From owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Wed Jan 9 15:33:26 2002 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8DBF317AFF for ; Wed, 9 Jan 2002 15:33:24 +0000 (GMT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id BEB6C17AF4 for ; Wed, 9 Jan 2002 15:33:20 +0000 (GMT) Received: by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix, from userid 60001) id F131D17AFF; Wed, 9 Jan 2002 15:33:19 +0000 (GMT) To: schisto@net.bio.net Newsgroups: bionet.organisms.schistosoma From: mborchert@itg.be ("Matthias Borchert") Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 20:37:21 +0000 Subject: European Course in Tropical Epidemiology Message-Id: <20020109153319.F131D17AFF@mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk> Sender: owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk EUROPEAN COURSE IN TROPICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY - ECTE 2002 The European Course in Tropical Epidemiology (ECTE) is a collaborative venture among various European institutes of tropical medicine and public health and is held annually at a different location. In 2002, from September 16 to 27, the Antwerp Institute for Tropical Medicine will organise the programme in Antwerp, Belgium. ECTE is an intensive basic course in epidemiology and medical statistics and intended for physicians, nurses, health programme managers and health administrators from tropical countries or other persons with a professional interest in health in tropical countries. The course provides participants with basic epidemiological and statistical skills in the assessment of health problems and service priorities and in the planning of field studies. Emphasis is put on the methodology and practical application of epidemiological tools in developing countries, on the interpretation of data and on the reporting of results from operational field studies. The course fee is 1,350.00 Euro. More detailed information on content and administrative aspects can be found on http://www.itg.be/ecte/ An application form can be downloaded from that website. Contact: Anne Marie Trooskens ECTE 2002 Course secretariat Institute of Tropical Medicine Nationalestraat 155 B-2000 Antwerp Belgium Tel: +32-3-24 76 305 Fax: +32-3-24 76 258 e-mail: amtrooskens@itg.be From owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Tue Jan 15 09:52:45 2002 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id A853717AEE for ; Tue, 15 Jan 2002 09:52:43 +0000 (GMT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id A46FA17B11 for ; Tue, 15 Jan 2002 09:52:41 +0000 (GMT) Received: by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix, from userid 60001) id C2F1217B0D; Tue, 15 Jan 2002 09:52:40 +0000 (GMT) To: schisto@net.bio.net Newsgroups: bionet.organisms.schistosoma From: mtam@path.org ("Tam, Milton") Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 20:48:37 +0000 Subject: RE: Questions Message-Id: <20020115095240.C2F1217B0D@mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk> Sender: owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk >Dear Dr. Agarwal: > >There is not enough information for me to answer the first question. What >us the yield of protein in mg expected for 500 flukes and how does this >compare with the amount found by your Lowry determination? Has a standard >been included in your initial protein determinations? What percentage of >the worms is protein vs. other substances, i.e. carbohydrate/lipid? > >For the IFA, if fixation of schistosomes is similar to other parasites or >virus-infected cells, then the simplest method could be the best. Take a >purified suspension of worms in saline and apply a few microliters to each >well of a CLEAN 8- or 10-well microscope slide (those with painted wells and >designed for IFA are commercially available) so that each well has at least >a few parasites and allow to air dry. After drying, immediately fix in 95% >ethanol or 100% acetone for 15-30 minutes. The slides can now be frozen for >storage at -20 deg or below indefinitely. Titrations of positive and >negative test sera and conjugate can then be done, but it is essential to >use PBS + 1.0% BSA in diluting the test and control sera to inhibit >background fluorescence. I would start at 1:10 and then do doubling >dilutions. > >Incubate 15-30 min at anywhere from RT to 37 deg. Aspirate the sample >carefully from the slide and wash in PBS. One 5-10 min soak with >intermittent agitation is usually sufficient. Similarly, the conjugate >needs to be diluted in PBS+BSA to reduce background. Some commercial >conjugates are of high titer, so it may be necessary to dilute them as much >as 1:500-1:1,000 or more in order to obtain specificity. Some commercial >conjugates are better and more specific than others so it might be necessary >to evaluate 3-4 different ones before a good one is found. > >After the last conjugate wash, it may be helpful to use a counterstain such >as Evan's blue to reduce background, but be careful not to over-stain which >reduces specific immunofluorescence reactions. Use tris-glycerol pH 8.0 for >mounting coverslips. There are substances you can add to the tris-glycerol >to preserve specific fluorescence and inhibit "bleaching." Good luck. >Please contact me and let me know if any or all of the above steps improve >on the quality of your IFA. > >Best regards > >Milton Tam > >Milton R. Tam, Ph.D >Technical Director >PATH >4 Nickerson Street >Seattle, WA 98109, USA >Phone 206-285-3500, fax 206-285-6619 >"All the electrons in this message have been recycled" > > >-----Original Message----- >From: mcanfvet@sancharnet.in [mailto:mcanfvet@sancharnet.in] >Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 10:15 PM >To: schisto@net.bio.net >Subject: Questions >Subject: Lower protein concentration in schistosome homoginate > >Dear Colleagues, > >At Veterinary College JNKVV, Jabalpur, we are trying to develop ELISA >methods for man and animals. In the intial stage, we have taken about 500 >blood flukes of Schistosoma spindale in 4 ml phosphate buffer saline and >ultrasonicated with due interruptions. >The protein estimation by Lorrys method, however, could demonstrate only >3.03-0.018 mg/ml. Obviously, this is a very low concentration as we >expected a >higher concentration due to large numbert of worms. >We solicite help of the scientist , how it is possible to improve the >protein yield from >schistosome homogenate. > >Subject: Problem in IFT using schistosome cercariae. > >We are also trying to develop some immunodiagnostical methods for checking >schistosomiasis in animals and man. >To this end, we have taken cercariae of Schistosoma incoginitum killed by >air drying >or by heat. They were processed as follows for IFT >1. Fixation was done in 70 % alcohol for 5-10 min., followed by a treatment >with 1% BSA for 20 min. >2. Three washes were done with 7.2 pH phosphate buffer saline (PBS) in 5 >min. intervals. >3. Treated with 50 ul test sera with different dilutions: 1: 100, 1:50, >and >1:25. Than incubated for 60 min., and in the same way non-infected control >sera were also tested. >4. Three washes with PBS >5. Treated with 50 ul - 1:100 diluted conjugate and incubated for 90 min. >6. Three washes with PBS >7. Mounted in 50% glycerol for flourescence microscopy. > >We hope for suggestion from experienced scientists, why our method is >so non specific. It appears poor compared to CHR. However, in our openion, >IFT >with cercariae will be more useful as it will illuminate use of alive >cercariae. > >Dr. M.CAgrawal. From owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Wed Jan 16 08:09:13 2002 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5B7F17B5C for ; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 08:09:11 +0000 (GMT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8A29117B78 for ; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 08:09:09 +0000 (GMT) Received: by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix, from userid 60001) id BC54B17B5C; Wed, 16 Jan 2002 08:09:08 +0000 (GMT) To: schisto@net.bio.net Newsgroups: bionet.organisms.schistosoma From: bernac@meredith.edu (Christine Berna) Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 19:42:00 +0000 Subject: East Africa Project Message-Id: <20020116080908.BC54B17B5C@mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk> Sender: owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Myself and 5 professors from Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina are putting together a project proposal to do a photo documentary of infectious diseases and their socio-economic impact on development. We'd like to focus on the Lake Victoria region of Kenya since I was a Peace Corps volunteer there in the late '90's. If anyone knows of an organization or individual that would be interested in sharing information or working with us, please let me know. My e-mail address is: bernac@meredith.edu. Thank you! Content-type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="bernac.vcf" Content-description: Card for Christine Berna Content-disposition: attachment; filename="bernac.vcf" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:bernac.vcf (TEXT/MSWD) (00027D0C) From owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Thu Jan 17 08:08:22 2002 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1DEE617ABF for ; Thu, 17 Jan 2002 08:08:21 +0000 (GMT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9AA3F17BCE for ; Thu, 17 Jan 2002 08:08:18 +0000 (GMT) Received: by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix, from userid 60001) id C0DD717ABF; Thu, 17 Jan 2002 08:08:17 +0000 (GMT) To: schisto@net.bio.net Newsgroups: bionet.organisms.schistosoma From: james.o.mcinerney@may.ie (James McInerney) Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 16:58:12 +0000 Subject: Bioinformatics Summer School 2002 Message-Id: <20020117080817.C0DD717ABF@mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk> Sender: owner-schisto@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk http://bioinf.may.ie/school02/ Bioinformatics Summer School 2002. NUIM IV. June 24th - 28th, 2002. The Bioinformatics Laboratory at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth will hold their 4th International Bioinformatics Summer School from Monday June 24th until Friday June 28th, 2002. Topics: Databases, Database Searching, Pairwise Alignment, Multiple Alignment, Phylogeny Reconstruction, Protein Structure Prediction, Microarray Analysis, Open Reading Frame Prediction and Genome Assembly. Location: NUI Maynooth is located 25 minutes drive from Dublin Airport in the village of Maynooth, 20 kilometres west of Dublin City Centre. The University is the second oldest in Ireland and is located in County Kildare, home of many of Europe's finest racecourses and championship golf courses. The course will be held in the Callan building, which holds the departments of Computer Science and Biology and will be delivered using state-of-the art computer hardware and software. In the year 2001, the course was sponsored by The European Molecular Biology Organisation (see http://bioinf.may.ie/EMBO). This year the Summer School did not seek funding from EMBO, however the course content will be very similar. Cost: The cost of participation is Euro750 (approximately STG 470.00, US$ 680). Accommodation can be booked through the University Conference and Accommodation Centre, with costs ranging from approximately Euro18 per night to approximately Euro 70 per night (http://www.maynoothcampus.com/). To Apply: Last year, there were 400 applicants, so please apply for a position on this course as early as possible. You may apply by sending an email to: school@bioinf.may.ie This website will eventually contain all the information relevant to this course, so please check back regularly http://bioinf.may.ie/school02/ Best wishes, James -- Dr. James O. McInerney, Bioinformatics and Pharmacogenomics Laboratory, Department of Biology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. P: +353 1 708 3860 F: +353 1 708 3845 M: +353 87 6480102 E:james.o.mcinerney@may.ie http://bioinf.may.ie/