Publications by authors named "Rebecca Vadala"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the reasons behind the increased reactivity of T cells in newborns, focusing on specific molecular mechanisms that are not well understood.
  • It identifies that neonatal naïve T cells produce more energy and proteins, linked to the lack of LINE1 expression due to specific signaling pathways.
  • LINE1 expression increases with age, affecting T cell function and contributing to immune decline as people get older, suggesting its importance throughout human development.
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Article Synopsis
  • Various nuclear processes occur in specific structures called foci, which can be studied using immunofluorescence microscopy to understand cellular identity and functions.
  • Conducting immunofluorescence across different cell types poses challenges like complex sample preparation and data management, often making it difficult for less experienced users.
  • This study proposes an optimized immunofluorescence protocol for analyzing nuclear proteins in human primary T cell types, including a customizable method and a user-friendly Python script for efficient data handling.
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How gene expression is controlled to preserve human T cell quiescence is poorly understood. Here we show that non-canonical splicing variants containing long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE1) enforce naive CD4 T cell quiescence. LINE1-containing transcripts are derived from CD4 T cell-specific genes upregulated during T cell activation.

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Transposable elements (TEs), which cover ~45% of the human genome, although firstly considered as "selfish" DNA, are nowadays recognized as driving forces in eukaryotic genome evolution. This capability resides in generating a plethora of sophisticated RNA regulatory networks that influence the cell type specific transcriptome in health and disease. Indeed, TEs are transcribed and their RNAs mediate multi-layered transcriptional regulatory functions in cellular identity establishment, but also in the regulation of cellular plasticity and adaptability to environmental cues, as occurs in the immune response.

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