A strain-guided trial of cardioprotection in early-stage breast cancer patients on anti-HER2 therapy (PROTECT HER2).

Background: Global longitudinal strain (GLS) has been used to identify patients at risk for cancer-therapy related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD). However, there is limited data on the effectiveness of initiating cardioprotective therapy based on a strain-guided strategy in early stage HER2+ breast cancer patients. This randomized clinical trial assessed if treatment with carvedilol based on a strain-guided strategy can prevent development of CTRCD in HER2+ breast cancer patients on non-anthracycline based regimens.

High-throughput identification of functional regulatory SNPs in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Genome-wide association studies implicate multiple loci in risk for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), but few contain exonic variants, rendering systematic identification of non-coding variants essential to decoding SLE genetics. We utilized SNP-seq and bioinformatic enrichment to interrogate 2180 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 87 SLE risk loci for potential binding of transcription factors and related proteins from B cells. 52 SNPs that passed initial screening were tested by electrophoretic mobility shift and luciferase reporter assays.

Slow convergence: Career impediments to interdisciplinary biomedical research.

Despite the long-standing calls for increased levels of interdisciplinary research as a way to address society's grand challenges, most science is still disciplinary. To understand the slow rate of convergence to more interdisciplinary research, we examine 154,021 researchers who received a PhD in a biomedical field between 1970 and 2013, measuring the interdisciplinarity of their articles using the disciplinary composition of references. We provide a range of evidence that interdisciplinary research is impactful, but that those who conduct it face early career impediments.

Functionalization of Alginate Hydrogels with a Multifunctional Peptide Supports Mesenchymal Stem Cell Adhesion and Reduces Bacterial Colonization.

Hydrogels with cell adhesive moieties stand out as promising materials to enhance tissue healing and regeneration. Nonetheless, bacterial infections of the implants represent an unmet major concern. In the present work, we developed an alginate hydrogel modified with a multifunctional peptide containing the RGD cell adhesive motif in combination with an antibacterial peptide derived from the 1-11 region of lactoferrin (LF).