Publications by authors named "Kelsey McQueen"

Article Synopsis
  • Overexpression of the TGFβ pathway negatively affects hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in Fanconi anemia, leading to issues with cell proliferation.
  • Disruption of Smad3, a key component of the TGFβ signaling pathway, alters the development and survival of Fancd2-deficient mouse models, impacting embryonic outcomes.
  • While some Fancd2-/-Smad3-/- double knockout mice survive through alternative signaling pathways, they face severe health issues, including genomic instability and poor blood cell formation.
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Unlabelled: DNA repair pathway inhibitors are a new class of anticancer drugs that are advancing in clinical trials. Peposertib is an inhibitor of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), which is a key driver of nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ). To identify regulators of response to peposertib, we performed a genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen and found that loss of POLQ (polymerase theta, POLθ) and other genes in the microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) pathway are key predictors of sensitivity to DNA-PK inhibition.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bone marrow failure (BMF) in patients with Fanconi anemia (FA) is linked to faulty hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which are crucial for producing blood cells.
  • Researchers conducted single-cell transcriptome profiling of HSPCs from FA patients and found high expressions of genes related to p53, TGF-β, and notably, MYC.
  • Inhibiting MYC expression reduced the ability of FA HSPCs to proliferate and suggested that MYC may lead to increased DNA damage and diminished stem cell function, contributing to BMF symptoms in FA patients.
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Experience is an essential factor informing food choice. Eating food generates enduring odor-taste associations that link an odor with a taste's quality and hedonic value (pleasantness/unpleasantness) and creates the perception of a congruent odor-taste combination. Previous human psychophysical experiments demonstrate that experience with odor-taste mixtures shapes perceptual judgments related to the intensity, familiarity, and pleasantness of chemosensory stimuli.

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The mediodorsal thalamus is a higher order thalamic nucleus critical for many cognitive behaviors. Defined by its reciprocal connections with the prefrontal cortex, the mediodorsal thalamus receives strong projections from chemosensory cortical areas for taste and smell, gustatory cortex and piriform cortex. Recent studies indicate the mediodorsal thalamus is involved in experience-dependent chemosensory processes, including olfactory attention and discrimination and the hedonic perception of odor-taste mixtures.

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