Daikin Industries, Ltd.

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Daiken Industries, Ltd.

Daikin Industires, Ltd.

Junko Takahashi

Hitoshi Iwahashi

Yuko Momose

Emiko Kitagawa

Hidenori Nagai

Shinichi Wakida

Chiaki Kato

Biology-based processes for detecting toxic substances are provided. The processes comprise detecting mRNA that is expressed in the presence of toxic substances by a cell comprising a yeast gene as followed, or a gene that is homologous to the yeast genes and is derived from other species, wherein the mRNA corresponds to said yeast gene or said homologous gene thereof.

Processes for detecting toxic substances

A method having higher sensitivity in a bioassay method utilizing cell response of a microorganism, for detecting the presence of a chemical in a test specimen is provided. The method of the present invention is characterized in that it uses specified gene-disrupted strains.

Method of examining chemical using gene-disrupted strain

The present invention fundamentally differs from conventional methods in which an external force is directly applied to a surface of an article to be modified, and relates to a method of hydrophobilization (increasing a contact angle of water) which comprises bringing a hydrophobilization substance (a substance for increasing a contact angle of water) released from a material of another location into contact with a surface of an article, especially an article surface being hydrophilic (having a small contact angle of water) in its initial state without applying an external force on the article surface, further a method of control being capable of noncontact switching of a contact angle of water, which comprises conducting hydrophilization of an article surface subjected to hydrophobilization by the above-mentioned method in a noncontact manner and repeating these hydrophobilization and hydrophilization, and a method of pattern formation using the mentioned methods. According to those methods, hydrophobilization and hydrophilization can be carried out in the noncontact manner, and by selecting a material, degrees of hydrophobilization and hydrophilization can be adjusted.

Method of controlling contact angle of water

Biology-based processes for detecting toxic substances are provided. The processes comprise transforming cells with a vector comprising a polynucleotide which comprises a promoter of certain yeast gene operably linked to a polynucleotide encoding a marker protein; contacting the transformed cells to test sample; and detecting the expression of mRNA encoding the marker protein, thus detecting a toxic compound in the test sample.

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Tsukuba, Japan

Junko Takahashi