The good, the bad, and the hazardous: comparative genomic analysis unveils cell wall features in the pathogen Candidozyma auris typical for both baker's yeast and Candida.

The drug-resistant pathogenic yeast Candidozyma auris (formerly named Candida auris) is considered a critical health problem of global importance. As the cell wall plays a crucial role in pathobiology, here we performed a detailed bioinformatic analysis of its biosynthesis in C. auris and related Candidozyma haemuli complex species using Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae as references.

Functionally distinct anticoagulant mechanisms of endothelial cells.

Antithrombin and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) provide different anticoagulant mechanisms. Having established a potent anticoagulant role of cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vessel-on-a-chip microfluidic models, we now investigated how these cells modulated thrombin generation under stasis through antithrombin and TFPI pathways. We observed that endothelial monolayers in 96 well-plates strongly delayed and suppressed the thrombin generation process induced by tissue factor, regardless of the presence of whole blood, platelet-rich plasma or platelet-free plasma.

Novel Digital Biomarkers for Fine Motor Skills Assessment in Psoriatic Arthritis: The DaktylAct Touch-based Serious Game Approach.

Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) is a chronic, inflammatory disease affecting joints, substantially impacting patients' quality of life, with European guidelines for managing PsA emphasizing the importance of assessing hand function. Here, we present a set of novel digital biomarkers (dBMs) derived from a touchscreen-based serious game approach, DaktylAct, intended as a proxy, gamified, objective assessment of hand impairment, with emphasis on fine motor skills, caused by PsA. This is achieved by its design, where the user controls a cannon to aim at and hit targets using two finger pinch-in/out and wrist rotation gestures.

Digital biomarkers for psoriatic arthritis: a qualitative focus group study on patient-perceived opportunities and barriers.

Objectives: The widespread adoption of wearables, for example, smartphones and smartwatches in the daily lives of the general population, allows passive monitoring of physiological and behavioural data in the real world. This qualitative study explores the perspective of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients towards these so-called digital biomarkers (dBMs).

Methods: As part of a Design Thinking approach, six focus groups were conducted involving 27 PsA patients.

Prerequisites for Clinical Implementation of Whole-Heart 4D-Flow MRI: A Delphi Analysis.

Whole-heart 4D-flow MRI is a valuable tool for advanced visualization and quantification of blood flow in cardiovascular imaging. Despite advantages over 2D-phase-contrast flow, clinical implementation remains only partially exploited due to many hurdles in all steps, from image acquisition, reconstruction, postprocessing and analysis, clinical embedment, reporting, legislation, and regulation to data storage. The intent of this manuscript was 1) to evaluate the extent of clinical implementation of whole-heart 4D-flow MRI, 2) to identify hurdles hampering clinical implementation, and 3) to reach consensus on requirements for clinical implementation of whole-heart 4D-flow MRI.