Comparing the efficacy in reducing brain injury of different neuroprotective agents following neonatal hypoxia-ischemia in newborn rats: a multi-drug randomized controlled screening trial.

Intrapartum hypoxia-ischemia leading to neonatal encephalopathy (NE) results in significant neonatal mortality and morbidity worldwide, with > 85% of cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Therapeutic hypothermia (HT) is currently the only available safe and effective treatment of HIE in high-income countries (HIC); however, it has shown limited safety or efficacy in LMIC. Therefore, other therapies are urgently required.

Nontargeted mass spectrometry of dried blood spots for interrogation of the human circulating metabolome.

Advances in high-resolution, nontargeted mass spectrometry allow for the simultaneous measure of thousands of metabolites in a single biosample. Application of these analytical approaches to population-scale human studies has been limited by the need for resource-intensive blood sample collection, preparation, and storage. Dried blood spotting, a technique developed decades ago for newborn screening, may offer a simple approach to overcome barriers in human blood acquisition and storage.

A homozygous founder mutation in associates with a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by microcephaly, epilepsy and autistic features.

Background: Transport protein particle (TRAPP) is a multisubunit complex that regulates membrane trafficking through the Golgi apparatus. The clinical phenotype associated with mutations in various TRAPP subunits has allowed elucidation of their functions in specific tissues. The role of some subunits in human disease, however, has not been fully established, and their functions remain uncertain.

Identification of novel genes and networks governing hematopoietic stem cell development.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are capable of giving rise to all blood cell lineages throughout adulthood, and the generation of engraftable HSCs from human pluripotent stem cells is a major goal for regenerative medicine. Here, we describe a functional genome-wide RNAi screen to identify genes required for the differentiation of embryonic stem cell (ESC) into hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) in vitro We report the discovery of novel genes important for the endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition and subsequently for HSPC specification. High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic analyses identified twelve groups of genes, including a set of 351 novel genes required for HSPC specification.

Novel Genes Critical for Hypoxic Preconditioning in Zebrafish Are Regulators of Insulin and Glucose Metabolism.

Severe hypoxia is a common cause of major brain, heart, and kidney injury in adults, children, and newborns. However, mild hypoxia can be protective against later, more severe hypoxia exposure via "hypoxic preconditioning," a phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. Accordingly, we have established and optimized an embryonic zebrafish model to study hypoxic preconditioning.

Ossification of sacral vertebral bodies in neonates born 24 to 38 weeks' gestational age and its relevance to spinal ultrasonography.

Objective: Determination of gestational age and/or birth weight at which sacral ossification centers appear.

Study Design: Radiographs were reviewed of newborns admitted to Auckland City Hospital between January 2008 and December 2010. Infants were divided into weight clusters increasing in 100-g increments from 400 g to 3000 g and 500-g increments thereafter, for a total of 29 weight clusters.

Chromatin signature of embryonic pluripotency is established during genome activation.

After fertilization the embryonic genome is inactive until transcription is initiated during the maternal-zygotic transition. This transition coincides with the formation of pluripotent cells, which in mammals can be used to generate embryonic stem cells. To study the changes in chromatin structure that accompany pluripotency and genome activation, we mapped the genomic locations of histone H3 molecules bearing lysine trimethylation modifications before and after the maternal-zygotic transition in zebrafish.

The computational analysis of scientific literature to define and recognize gene expression clusters.

A limitation of many gene expression analytic approaches is that they do not incorporate comprehensive background knowledge about the genes into the analysis. We present a computational method that leverages the peer-reviewed literature in the automatic analysis of gene expression data sets. Including the literature in the analysis of gene expression data offers an opportunity to incorporate functional information about the genes when defining expression clusters.

Gene expression during the life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster.

Molecular genetic studies of Drosophila melanogaster have led to profound advances in understanding the regulation of development. Here we report gene expression patterns for nearly one-third of all Drosophila genes during a complete time course of development. Mutations that eliminate eye or germline tissue were used to further analyze tissue-specific gene expression programs.