Insulin signaling and pharmacology in humans and in corals.

Once thought to be a unique capability of the Langerhans islets in the pancreas of mammals, insulin (INS) signaling is now recognized as an evolutionarily ancient function going back to prokaryotes. INS is ubiquitously present not only in humans but also in unicellular eukaryotes, fungi, worms, and . Remote homologue identification also supports the presence of INS and INS receptor in corals where the availability of glucose is largely dependent on the photosynthetic activity of the symbiotic algae.

Transfer of knowledge from model organisms to evolutionarily distant non-model organisms: The coral Pocillopora damicornis membrane signaling receptome.

With the ease of gene sequencing and the technology available to study and manipulate non-model organisms, the extension of the methodological toolbox required to translate our understanding of model organisms to non-model organisms has become an urgent problem. For example, mining of large coral and their symbiont sequence data is a challenge, but also provides an opportunity for understanding functionality and evolution of these and other non-model organisms. Much more information than for any other eukaryotic species is available for humans, especially related to signal transduction and diseases.

Evaluation of fluorescence-based viability stains in cells dissociated from scleractinian coral Pocillopora damicornis.

The application of established cell viability assays such as the commonly used trypan blue staining method to coral cells is not straightforward due to different culture parameters and different cellular features specific to mammalian cells compared to marine invertebrates. Using Pocillopora damicornis as a model, we characterized the autofluorescence and tested different fluorescent dye pair combinations to identify alternative viability indicators. The cytotoxicity of different representative molecules, namely small organic molecules, proteins and nanoparticles (NP), was measured after 24 h of exposure using the fluorescent dye pair Hoechst 33342 and SYTOX orange.

Effects of Self-focused Augmented Reality on Health Perceptions During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Web-Based Between-Subject Experiment.

Background: Self-focused augmented reality (AR) technologies are growing in popularity and present an opportunity to address health communication and behavior change challenges.

Objective: We aimed to examine the impact of self-focused AR and vicarious reinforcement on psychological predictors of behavior change during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, our study included measures of fear and message minimization to assess potential adverse reactions to the design interventions.