Phylogenetic signal in primate tooth enamel proteins and its relevance for paleoproteomics.

Ancient tooth enamel, and to some extent dentin and bone, contain characteristic peptides that persist for long periods of time. In particular, peptides from the enamel proteome (enamelome) have been used to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of fossil taxa. However, the enamelome is based on only about 10 genes, whose protein products undergo fragmentation in vivo and post mortem.

To increase trust in clinical research: Be worthy of trust and enhance the role of clinical research nurses.

There has been an erosion of trust in medical care and clinical research, and this has raised issues about whether institutions and investigators conducting clinical research are worthy of trust. We review recent literature on research on trust and trustworthiness in the clinical research enterprise and identify opportunities to enhance trustworthiness, which will likely increase participant trust in clinical research. In addition, we review materials reporting the results of national polls related to the public's trust in different occupations.

Genomic Landscape of Chromosome X Factor VIII: From Hemophilia A in Males to Risk Variants in Females.

Background: Variants within factor VIII (F8) are associated with sex-linked hemophilia A and thrombosis, with gene therapy approaches being available for pathogenic variants. Many variants within F8 remain variants of uncertain significance (VUS) or are under-explored as to their connections to phenotypic outcomes.

Methods: We assessed data on F8 expression while screening the UniProt, ClinVar, Geno2MP, and gnomAD databases for F8 missense variants; these collectively represent the sequencing of more than a million individuals.

Uncertainty reduction as an alternative explanation of historical myths.

We agree with Sijilmassi et al. that historical myths are a tool for coalition recruitment. We argue, however, that a close fit between an evolved entity and an identified function does not imply that the latter is the critical evolutionary trigger.

Early Engraftment and Immune Kinetics Following Allogeneic Transplant Using a Novel Reduced-Toxicity Transplant Strategy in Children/Adolescents with High-Risk Transfusion-Dependent Thalassemia: Early Results of the ThalFAbS Trial.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is challenging for patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia who have experienced iron overload and received chronic transfusion support. A transplantation strategy including a reduced-intensity preparative regimen and tailored immunosuppression to support donor engraftment and prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was developed for this population. The combination of a pretransplantation immunosuppression phase with reduced dosing of fludarabine/prednisone, a treosulfan-based preparative regimen with reduced cyclophosphamide dosing, and introduction of a calcineurin/methotrexate-free GVHD prophylaxis/engraftment supporting regimen with abatacept/sirolimus/antithymocyte globulin was tested.