Publications by authors named "B W Darbro"

Objective: Oculoauriculovertebral spectrum (OAVS) encompasses abnormalities on derivatives from the first and second pharyngeal arches including macrostomia, hemifacial microsomia, micrognathia, preauricular tags, ocular, and vertebral anomalies. We present genetic findings on a 3-generation family affected with macrostomia, preauricular tags and ptosis following an autosomal dominant pattern.

Design: We generated whole-genome sequencing data for the proband, affected father, and unaffected paternal grandmother followed by Sanger sequencing on 23 family members for the top candidate gene mutations.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial worldwide disruptions in health, economy, and society, manifesting symptoms such as loss of smell (anosmia) and loss of taste (ageusia), that can result in prolonged sensory impairment. Establishing the host genetic etiology of anosmia and ageusia in COVID-19 will aid in the overall understanding of the sensorineural aspect of the disease and contribute to possible treatments or cures. By using human genome sequencing data from the University of Iowa (UI) COVID-19 cohort (N=187) and the National Institute of Health All of Us (AoU) Research Program COVID-19 cohort (N=947), we investigated the genetics of anosmia and/or ageusia by employing feature selection techniques to construct a novel variant and gene prioritization pipeline, utilizing machine learning methods for the classification of patients.

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Background: Disturbances in the intricate processes that control craniofacial morphogenesis can result in birth defects, most common of which are orofacial clefts (OFCs). Nonsyndromic cleft lip (nsCL), one of the phenotypic forms amongst OFCs, has a non-random laterality presentation with the left side being affected twice as often compared to the right side. This study investigates the etiology of nsCL and the factors contributing to its laterality using a pair of monozygotic twins with mirror-image cleft lip.

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Introduction: The cause of increased diabetes mellitus (DM) risk in individuals with Turner syndrome (TS) is poorly understood. Parent-of-origin effects related to whether the maternal or paternal X chromosome (Xchr) remains intact have been found for several TS phenotypes, including hypercholesterolemia. Therefore, Xchr parent-of-origin may impact DM risk in TS.

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Functional copy-number alterations (fCNAs) are DNA copy-number changes with concordant differential gene expression. These are less likely to be bystander genetic lesions and could serve as robust and reproducible tumor biomarkers. To identify candidate fCNAs in neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), we integrated chromosomal microarray (CMA) and RNA-seq differential gene-expression data from 31 pancreatic (pNETs) and 33 small-bowel neuroendocrine tumors (sbNETs).

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