A Unified Approach to Health Data Exchange: A Report From the US DHHS.

Importance: Health information technology, such as electronic health records (EHRs), has been widely adopted, yet accessing and exchanging data in the fragmented US health care system remains challenging. To unlock the potential of EHR data to improve patient health, public health, and health care, it is essential to streamline the exchange of health data. As leaders across the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), we describe how DHHS has implemented fundamental building blocks to achieve this vision.

Early Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variants Using Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance at 4 US Airports, September 2021-January 2022.

We enrolled arriving international air travelers in a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 genomic surveillance program. We used molecular testing of pooled nasal swabs and sequenced positive samples for sublineage. Traveler-based surveillance provided early-warning variant detection, reporting the first US Omicron BA.

Media intervention program for reducing unrealistic optimism bias: The link between unrealistic optimism, well-being, and health.

Unrealistic optimism is the tendency to perceive oneself as safer than others in situations that equally threaten everybody. By reducing fear, this bias boosts one's well-being; however, it is also a deterrent to one's health. Three experiments were run in a mixed-design on 1831 participants to eliminate unrealistic optimism (measured by two items-probability of COVID-19 infection for oneself and for others; within-subjects) toward the probability of COVID-19 infection via articles/videos.

Genome Editing: Insights from Chemical Biology to Support Safe and Transformative Therapeutic Applications.

Programmable nuclease-based genome editing technologies, including the clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system, are becoming an essential component of many applications ranging from agriculture to medicine. However, fundamental limitations currently prevent the widespread, safe, and practical use of genome editors, especially for human disease interventions. These limitations include off-target effects, a lack of control over editing activity, suboptimal DNA repair outcomes, insufficient target conversion, and inadequate delivery performance.

Drosophila GAGA factor polyglutamine domains exhibit prion-like behavior.

Background: The Drosophila GAGA factor (GAF) participates in nucleosome remodeling to activate genes, acts as an antirepressor and is associated with heterochromatin, contributing to gene repression. GAF functions are intimately associated to chromatin-based epigenetic control, linking basic transcriptional regulation to heritable long-term maintenance of gene expression. These diverse functions require GAF to interact with different partners in different multiprotein complexes.