Publications by authors named "Bobbie-Jo M Webb Robertson"

Studies generating transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics, and metabolomics (colloquially referred to as "omics") data allow researchers to find biomarkers or molecular targets or understand complex biological structures and functions by identifying changes in biomolecule abundance and expression between experimental conditions. Omics data are multidimensional, and oftentimes summarization techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) are used to identify high-level patterns in data. Though useful, these summaries do not allow exploration of detailed patterns in omics data that may have biological relevance.

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The deployment of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based plasma proteomics experiments in a large cohort is sparse, leading to a lack of data available for benchmarking, method development or validation. Comprised of 6,426 plasma analyses, The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) proteomics validation study constitutes one of the largest targeted proteomics experiments in the literature to date. The proteomics data from this study were generated over the course of 2.

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Background: The risk of contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via human milk-feeding is virtually nonexistent. Adverse effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination for lactating individuals are not different from the general population, and no evidence has been found that their infants exhibit adverse effects. Yet, there remains substantial hesitation among this population globally regarding the safety of these vaccines.

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Unlabelled: Microbial conversion of lignocellulosic biomass represents an alternative route for production of biofuels and bioproducts. While researchers have mostly focused on engineering strains such as Rhodotorula toruloides for better bisabolene production as a sustainable aviation fuel, less is known about the impact of the feedstock heterogeneity on bisabolene production. Critical material attributes like feedstock composition, nutritional content, and inhibitory compounds can all influence bioconversion.

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  • Researchers focused on how RNA splicing variations could signal differences in protein forms related to type 1 diabetes (T1D), especially in the context of changes in blood circulation.
  • The study utilized machine learning to analyze RNA sequences from blood samples of both new-onset T1D patients and matched controls, revealing distinct splicing patterns linked to the disease.
  • Results indicated that specific RNA splicing events, particularly those with retained introns, were significantly associated with T1D, suggesting these splicing profiles could help understand disease development and differentiate T1D patients from non-diabetics.
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  • Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease, and mass spectrometry (MS) is being used to find new biomarkers and understand the disease's mechanisms better.
  • The combination of MS and machine learning has led to the identification of multi-molecular biomarker panels and the discovery of relevant pathways and therapeutic targets.
  • Despite progress, challenges like understanding tissue environments and the impact of external factors persist, but advancements in MS technologies, like ultra-fast separations and single-cell analysis, may help overcome these obstacles.
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Preventing the onset of autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D) is feasible through pharmacological interventions that target molecular stress-responsive mechanisms. Cellular stresses, such as nutrient deficiency, viral infection, or unfolded proteins, trigger the integrated stress response (ISR), which curtails protein synthesis by phosphorylating eIF2α. In T1D, maladaptive unfolded protein response (UPR) in insulin-producing β cells renders these cells susceptible to autoimmunity.

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Preventing the onset of autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D) is feasible through pharmacological interventions that target molecular stress-responsive mechanisms. Cellular stresses, such as nutrient deficiency, viral infection, or unfolded proteins, trigger the integrated stress response (ISR), which curtails protein synthesis by phosphorylating eukaryotic translation initiation factor-2α (eIF2α). In T1D, maladaptive unfolded protein response (UPR) in insulin-producing β cells renders these cells susceptible to autoimmunity.

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  • Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and a major cause of death in women, with some types being harder to treat than others.
  • The study looked at the differences between a difficult-to-treat type of breast cancer (DTBC) and a more common type (Luminal A) to find out what makes them different.
  • Researchers used advanced techniques to analyze tumor samples and found that DTBC tumors have different gene mutations and characteristics, which could help identify ways to improve treatment and predict patient outcomes.
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Human infections caused by viral pathogens trigger a complex gamut of host responses that limit disease, resolve infection, generate immunity, and contribute to severe disease or death. Here, we present experimental methods and multi-omics data capture approaches representing the global host response to infection generated from 45 individual experiments involving human viruses from the Orthomyxoviridae, Filoviridae, Flaviviridae, and Coronaviridae families. Analogous experimental designs were implemented across human or mouse host model systems, longitudinal samples were collected over defined time courses, and global multi-omics data (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics) were acquired by microarray, RNA sequencing, or mass spectrometry analyses.

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Light-sheet microscopy has made possible the 3D imaging of both fixed and live biological tissue, with samples as large as the entire mouse brain. However, segmentation and quantification of that data remains a time-consuming manual undertaking. Machine learning methods promise the possibility of automating this process.

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Background: Biomarkers of early pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) are crucial to enable effective prevention measures in at-risk populations before significant damage occurs to their insulin producing beta-cell mass. We recently introduced the concept of integrated parallel multi-omics and employed a novel data augmentation approach which identified promising candidate biomarkers from a small cohort of high-risk T1D subjects. We now validate selected biomarkers to generate a potential composite signature of T1D risk.

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Background: Lipids are regulators of insulitis and β-cell death in type 1 diabetes development, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we investigated how the islet lipid composition and downstream signaling regulate β-cell death.

Methods: We performed lipidomics using three models of insulitis: human islets and EndoC-βH1 β cells treated with the pro-inflammatory cytokines interlukine-1β and interferon-γ, and islets from pre-diabetic non-obese mice.

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Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic condition caused by autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic β cells. While it is known that gene-environment interactions play a key role in triggering the autoimmune process leading to T1D, the pathogenic mechanism leading to the appearance of islet autoantibodies-biomarkers of autoimmunity-is poorly understood. Here we show that disruption of the complement system precedes the detection of islet autoantibodies and persists through disease onset.

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Article Synopsis
  • The leaf-cutter ant ecosystem, specifically focusing on Atta cephalotes, serves as an effective model for understanding plant biomass breakdown, primarily facilitated by a symbiotic fungus called Leucoagaricus gongylophorus.
  • Researchers utilized advanced imaging techniques on thin sections of fungal gardens to study the degradation of lignin, a complex organic polymer, which is crucial in plant structure.
  • By mapping metabolites and proteins together, they discovered distinct microhabitats related to lignin breakdown, highlighting the fungi's important role in decomposing plant materials and revealing insights into the metabolic processes involved.
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PMart is a web-based tool for reproducible quality control, exploratory data analysis, statistical analysis, and interactive visualization of 'omics data, based on the functionality of the R package. The newly improved user interface supports more 'omics data types, additional statistical capabilities, and enhanced options for creating downloadable graphics. PMart supports the analysis of label-free and isobaric-labeled (e.

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  • Metabolomics offers insights into small molecules and biological processes related to human, animal, plant, and environmental health, but the usefulness of this data relies on accurately identifying metabolites.
  • There is considerable confusion surrounding which spectral similarity (SS) score to use for identifying compounds in mass spectrometry, leading to inconsistencies and potential reproducibility issues when integrating data across various domains.
  • The study evaluates 66 similarity metrics and finds that certain families (Inner Product, Correlative, and Intersection) perform better for metabolite identification, providing guidance for researchers to enhance the reliability and standardization of identification workflows in metabolomics.
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Article Synopsis
  • - Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, leading to a lifelong need for external insulin.
  • - The onset and progression of type 1 diabetes are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors affecting disease initiation and diagnosis.
  • - The review discusses how genetic factors, particularly those related to the complement system, may play a significant role in the disease’s progression from pre-clinical stages to full-blown diabetes, based on recent research findings.
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Mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for identifying and analyzing biomolecules such as metabolites and lipids in complex biological samples. Liquid chromatography and gas chromatography mass spectrometry studies quite commonly involve large numbers of samples, which can require significant time for sample preparation and analyses. To accommodate such studies, the samples are commonly split into batches.

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Efficient conversion of pentose sugars remains a significant barrier to the replacement of petroleum-derived chemicals with plant biomass-derived bioproducts. While the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides (also known as Rhodotorula toruloides) has a relatively robust native metabolism of pentose sugars compared to other wild yeasts, faster assimilation of those sugars will be required for industrial utilization of pentoses. To increase the rate of pentose assimilation in R.

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Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic condition caused by autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells. While it is known that gene-environment interactions play a key role in triggering the autoimmune process leading to T1D, the pathogenic mechanism leading to the appearance of islet autoantibodies - biomarkers of autoimmunity - is poorly understood. Here we show that disruption of the complement system precedes the detection of islet autoantibodies and persists through disease onset.

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Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from autoimmune destruction of β cells. Insufficient availability of biomarkers represents a significant gap in understanding the disease cause and progression. We conduct blinded, two-phase case-control plasma proteomics on the TEDDY study to identify biomarkers predictive of T1D development.

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The Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD) is the largest biorepository of human pancreata and associated immune organs from donors with type 1 diabetes (T1D), maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), gestational diabetes, islet autoantibody positivity (AAb+), and without diabetes. nPOD recovers, processes, analyzes, and distributes high-quality biospecimens, collected using optimized standard operating procedures, and associated de-identified data/metadata to researchers around the world. Herein describes the release of high-parameter genotyping data from this collection.

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Biological systems function through complex interactions between various 'omics (biomolecules), and a more complete understanding of these systems is only possible through an integrated, multi-omic perspective. This has presented the need for the development of integration approaches that are able to capture the complex, often non-linear, interactions that define these biological systems and are adapted to the challenges of combining the heterogenous data across 'omic views. A principal challenge to multi-omic integration is missing data because all biomolecules are not measured in all samples.

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Article Synopsis
  • There is increasing interest in understanding the role of milk-associated microbiota and its impact on health, especially related to conditions like mastitis, which affects lactating humans and animals.
  • Mastitis is linked to harmful changes in milk microbial communities and can have serious health and economic repercussions.
  • The paper reviews various "omics" approaches (like metagenomics and metabolomics) used to study the milk microbiome's influence on mastitis, highlighting their benefits and challenges, while advocating for an integrated multi-omics strategy for better insights.
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