Abstract: The present invention provides isolated polypeptides having an amino acid sequence having at least 70% identity to SEQ ID NO:20, wherein the polypeptide has ER-?36 activity. The invention further provides methods for identifying agents that bind to such polypeptides, methods for detecting such polypeptides, and methods for altering the activity of such polypeptides. Also provided are antibodies that specifically bind to an amino acid sequence depicted at SEQ ID NO:1, or an immunogenic fragment thereof, and methods for making and using such antibodies.

Abstract: Described herein is a technology for facilitating deformable model-based segmentation of image data. In one implementation, the technology includes receiving training image data (202) and automatically constructing a hierarchical structure (204) based on the training image data. At least one spatially adaptive boundary detector is learned based on a node of the hierarchical structure (206).

Abstract: The present invention provides isolated polypeptides having an amino acid sequence having at least 70% identity to SEQ ID NO:20, wherein the polypeptide has ER-?36 activity. The invention further provides methods for identifying agents that bind to such polypeptides, methods for detecting such polypeptides, and methods for altering the activity of such polypeptides. Also provided are antibodies that specifically bind to an amino acid sequence depicted at SEQ ID NO:1, or an immunogenic fragment thereof, and methods for making and using such antibodies.

Abstract: A human ubiquitin conjugating enzyme, designated hUBC-9, its full amino acid sequence, and nucleic acid polymers which encode hUBC-9 are disclosed. In addition to having functional ubiquitin conjugating activity, this enzyme has transcriptional repressor activity which is independent of the conjugating activity. The conjugating activity of hUBC-9 enhances transcription through degradation of transcription suppressor proteins such as WT1, and possibly, of hUBC-9 itself. The repressor activity of hUBC-9 suppress gene transcription, probably by disrupting the transcriptional initiation complex through specific interactions with the DNA binding region of the TATA binding protein (TBP). In use, hUBC-9, yUBC-9 and other ubiquitin conjugating enzymes having repressor activity can be fused to proteins having a DNA binding domain, such as Gal4, or used in conjunction with reppressors such as Wilm's tumor suppressor gene product, WT1.