Associations Between Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Variants and Risk of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Hospitalization Among Confirmed Cases in Washington State: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is dominated by variant viruses; the resulting impact on disease severity remains unclear. Using a retrospective cohort study, we assessed the hospitalization risk following infection with 7 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants.

Methods: Our study includes individuals with positive SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in the Washington Disease Reporting System with available viral genome data, from 1 December 2020 to 14 January 2022.

Associations between SARS-CoV-2 variants and risk of COVID-19 hospitalization among confirmed cases in Washington State: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is dominated by variant viruses; the resulting impact on disease severity remains unclear. Using a retrospective cohort study, we assessed the hospitalization risk following infection with seven SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Methods: Our study includes individuals with positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR in the Washington Disease Reporting System with available viral genome data, from December 1, 2020 to January 14, 2022.

Shaping the Future of Research: a perspective from junior scientists.

The landscape of scientific research and funding is in flux as a result of tight budgets, evolving models of both publishing and evaluation, and questions about training and workforce stability. As future leaders, junior scientists are uniquely poised to shape the culture and practice of science in response to these challenges. A group of postdocs in the Boston area who are invested in improving the scientific endeavor, planned a symposium held on October 2 (nd) and 3 (rd), 2014, as a way to join the discussion about the future of US biomedical research.

A systematic analysis of the early transcribed membrane protein family throughout the life cycle of Plasmodium yoelii.

The early transcribed membrane proteins (ETRAMPs) are a family of small, highly charged transmembrane proteins unique to malaria parasites. Some members of the ETRAMP family have been localized to the parasitophorous vacuole membrane that separates the intracellular parasite from the host cell and thus presumably have a role in host-parasite interactions. Although it was previously shown that two ETRAMPs are critical for rodent malaria parasite liver-stage development, the importance of most ETRAMPs during the parasite life cycle remains unknown.

SAP1 is a critical post-transcriptional regulator of infectivity in malaria parasite sporozoite stages.

Plasmodium salivary gland sporozoites upregulate expression of a unique subset of genes, collectively called the UIS (upregulated in infectious sporozoites). Many UIS were shown to be essential for early liver stage development, although little is known about their regulation. We previously identified a conserved sporozoite-specific protein, SAP1, which has an essential role in Plasmodium liver infection.

Plasmodium falciparum PF10_0164 (ETRAMP10.3) is an essential parasitophorous vacuole and exported protein in blood stages.

Upregulated in infectious sporozoites gene 4 (UIS4) encodes a parasitophorous vacuole membrane protein expressed in the sporozoite and liver stages of rodent malaria parasites. Parasites that lack UIS4 arrest in early liver-stage development, and vaccination of mice with uis4(-) sporozoites confers sterile protection against challenge with infectious sporozoites. Currently, it remains unclear whether an ortholog of UIS4 is carried in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, although the gene PF10_0164 has been identified as a candidate ortholog for UIS4 on the basis of synteny and structural similarity of the encoded protein.

L-FABP is a critical host factor for successful malaria liver stage development.

The malaria parasite liver stage produces tens of thousands of red cell-infectious forms within its host hepatocyte. It is thought that the vacuole-enclosed parasite completely depends on the host cell for successful development but the molecular parasite-host cell interactions underlying this remarkable growth have remained elusive. Using a yeast two-hybrid screen and a yeast overexpression system we show that UIS3, a parasite protein essential for liver stage development, interacts directly with liver-fatty acid binding protein, L-FABP.