Azu

Azu (born 8 December 1981, stylized as AZU) is a Japanese R&B singer. She is well known for her collaborations with rapper Seamo, such as her first major release, the leading track from Seamo's second album Live Goes On, "Kokoro no Koe."

Biography

Azu first began working in the Tokyo club scene at the age of 16. She explains the meaning behind her stage name as "Putting memories to all the words from A to Z and conveying them to you (U)."

She began work with rapper Seamo in 2005, and worked as a background vocalist for a few of his tracks. In 2006, she featured as a fully fledged billed artist in the lead radio single from his second album, Live Goes On. The song, "Kokoro no Koe," was certified by the RIAJ for 100,000 cellphone downloads.

She debuted as an artist in her own right in 2007, with the single "Cherish." She continued to work with Seamo (for example, her first top 30 hit, "Jikan yo Tomare", featured him). To date, the pair have worked together on six songs together.

Her songs generally do better in the digital market (her biggest single in physical sales only sold 11,000 copies). Since November 2009, five of her songs have been certified gold by the RIAJ for cellphone downloads.

Azurocidin 1

Azurocidin also known as cationic antimicrobial protein CAP37 or heparin-binding protein (HBP) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the AZU1 gene.

Function

Azurophil granules, specialized lysosomes of the neutrophil, contain at least 10 proteins implicated in the killing of microorganisms. The protein encoded by this gene is an azurophil granule antibiotic protein, with monocyte chemotactic and antibacterial activity. It is also an important multifunctional inflammatory mediator. This encoded protein is a member of the serine protease gene family but it is not a serine proteinase, because the active site serine and histidine residues are replaced. The genes encoding this protein, neutrophil elastase 2, and proteinase 3 are in a cluster located at chromosome 19pter. All 3 genes are expressed coordinately and their protein products are packaged together into azurophil granules during neutrophil differentiation.

Clinical significance

In patients with fever, high plasma levels of HBP indicates that the patient is at high risk of developing sepsis with circulatory collapse.

AZU

AZU may refer to:

See also