Technique-Related Terms

Front 1

Mismatch negativity

MMN

Back 1

An evoked response potential (ERP).

Response to violation of an auditory rule.

Peaks ~150-200ms after change onset.

Strongest in temporal / frontal areas of topographic scalp map.

Front 2

Evoked response potential

ERP

Back 2

Electrical response of nervous system to stimulus.

Measured by:

electroencephalography (EEG),

electromyography (EMG),

or another electrophysiologic recording method.

Front 3

Electroencephalography

EEG

Back 3

Method for recording brain's electrical activity.

Electrodes on scalp (or can be invasive).

Measures voltage fluctuations from neurons.

Front 4

Magnetoencephalography

MEG

Back 4

Neuroimaging technique.

Records magnetic fields from electrical activity.

Front 5

Electrophoresis

Back 5

Method for separating macromolecules by size.

In terms of gene expression, electropherogram can be visually inspected for mRNA quality.

Front 6

Viral vector

Back 6

Molecular biology, since the 1970s.

A way to deliver genetic material into a living cell.

This is "transduction" (cells are "transduced").

Usually part of its genome necessary for replication has been deleted.

Retroviruses (incl. lentiviruses), adenoviruses.

Front 7

Cre recombinase

Back 7

Enzyme derived from the P1 Bacteriophage.

Catalyses recombination between LoxP sites.

Doesn't need any other cofactors or proteins.

Front 8

Cre-Lox recombination

Back 8

Widely used in knock out or knock in studies.

For insertion, deletion, inversion, translocation.

Cre is an enzyme, the Lox sequences are short DNA sequences, and Cre can recombine them.

So put the Lox sequences where you want and you can manipulate the genome.

Front 9

IUPAC

International Union

of Pure and Applied Chemistry

Back 9

One thing they've worked on is

"standardizing nucleotide base sequence code names", according to Wikipedia.

Front 10

Multiplexing

Back 10

Artifical sequences are added to sequence data to indicate what sample they're from, so you can sequence more than one sample in the same reaction.

The reads have to be de-multiplexed as well as trimmed before mapping.

Front 11

Adapter

Adaptor

Back 11

A short oligonucleotide.

Gets ligated to DNA or RNA molecules.

Front 12

Pyrosequencing

Back 12

Take a strand of DNA.

Sequentially add solutions of A nucleotides, C nucleotides, etc.
When the nucleotide solution complements the first unpaired base, there's a flash of light.
Then you know which base was added, and thus which was already there.

Front 13

Fluoresence Activated Cell Sorting

FACS

Back 13

Way to sort heterogeneous cell population.

"Purify" = sort, apparently.

Stain cells with fluorescently tagged antibody.

Antibody recognizes certain markers.

So cells tagged based on intracellular protein, etc.

Cells sorted one at a time into different containers.

Front 14

ERCC spike-ins

External RNA Control Consortium spike-ins

Back 14

Transcripts designed to add to sample in RNA sequencing experiment.

If I understand right, you then know how much you should see and can compare to how much you are seeing.

Unlabeled, polyadenylated. Dunno what those mean.

Front 15

Calcium imaging

Back 15

Used to show electrical activity into or within cells, by showing the movement of calcium.

Front 16

GCaMP

Back 16

Type of calcium imaging of cells?

Calcium indicator.

GFP fused with a couple of other things.

So you can get a transgenic organism to express it.

Front 17

qPCR

quantitative polymerase chain reaction

real-time PCR

Back 17

To detect and determine the copy number of a sequence in a sample.

Copy number is relative to a standard.

PCR amplifies the sequences.

You quantify them after each amplification cycle, hence "real time".

Front 18

Delta F / F

Back 18

F for fluorescence.

In image analysis.

Change in fluorescence relative to initial fluorescence.

Front 19

tdTomato

Back 19

A fluorescent protein.

Bright red.