LifeSensors' Gender Sorting Technology Discussed
Feb 9th 2010 | From The Economist online
Dr Butt’s new device is an oestrogen sniffer. It relies on the fact that female embryos produce this hormone in quantity and male ones do not. The sensor uses a fine needle to penetrate both the shell and the allantoic sac of an egg. This sac is a fluid-filled membrane that cushions the embryo and helps it trade carbon dioxide for oxygen from the air. (It is also the membrane that can make peeling a hard-boiled egg such a frustrating affair.)
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LifeSensors Publishes in Journal of Animal Science
2010 Jan 15.
An estrogen sensor for poultry gender sorting.
Tran HT, Ferrell W, Butt TR.
The need for segregation of poultry based on sex is driven by gender-related differences in growth rate, market age, management practices, and nutritional requirements. Each day, global poultry industry staff would ideally like to determine the gender of >150 million newly hatched birds. Currently, this can be done only manually at the hatchery, which is a virtually impossible undertaking. LifeSensors has developed a facile, rapid, and low cost yeast-based assay that distinguishes male from female embryonated eggs before hatching based on the estrogen level of their allantoic fluid.
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LifeSensors Launches New Website
LifeSensors launched its new website on October 9th, 2009. The new site will allow researchers all over the world to learn more about what has made LifeSensors' SUMO fusion technologies and novel ubiquitin research tools successful.
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Fig 1. Ubiquitin conjugation pathway. Protein modification by ubiquitin requires sequential action of three enzymes: Ubiquitin activated by a specific activating enzyme (E1) to form a Ub-E1-thiolester. Activated Ub is transferred to a carrier protein or 'conjugase' E2, and then transferred to a ligase (E3) and linked via isopeptide bond to a lysine residue on the substrate protein. After linkage of Ub to the substrate, a polyUb chain can be formed in some cases. Ubiquitylated proteins can be deubiquitylated by specific isopeptidases. 
