Nuts of all kinds are common ingredients in food. For nut allergy sufferers the frequent use of nuts cause problems and "hidden" nuts in food products may elicit allergic reaction when such foods are consumed. Methods for detecting and quantifying walnut (and other nuts) with high sensitivity and specificity are therefore very important.The objective of this project was to verify the specificity of a rabbit antiserum against walnut with immunodiffusion and to determine the size of the dominant walnut antigens with Western Blotting. In addition, a commercial sandwich ELISA for walnut quantification was validated and compared with a qualitative real-time PCR.The rabbit antiserum proved to be less specific but after absorption with cross-reacting nuts and seeds it showed high specificity. The ELISA kit reacted, except for walnut, with pecan and slightly with other nuts and seeds tested.

There is convincing research which shows that the enzyme alkaline phosphatase (ALP) has a central role in the mineralization of bone, more precisely that its catalytic activity is needed in the process. ALP is found on the surface of matrix vesicles where the mineral is formed. One theory about the function of the enzyme is that it binds to fibrous collagen in the bone and thereby incorporating the mineral into the bone. The purpose of this study is to establish whether ALP binds to collagen. If this is the case, more elaborate studies around this will be performed.

Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is the causative agent of a complex of disease syndromes in cattle with high economical and welfare impacts. BVDV occurs as two biotypes; cytopathic (BVDVcp) and noncytopathic (BVDVncp) determined by differential effects on cultured cells and can also be divided into two genotypes (BVDV1 and BVDV2) on the basis of genomic diversity. The interaction between BVDV and the host?s immune system is regarded a key aspect in the sequel of BVDV infection. Infection with BVDV normally causes an acute transient infection, with mild to subclinical signs, but occasionally results in severe and even fatal disease.