Several new FLCN antibodies from Abnova and Sigma-Aldrich have been added to the BHD Lab Essentials section. Go here to find out more.

If you use them, why not consider letting other researchers know how useful you found them on this forum?

A new commercially available FNIP1 antibody has been listed in the BHD Lab Essentials section. Go here to find out more.

If you have five minutes to spare, we’d like to get your feedback on www.bhdsyndrome.org, to see what we’re doing right, and perhaps what we could be doing better!  Let us know your views by following the link below.

Researchers Feedback Survey – here

A new GeneReview article for BHD Syndrome is available through the NCBI here. The article describes the disease characteristics, diagnosis and management of BHD Syndrome which you may find useful.

The deadline for submitting abstracts for the second BHD Symposium 2010, is Monday 15th February. Abstracts can be submitted anytime over the weekend.

For more details on the second BHD Symposium, including how to submit and abstract, register and accommodation listings, see here

A few updates regarding the BHD Symposium in Washington DC, 22nd April 2010.

1. Abstract submission deadline for oral and poster presentations is 15th February 2010.

2. This year’s invited guest speak is Dr. Berton Zbar, who has over 20 years experience in the field of renal cancer genetics and the organisers are delighted that he has agreed to address the symposium. Before his retirement, Dr Zbar was chief of the Laboratory of Immunobiology at the Center for Cancer Research, NCI-Frederick, USA, where he and his colleagues have studied families affected with the BHD Syndrome as well as von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome, hereditary papillary renal carcinoma (HPRC), and Hereditary Leiomyoma and Renal Cell Carcinoma (HLRCC).

3. Comprehensive information about the event can be found here.

The ‘Laboratory Essentials‘ page in the Resources section of the website has been re-formatted to make it even easier to use. The ‘Cell Lines‘ and ‘Mutation Database‘ pages have both been updated and the ‘BHD Antibodies‘ has been extensively updated to include all antibodies available for FLCN, FNIP1 and FNIP2 (as published in the literature) as well as a down-loadable excel file of antibodies associated with the PI3K-Akt-mTOR and Raf-MEK-Erk signalling pathways.

Because of exciting new research in the area of BHD Syndrome both the ‘BHD Literature Database‘ and the ‘Current Research‘ pages in the Researchers section have been updated.

The ‘Current Research‘ page now contains updated information on BHD animal models and recent advances determined using Folliculin phosphorylation assays, as well as a comprehensive overview of all recent findings.

Go check them out now!

A recent paper published by Wang et al (2009) has shown that serine 62 (Ser62) is the major phosphorylation site in FLCN. Their analysis suggests that Ser62 phosphorylation is indirectly up-regulated by AMPK and that another residue is directly phosphorylated by AMPK. Also, by binding with FLCN-interacting proteins (FNIP1 and FNIP2/FNIPL), Ser62 phosphorylation was increased.

Importantly the authors generated a rabbit polyclonal antibody able to detect phosphorylation at this specific residue. More details regarding the anti-phospho-Ser62-FLCN antibody is available in our ‘Laboratory Essentials‘ section.