Hexagonal vortices enable faster colloidal crystal grain coarsening.

We find that localized rotations of hexagonal clusters of particles occur during rapid dissolution of grain boundary loops in two-dimensional colloidal crystals. These particle vortices, or rotating "granules," are distinct from established models for grain boundary diffusion, which predict that a crystal grain enclosed within another crystal will dissolve at a constant rate. Our measurements of colloidal crystal experiments and Brownian dynamics simulations reveal grain boundary motion that is described by two distinct processes: slow dissolution due to the diffusion of individual particles, and rapid dissolution due to collective granule rotation.

Enhancing proteasomal processing improves survival for a peptide vaccine used to treat glioblastoma.

Despite its essential role in antigen presentation, enhancing proteasomal processing is an unexploited strategy for improving vaccines. pepVIII, an anticancer vaccine targeting EGFRvIII, has been tested in several trials for glioblastoma. We examined 20 peptides in silico and experimentally, which showed that a tyrosine substitution (Y6-pepVIII) maximizes proteasome cleavage and survival in a subcutaneous tumor model in mice.