A Brownian dynamics tumor progression simulator with application to glioblastoma.

Tumor progression modeling offers the potential to predict tumor-spreading behavior to improve prognostic accuracy and guide therapy development. Common simulation methods include continuous reaction-diffusion (RD) approaches that capture mean spatio-temporal tumor spreading behavior and discrete agent-based (AB) approaches which capture individual cell events such as proliferation or migration. The brain cancer glioblastoma (GBM) is especially appropriate for such proliferation-migration modeling approaches because tumor cells seldom metastasize outside of the central nervous system and cells are both highly proliferative and migratory.

Biphasic Dependence of Glioma Survival and Cell Migration on CD44 Expression Level.

While several studies link the cell-surface marker CD44 to cancer progression, conflicting results show both positive and negative correlations with increased CD44 levels. Here, we demonstrate that the survival outcomes of genetically induced glioma-bearing mice and of high-grade human glioma patients are biphasically correlated with CD44 level, with the poorest outcomes occurring at intermediate levels. Furthermore, the high-CD44-expressing mesenchymal subtype exhibited a positive trend of survival with increased CD44 level.

Agarose and methylcellulose hydrogel blends for nerve regeneration applications.

Trauma sustained to the central nervous system is a debilitating problem for thousands of people worldwide. Neuronal regeneration within the central nervous system is hindered by several factors, making a multi-faceted approach necessary. Two factors contributing to injury are the irregular geometry of injured sites and the absence of tissue to hold potential nerve guides and drug therapies.

Electro-optically cavity-dumped ultrashort-pulse Ti:sapphire oscillator.

We report the demonstration of what we believe is the first electro-optically cavity-dumped short-pulse Ti:sapphire oscillator. By designing a novel ultrabroadband, zero-dispersion, zero-insertion-loss polarizer we have obtained single-pulse energies of >200 nJ directly from the oscillator at a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The pulse duration is <20 fs with >10 MW peak power and high contrast (>2000) between the pulses immediately preceding and following the main pulse.