Consultations

Consultations may be of two types: theoretical or practical and, as a rule, will require payment.

Theoretical. This type of consultation includes, for instance, questions about chaperonopathies and related topics that will be answered by one or more experts within IEMEST, or by experts outside IEMEST whom will be consulted by the IEMEST expert in charge of that question. This type of consultation may be free of charge if it only involves an IEMEST expert and little time to find the answer. If the question requires longer times, e.g., one hour or longer, to find the proper answer, there will be a charge to be determined in each case based on the degree of difficulty of the question and the time required to answer it.
Within this category are also included bibliographic searches requested by scholars or private companies, e.g., a pharmaceutical company, on chaperonopathies and related topics. This kind of consultation will require payment of a fee, also to be determined in each case, as above.

Practical. This type of consultation includes questions about clinical cases (patients) and may include the performance of laboratory tests. The tests offered by IEMEST pertain to the qualitative, quantitative, and topographic assessment of chaperones in clinical and experimental samples (find the list of tests available, below). A fee will be levied to be determined in each case, considering the amount of work and time required, as well as the costs of instrumentation usage and reagents consumed for answering the consultation.
Genetic tests to identify genetic chaperonopathies will also be provided whenever possible.

TESTS OFFERED TO STUDY CHAPERONOPATHIES

  1. Measurement of chaperone levels in tissues and cells, and determination of chaperone localization in tissues and cellular compartments
    1. Immunomorphology and topography
      • Immunohistochemistry: light microscopy
      • Immunocytochemistry: light microscopy
      • Immunofluorescence: single localization, and double, and triple co-localization
      • Immunofluorescence: confocal
      • Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and immunogold-TEMThe above methods can be complemented with Western blotting and ELISA testing of pertinent cell or tissue lysates and fractions thereof.
      • The above methods can be complemented with Western blotting and ELISA testing of pertinent cell or tissue lysates and fractions thereof.
    2. Citofluorometry
      • Up to four antibodies
  2. Measurement of extracellular chaperones
    1. In blood and other biological fluids by ELISA, Western blotting, immunoprecipitation, and related methods
    2. In extracellular vesicles (e.g., exosomes), and determination of chaperone localization in the vesicles, for example inside them or in their membrane
    3. Isolation of exosomes from biological fluids (e.g., serum, plasma, urine, saliva, cerebrospinal fluid, etc.) and from cell culture medium by ultracentrifugation and filtration
    4. Characterization of exosomes by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Acetylcholinesterase and ATPase assays, and Western blotting for CD63, ALIX and Hsc70
    5. Determination of chaperone levels in exosomes inside them and in their membrane by Western blotting, ELISA, and TEM-immunogold.
  3. Molecular biologic and genetic analyses
    1. Detection of mutations and genetic polymorphisms
      • Various types of PCR
  4. Qualitative proteomics
    • 2D and 3D electrophoresis, Mass spectrometry