Treatment of oropharyngeal cancer during the COVID-19 lockdown - outcomes for patients treated during the pandemic.

Background: The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak caused major interruptions to the entire healthcare network affecting referral, diagnosis and treatment pathways with the potential to affect cancer treatment outcomes. In Ireland a national lockdown was initiated in March 2020 involving a stay-at-home order with a limitation on travel, social interactions and closure of schools, universities and childcare facilities. We designed a retrospective study comparing treatment outcomes for patients with oropharyngeal cancer treated before and during the COVID pandemic.

Economic hardships during COVID-19 and maternal mental health: Combining samples with low incomes across three cities.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased maternal depression and anxiety, imperiling both mothers' own wellbeing and that of their children. To date, however, little is known about the extent to which these increases are attributable to economic hardships commonly experienced during the pandemic: income loss, job loss, and loss of health insurance. Few studies have examined the individual impacts of these hardships, and none have lasted beyond the first year of the pandemic.

Alkaloids are associated with increased microbial diversity and metabolic function in poison frogs.

Shifts in host-associated microbiomes can impact both host and microbes. It is of interest to understand how perturbations, like the introduction of exogenous chemicals, impact microbiomes. In poison frogs (family Dendrobatidae), the skin microbiome is exposed to alkaloids that the frogs sequester for defense.

Mainstreaming cancer genetics: feasibility of an advanced nurse practitioner-led service diagnosing Lynch syndrome from colorectal cancer in Ireland.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common cancer in Ireland. Of all CRCs, 2-4% are attributable to Lynch Syndrome (LS), the most common CRC predisposition syndrome. LS is caused by constitutional pathogenic variants (PVs) affecting mismatch repair (MMR) genes with resultant MMR protein deficiency (dMMR).

Intrinsically disordered regions and RNA binding domains contribute to protein enrichment in biomolecular condensates in Xenopus oocytes.

Proteins containing both intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) and RNA binding domains (RBDs) can phase separate in vitro, forming bodies similar to cellular biomolecular condensates. However, how IDR and RBD domains contribute to in vivo recruitment of proteins to biomolecular condensates remains poorly understood. Here, we analyzed the roles of IDRs and RBDs in L-bodies, biomolecular condensates present in Xenopus oocytes.