University Of California, Santa Barbara

8 articles published in JoVE

• Editorial

  
  Endless Worms Most Beautiful: Current Methods For Using Nematodes To Study Evolutionary Developmental Biology Chee Kiang Ewe¹, Pradeep M. Joshi², Joel H. Rothman^{2 1}Department of Neurobiology, Tel Aviv University, ²Department of Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology, University of California Santa Barbara

• Biology

  
  Nitroreductase/Metronidazole-Mediated Ablation and a MATLAB Platform (RpEGEN) for Studying Regeneration of the Zebrafish Retinal Pigment Epithelium Lyndsay L. Leach¹, G. Burch Fisher², Jeffrey M. Gross^{1,3 1}Department of Ophthalmology, Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, ²Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, ³Department of Developmental Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine This protocol describes the methodology to genetically ablate the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) using a transgenic zebrafish model. Adapting the protocol to incorporate signaling pathway modulation using pharmacological compounds is extensively detailed. A MATLAB platform for quantifying RPE regeneration based on pigmentation was developed and is presented and discussed.

• Neuroscience

  
  A Temperature Gradient Assay to Determine Thermal Preferences of Drosophila Larvae Jiangqu Liu*¹, Takaaki Sokabe*^2,3, Craig Montell^{1 1}Neuroscience Research Institute and Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, ²Division of Cell Signaling, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, ³Thermal Biology Group, Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems, National Institutes of Natural Sciences Here, we present a protocol to determine the preferred environmental temperature of Drosophila larvae using a continuous thermal gradient.

• Chemistry

  
  Elemental-sensitive Detection of the Chemistry in Batteries through Soft X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering Jinpeng Wu^1,2, Shawn Sallis^2,3, Ruimin Qiao², Qinghao Li^2,4, Zengqing Zhuo^2,5, Kehua Dai^2,6, Zixuan Guo^2,7, Wanli Yang^{2 1}Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, ²Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ³Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Binghamton University, ⁴School of Physics, National Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, ⁵School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, ⁶School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, ⁷Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California-Santa Barbara Here, we present a protocol for typical experiments of soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (sXAS) and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) with applications in battery material studies.

• Developmental Biology

  
  Rapid, Directed Differentiation of Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells from Human Embryonic or Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Leah P. Foltz¹, Dennis O. Clegg^{1 1}Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara This protocol describes how to produce retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE) from pluripotent stem cells. The method uses a combination of growth factors and small molecules to direct the differentiation of stem cells into immature RPE in fourteen days and mature, functional RPE after three months.

• Biology

  
  Planarian Immobilization, Partial Irradiation, and Tissue Transplantation Otto C. Guedelhoefer IV^1,2, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado^{3,4 1}Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Utah School of Medicine, ²Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, UCSB, ³Howard Hughes Medical Institute, ⁴Stowers Institute for Medical Research An effective method for grafting tissue of defined and consistent size between planaria is described. Also included is a description of how the immobilization technique used for transplantation can be adapted, in conjunction with lead shields, for the partial irradiation of live animals.

• Bioengineering

  
  Planar and Three-Dimensional Printing of Conductive Inks Bok Yeop Ahn¹, Steven B. Walker¹, Scott C. Slimmer¹, Analisa Russo¹, Ashley Gupta¹, Steve Kranz¹, Eric B. Duoss^1,2, Thomas F. Malkowski^1,3, Jennifer A. Lewis^{1 1}Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ²Center for Micro- and Nanotechnology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, ³Presently at the Interdisciplinary Center for Wide Band-gap Semiconductors, University Of California Santa Barbara Planar and three-dimensional printing of conductive metallic inks is described. Our approach provides new avenues for fabricating printed electronic, optoelectronic, and biomedical devices in unusual layouts at the microscale.

• Bioengineering

  
  Fabrication of Electrochemical-DNA Biosensors for the Reagentless Detection of Nucleic Acids, Proteins and Small Molecules Aaron A. Rowe¹, Ryan J. White¹, Andrew J. Bonham¹, Kevin W. Plaxco^{2 1}Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University Of California Santa Barbara, ²Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Program in BioMolecular Science and Engineering, University Of California Santa Barbara "E-DNA" sensors, reagentless, electrochemical biosensors that perform well even when challenged directly in blood and other complex matrices, have been adapted to the detection of a wide range of nucleic acid, protein and small molecule analytes. Here we present a general procedure for the fabrication and use of such sensors.