American affliate sites. If you look closely though, you can see smatterins of Japanese in the text--largely katakana, but with some kanji and hiragana as well.

2005-01-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

It looks like this ELISPOT provider in China gave itself a big make-over. The site certainly looks good. (I wish I could understand the Chinese content, but of course, they're catering to their own market.)

2004-10-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

I got to speak with a researcher a while back on transplantation immunology. I think I should study up on the biochemistry involved. This should be fascinating.

2004-10-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

Here is an animated conceptualization of the ELISA process, the predecessor to the ELISPOT technique.

And for good measure, here's the ELISPOT animation from the same site. It's no accident that these are also known as "ELISA Spot" assays, since they are derived from the ELISA approach.

2004-10-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

Found a reference to the ELISPOT technique in WordIQ, an online dictionary and encyclopedia. The definition listed needs further details, though.

2004-10-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

I've been reading about epitope mapping, courtesy of various journal publications and on-line articles. Time hasn't allowed me to maintain this on-line diary as much as I'd like, but I did want to mention something about this.

2004-09-27T03:36:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to say today, but in the interest of cross-culturalism, I thought I'd post links to the German WikiPedia ELISPOT page. I'd love to see more of these pages in other languages, but for now, they do at least cover two of the three main EU tongues.

It would also be nice to see these scientific explanations in other languages as well, especially the more obscure ones. I'm a firm believer in promoting science in the indigenous tongues, particularly in Third World nations.

There is the following ELISPOT page in Chinese. It's from a commercial site though, so I'm sure that it isn't very thorough, scientifically speaking.

2004-09-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'd like to say something about transwell migration assays sometime soon.

2004-09-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

I got to talk to someone about organ transplant research a while back. The Immune Tolerance Network is doing some research in that regard, with the purpose of preventing transplant rejection.

2004-09-04T05:54:00.000-07:00

Here's an animated depiction of the ELISPOT process. Very nice.

2004-08-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

I came across the name of the ELISPOT book which Humana Press is publishing. It's called (appropriately enough), Handbook of ELISPOT: Methods and Protocols. It's coming out in March, so watch for it.

2004-08-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

There's a new European ELISPOT site here. Check out the color-changing, clickable map! Oh, and see what happens when you hover the cursor over Germany.

Better yet, see if you can find Monaco. It actually is shown on the map, and you can find it, especially if you pay close attention to the tooltips that appear when the cursor hovers over a country.

2004-08-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

Been reading more about image acquisition techniques, as applied to these assays. Perhaps I'll say more about that sometime soon.

2004-07-18T15:21:00.000-07:00

EuroSciCon recently held a conference on ELISPOT technology. I think that the tapes may still be available for purchase, but I'm not sure.

2004-06-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

ELISPOT analysis bears some similarity to colony counting, insofar as they both require the enumeration of assay-generated spots. Colony counting is a much simpler process though, one which is routinely carried out even in economically depressed regions of the world.

2004-05-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

I've been encountering various directories -- listings of companies and organizations, usually -- which have been proving useful. Here's one cheezy list of these directories, but there are others as well.

2004-04-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

Check this out: A list of definitions for immunology terms.

2004-04-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

I recently learned that ELISPOT image analysis techniques can also be used for plaque assays and for colony counting. In retrospect, this makes sense. Viral plaque assays and bacterial colonies aren't formed in the same way as ELISPOT wells, but the fundamental principles of spot analysis are rather similar.

2004-04-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

I heard that there's a book coming on ELISPOT technology. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, so I don't know if it's specifically about ELISPOT software, analyzer and assay techniques, or if it's about cellular immunology in general. Knowing how these things go though, it may take a while before we find out.

2004-03-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

A couple of people I know created an ELISPOT FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list. Some of this information is company-specific, but there's plenty of good general info there regarding this process.

2004-03-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

ELISPOT assays are used for analyzing the immunological secretions of peripheral blood and lymphoid cell populations. This process allows for the detection, enumeration, and characterization of cytokine-secreting cells within cell culture populations.

In the case of a cytokine assay, a culture plate is coated with anti-cytokine antibodies. The cells are introduced under conditions which cause them to secrete cytokines. These cytokines bind to the aforementinoed antibodies, and then the cells are removed. An enzyme-labeled anti-cytokine is then applied to the bound cytokines, after which a chromogenic substrate is applied to anti-cytokines. The result? This substrate generates colored spots which can be observed by the human eye (under microscopy) or detected via machine vision.

2004-03-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

I really should talk about how ELISPOT assays are conducted sometime. First though, I think I'll rant about its purpose, and later, its advantages.

The enzyme-linked ImmunoSpot assay is a potent tool for detecting and analyzing individual cells that secrete a particular protein in vitro, and for enumerating them. This technique was originally developed for analyzing specific antibody-secreting B lymphocytes, but has since been adapted for measuring the frequencies of cells that produce and secrete cytokines and a variety of other effector molecules.

2004-03-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

Most of what I've learned about ELISPOT and immunology, I've learned through CTL literature and my own readings here and there. Someday, I'll have to post something about readers and analyzers, and the technology involved. The image processing requirements are rather interesting, to say the least.

2004-03-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

Misc notes for myself...

B cells, or B cell lymphocytes: B cells spend their entire early life in the bone marrow. Upon maturity, theytravel throughout the bloodstream and lymph, looking for antigens with which they can interlock. Upon identifying an antigen, a B cell starts replicating itself. These cloned cells mature into antibody-manufacturing plasma cells.

On the other hand T cells, or T cell lymphocytes leave the marrow at any early age, and mature in the thymus. Here they are imprinted with critical information for recognizing “self” and “non-self” substances. Depending on the variety, T cells can kill invading pathogens (killer T cells), or they can detect antigens and secrete cytokines to mobilize other immune system reactions (helper T cells), or they can modulate the immunity response, to prevent it from going out of control (suppressor T cells).

2004-03-11T09:52:00.000-08:00

This is a place for me to keep track of things I've been learning about immunology, ELISPOT procedures and more. To start things off, I'll point to this ELISPOT page, which likewise lists some info on cellular immunology.

I also want to mention Popdex. If you're looking for sites like mine, they're worth visiting.