One aspect of the invention provides a system for drug discovery, drug development, drug screening, or drug validation. The system includes: a sample chamber comprising a target protein and a drug candidate that may interfere with the target protein in the sample chamber, wherein the sample chamber is configured to: detect one or more of the following: (a) interference between the drug candidate the target protein and/or (b) one or more dynamics of the drug candidate on the target protein, wherein the one or more dynamics comprise affinity of the drug candidate to the target protein, and select the drug candidate if one or more desirable dynamics is detected. The system includes one or more immobilized surfaces and is configured to detect interactions between the drug candidate and the target protein at the single-molecule level.

Methods of detecting the absence or presence of a micro-organism in a sample comprising: contacting the sample with a nucleic acid molecule which acts as a substrate for nucleic acid modifying activity of the micro-organism in the sample, incubating the thus contacted sample under conditions suitable for nucleic acid modifying activity; and specifically determining the absence or presence of a modified nucleic acid molecule resulting from the action of the nucleic acid modifying activity on the substrate nucleic acid molecule to indicate the absence or presence of the micro-organism.

Corresponding kits are also provided.

The disclosure relates to treating and diagnosing telomere diseases, and methods of screening agents for treating and diagnosing telomere diseases.

Methods of determining polymerase fidelity are provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises filling a gapped plasmid with a polymerase to form a gap-filled plasmid, wherein the gap-filled plasmid comprises a gene encoding an protein that is functional or non-functional depending on the polymerase fidelity; forming a plurality of partitions from a solution comprising the gap-filled plasmid and a label for detecting the presence of the plasmid; detecting the presence of the gap-filled plasmid in one or more of the partitions; and determining the fidelity of the polymerase by determining a ratio of partitions containing the gene encoding a functional protein to partitions containing a gene encoding a non-functional protein.

The present disclosure provides a compound of Formula (I), (II), or (III):

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an ionic derivative thereof, an isomer thereof, or a salt thereof. The present disclosure also provides conjugates of the compounds, and methods of using the compounds and the conjugates. The disclosure also provides the use of the compounds and conjugates in methods of sequencing nucleic acids.

One aspect of the invention provides a system for drug discovery, drug development, drug screening, or drug validation. The system includes: a sample chamber comprising a target protein and a drug candidate that may interfere with the target protein in the sample chamber, wherein the sample chamber is configured to: detect one or more of the following: (a) interference between the drug candidate the target protein and/or (b) one or more dynamics of the drug candidate on the target protein, wherein the one or more dynamics comprise affinity of the drug candidate to the target protein, and select the drug candidate if one or more desirable dynamics is detected. The system includes one or more immobilized surfaces and is configured to detect interactions between the drug candidate and the target protein at the single-molecule level.

The present invention relates to the field of biomedicine, and specifically relates to a proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) compound. The structure of the PROTAC compound can be represented by general formula LGP-LK-LGE, wherein LGP is a ligand for binding a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) polymerase; LGE is a ligand for binding an E3 ubiquitin ligase; and LK is a linker linking the two above ligands. The compound prevents virus replication and kills viruses by means of degrading a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) polymerase that inhibits the viruses, and thus performs the function of treating and intervening in viral infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and secondary diseases, and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Methods are provided that implement tagmentation for single-molecule sequencing use 90-99% less input than current protocols: SMRT-Tag, which allows detection of genetic variation and CpG methylation, and SAMOSA-Tag, which uses exogenous adenine methylation to add a third channel for probing chromatin accessibility. SAMOSA-Tag of 30,000-50,000 nuclei resolved single-fiber chromatin structure, CTCF binding, and DNA methylation in patient-derived prostate cancer xenografts and uncovered metastasis-associated global epigenome disorganization.

The present application discloses methods and apparatuses for single molecule drug screening, discovery and validation. These methods and apparatuses allow a user to detect rapidly, using observation of single molecules, whether and how a drug candidate interferes with a target enzyme involved in a particular disease pathway. The methods and apparatuses described herein utilize single molecule manipulation and detection technologies (e.g., optical or magnetic tweezers) to directly detect whether the characteristic dynamics, or mechanical signature, of the target enzyme-substrate interaction are substantially altered or modulated by a drug candidate. Furthermore, the methods and apparatuses are useful for analyzing the modulation of the mechanical signature in order to identify potential interference mechanisms of a drug candidate. In one aspect of the invention, the methods and apparatuses disclosed herein relate to monitoring the real-time dynamic mechanical signatures of individual polymerase molecules (e.g. DNA polymerases, RNA polymerases, and reverse transcriptases) along a polynucleotide substrate in the presence of drug candidates that either inhibit or otherwise modulate the polymerization process. Identification and analysis of such drug candidates is critical for anti-viral, anti-cancer, and antibiotic drug development.

The present invention relates to methods for detection of nucleotide polymerase activity and methods of detecting compounds that modulate nucleotide polymerase activity, by detecting product formation of the nucleotide polymerase to be tested based on determination of close proximity of two labeled nucleotide probes able to bind the product of the nucleotide polymerase. It is preferred that proximity dependent energy transfer, such as forster resonance energy transfer, between said labeled nucleotide probes is determined. The invention further provides kits comprising components for carrying out the inventive methods for detection of nucleotide polymerase activity.