Proteins are attractive as functional components in molecular junctions. However, controlling the electronic charge transport via proteins, held between two electrodes, requires information on their frontier orbital energy level alignment relative to the electrodes' Fermi level (E), which normally requires studies of UV Photoemission Spectroscopy (UPS) with HeI excitation. Such excitation is problematic for proteins, which can denature under standard measuring conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnited European Gastroenterol J
December 2024
Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) is defined as a reduction in pancreatic exocrine secretion below the level that allows the normal digestion of nutrients. Pancreatic disease and surgery are the main causes of PEI. However, other conditions and upper gastrointestinal surgery can also affect the digestive function of the pancreas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces
November 2024
Self-healing materials can become game changers for developing sustainable (opto)electronics. APbX halide (=X) perovskites, HaPs, have shown a remarkable ability to self-heal damage. While we demonstrated self-healing in pure HaP compounds, in single crystals, and in polycrystalline thin films (as used in most devices), HaP compositions with multiple A (and X) constituents are preferred for solar cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnited European Gastroenterol J
December 2024
Background: Individuals carrying a germline CDKN2A pathogenic variant (PV) are at a high risk of developing pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Risk stratification could allow tailored surveillance.
Objective: To develop a Fine-Gray prediction model for the risk of PDAC in carriers of a CDKN2A PV.
The (opto)electronic behavior of semiconductors depends on their (quasi-)free electronic carrier densities. These are regulated by semiconductor doping, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
August 2024
The fundamental question of "what is the transport path of electrons through proteins?" initially introduced while studying long-range electron transfer between localized redox centers in proteins in vivo is also highly relevant to the transport properties of solid-state, dry metal-protein-metal junctions. Here, we report conductance measurements of such junctions, Au-( monolayer ensemble)-Bismuth (Bi) ones, with well-defined nanopore geometry and ~10 proteins/pore. Our results can be understood as follows.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
April 2024
The term defect tolerance (DT) is used often to rationalize the exceptional optoelectronic properties of halide perovskites (HaPs) and their devices. Even though DT lacked direct experimental evidence, it became a "fact" in the field. DT in semiconductors implies that structural defects do not translate to electrical and optical effects (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividuals at high risk of developing pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma are eligible for surveillance within research programs. These programs employ periodic imaging in the form of magnetic resonance imaging/magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography or endoscopic ultrasound for the detection of early cancer or high-grade precursor lesions. This narrative review discusses the role of endoscopic ultrasound within these surveillance programs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Individuals with obesity may develop intrapancreatic fat deposition (IPFD) and fatty pancreas disease (FPD). Whether this causes inflammation and fibrosis and leads to pancreatic dysfunction is less established than for liver damage in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Moreover, the interrelations of FPD and MASLD are poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is an immune-mediated disease of the pancreas with distinct pathophysiology and manifestations. Our aims were to characterize type 1 AIP in a large pan-European cohort and study the effectiveness of current treatment regimens.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed adults diagnosed since 2005 with type 1 or not-otherwise-specified AIP in 42 European university hospitals.
Molecular profiling may enable earlier detection of pancreatic cancer (PC) in high-risk individuals undergoing surveillance and allow for personalization of treatment. We hypothesized that the detection rate of DNA mutations is higher in pancreatic juice (PJ) than in plasma due to its closer contact with the pancreatic ductal system, from which pancreatic cancer cells originate, and higher overall cell-free DNA (cfDNA) concentrations. In this study, we included patients with pathology-proven PC or intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) with high-grade dysplasia (HGD) from two prospective clinical trials (KRASPanc and PACYFIC) for whom both PJ and plasma were available.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Estimates on the progression of precursor lesions to pancreatic cancer (PC) are scarce. We used microsimulation modeling to gain insight into the natural disease course of PC and its precursors. This information is pivotal to explore the efficacy of PC screening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnited European Gastroenterol J
September 2023
Background: Surveillance of pancreatic cysts focuses on the detection of (mostly morphologic) features warranting surgery. European guidelines consider elevated CA19.9 as a relative indication for surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Republic of Guinea (CVPRG) is a specimen-based, expert-validated knowledge product, which provides a concise synthesis and overview of current knowledge on 3901 vascular plant species documented from Guinea (Conakry), West Africa, including their accepted names and synonyms, as well as their distribution and status within Guinea (indigenous or introduced, endemic or not). The CVPRG is generated automatically from the Guinea Collections Database and the Guinea Names Backbone Database, both developed and maintained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in collaboration with the staff of the National Herbarium of Guinea. A total of 3505 indigenous vascular plant species are reported of which 3328 are flowering plants (angiosperms); this represents a 26% increase in known indigenous angiosperms since the last floristic overview.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn terms of sustainable use, halide perovskite (HaP) semiconductors have a strong advantage over most other classes of materials for (opto)electronics, as they can self-heal (SH) from photodamage. While there is considerable literature on SH in devices, where it may not be clear exactly where damage and SH occur, there is much less on the HaP material itself. Here we perform "fluorescence recovery after photobleaching" (FRAP) measurements to study SH on polycrystalline thin films for which encapsulation is critical to achieving complete and fast self-healing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo-dimensional (2D) halide perovskites, HaPs, can provide chemical stability to three-dimensional (3D) HaP surfaces, protecting them from exposure to ambient species and from reacting with contacting layers. Both actions occur with 2D HaPs, with the general stoichiometry RPbI (R: long or bulky organic amine) covering the 3D ones. Adding such covering films can also boost power conversion efficiencies of photovoltaic cells by passivating surface/interface trap states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: In high-risk individuals (HRIs), we aimed to assess the cumulative incidence of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) and compare IPMN growth, neoplastic progression rate, and the value of growth as predictor for neoplastic progression to these in sporadic IPMNs.
Methods: We performed annual surveillance of Dutch HRIs, involving carriers of germline pathogenic variants (PVs) and PV-negative familial pancreatic cancer kindreds. HRIs with IPMNs were compared with Italian individuals without familial risk under surveillance for sporadic IPMNs.
Secretin-stimulated pancreatic juice (PJ), collected from the duodenum, presents a valuable biomarker source for the (earlier) detection of pancreatic cancer (PC). Here, we evaluate the feasibility and performance of shallow sequencing to detect copy number variations (CNVs) in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from PJ for PC detection. First, we confirmed the feasibility of shallow sequencing in PJ (n = 4), matched plasma (n = 3) and tissue samples (n = 4, microarray).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF