Altogen Labs extensive biotechnology and pharmacology research services include the following:
- PRE-CLINICAL RESEARCH SERVICES
- Pharmacology and toxicology testing: IC50 for Tumor Cell Lines
- Xenograft Animal Service: Immunocompromised NOD/SCID Mice
- Therapeutic RNAi development: targeted siRNA, qPCR assays
- Liposome Encapsulation services: siRNA, miRNA, DNA, proteins
- ELISA and Cell-Based Assay Development (Cell Cycle, Viability)
- Apoptosis Assay: Caspase-3 and Caspase-7 Cell Line Screen
- RNAi Consulting Services: technology delevopment & evaluation
- GENERATION OF STABLE CELL LINES
- CELL BANKING
- RNA INTERFERENCE (RNAi) SERVICES
- In vivo siRNA delivery and tissue-targeting
- siRNA Transfection and RNAi Cell-based Library Screening
- Generation of Tet-inducible RNAi gene knockdown cell lines
- RNAi screen pathway analysis: siRNA and microRNA library
- RNAi manufacturing and CRO services
- PCR Cloning: shRNA-encoding vector construction
- In Vivo Stable siRNA and microRNA - Chemical modification
- Quantitation sh/siRNA-induced knockdown by qRT-PCR and WB
- Reporter gene assays and Stable RNAi cell line development
- Genome-wide siRNA and microRNA high-throughput screens
- Stable RNAi Cell Line Generation: Stable Gene Knockdown
- siRNA liposome encapsulation service
- Transient (siRNA) and stable (shRNA) transfection services
- BIOLOGY LABORATORY CRO SERVICES
- BIOREMEDIATION
- BACTERIA ID 16S SEQUENCING
Bioremediation: Oil-degrading bacteria
Figure 3. Degradation of Texas crude oil by natural oil-degrading bacteria. Altogen Labs strain #210371. Twenty-four (24) hour experiment (Altogen Labs).
Bioremediation: Oil-degrading Bacteria - Alcanivorax borkumensis. The Superstar of Oil-degrading Bacteria
Existing at low concentrations in unpolluted stretches of ocean throughout the world, the hydrocarbon-degrading bacterium, A. borkumensis, suddenly multiplies to great numbers in the presence of crude oil from ocean floor seepage or an unintended oil spill.
Just as automobiles use gasoline for fuel, these marine-dwelling bacteria use hydrocarbons as fuel, emitting the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result. In essence, the microbes break down the ring structures of the hydrocarbons in seaborne oil using enzymes and oxygen present in the seawater. The result is ancient oil turned into modern-day bacterial biomass—microbial populations can grow exponentially in days.
These microbes, which have adapted to oil contamination from excessive marine traffic and small, daily spills in the ocean, fluctuate in number, depending upon the quantity of oil in the water. According to recent research, this particular bacterium will multiply to such vast numbers in the presence of oil that they provide natural mitigation of pollution in depths and at temperatures that were previously unknown. Several mechanisms have been proposed for this natural mitigation, including the bacterial generation of biosurfactants (amphiphilic, organic compounds that are produced in nature) to accelerate oil dispersion and remediation by attracting both oil and water to reduce the surface tension between these two substances, facilitating the breakdown and dispersal of the oil.
One scientist compared A. borkumensis to the yellow “chompers” in the Pac-Man video game: hungry, single-minded, little microbes that are fueled by the same fertilizer that farmers use on soybeans, gobbling up hydrocarbons from the oily waters, marshes, and shores of the world’s oceans. This particular bacterium is currently being studied by teams of scientists around the world with regard to deep-water oil well blowouts, such as the one that occurred in the Spring of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Bioremediation: Oil-degrading Bacteria in the Gulf of Mexico
Since the capping of the Deepwater Horizon well in mid-July 2010, many questions have been raised about the causes and effects of this event, but none have been more interesting than “Where did all that oil go?”
According to Terry Hazen, senior scientist and head of the Ecology Department at the Center for Environmental Biotechnology, part of the Microbial Communities Department of the Joint BioEnergy Institute at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, much of it has been consumed by naturally occurring bacteria deep below the ocean’s surface. Data come from more than 200 samples collected between May 25 and June 2, 2010 from a plume of oil that extended at least 10 miles past the wellhead (the same plume that Camilli and colleagues announced last week). The Berkeley Lab team used DNA microchips to study the genes of the bacteria inside the oil plume, and they found a wide variety of hydrocarbon degraders. The chip helped the team identify new bacterial species.
Hazen has spent three decades studying the microbial degradation of hydrocarbons. He said that he agreed with federal estimates from earlier this month that much of the oil had been degraded, adding that doubters have not been in the field as recently as he has. “Most of us that work in this field expected it,” he said. “The ones that didn’t accept it were the ones that hadn’t been out there in the field recently. All of us that have been out there...and are monitoring it, accept that.”
see also: Oil-degrading Bacteria | Bioremediation Products and Services | Bioremediation: Oil-degrading bacteria