Mapping common and distinct brain correlates among cognitive flexibility tasks: concordant evidence from meta-analyses.

Cognitive flexibility allows individuals to switch between different tasks, strategies, or ideas; an ability that is important for everyday life. The Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) and task switching paradigm (TSP) are popular measures of cognitive flexibility. Although both tasks require switching, the TSP requires participants to memorize switching rules and retrieve them when they view a cue (rule-retrieval), whereas the classic WCST requires participants to discover the switching rule via trial-and-error (rule-discovery).

Protocol for NT-CRISPR: A Method for Efficient Genome Engineering in Vibrio natriegens.

Vibrio natriegens is a gram-negative bacterium, which has received increasing attention due to its very fast growth with a doubling time of under 10 min under optimal conditions. To enable a wide range of projects spanning from basic research to biotechnological applications, we developed NT-CRISPR as a new method for genome engineering. This book chapter provides a step-by-step protocol for the use of this previously published tool.

The Innate Immune System and the TRAIL-Bcl-XL Axis Mediate a Sex Bias in Lung Cancer and Confer a Therapeutic Vulnerability in Females.

There is a significant sex bias in lung cancer, with males showing increased mortality compared with females. A better mechanistic understanding of these differences could help identify therapeutic targets to personalize cancer therapies to each sex. After observing a clear sex bias in humanized mice, with male patient-derived xenograft lung tumors being more progressive and deadlier than female patient-derived xenograft lung tumors, we identified mouse tumor models of lung cancer with the same sex bias.

Clinical application of phage immunoprecipitation sequencing to diagnose enterovirus D68 as the underlying etiology in a case of Gullain-Barré syndrome.

Gullain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute peripheral neuropathy often preceded by respiratory or gastrointestinal infections, though molecular testing of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is often inconclusive. In a recent case of severe pediatric GBS in British Columbia, Canada, we detected CSF antibodies against enterovirus D (EV-D) to link GBS with prior EV-D68 respiratory infection.

Graded-CRISPRi, a Tool for Tuning the Strengths of CRISPRi-Mediated Knockdowns in Using gRNA Libraries.

In recent years, the fast-growing bacterium has gained increasing attention as it has the potential to become a next-generation chassis for synthetic biology. A wide range of genetic parts and genome engineering methods have already been developed. However, there is still a need for a well-characterized tool to effectively and gradually reduce the expression levels of native genes.