Machine learning-enhanced immunopeptidomics applied to T-cell epitope discovery for COVID-19 vaccines.

Next-generation T-cell-directed vaccines for COVID-19 focus on establishing lasting T-cell immunity against current and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Precise identification of conserved T-cell epitopes is critical for designing effective vaccines. Here we introduce a comprehensive computational framework incorporating a machine learning algorithm-MHCvalidator-to enhance mass spectrometry-based immunopeptidomics sensitivity.

Deciphering the HLA-E immunopeptidome with mass spectrometry: an opportunity for universal mRNA vaccines and T-cell-directed immunotherapies.

Advances in immunotherapy rely on targeting novel cell surface antigens, including therapeutically relevant peptide fragments presented by HLA molecules, collectively known as the actionable immunopeptidome. Although the immunopeptidome of classical HLA molecules is extensively studied, exploration of the peptide repertoire presented by non-classical HLA-E remains limited. Growing evidence suggests that HLA-E molecules present pathogen-derived and tumor-associated peptides to CD8 T cells, positioning them as promising targets for universal immunotherapies due to their minimal polymorphism.

Training Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine Fellows in Thoracentesis Using a Head-Mounted Video Camera.

Background: Determination of competence to perform procedures during pulmonary critical care medicine fellowship training has traditionally been based on subjective faculty opinion and numerical requirements.

Objective: To describe an objective means of assessing competence of fellows to perform thoracentesis using a head-mounted video camera with offline scoring of the thoracentesis performed on an actual patient.

Methods: To test competence in performance of thoracentesis after a multimodality training program, a total of eight first-year fellows performed a thoracentesis on an actual patient while recording the procedure with a lightweight head-mounted video camera in 2017 and 2018.