Publications by authors named "Peter Cook"

Fungal spores are abundant in the environment and a major cause of asthma. Originally characterised as a type 2 inflammatory disease, allergic airway inflammation that underpins asthma can also involve type 17 inflammation, which can exacerbate disease causing failure of treatments tailored to inhibit type 2 factors. However, the mechanisms that determine the host response to fungi, which can trigger both type 2 and type 17 inflammation in allergic airway disease, remain unclear.

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Paleoneurology reconstructs the evolutionary history of nervous systems through direct observations from the fossil record and comparative data from extant species. Although this approach can provide direct evidence of phylogenetic links among species, it is constrained by the availability and quality of data that can be gleaned from the fossil record. Here, we sought to translate brain component relationships in a sample of extant Carnivora to make inferences about brain structure in fossil species.

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Pathogenic long-lived plasma cells (LLPCs) secrete autoreactive antibodies, exacerbating autoimmune diseases and complicating solid organ transplantation. Targeted elimination of the autoreactive B cell pool represents a promising therapeutic strategy, yet current treatment modalities fall short in depleting mature PCs. Here, we demonstrate that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, targeting B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) utilizing a split-receptor design, offer a controlled and effective therapeutic strategy against LLPCs.

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Our aim is to predict how often genic and non-genic promoters fire within a cell. We first review a parsimonious pan-genomic model for genome organization and gene regulation, where transcription rate is determined by proximity in 3D space of promoters to clusters containing appropriate factors and RNA polymerases. This model reconciles conflicting results indicating that regulatory mammalian networks are both simple (as over-expressing just 4 transcription factors switches cell state) and complex (as genome-wide association studies show phenotypes like cell type are determined by thousands of loci rarely encoding such factors).

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Background: Exposure to fungi, especially Aspergillus fumigatus, can elicit potent allergic inflammation that triggers and worsens asthmatic disease. Dendritic cells (DCs) initiate allergic inflammatory responses to allergic stimuli. However, it is unclear if Af spores during isotropic growth (early spore swelling) can activate DCs to initiate allergic responses or if germination is required.

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Article Synopsis
  • The CDC is monitoring the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, particularly the Omicron variant and its offspring, using national genomic surveillance data from May 2023 to September 2024.
  • During this period, descendants of the Omicron variants, especially XBB and JN.1, emerged and became prevalent, with several lineages showing immune escape traits.
  • The rise of the JN.1 variant led to a significant increase in COVID-19 cases during winter 2024, underscoring the need for ongoing genomic monitoring to inform vaccine development and public health strategies.*
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Invasive fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) pose a serious threat to the production and export of many commercially important fruits and vegetables. Detection of the agricultural pests Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) relies heavily on traps baited with male-specific attractants. For B.

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New tailpipe emissions standards aim to increase electric vehicle (EV) sales in the United States. Here, we analyze the associated critical mineral supply chain constraints and enumerate the climate consequences of these constraints. Our work yields five findings.

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Bispecific antibodies are an important tool for the management and treatment of acute leukemias. As a next step toward clinical translation of engineered plasma cells, we describe approaches for secretion of bispecific antibodies by human plasma cells. We show that human plasma cells expressing either fragment crystallizable domain-deficient anti-CD19 × anti-CD3 (blinatumomab) or anti-CD33 × anti-CD3 bispecific antibodies mediate T cell activation and direct T cell killing of B acute lymphoblastic leukemia or acute myeloid leukemia cell lines in vitro.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Human fungal infections, often overlooked in research, account for over 1.5 million deaths annually, and recent studies have shed light on the complex interactions between fungi and their human hosts.
  • - Researchers are uncovering how fungi evade the immune system and contribute to serious health issues, while simultaneously highlighting emerging antifungal drug resistance as a significant threat.
  • - The review emphasizes the need for more effective immunotherapeutic strategies, while also addressing future challenges such as drug resistance and new pathogens emerging due to advancements in medicine.
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Assays mimicking in vitro the concentration gradients triggering biological responses like those involved in fighting infections and blood clotting are essential for biomedical research. Microfluidic assays prove especially attractive as they allow precise control of gradient shape allied to a reduction in scale. Conventional microfluidic devices are fabricated using solid plastics that prevent direct access to responding cells.

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In our brains, different neurons make appropriate connections; however, there remain few models of such circuits. We use an open microfluidic approach to build and study neuronal circuits in ways that fit easily into existing bio-medical workflows. Dumbbell-shaped circuits are built in minutes in standard Petri dishes; the aqueous phase is confined by fluid walls - interfaces between cell-growth medium and an immiscible fluorocarbon, FC40.

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Open pit mining frequently requires regional water tables to be lowered to access ore deposits. When mines close, dewatering ceases allowing the water table to recover. In arid and semi-arid mining regions, the developing pit lakes are predominantly fed by groundwater during this recovery phase and pit lakes develop first into "terminal sinks" for the surrounding groundwater system.

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Tregs have the potential to establish long-term immune tolerance in patients recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) by preserving β cell function. Adoptive transfer of autologous thymic Tregs, although safe, exhibited limited efficacy in previous T1D clinical trials, likely reflecting a lack of tissue specificity, limited IL-2 signaling support, and in vivo plasticity of Tregs. Here, we report a cell engineering strategy using bulk CD4+ T cells to generate a Treg cell therapy (GNTI-122) that stably expresses FOXP3, targets the pancreas and draining lymph nodes, and incorporates a chemically inducible signaling complex (CISC).

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While general enrichment strategies for captive animals attempt to elicit variable and species-typical behaviors, approaches to cognitive enrichment have been disappointingly one-size-fits-all. In this commentary, we address the potential benefit of tailoring cognitive enrichment to the "cognitive niche" of the species, with a particular focus on a reasonably well-studied marine carnivore, the sea lion. Sea lions likely share some cognitive evolutionary pressures with primates, including complex social behavior.

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Eukaryotic chromosomes compact during mitosis into elongated cylinders-and not the spherical globules expected of self-attracting long flexible polymers. This process is mainly driven by condensin-like proteins. Here, we present Brownian-dynamic simulations involving two types of such proteins with different activities.

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Article Synopsis
  • The central Congo Basin peatlands store approximately 29 billion tonnes of carbon, with a new model called DigiBog_Congo developed to simulate their carbon accumulation and loss over the last 20,000 years.
  • Key factors influencing peat carbon dynamics include water levels at the surface and the slow decay of resistant plant material, with periods of gaining and losing carbon observed between the Late Glacial and early Holocene.
  • A significant climatic dry phase starting around 5200 years ago led to extensive peat degradation, where 57% of the carbon stock was released, highlighting the potential impact of climate change on these vital carbon stores in the future.
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The lung is a dynamic mucosal surface constantly exposed to a variety of immunological challenges including harmless environmental antigens, pollutants, and potentially invasive microorganisms. Dysregulation of the immune system at this crucial site is associated with a range of chronic inflammatory conditions including asthma and Chronic Pulmonary Obstructive Disease (COPD). However, due to its relative inaccessibility, our fundamental understanding of the human lung immune compartment is limited.

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Adoptive regulatory T (Treg) cell therapy is predicted to modulate immune tolerance in autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, the requirement for antigen (ag) specificity to optimally orchestrate tissue-specific, Treg cell-mediated tolerance limits effective clinical application. To address this challenge, we present a single-step, combinatorial gene editing strategy utilizing dual-locus, dual-homology-directed repair (HDR) to generate and specifically expand ag-specific engineered Treg (EngTreg) cells derived from donor CD4+ T cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • The CDC has been tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants, particularly the Omicron variant, through national genomic surveillance since December 2020, with a report summarizing trends from January 2022 to May 2023.
  • Throughout this period, various Omicron descendant lineages, such as BA.1.1, BA.2, and BA.5, rose and fell in prevalence, often correlating with spikes in COVID-19 cases.
  • By May 2023, the variant XBB.1.5 dominated, underscoring the ongoing evolution of variants and the necessity for genomic surveillance to aid in vaccine and therapeutic strategies.
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Organoids grow in vitro to reproduce structures and functions of corresponding organs in vivo. As diffusion delivers nutrients over only ∼200 µm, refreshing flows through organoids are required to avoid necrosis at their cores; achieving this is a central challenge in the field. Our general aim is to develop a platform for culturing micro-organoids fed by appropriate flows that is accessible to bioscientists.

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