Publications by authors named "A Yuriko Minn"

Global warming and extreme climate conditions caused by unsuitable temperature and humidity lead to coffee leaf rust () diseases in coffee plantations. Coffee leaf rust is a severe problem that reduces productivity. Currently, pesticide spraying is considered the most effective solution for mitigating coffee leaf rust.

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Identifying highly specific T cell receptors (TCRs) or antibodies against epitopic peptides presented by class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC I) proteins remains a bottleneck in the development of targeted therapeutics. Here, we introduce targeted recognition of antigen-MHC complex reporter for MHC I (TRACeR-I), a generalizable platform for targeting peptides on polymorphic HLA-A*, HLA-B* and HLA-C* allotypes while overcoming the cross-reactivity challenges of TCRs. Our TRACeR-MHC I co-crystal structure reveals a unique antigen recognition mechanism, with TRACeR forming extensive contacts across the entire peptide length to confer single-residue specificity at the accessible positions.

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Data integration to align cells across batches has become a cornerstone of single-cell data analysis, critically affecting downstream results. Currently, there are no guidelines for when the biological differences between samples are separable from batch effects. Here we show that current paradigms for single-cell data integration remove biologically meaningful variation and introduce distortion.

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NLR family, apoptosis inhibitory proteins (NAIPs) detect bacterial flagellin and structurally related components of bacterial type III secretion systems (T3SS), and recruit NLR family CARD domain containing protein 4 (NLRC4) and caspase-1 into an inflammasome complex that induces pyroptosis. NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome assembly is initiated by the binding of a single NAIP to its cognate ligand, but a subset of bacterial flagellins or T3SS structural proteins are thought to evade NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome sensing by not binding to their cognate NAIPs. Unlike other inflammasome components such as NLRP3, AIM2, or some NAIPs, NLRC4 is constitutively present in resting macrophages and not known to be induced by inflammatory signals.

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Article Synopsis
  • Ultra-high dose rate FLASH radiotherapy shows promise in reducing toxicity to normal tissues compared to standard proton radiotherapy while maintaining effective anti-tumor responses.
  • Research demonstrated that FLASH treatment led to faster recovery and improved survival in mice after whole-abdomen irradiation, linked to enhanced proliferation of stem and progenitor cells for tissue regeneration.
  • The benefits of FLASH are attributed to changes in immune and stromal cell signaling, particularly involving TGF-β and IFN-I pathways, which differ significantly from those activated in standard radiotherapy, thus minimizing side effects.
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