Salk Institute View Institution's Website 6 articles published in JoVE Bioengineering Chemical Triphosphorylation of Oligonucleotides Grant A. L. Bare1, David P. Horning1 1The Salk Institute Oligonucleotide 5′-triphosphates are ubiquitous components in essential biological pathways and have seen increasing use in biotechnology applications. Here, we describe techniques for the routine synthesis and purification of oligonucleotide 5′-triphosphates, starting from oligonucleotides prepared by standard automated synthesis techniques. Neuroscience External Excitation of Neurons Using Electric and Magnetic Fields in One- and Two-dimensional Cultures Shani Stern1, Assaf Rotem2, Yuri Burnishev3, Eyal Weinreb3, Elisha Moses3 1Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 2Department of Physics and SEAS, Harvard University, 3Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science Neuronal cultures are a good model for studying emerging brain stimulation techniques via their effect on single neurons or a population of neurons. Presented here are different methods for stimulation of patterned neuronal cultures by an electric field produced directly by bath electrodes or induced by a time-varying magnetic field. Neuroscience Isolating Nasal Olfactory Stem Cells from Rodents or Humans Stéphane D. Girard1,2, Arnaud Devéze3, Emmanuel Nivet1,2,4, Bruno Gepner5, François S. Roman2, François Féron1,6 1NICN, Aix Marseille University, 2LNPM, Aix Marseille University, 3ENT Department, Aix Marseille University, 4Gene expression Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 5Laboratory of Speech and Language, Aix Marseille University, 6Centre d'Investigations Cliniques en Biothérapie, Aix Marseille University We describe here a method for biopsying olfactory mucosa from rat and human nasal cavities. These biopsies can be used for either identifying molecular anomalies in brain diseases or isolating multipotent adult stem cells that can be utilized for cell transplantation in animal models of brain trauma/disease. Neuroscience Organotypic Cerebellar Cultures: Apoptotic Challenges and Detection Tatiana Hurtado de Mendoza1, Bartosz Balana2, Paul A. Slesinger2, Inder M. Verma1 1Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 2Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies This method describes the generation of organotypic cerebellar cultures and the effect of certain apoptotic stimuli on the viability of different cerebellar cell types. Neuroscience Spinal Cord Electrophysiology II: Extracellular Suction Electrode Fabrication Suresh Garudadri1, Benjamin Gallarda1, Samuel Pfaff1, William Alaynick1 1Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Gene Expression Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies A demonstration of the fabrication and use of an extracellular suction electrode used to measure electrophysiological recordings of neonatal rodent spinal cords in vitro Biology Mutagenesis and Functional Analysis of Ion Channels Heterologously Expressed in Mammalian Cells Bartosz Balana1, Natalie Taylor1, Paul A. Slesinger1 1Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, Salk Institute for Biological Studies We will demonstrate how to study the effect of a single point mutation on the function of an ion channel.