Monitoring Living Systems

Like FRET, today BRET is predominantly used in biological sciences, especially in the monitoring of protein-protein interactions such as hormone-receptor interaction [223, 224] and protein-DNA interaction in living systems. However, BL resonance energy transfer can also be applied in immunoassays by using for instance a peptide-tagged luciferase and a fluorescein-labeled antipeptide antibody [225]. The development of more BRET assays for small-molecule analytes is thus awaited. 

Obviously, potential hazardous effects are not only related to pesticides, but possibly also to their metabolites in living systems and/or degradation products in the environment. Considerable attention has been paid in recent years to the characterization of degradation products of pesticides and to the monitoring and quantitative analysis of such compounds in environmental samples. Selected results and strategies are reviewed in this section. 

Managing safety related requirements Developing a safety case Managing system change Safety testing and chnical evaluation Monitoring the system in live operation Assessing personnel competency... 

FT-NIR spectroscopy in combination with a fiber-optic probe was successfully used to monitor living isobutylene, ethylene oxide and butadiene polymerizations using specific monomer absorptions. In the case of EO a temperature dependent induction period was detected when 5ec-BuLi/ BuP4 were used as an initiating system. This demonstrates the usefulness of this technique because this phenomenon had not been observed so far by other methods. We have also successfully conducted experiments in controlled radical polymerization. Then we were able to monitor the RAFT polymerization of A -isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm). Thus it can be expected that with the help of online NIR measurements detailed kinetic data of many polymerization systems will become available which will shed more light onto the reaction mechanisms. Consequently, FT-NIR appears to be a method, which can be applied universally to the kinetics of polymerization processes. 

Phenotypic (or cell-based) screens monitor the influence of a compound on a complex living system in its entirety [6]. Compounds identified in such assays have the proven ability to modulate such complex systems in the desired manner, a... 

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