Fundamentals of Crystalline Evolution and Properties of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Polyether Ether Ketone Nanocomposites in Fused Filament Fabrication.

As fused filament fabrication (FFF) continues to gain popularity, many studies are turning to nanomaterials or optimization of printing parameters to improve the materials' properties; however, many overlook how materials formulation and additive manufacturing (AM) processes cooperatively engineer the evolution of properties across length scales. Evaluating the in-process evolution of the nanocomposite using AM will provide a fundamental understanding of the material's microstructure, which can be tailored to create unique characteristics in functionality and performance. In this study, the crystallinity behavior of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) was studied in the presence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a nucleation aid for improved crystallization during FFF processing.

Aqueous Dispersion of Carbon Nanomaterials with Cellulose Nanocrystals: An Investigation of Molecular Interactions.

Dispersing carbon nanomaterials in solvents is effective in transferring their significant mechanical and functional properties to polymers and nanocomposites. However, poor dispersion of carbon nanomaterials impedes exploiting their full potential in nanocomposites. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are promising for dispersing and stabilizing pristine carbon nanotubes (pCNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (pGnP) in protic media without functionalization.

ELIXIR-A: An Interactive Visualization Tool for Multi-Target Pharmacophore Refinement.

Pharmacophore modeling is an important step in computer-aided drug design for identifying interaction points between the receptor and ligand complex. Pharmacophore-based models can be used for drug design, lead identification, and optimization in virtual screening as well as for multi-target drug design. There is a need to develop a user-friendly interface to filter the pharmacophore points resulting from multiple ligand conformations.

Bio-Engineering of Pre-Vascularized Islet Organoids for the Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes.

Lack of rapid revascularization and inflammatory attacks at the site of transplantation contribute to impaired islet engraftment and suboptimal metabolic control after clinical islet transplantation. In order to overcome these limitations and enhance engraftment and revascularization, we have generated and transplanted pre-vascularized insulin-secreting organoids composed of rat islet cells, human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs), and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Our study demonstrates that pre-vascularized islet organoids exhibit enhanced function compared to native islets, and, most importantly, better engraftment and improved vascularization in a murine model.

Navigating the Light-Sheet Image Analysis Software Landscape: Concepts for Driving Cohesion From Data Acquisition to Analysis.

From the combined perspective of biologists, microscope instrumentation developers, imaging core facility scientists, and high performance computing experts, we discuss the challenges faced when selecting imaging and analysis tools in the field of light-sheet microscopy. Our goal is to provide a contextual framework of basic computing concepts that cell and developmental biologists can refer to when mapping the peculiarities of different light-sheet data to specific existing computing environments and image analysis pipelines. We provide our perspective on efficient processes for tool selection and review current hardware and software commonly used in light-sheet image analysis, as well as discuss what ideal tools for the future may look like.

Mechanisms of Immunomodulation and Cytoprotection Conferred to Pancreatic Islet by Human Amniotic Epithelial Cells.

Inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine activity can reverse inflammation mediated dysfunction of islet grafts. Human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) possess regenerative, immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. We hypothesized that hAECs could protect islets from cellular damage induced by pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Quantum Chemical Modeling of the Effects of Hydrated Lime (Calcium Hydroxide) as a Filler in Bituminous Materials.

Hydrated lime is widely used as a mineral filler to improve several properties of bituminous materials such as reducing the susceptibility of the composite to moisture-induced damage. Although experimental evidence supports the efficacy of using hydrated lime as a mineral filler, the molecular scale mechanism of reactivity of hydrated lime within the bitumen to reduce moisture damage is not understood. This is important when considering the durability of structural applications of bituminous materials such as asphalt concrete pavements subjected to both environmental and loading extremes.

Author Correction: Insulin-producing organoids engineered from islet and amniotic epithelial cells to treat diabetes.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Engineering of Primary Pancreatic Islet Cell Spheroids for Three-dimensional Culture or Transplantation: A Methodological Comparative Study.

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture by engineering spheroids has gained increasing attention in recent years because of the potential advantages of such systems over conventional two-dimensional (2D) tissue culture. Benefits include the ability of 3D to provide a more physiologically relevant environment, for the generation of uniform, size-controlled spheroids with organ-like microarchitecture and morphology. In recent years, different techniques have been described for the generation of cellular spheroids.

Hydrogel Synthesis and Stabilization via Tetrazine Click-Induced Secondary Interactions.

The discovery of tetrazine click-induced secondary interactions is reported as a promising new tool for polymeric biomaterial synthesis. This phenomenon is first demonstrated as a tool for poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel assembly via purely non-covalent interactions and is shown to yield robust gels with storage moduli one to two orders of magnitude higher than other non-covalent crosslinking methods. In addition, tetrazine click-induced secondary interactions also enhance the properties of covalently crosslinked hydrogels.

An amber obligate active site-directed ligand evolution technique for phage display.

Although noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) were first incorporated into phage libraries through amber suppression nearly two decades ago, their application for use in drug discovery has been limited due to inherent library bias towards sense-containing phages. Here, we report a technique based on superinfection immunity of phages to enrich amber-containing clones, thus avoiding the observed bias that has hindered incorporation of ncAAs into phage libraries. We then take advantage of this technique for development of active site-directed ligand evolution of peptides, where the ncAA serves as an anchor to direct the binding of its peptides to the target's active site.

Shielding islets with human amniotic epithelial cells enhances islet engraftment and revascularization in a murine diabetes model.

Hypoxia is a major cause of considerable islet loss during the early posttransplant period. Here, we investigate whether shielding islets with human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs), which possess anti-inflammatory and regenerative properties, improves islet engraftment and survival. Shielded islets were generated on agarose microwells by mixing rat islets (RIs) or human islets (HI) and hAECs (100 hAECs/IEQ).

The molecular basis of pyrazinamide activity on Mycobacterium tuberculosis PanD.

Pyrazinamide has been a mainstay in the multidrug regimens used to treat tuberculosis. It is active against the persistent, non-replicating mycobacteria responsible for the protracted therapy required to cure tuberculosis. Pyrazinamide is a pro-drug that is converted into pyrazinoic acid (POA) by pyrazinamidase, however, the exact target of the drug has been difficult to determine.

Metal-Templated, Tight Loop Conformation of a Cys-X-Cys Biomimetic Assembles a Dimanganese Complex.

With the goal of generating anionic analogues to MN S ⋅Mn(CO) Br we introduced metallodithiolate ligands, MN S prepared from the Cys-X-Cys biomimetic, ema ligand (ema=N,N'-ethylenebis(mercaptoacetamide); M=Ni , [V ≡O] and Fe ) to Mn(CO) Br. An unexpected, remarkably stable dimanganese product, (H N (CH C=O(μ-S)) )[Mn(CO) ] resulted from loss of M originally residing in the N S pocket, replaced by protonation at the amido nitrogens, generating H ema . Accordingly, the ema ligand has switched its coordination mode from an N S cavity holding a single metal, to a binucleating H ema with bridging sulfurs and carboxamide oxygens within Mn-μ-S-CH -C-O, 5-membered rings.

Insulin-producing organoids engineered from islet and amniotic epithelial cells to treat diabetes.

Maintaining long-term euglycemia after intraportal islet transplantation is hampered by the considerable islet loss in the peri-transplant period attributed to inflammation, ischemia and poor angiogenesis. Here, we show that viable and functional islet organoids can be successfully generated from dissociated islet cells (ICs) and human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs). Incorporation of hAECs into islet organoids markedly enhances engraftment, viability and graft function in a mouse type 1 diabetes model.

Anti-VEGFR2 therapy delays growth of preclinical pediatric tumor models and enhances anti-tumor activity of chemotherapy.

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) is an attractive therapeutic target in solid malignancies due to its central role in tumor angiogenesis. Ramucirumab (Cyramza, LY3009806) is a human monoclonal antibody specific for VEGFR2 approved for several adult indications and currently in a phase 1 clinical trial for pediatric patients with solid tumors (NCT02564198). Here, we evaluated ramucirumab and the anti-murine VEGFR2 antibody DC101 with or without chemotherapy across a range of pediatric cancer models.

Correlations between secondary structure- and protein-protein interface-mimicry: the interface mimicry hypothesis.

An active segment of the research community designing small molecules ("minimalist mimics" of peptide fragments) to interfere with protein-protein interactions have based their studies on an implicit hypothesis. Here we refer to this as the Secondary Structure Hypothesis, that might be defined as, "If a small molecule can orient amino acid side-chains in directions that resemble side-chains of the parent secondary structure at the interface, then that small molecule is a candidate to perturb the protein-protein interaction". Rigorous tests of this hypothesis require co-crystallization of minimalist mimics with protein receptors, and comparison of the bound conformations with the interface secondary structures they were designed to resemble.

Design criteria for minimalist mimics of protein-protein interface segments.

Small molecules that can interrupt or inhibit protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are valuable as probes in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, but they are also notoriously difficult to develop. Design of non-peptidic small molecules that mimic amino acid side-chain interactions in PPIs ("minimalist mimics") is seen as a way to fast track discovery of PPI inhibitors. However, there has been little comment on general design criteria for minimalist mimics, even though such guidelines could steer construction of libraries to screen against multiple PPI targets.

Dearomatization of the PCP Pincer Ligand in a Re Oxo Complex.

A high-valent, rhenium(V) oxo complex (PCP)ReOCl (1; PCP=bis(2,6-di-tert-butylphosphinomethyl)phenyl) undergoes a deprotonation and "dearomatization" upon treatment with LiN(SiMe ) to give (P*CP)ReOCl (2 a), in which Re is bound to a new dianionic P*CP ligand. Compound 2 a was studied spectroscopically, structurally, and computationally and was determined to have non-negligible Re=C multiple bond character, leading to its formulation as a new pseudo-carbenoid species. Reaction of 2 a or its iodo analogue (P*CP)ReOI (2 b) with CO provided access to (PCP)ReOX(CO ) (X=Cl or I, 3 a/b), the product of 1,3-cycloaddition and C-C bond formation.

Highly Luminescent Linear Complex Arrays of up to Eight Cuprous Centers.

Linearly arranged metal atoms that are embedded in discrete molecules have fascinated scientists across various disciplines for decades; this is attributed to their potential use in microelectronic devices on a submicroscopic scale. Luminescent oligonuclear Group 11 metal complexes are of particular interest for applications in molecular light-emitting devices. Herein, we describe the synthesis and characterization of a rare, homoleptic, and neutral linearly arranged tetranuclear Cu(I) complex that is helically bent, thus representing a molecular coil in the solid state.

Effects of charge states, charge sites and side chain interactions on conformational preferences of a series of model peptide ions.

The effects of charge states, charge sites and side chain interactions on conformational preferences of gas-phase peptide ions are examined by ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Collision cross sections (CCS) of [M + 2H](2+) and [M + 3H](3+) ions for a series of model peptides, viz. Ac-(AAKAA)nY-NH2 (AKn, n = 3-5) and Ac-Y(AEAAKA)nF-NH2 (AEKn, n = 2-5) are measured by using IM-MS and compared with calculated CCS for candidate ions generated by MD simulations.

Photocrystallographic observation of halide-bridged intermediates in halogen photoeliminations.

Polynuclear transition metal complexes, which frequently constitute the active sites of both biological and chemical catalysts, provide access to unique chemical transformations that are derived from metal-metal cooperation. Reductive elimination via ligand-bridged binuclear intermediates from bimetallic cores is one mechanism by which metals may cooperate during catalysis. We have established families of Rh2 complexes that participate in HX-splitting photocatalysis in which metal-metal cooperation is credited with the ability to achieve multielectron photochemical reactions in preference to single-electron transformations.

A multifaceted secondary structure mimic based on piperidine-piperidinones.

Minimalist secondary structure mimics are typically made to resemble one interface in a protein-protein interaction (PPI), and thus perturb it. We recently proposed suitable chemotypes can be matched with interface regions directly, without regard for secondary structures. Here we describe a modular synthesis of a new chemotype 1, simulation of its solution-state conformational ensemble, and correlation of that with ideal secondary structures and real interface regions in PPIs.