Methacrylated poly(glycerol sebacate) as a photocurable, biocompatible, and biodegradable polymer with tunable degradation and drug release kinetics.

Poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) is a biodegradable, elastomeric polymer that has been explored for applications including tissue engineering, drug delivery, and wound repair. Despite its promise, its biomedical utility is limited by its rapid, and largely fixed, degradation rate. Additionally, its preparation requires prolonged curing at high temperatures, rendering it incompatible with heat-sensitive molecules, complex device geometries, and high-throughput production.

Insights from the international workshop on "Adapting agriculture to climate change and air pollution".

An international workshop on "Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change and Air Pollution" took place at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, during 23-27 October, 2023. Experts working in various multi-disciplinary areas of agroecosystem and environmental research gathered for academic communication and discussions. Two discussion groups focused on "agriculture under air pollution and climate change: current challenges and priorities for the future" and "adapting agriculture to air pollution and climate change: current status and next steps.

Baseline Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes of Patients Seen Through the Free Diabetes Screening (FDS) Program.

Purpose: To characterize the baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients seen through the Free Diabetic Screening (FDS) program, a free diabetic retinopathy screening program for uninsured patients, in the ophthalmology resident clinic at the Wilmer Eye Institute.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective longitudinal cohort study included uninsured patients ≥18 years with diabetes mellitus seen through the FDS clinic from 2013 to 2023. Data extraction was performed using manual chart review of the first FDS visit, and automated extraction of the data warehouse related to all other office visits.

Intra-lymph node crosslinking of antigen-bearing polymers enhances humoral immunity and dendritic cell activation.

Lymph node (LN)-resident dendritic cells (DCs) are a promising target for vaccination given their professional antigen-presenting capabilities and proximity to a high concentration of immune cells. Direct intra-LN injection has been shown to greatly enhance the immune response to vaccine antigens compared to traditional intramuscular injection, but it is infeasible to implement clinically in a vaccination campaign context. Employing the passive lymphatic flow of antigens to target LNs has been shown to increase total antigen uptake by DCs more than inflammatory adjuvants, which recruit peripheral DCs.

Probing the Effects of Chirality on Self-Assembling Peptides: Hydrogel Formation, Degradation, Antigen Release, and Adjuvancy.

Introduction: Multidomain peptides (MDPs) are amino acid sequences that self-assemble to form supramolecular hydrogels under physiological conditions that have shown promise for a number of biomedical applications. K(SL)K ("K"), a widely studied MDP, has demonstrated the ability to enhance the humoral immune response to co-delivered antigen. Herein, we sought to explore the in vitro and in vivo properties of a peptide with the same sequence but opposite chirality (D-K) since peptides composed of D-amino acids are resistant to protease degradation and potentially more immunostimulatory than their canonical counterparts.