Essential Guide to Reading Biomedical Papers

Dr Philip Langton is currently a Senior Lecturer and Academic Director of e-Learning in the Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol, UK.  Dr Langton is an advocate for excellence in all forms of learning, teaching and assessment in HE.  He is an enthusiastic undergraduate and graduate teacher, contributing to Medical Sciences and Physiological Sciences programmes. Finalist of ‘Bioscience Teacher of the Year’ for 2011, Dr Langton is passionate about providing an excellent learning experience for students in ways that are stimulating and rewarding for University staff, and disseminating innovative and high-quality learning practices. 

List of contributors ix

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xvii

Introduction xix

Section A - Basic principles 1

1 Philosophy of science 3
James Ladyman

2 Ingredients of experimental design 9
Nick Colegrave

3 Statistics: a journey that needs a guide 17
Gordon Drummond

Section B - Cell and molecular 27

4 Organ bath pharmacology 29
Emma Robinson

5 Small vessel myography 39
Tomoko Kamishima and John M Quayle

6 Mammalian cell cultures: the example of airway epithelial cell cultures for cystic fibrosis research 49
Scott H Randell

7 Electron microscopy (TEM and SEM) 59
Paul Verkade

8 Fluorescence microscopy 67
Mark Jepson

9 Intracellular ‘sharp’ microelectrode recording 77
Helena C Parkington and Harold A Coleman

10 Single electrode voltage-clamp (SEVC) 85
Harold A Coleman and Helena C Parkington

11 Patch clamp recording 95
Neil Bannister and Phil Langton

12 Production of antibodies 105
Elek Molnár

13 Immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry 117
Elek Molnár

14 Immunoprecipitation (IP) 129
David Bates

15 Immunoblotting (western) 137
Samantha F. Moore, Joshua S. Savage and Ingeborg Hers

16 Applications of green fluorescent protein (GFP) 147
Mark Jepson

17 Fluorescent measurement of ion activity in cells 153
Helen Kennedy

18 Detection of exocytosis – real time 163
Anja Teschemacher

19 Viral vector transgenesis 173
Anja Teschemacher

20 Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription (RT)-PCR 179
Lucy F. Donaldson

21 In situ hybridisation (ISH) 187
Lucy F. Donaldson

22 Methods of interference (antisense, siRNAs and dominant negative mutations) 193
Allison Fulford

23 Transcriptome analysis: microarrays 203
Charles Hindmarch

24 Experimental proteomics 215
Thierry Le Bihan

Section C - In vivo / integrative 229

25 Behavioural methodology 231
Emma Robinson

26 Genetically modified mouse models 241
Nina Balthasar

27 Wireless recording of cardiovascular signals 247
Julian FR Paton and Fiona D McBryde

28 Electrical stimulation methods 253
Jon Wakerley

29 Extracellular recording 261
Jon Wakerley

30 Antidromic identification 271
Jon Wakerley

31 Event-triggered averaging, including spike-triggered averaging 279
Richard Apps

32 Axonal transport tracing of CNS pathways 285
John Crabtree

33 Cardiovascular methods: general considerations for human studies 291
Erica A Wehrwein and Michael J Joyner

34 Measuring cardiac output in humans 299
Erica A Wehrwein and Michael J Joyner

35 Measuring peripheral blood flow in humans 311
Erica A Wehrwein and Michael J Joyner

Index 319