Native ion channels play key roles in biological systems, and engineered versions are widely used as chemogenetic tools and in sensing devices . Protein design has been harnessed to generate pore-containing transmembrane proteins, but the capability to design ion selectivity based on the interactions between ions and selectivity filter residues, a crucial feature of native ion channels , has been constrained by the lack of methods to place the metal-coordinating residues with atomic-level precision. Here we describe a bottom-up RFdiffusion-based approach to construct Ca channels from defined selectivity filter residue geometries, and use this approach to design symmetric oligomeric channels with Ca selectivity filters having different coordination numbers and different geometries at the entrance of a wide pore buttressed by multiple transmembrane helices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeri-urban environments, characterized by dense human populations, cohabiting livestock, and complex food systems, serve as hotspots for food contamination and infectious diseases. Children aged 6-24 months are particularly vulnerable as they often encounter contaminated food and water, increasing their risk of food-borne disease, with diarrhea being a common symptom. We investigated the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in pathogenic Escherichia coli from 6-24 months-old children, their food, and cohabiting livestock, in Dagoretti South subcounty in Nairobi, Kenya.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccounting for the cost of repairing the degradation of Earth's biosphere is critical to guide conservation and sustainable development decisions. Yet the costs of repairing nature through the recovery of a continental suite of threatened species across their range have never been calculated. We estimated the cost of in situ recovery of nationally listed terrestrial and freshwater threatened species (n = 1,657) across the megadiverse continent of Australia by combining the spatially explicit costs of all strategies required to address species-specific threats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose/objective: This study examined (a) differences in demographic and injury-related characteristics following traumatic brain injury (TBI) between Native American and White individuals; (b) differences in community participation between Native American and White individuals with TBI at 1, 2, and 5 years after TBI; and (c) whether demographic or injury-related characteristics account for community participation disparities.
Research Method/design: A sample of 63 Native American individuals demographically matched to 63 White individuals (n = 126) was enrolled while on acute rehabilitation for moderate or severe TBI. Baseline demographic and injury-related characteristics were collected at this time and the Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools (PART-O) measure of community participation at 1, 2, and 5 years after TBI.