Publications by authors named "Jeremy Lins"

Unlabelled: Intussusception is the telescoping of bowel into an adjacent segment of bowel and has an associated risk for bowel ischemia and perforation. The classic triad of abdominal pain, blood in stool, and an abdominal mass is present in less than 40% of pediatric cases and is less common in older children.1 Ultrasound has a high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of intussusception, and once diagnosed, treatment modalities include reduction by either ultrasound or fluoroscopic guided air or hydrostatic enema.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Clinical variants of are associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other degenerative diseases. The predicted ortholog of is encoded by , but functional orthology has not been demonstrated We undertook CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing of the locus to create a complete loss of function allele; all exons and introns were deleted, creating , which resulted in neurodegeneration after oxidative stress. Next, we undertook CRISPR-based genome editing to replace exons with human TARDBP coding sequences, creating humanized ( ) expressing TDP-43 Based on the efficiency of this genome editing, we suggest that iterative genome editing of the target locus using linked coCRISPR markers, like , would be a more efficient strategy for sequential assembly of the large engineered transgenes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To study important genes involved in Frontotemporal Dementia ( , and ), we created deletion alleles in the three orthologous genes ( , , and ). Simultaneously, we replaced the gene with the predicted orthologous human gene, often called whole-gene humanization, which allows direct assessment of conserved gene function, as well as the opportunity to examine consequences of clinical disease-associated patient variations. Each gene was manipulated using a different selection strategy, including a novel strategy using an mutation rescue technique.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

How mutations in FUS lead to neuronal dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients remains unclear. To examine mechanisms underlying ALS FUS dysfunction, we generate C. elegans knockin models using CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome editing, creating R524S and P525L ALS FUS models.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is commonly associated with both a pro-inflammatory and a T-helper 1 (Th1) immune response. It was hypothesized that cannabis oil extract can alleviate COPD symptoms by eliciting an anti-inflammatory Th2 immune response. Accordingly, the effects of cannabis oil extract on the expression of 84 Th2 and related immune response genes in human small airways epithelial cells (HSAEpC) were investigated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

mRNA transport in neurons requires formation of transport granules containing many protein components, and subsequent alterations in phosphorylation status can release transcripts for translation. Further, mutations in a structurally disordered domain of the transport granule protein hnRNPA2 increase its aggregation and cause hereditary proteinopathy of neurons, myocytes, and bone. We examine in vitro hnRNPA2 granule component phase separation, partitioning specificity, assembly/disassembly, and the link to neurodegeneration.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mutations in Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) lead to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that disproportionately affects glutamatergic and cholinergic motor neurons. Previous work with SOD1 overexpression models supports a role for SOD1 toxic gain of function in ALS pathogenesis. However, the impact of SOD1 loss of function in ALS cannot be directly examined in overexpression models.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

While the safety and efficacy profiles of orally administered bovine interferon (IFN) alpha have been documented, the mechanism(s) that result in clinical benefits remain elusive. One approach to delineating the molecular pathways of IFN efficacy is through the use of gene expression profiling technologies. In this proof-of-concept study, different (0, 50, 200 and 800 units) oral doses of natural bovine IFN (type I) were tested in cattle to determine if oral IFN altered the expression of genes that may be pivotal to the development of systemic resistance to viral infections such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a recessive X-linked fatal disorder caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene. Although several therapeutic approaches have been studied, none has led to substantial long-term effects in patients. The aim of this study was to test a serotonin and histamine (S&H) combination on human skeletal myoblasts and Dmd(mdx) mice for its effects on muscle strength and injury.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Iron (Fe) availability restricts diatom growth and primary production in large areas of the oceans. It is a challenge to assess the bulk Fe nutritional health of natural diatom populations, since species can differ in their physiological and molecular responses to Fe limitation. We assayed expression of selected genes in diatoms from the Thalassiosira genus to assess their potential utility as species-specific molecular markers to indicate Fe status in natural diatom assemblages.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The carbon sources that support the growth of pathogenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 in the mammalian intestine have not previously been investigated. In vivo, the pathogenic E. coli EDL933 grows primarily as single cells dispersed within the mucus layer that overlies the mouse cecal epithelium.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Escherichia coli MG1655 uses several sugars for growth in the mouse intestine. To determine the roles of L-fucose and D-ribose, an E. coli MG1655 DeltafucAO mutant and an E.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mammals are aerobes that harbor an intestinal ecosystem dominated by large numbers of anaerobic microorganisms. However, the role of oxygen in the intestinal ecosystem is largely unexplored. We used systematic mutational analysis to determine the role of respiratory metabolism in the streptomycin-treated mouse model of intestinal colonization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

D-gluconate which is primarily catabolized via the Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathway, has been implicated as being important for colonization of the streptomycin-treated mouse large intestine by Escherichia coli MG1655, a human commensal strain. In the present study, we report that an MG1655 Deltaedd mutant defective in the ED pathway grows poorly not only on gluconate as a sole carbon source but on a number of other sugars previously implicated as being important for colonization, including L-fucose, D-gluconate, D-glucuronate, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, D-mannose, and D-ribose. Furthermore, we show that the mouse intestine selects mutants of MG1655 Deltaedd and wild-type MG1655 that have improved mouse intestine-colonizing ability and grow 15 to 30% faster on the aforementioned sugars.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF