Attention Users: At the time of creation, and during any updates all due care is taken to ensure that links to third party websites are up to date and contain suitable information. The Ness Foundation cannot take responsibility for the nature of information on third party sites. If any information or links on this website are incorrect please contact us.

Antibody: antibodies are protein that recognise and bind to a particular object. A human immune system contains millions of different antibodies each keyed to a certain shape. Should an antibody recognise its matching molecule the immune system is triggered to produce many more copies of that antibody which is why it can take a few days for your body to mount an immune response to, for example, the common cold. Please see these pages for a more detailed discussion of antibodies and the immune system. 

Antipsychotic: medications which treat conditions that include psychosis, such as schizophrenia. There are broadly divided into typical and atypical antipsychotics based on which signalling pathway in the brain they target. The medication best suited to each person depends on a balance between effectiveness and side effects, and should only be modified on the advice of your treating doctor.

Arachidonic acid: Arachidonic (AA) acid is a type of essential fatty acid (see below) with the full scientific name of all-cis 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid. AA either comes directly from your diet, or from conversion of dietary precursors such as Linoleic acid. AA is used for nerve growth, nerve signalling and inflammatory processes.

Autoimmune: while the immune systems normal role is to protect against infection and foreign bodies in certain situations it can target a persons own body. There are a range of auto-immune conditions depending on where the immune system is acting – arthritis can be caused by autoimmune action on the joints or diabetes on the pancreas, which makes insulin.

Biobank: genetic and biological research requires access to tissue, blood or DNA relevant to the condition investigated or from healthy individuals for comparison. Normally samples are collected for a given research project and disposed off at the end of the work. Alternatively a Biobank is when samples are collected for studying a certain disease or situation – such as mental health – without specifying the project. Research is constantly changing and providing new insights and a Biobank ensures the samples donated for research can be used in the most efficient manner, ways that could not have been envisioned when the samples were originally collect. Special permission is sought for donation of samples for such long term use. This comes with concerns about permission and individual privacy which The Ness Foundation takes very seriously. All research in the UK must be approved by Research Ethics Committees (RECs) and we are in constant discussion with the North of Scotland Highlands REC  to protect people involved in our work and ensure we work with the highest standards.

Bisulfite treatment: methylation (see below) of cytosine bases (see below) is a form of epigenetic (also below) inheritance. While methylation of a gene can change the way it behaves most genetic research techniques cannot tell the difference between a methylated and unmethylated cytosine, and instead are more suited to detect changes in the order of DNA bases. Bisulfite is a chemical that reacts with unmethylated cytosines changing them into a different base uracil, while leaving methylated cytosines unchanged. So a difference in methylation in those with a disease and those without leads to a difference in DNA base pair order, something that we have many methods to detect.

Diabetes: Diabetes is an inability to properly utilise glucose resulting in high blood sugar levels. It can occur for a number of reasons and is divided into two main types, though others exist. Diabetes 1 is an inability to produce insulin, a hormone which allows cells to absorb sugar from the blood. Type 1 is often due to autoimmune loss of the pancreatic cells that make insulin and can have a childhood onset. Type 2 is much broader and is also known as insulin resistant diabetes, and can have a wide range of causes which result in high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is a serious but treatable condition, and like all illnesses should be discussed with your general practitioner.

DNA bases: also called the DNA code, consist of thymine (T), guanine (G), adenine (A) and cytosine (C). There are also other bases used in biology, including Uracil (U) which is produced when unmethylated cytosines are exposed to bisulfite. For more information please see DNA pairing or general information about DNA.

ELISA: Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay can detect the presence of a specific antibody or an antigen depending on how the equipment is set up. This process is discussed in greater detail here.

Endophenotype: The phenotype is the outcome from a given gene, or more specifically a particular version of a gene. For example blue eye colour is the phenotype of the genetic sequence that codes for blue eyes which differs slightly from the version that gives brown eyes. A phenotype can be made up of a number of components, and again using this example the phenotype of eyes is made up of the phenotypes of eye shape, colour and so on. When the component is the trait of a disease and that trait is easier to measure or define than the disease itself – high blood sugar in diabetes – this can be termed an endophenotype (endo meaning within).

Epigenetics: genetics is used to refer to inheritable traits like eye colour that are due to changes in the DNA code yet this is not the only way that information can pass from one generation to the next. Modifications to the DNA molecule, without changing the order of bases can change phenotype and carry from parent to child. These can include the way in which DNA is folded up by proteins binding to the DNA or chemical modifications such as methylation.

Essential Fatty Acids: Fatty acids are long carbon chain molecules used as energy sources, production of hormones and structural elements in cell membranes. They are termed essential when they cannot be made from scratch in the body. For example the essential fatty acid linoleic acid can be used to make a range of other essential fatty acids in humans but the linoleic acid itself needs to come from the diet. Degree of saturation is also used to define fatty acids. The carbons in the chain can connect to the next by a single (saturated) or double (unsaturated) bond. The ratio of saturated to unsaturated bonds changes the shape and function of the molecule. Polyunsaturated fatty acids have many, mono- one and saturated fatty no double bonds.

Gas Bag: The chemicals in your mouth and as a result your breath reflect your metabolism and biology. The Ness Foundation has developed a special bag to store a sample of breath for later analysis

Gas chromatograph mass spectrometer: shortened to GCMS this machine combines two methods to identify the chemical make up of a sample. Depending on the size and formula of a molecule it travels through the gas chromatograph at different rates, providing the initial identification after which it is incinerated and given an electric charge (ionized).The resulting ionic molecule will move through a mass spectrometer in a manner depending on its charge and mass. Combining this information specifically identifies the make up of a compound.

Gluten: The endosperm of cereal and grains has the same function as the flesh of fruit and the yolk of egg, protecting the embryo and providing nutrients. The endosperm of wheat, rye and barely contain starch (sugar, hence food for the young plant) and a collection of proteins termed gluten which give the wheat structure and also serve as a protein source for the growing plant.

Gluten antibodies and immune response: As gluten is a structural protein it can be hard to digest completely. Digestive organs like the intestine should act as a barrier between their contents and the body, though under a number of conditions (infections, stress and others) this protection can break down and components can leak into the blood stream. The immune system is primed to recognise foreign bodies via antibodies so undigested gluten fragments in the blood results in an immune response. After this point the situation can become very complex and is not completely understood. The immune system becomes sensitised to the small intestine, damaging it and reducing the body’s ability to absorb food from the diet. Excluding gluten normally stops this autoimmune attack on the intestine and allows the damage to heal. The reason for this cross-reactivity to the intestine is poorly understood and here at The Ness Foundation we are investigating if this cross reactivity can occur with other components of the body and apply to other diseases.

High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC): Chromatography (colour writing) occurs when a mix of different sized and shaped molecules passes through a media that slows down their movement. If the molecules are different colours then the difference in speed results in bands of colour - hence colour writing. A good example of this is the bands of colour when pen ink spreads through paper.  High pressure liquid chromatography is merely a more complex form where the speed changing media is a liquid under high pressure, allowing molecules with very small differences to be separated. See here for a more detailed explanation 

Methylation: a methyl group is a carbon atom (C) with 3 hydrogen molecules (H) attached, which can be written as CH₃. Methylation of a cytosine molecule is replacement of one hydrogen atom with a methyl group.

Neurotransmitter: neurotransmitters are molecules used to signal between nerve cells and can also perform other signalling duties in the body. While nerves signal by electrical impulses there is a small gap between one and the next called a synapse, and neurotransmitter carry that signal across the gap. Anti-psychotic medication can interact with neurotransmitter signalling which suggests that it is alterations in these neurotransmitters that cause the psychosis in the first case.

Nicotinic acid (niacin): niacin is a vitamin that can be prescribed in large doses to manage lipid levels. As a side effect it can activate receptors in the skin that result in a blush on the neck and face that can be very uncomfortable.

Niacin Skin Patch Test: In approximately 10% of healthy people and up to 80% of patients with schizophrenia there is no blush in response to niacin. Rather than induce the full body blush that results from the treatment levels of niacin The Ness Foundation applies a small, dilute amount of niacin to the skin itself. The Ness Foundation uses niacin only as means to assess the processes that underlie flushing and does not use it to treat schizophrenia. Niacin, like any medication can have side effects so should only be used on the advice of a medical doctor.

Plasma, DNA and cell fractions: blood is made up of a number of different components. Simply put plasma is everything that is not whole cells – water, salts, proteins, nutrients and clotting agents like platelets. Serum is plasma that has been made to clot, removing a lot of the extra protein and other materials. The rest of blood is different cell types with the most common being red blood cells that carry oxygen, and in humans and other mammals do not have any DNA. When DNA is extracted from blood the DNA comes from the remaining cells, loosely called white blood cells which are part of the immune system.

Thermal desorption: Thermal desorption is heating materials to a gas state without burning them (burning oxidizes chemicals and changes their function) and at The Ness Foundation is used as another way to separate chemicals from a mix for further analysis.

Transcriptisome: When a gene is use as blueprints to make a protein the information is carried from the gene to the protein construction machinery via a molecule called mRNA. The process of making mRNA is transcription, and transcript is another term for mRNA. Transcriptisome is a record of all the mRNA produced by a cell, organ or an animal depending on how specific you wish to be. The collection of all genes is a genome, and all proteins a proteome. Importantly unlike the genome the transcriptisome (and as a result proteome) differs depending on time and environment – for example the transcriptisome of your intestine would be different after a meal than when you are asleep, as different proteins are needed to digest food compared to when it is not working.