Publications by authors named "R R Meier"
Background: Machine perfusion (MP) for liver transplantation has become more widespread in the United States, but national studies on this growing practice are lacking. We investigated national use and outcomes of MP for liver transplantation.
Methods: Adult (≥18 y) liver recipients transplanted between January 1, 2016 and September 30, 2023 in the United Network for Organ Sharing database were included.
Most insects encountered in the field are initially entomological dark matter in that they cannot be identified to species while alive. This explains the enduring quest for efficient ways to identify collected specimens. Morphological tools came first but are now routinely replaced or complemented with DNA barcodes.
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- Pancreas transplantation can enhance blood sugar control and reduce death rates in diabetes patients, but it requires strong immunosuppressive drugs to combat immune responses.
- The study evaluated the effectiveness of the tissue Common Response Module (tCRM) score and other biomarkers in assessing acute cellular rejection in pancreas transplants.
- Analysis of pancreas biopsies revealed significant gene expression changes linked to rejection severity, indicating that higher tCRM scores correlate with more severe rejection, and can differentiate between treatment-resistant and successfully treated cases.
Background: Zoology's dark matter comprises hyperdiverse, poorly known taxa that are numerically dominant but largely unstudied, even in temperate regions where charismatic taxa are well understood. Dark taxa are everywhere, but high diversity, abundance, and small size have historically stymied their study. We demonstrate how entomological dark matter can be elucidated using high-throughput DNA barcoding ("megabarcoding").
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- Symbiotic microorganisms are critical for insect biology, but there is limited understanding of their diversity compared to insects themselves; thus, methods like high-throughput barcoding could enhance our knowledge of these relationships during biodiversity declines.
- The study tested the "HotSHOT" method, which uses alkaline buffers to extract DNA from insect specimens, and found that it significantly reduced microbial abundance estimates by an average of 15 times, but had a limited impact on the overall microbial community structure.
- While the HotSHOT treatment affected low-abundance microbes, the presence of abundant bacteria with important ecological roles remained stable; the analysis confirmed differences in microbial diversity before and after treatment.