The Utilization of the SaLux19-Based Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Assay for the Rapid and Sensitive Identification of Minute Amounts of a Biological Specimen.

Our research has developed a highly sensitive and simple assay to detect small amounts of animal and human biological material in less than 40 min. The handheld SaLux19 device developed at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, Germany, was used to validate our concept. The proposed system uses isothermal amplification of DNA in a rapid assay format. Our results show that the assay can detect Sus scrofa nucleic acids with very high sensitivity and specificity. This detection system has potential for forensic scenarios.

Mapping Brain-Wide Afferent Inputs of Parvalbumin-Expressing GABAergic Neurons in Barrel Cortex Reveals Local and Long-Range Circuit Motifs.

Parvalbumin (PV)-expressing GABAergic neurons are the largest class of inhibitory neocortical cells. We visualize brain-wide, monosynaptic inputs to PV neurons in mouse barrel cortex. We develop intersectional rabies virus tracing to specifically target GABAergic PV cells and exclude a small fraction of excitatory PV cells from our starter population. Local inputs are mainly from layer (L) IV and excitatory cells. A small number of inhibitory inputs originate from LI neurons, which connect to LII/III PV neurons. Long-range inputs originate mainly from other sensory cortices and the thalamus. In visual cortex, most transsynaptically labeled neurons are located in LIV, which contains a molecularly mixed population of projection neurons with putative functional similarity to LIII neurons. This study expands our knowledge of the brain-wide circuits in which PV neurons are embedded and introduces intersectional rabies virus tracing as an applicable tool to dissect the circuitry of more clearly defined cell types.