Modulating DNA Polα Enhances Cell Reprogramming Across Species.

As a fundamental biological process, DNA replication ensures the accurate copying of genetic information. However, the impact of this process on cellular plasticity in multicellular organisms remains elusive. Here, we find that reducing the level or activity of a replication component, DNA Polymerase α (Polα), facilitates cell reprogramming in diverse stem cell systems across species.

Fast and Simple Statistical Shape Analysis of Pregnant Women Using Radial Deformation of a Cylindrical Template.

Non-rigid deformation of a template to fit 3D scans of human subjects is widely used to develop statistical models of 3D human shapes and poses. Complex optimization problems must be solved to use these models to parameterize scans of pregnant women, thus limiting their use in antenatal point-of-care tools in low-resource settings. Moreover, these models were developed using datasets that did not contain any 3D scans of pregnant women.

Robust automated calcification meshing for personalized cardiovascular biomechanics.

Calcification has significant influence over cardiovascular diseases and interventions. Detailed characterization of calcification is thus desired for predictive modeling, but calcium deposits on cardiovascular structures are still often manually reconstructed for physics-driven simulations. This poses a major bottleneck for large-scale adoption of computational simulations for research or clinical use.

The role of anatomic shape features in the prognosis of uncomplicated type B aortic dissection initially treated with optimal medical therapy.

Objective: Currently, the long-term outcomes of uncomplicated type B aortic dissection (TBAD) patients managed with optimal medical therapy (OMT) remain poor. Aortic expansion is a major factor that determines patient long-term survival. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between anatomic shape features and (i) OMT outcome; (ii) aortic growth rate for TBAD patients initially treated with OMT.