Genomic Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Sequence Variants at Universities in Southwest Idaho.

Although the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on major metropolitan areas is broadly reported and readily available, regions with lower populations and more remote areas in the United States are understudied. The objective of this study is to determine the progression of SARS-CoV-2 sequence variants in a frontier and remote intermountain west state among university-associated communities. This study was conducted at two intermountain west universities from 2020 to 2022.

A new solid target design for the production of Zr and radiosynthesis of high molar activity [Zr]Zr-DBN.

Due to the advent of various biologics like antibodies, proteins, cells, viruses, and extracellular vesicles as biomarkers for disease diagnosis, progression, and as therapeutics, there exists a need to have a simple and ready to use radiolabeling synthon to enable noninvasive imaging trafficking studies. Previously, we reported [Zr]zirconium--isothiocyanatobenzyl-desferrioxamine ([Zr]Zr-DBN) as a synthon for the radiolabeling of biologics to allow PET imaging of cell trafficking. In this study, we focused on improving the molar activity (A) of [Zr]Zr-DBN, by enhancing Zr production on a low-energy cyclotron and developing a new reverse phase HPLC method to purify [Zr]Zr-DBN.

MicroRNA Regulation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cell Chondrogenesis: Toward Articular Cartilage.

The production of a clinically useful engineered cartilage is an outstanding and unmet clinical need. High-throughput RNA sequencing provides a means of characterizing the molecular phenotype of populations of cells and can be leveraged to better understand differences among source cells, derivative engineered tissues, and target phenotypes. In this study, small RNA sequencing is utilized to comprehensively characterize the microRNA transcriptomes (miRNomes) of native human neonatal articular cartilage and human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) differentiating into cartilage organoids, contrasting the microRNA regulation of engineered cartilage with that of a promising target phenotype.

Transcriptome dynamics of long noncoding RNAs and transcription factors demarcate human neonatal, adult, and human mesenchymal stem cell-derived engineered cartilage.

The engineering of a native-like articular cartilage (AC) is a long-standing objective that could serve the clinical needs of millions of patients suffering from osteoarthritis and cartilage injury. An incomplete understanding of the developmental stages of AC has contributed to limited success in this endeavor. Using next generation RNA sequencing, we have transcriptionally characterized two critical stages of AC development in humans-that is, immature neonatal and mature adult, as well as tissue-engineered cartilage derived from culture expanded human mesenchymal stem cells.