Screening methods for identifying substances that provide therapeutic value for various diseases associated with protein misfolding are provided. Genetic and chemical screening methods are provided using a yeast system. The methods of the invention provide a rapid and cost-effective method to screen for compounds that prevent protein misfolding and/or protein fibril formation and/or protein aggregation which includes numerous neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease as well as non-neuronal diseases such as type 2 diabetes.

Provided is a novel biomarker for the diagnosis of aging or amyotrophy. Provided are a method for determining the state of aging or amyotrophy, a method for determining the efficacy of therapeutic or preventive effects on aging or amyotrophy, and a method of screening for a therapeutic or preventive agent for aging or amyotrophy. The biomarker is a free MuSK protein or an mRNA for a secreted MuSK.

A marker can determine whether or not a patient has a therapeutic response to an anti-cancer agent. A novel cancer therapy employs the marker. The marker can be N-acetylglucosamine, an amino-acid-metabolism-related substance, a nucleic-acid-metabolism-related substance, a substance in the pentose phosphate pathway, a substance in the glycolytic pathway, a substance in the TCA cycle, a polyamine-metabolism-related substance, lauric acid, 6-phosphogluconic acid, butyric acid, 4-methylpyrazole, isobutylamine, glycolic acid, NADH, NAD.sup.+, or a substance involved in the metabolism of any of these substances.

A power-management unit is described. This power-management unit allows a common signal line to communicate data between an integrated circuit (which may be external to the power-management unit) and a battery-monitoring mechanism in a battery pack, and to convey a signal that represents a temperature state of the battery pack to a temperature-monitoring circuit or mechanism that monitors the temperature state of the battery pack. In particular, the power-management unit may include a single-wire interface or a multiplexer that, at a given time, selectively couples the signal line from the battery pack either to the integrated circuit or the temperature-monitoring circuit based on a control signal provided by the integrated circuit (for example, via an I2C bus or interface). In this way, the power-management unit may reduce the number of signal lines needed to communicate with the battery-monitoring mechanism and to convey the signal.

Variant forms of Amyloid-beta (Aβ) and kits comprising a variant Aβ are disclosed. The invention also provides uses of these kits and the Aβ variants in Aβ studies, for example in assays and methods for screening novel compounds for use in treating Alzheimer's Disease.

The present application discloses in detail mutant ligands of the human G protein alpha-subunit—Gαi1—, wherein at least one amino acid residue has been replaced with alanine if the at least one amino acid residue is a non-alanine residue, or at least one amino acid residue has been replace with glycine if the at least one amino acid residue is alanine and wherein the at least one amino acid residue is comprised in a first group containing of the amino acid residues with position R32A, K54A, I55A, I56A, H57A, R176A, E245A, Y296A, T327A, N331A, V332A and D350A or is comprised in a second group containing G42A, A59G, T177A, D200A, A226G, E297A, A300G and F334A or is comprised in a third group containing V50A, A59G, R178A 30 and K180A.

The present disclosure relates to chemical compounds that inhibit HP1-mediated heterochromatin formation, pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds, methods of identifying such compounds, and their use in the treatment of disorders related to heterochromatin formation such as, for example, a disorder of cellular proliferation (e.g., cancer). This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention.

The present invention provides for a fungus, especially in the form of fungal mycelium, that has altered glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) expression and/or activity level and therefore exhibits modified characteristics in fruiting body development. Also provided are compositions and methods for generating living fungal mycelium with altered fruiting body development.

The present invention provides a method for studying transport of an agent across a membrane comprising the steps a) providing at least one surface with a bilayer structure tethered to the surface, said bilayer structure comprising a detection volume, b) contacting the bilayer with at least one agent to be analyzed, and c) detecting a change in refractive index in the detection volume resulting from transportation of the agent across the membrane. Further there is provided a device comprising a) at least one surface, b) at least one bilayer structure tethered to the surface, and c) at least one sensor capable of detecting a change in refractive index in a detection volume, wherein the bilayer structure encloses a first volume of the detection volume and wherein the volume not enclosed by the bilayer structure but within the detection volume is a second volume and wherein the ratio between the first volume and second volume is above about 0.001.

Provided herein are methods of increasing lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity, by inhibiting apolipoprotein C3 (ApoCIII), which removes the ApoCIII inhibition of LPL, and permits VLDL to be converted to LDL. Also provided are methods for treating or preventing a lipid metabolism disorder, such as type 2 diabetes by use of an ApoCIII antagonist. Also provided are screening methods to identify ApoCIII antagonists.