Denis Francois Hochstrasser

Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis isolation and microsequencing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa proteins.

Outer membrane (OM) proteins of beta-lactam-susceptible and -resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were analyzed by 2-D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Carrier ampholytes, pH 4-8, and immobilized pH gradient (IPG), pH 3.5-10.0, procedures were used. An acidic-protein spot (pI = 5.2) detected in susceptible but not in an imipenem-resistant strain was sequenced and twenty-five N-terminal amino acids had total homology with the OM protein D, the imipenem-specific porin of P. aeruginosa. A basic-protein spot (pI = 9.0) detected in ceftazidime-resistant, but not in a susceptible strain was sequenced and fourteen N-terminal amino acids had homology with a beta-lactamase encoded by the ampC gene of P. aeruginosa. The IPG procedure allows identification of more than one hundred proteins of the OM fraction from a single gel. Detection of beta-lactamase in OM fractions might reflect a periplasmic contamination, but its anchorage within the OM cannot be ruled out.

PACS and Related Research in Switzerland

A brief review of current activity in Switzerland is presented in this paper. A further description of a hospital-wide PACS project integrated with a Hospital Information System in Geneva is presented.

Accessing Reliable Health Information on the Web: A Review of the HON Approach.

Accessing online health content of high quality and reliability presents challenges. Laypersons cannot easily differentiate trustworthy content from misinformed or manipulated content. This article describes complementary approaches for members of the general public and health professionals to find trustworthy content with as little bias as possible. These include the Khresmoi health search engine (K4E), the Health On the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) and health trust indicator Web browser extensions.

2D PAGE Databases for Proteins in Human Body Fluids

With the development of the Internet, a growing number of proteomics databases have become available. The web is a powerful tool for data integration because it links the components constituting these databases, in general gel images and protein information, while offering rapid means to navigate from one database to another. Unfortunately, with only 15 maps available as electronic resources, the human body fluids do not really benefit from this development. This chapter summarizes the state of the art of proteomics databases, with an emphasis on human body fluids. Insights into one of these databases, SWISS-2DPAGE, available for more than 10 yr now, are given to show current functionalities and usage examples. Some general thoughts are also given on how to improve sharing and publication of proteomics data through electronic media.