Publications by authors named "A B Raper"

Streptococcus pyogenes (Sp) Cas9 has been widely utilized to edit genomes across diverse species. To achieve high efficiency and specificity as a gene editing enzyme, Sp Cas9 undergoes a series of sequential conformational changes during substrate binding and catalysis. Here, we employed single molecule FRET techniques to investigate the effect of different KCl concentrations on conformational dynamics of Sp Cas9 in the presence or absence of a single-guide RNA (sgRNA).

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Background: Germline genetic testing is recommended for an increasing number of conditions with underlying genetic etiologies, the results of which impact medical management. However, genetic testing is underutilized in clinics due to system, clinician, and patient level barriers. Behavioral economics provides a framework to create implementation strategies, such as nudges, to address these multi-level barriers and increase the uptake of genetic testing for conditions where the results impact medical management.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on understanding the surface molecules of bovine alveolar macrophages (AMs) that protect against pathogens like Mycobacterium bovis, responsible for bovine tuberculosis.
  • Researchers used flow cytometry to analyze bronchoalveolar lavage samples from calves, revealing specific expression patterns of various immune cell molecules on bovine AMs.
  • The findings identified two distinct subsets of bovine AMs based on CD163 expression, with implications for their roles in immune response during infections.
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Kagami-Ogata syndrome is a rare imprinting disorder and its phenotypic overlap with multiple different etiologies hampers diagnosis. Genetic etiologies include paternal uniparental isodisomy (upd(14)pat), maternal allele deletions of differentially methylated regions (DMR) in 14q32.2 or pure primary epimutations.

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  • Loss of function variants in the NF1 gene lead to neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a hereditary condition with a 1 in 3,000 prevalence, notable physical signs, and heightened cancer risk.
  • A genotype-first approach revealed a higher-than-expected prevalence of pathogenic variants (1 in 450-750), many found in individuals without typical NF1 symptoms.
  • These variants often showed post-zygotic mosaicism and were linked to increased cancer risks, indicating they may be more common and less penetrant than previously recognized.
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