Publications by authors named "H D Specht"

Article Synopsis
  • Pre-patterning in embryo development is common in non-mammalian species, but mammals were thought to lack this due to their regulative development, which randomly contributes to the three blastocyst lineages.
  • Recent studies show that early blastomeres in mouse and human embryos actually have distinct developmental fates and differences in protein levels, challenging the previous notion of randomness.
  • Utilizing advanced proteomics, researchers found that 2-cell embryos contain alpha and beta blastomeres with different protein abundances linked to their developmental potential, with beta blastomeres more likely to produce higher amounts of epiblast cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe eating disorder that predominantly affects females and typically manifests during adolescence. There is increasing evidence that serum cytokine levels are altered in individuals with AN. Previous research has largely focused on adult patients, assuming a low-grade pro-inflammatory state.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) protects against childhood tuberculosis; and unlike most vaccines, BCG broadly impacts immunity to other pathogens and even some cancers. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiological studies identified a protective association between BCG vaccination and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2, but the associations in later studies were inconsistent. We sought possible reasons and noticed the study populations often lived in the same country.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is mounting evidence regarding the role of gut microbiota in anorexia nervosa (AN). Previous studies have reported that patients with AN show dysbiosis compared to healthy controls (HCs); however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear, and data on influencing factors and longitudinal course of microbiome changes are scarce. Here, we present longitudinal data of 57 adolescent inpatients diagnosed with AN at up to nine time points (including a 1-year follow-up examination) and compare these to up to six time points in 34 HCs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Major aims of single-cell proteomics include increasing the consistency, sensitivity and depth of protein quantification, especially for proteins and modifications of biological interest. Here, to simultaneously advance all these aims, we developed prioritized Single-Cell ProtEomics (pSCoPE). pSCoPE consistently analyzes thousands of prioritized peptides across all single cells (thus increasing data completeness) while maximizing instrument time spent analyzing identifiable peptides, thus increasing proteome depth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF