Sensitive detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva.

Saliva has significant advantages as a test medium for detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients, such as ease of collection, minimal requirement of supplies and trained personnel, and safety. Comprehensive validation in a large cohort of prospectively collected specimens with unknown SARS-CoV-2 status should be performed to evaluate the potential and limitations of saliva-based testing. We developed a saliva-based testing pipeline for detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids using real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) readouts, and measured samples from 137 outpatients tested at a curbside testing facility and 29 inpatients hospitalized for COVID-19.

Sensitive detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva.

Saliva has significant advantages as a test medium for detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients, such as ease of collection, minimal requirement of supplies and trained personnel, and safety. Comprehensive validation in a large cohort of prospectively collected specimens with unknown SARS-CoV-2 status should be performed to evaluate the potential and limitations of saliva-based testing. We developed a saliva-based testing pipeline for detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids using real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) readouts, and measured samples from 137 outpatients tested at a curbside testing facility and 29 inpatients hospitalized for COVID-19.

Clinical Validation and Implementation of a Measurable Residual Disease Assay for NPM1 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia by Error-Corrected Next-Generation Sequencing.

Background: Nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1) is one of the most commonly mutated genes in acute myeloid leukemia, with mutations observed in approximately 30% of all adult cases. The persistence of NPM1 mutations following chemotherapy is associated with a greater risk of relapse as well as a lower rate of survival, making NPM1 measurable residual disease (MRD) an informative clinical target.

Methods: Herein, we have developed a straightforward unique molecular identifier (UMI)-based amplicon next-generation sequencing method for the detection of NPM1-mutated MRD that addresses some of the limitations present in other assays.

Comparison of Relative Activation Energies Obtained by Density Functional Theory and the Random Phase Approximation for Several Claisen Rearrangements.

We investigate several representative density functional theory approaches for the calculation of relative activation energies and free energies of a set of model pericyclic reactions, some of which have been studied experimentally. In particular, we use a standard hybrid functional (B3LYP), the same hybrid functional augmented with a basis set superposition error and dispersion correction, a meta-hybrid functional developed to treat transition states and weak interactions (M06-2X), and the recently implemented random phase approximation (RPA) based on Kohn-Sham orbitals from conventional density functional theory by Furche and co-workers. We apply these methods to calculate relative activation energies and estimated free energies for the amide acetal Claisen rearrangement.