HLA allele and haplotype frequencies of registered stem cell donors in Chile.

Patients in need of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation often rely on unrelated stem cell donors matched in certain human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes. Donor search is complicated by the extensive allelic variability of the HLA system. Therefore, large registries of potential donors are maintained in many countries worldwide.

Immunogenetics in stem cell donor registry work: The DKMS example (Part 2).

DKMS is a leading stem cell donor registry with more than 9 million donors. Donor registry activities share many touch points with topics from immunogenetics or population genetics. In this two-part review article, we deal with these aspects of donor registry work by using the example of DKMS.

Immunogenetics in stem cell donor registry work: The DKMS example (Part 1).

Currently, stem cell donor registries include more than 35 million potential donors worldwide to provide HLA-matched stem cell products for patients in need of an unrelated donor transplant. DKMS is a leading stem cell donor registry with more than 9 million donors from Germany, Poland, the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Chile. DKMS donors have donated hematopoietic stem cells more than 80,000 times.

Invisible Flashes Alter Perceived Sound Location.

Information integration across the senses is fundamental for effective interactions with our environment. The extent to which signals from different senses can interact in the absence of awareness is controversial. Combining the spatial ventriloquist illusion and dynamic continuous flash suppression (dCFS), we investigated in a series of two experiments whether visual signals that observers do not consciously perceive can influence spatial perception of sounds.

Simulation shows that HLA-matched stem cell donors can remain unidentified in donor searches.

The heterogeneous nature of HLA information in real-life stem cell donor registries may hamper unrelated donor searches. It is even possible that fully HLA-matched donors with incomplete HLA information are not identified. In our simulation study, we estimated the probability of these unnecessarily failed donor searches.

Detecting tones in complex auditory scenes.

In everyday life, our auditory system is bombarded with many signals in complex auditory scenes. Limited processing capacities allow only a fraction of these signals to enter perceptual awareness. This magnetoencephalography (MEG) study used informational masking to identify the neural mechanisms that enable auditory awareness.

Steady-state responses in MEG demonstrate information integration within but not across the auditory and visual senses.

To form a unified percept of our environment, the human brain integrates information within and across the senses. This MEG study investigated interactions within and between sensory modalities using a frequency analysis of steady-state responses that are elicited time-locked to periodically modulated stimuli. Critically, in the frequency domain, interactions between sensory signals are indexed by crossmodulation terms (i.