Waterborne diseases are posing a constant threat for people. In developing countries there is a lack of microbiologically safe drinking water and in the developed countries there are occasional waterborne disease outbreaks. These diseases are caused by bacteria or parasites which can be found in various …

Human exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) can occur via ingestion of indoor dust, inhalation of PBDE-contaminated air and dust-bound PBDEs. However, few studies have examined the pulmonary toxicity of particle-bound PBDEs, mainly due to the lack of an appropriate particle-cell exposure …

Scanning tunneling microscopy is an important and enabling tool for condensed matter physics and surface science. The low temperature STM in Leiden (Prof. J. Van Ruitenbeek and Prof J. Aarts) is used for research in the field of atomic/molecular electronics and superconductivity. The current low temperature …

tmoA and related genes encode the alpha-subunit of the hydroxylase component of the major group (subgroup 1 of subfamily 2) of bacterial multicomponent mono-oxygenase enzyme complexes involved in aerobic benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) degradation. A PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis …

Eight new primer sets were designed for PCR detection of (i) mono-oxygenase and dioxygenase gene sequences involved in initial attack of bacterial aerobic BTEX degradation and of (ii) catechol 2,3-dioxygenase gene sequences responsible for meta-cleavage of the aromatic ring. The new primer sets allowed …