Publications by authors named "Harvinder S Virk"
Antibody-based research applications are critical for biological discovery. Yet there are no industry standards for comparing the performance of antibodies in various applications. We describe a knockout cell line-based antibody characterization platform, developed and approved jointly by industry and academic researchers, that enables the systematic comparison of antibody performance in western blot, immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic lung condition that is more prevalent in males than females. The reasons for this are not fully understood, with differing environmental exposures due to historically sex-biased occupations, or diagnostic bias, being possible explanations. To date, over 20 independent genetic variants have been identified to be associated with IPF susceptibility, but these have been discovered when combining males and females.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFYCharOS is a collaborative initiative aimed at characterising antibodies against the entire human proteome. As of August 2023, they have presented comprehensive knockout characterisation data for 812 antibodies and 78 proteins using techniques such as Western blot, immunoprecipitation, and immunofluorescence. YCharOS consolidates its data into reports (one protein per report) available on Zenodo, a public repository controlled by CERN, to ensure open access.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - Antibodies are essential for detecting and studying proteins, but many commercial antibodies may not effectively target their intended proteins, a problem that remains mostly anecdotal; this study evaluates the performance of 614 commercial antibodies on 65 neuroscience-related proteins to quantify the issue.
- - The research found that over 50% of tested antibodies failed in various assessments, yet around 50-75% of the protein targets had at least one high-performing antibody available, indicating a significant coverage of human proteins despite the issues.
- - Notably, recombinant antibodies outperformed traditional monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, and the study identified many poorly performing antibodies that had been widely used in publications, prompting manufacturers to reassess and improve their products
Background: Severe COVID-19 pneumonitis in elderly frail patients is associated with poor outcomes, and therefore invasive mechanical ventilation is often deemed an inappropriate course of action. Some evidence suggests high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) may prevent the need for invasive ventilation in other groups of patients, but whether it is an appropriate ceiling of care for older frail patients is unknown.
Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonitis requiring FiO>60% who were deemed inappropriate for invasive ventilation or non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure ventilation (CPAP).
Background And Purpose: TGFβ1-mediated myofibroblast activation contributes to pathological fibrosis in many diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), where myofibroblast resistance to oxidant-mediated apoptosis is also evident. We therefore investigated the involvement of redox-sensitive TRPA1 ion channels on human lung myofibroblasts (HLMFs) cell death and TGFβ1-mediated pro-fibrotic responses.
Experimental Approach: The effects of TGFβ1 stimulation on TRPA1 expression and cell viability was studied in HLMFs derived from IPF patients and non-fibrotic patients.