Nanobody screening and machine learning guided identification of cross-variant anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing heavy-chain only antibodies.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to persist, demonstrating the risks posed by emerging infectious diseases to national security, public health, and the economy. Development of new vaccines and antibodies for emerging viral threats requires substantial resources and time, and traditional development platforms for vaccines and antibodies are often too slow to combat continuously evolving immunological escape variants, reducing their efficacy over time. Previously, we designed a next-generation synthetic humanized nanobody (Nb) phage display library and demonstrated that this library could be used to rapidly identify highly specific and potent neutralizing heavy chain-only antibodies (HCAbs) with prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy in vivo against the original SARS-CoV-2.

Combining computational modeling and experimental library screening to affinity-mature VEEV-neutralizing antibody F5.

Engineered monoclonal antibodies have proven to be highly effective therapeutics in recent viral outbreaks. However, despite technical advancements, an ability to rapidly adapt or increase antibody affinity and by extension, therapeutic efficacy, has yet to be fully realized. We endeavored to stand-up such a pipeline using molecular modeling combined with experimental library screening to increase the affinity of F5, a monoclonal antibody with potent neutralizing activity against Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus (VEEV), to recombinant VEEV (IAB) E1E2 antigen.

Serum, Cell-Free, HPV-Human DNA Junction Detection and HPV Typing for Predicting and Monitoring Cervical Cancer Recurrence.

Almost all cervical cancers are caused by human papillomaviruses (HPVs). In most cases, HPV DNA is integrated into the human genome. We found that tumor-specific, HPV-human DNA junctions are detectable in serum cell-free DNA of a fraction of cervical cancer patients at the time of initial treatment and/or at six months following treatment.

Accidental Physical Trauma in Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs: A Scoping Review.

Background: Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) may be at greater risk for accidental physical trauma. Interventions should be informed by the literature indicating incident characteristics and at-risk subpopulations.

Objective: To conduct a scoping review of accidental physical trauma in CYSHCN to characterize published literature and identify gaps.

Analysis of ductal carcinoma in situ by self-reported race reveals molecular differences related to outcome.

Background: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-obligate precursor to invasive breast cancer (IBC). Studies have indicated differences in DCIS outcome based on race or ethnicity, but molecular differences have not been investigated.

Methods: We examined the molecular profile of DCIS by self-reported race (SRR) and outcome groups in Black (n = 99) and White (n = 191) women in a large DCIS case-control cohort study with longitudinal follow up.