SspA is a transcriptional regulator of CRISPR adaptation in E. coli.

The CRISPR integrases Cas1-Cas2 create immunological memories of viral infection by storing phage-derived DNA in CRISPR arrays, a process known as CRISPR adaptation. A number of host factors have been shown to influence adaptation, but the full pathway from infection to a fully integrated, phage-derived sequences in the array remains incomplete. Here, we deploy a new CRISPRi-based screen to identify putative host factors that participate in CRISPR adaptation in the Escherichia coli Type I-E system.

High throughput variant libraries and machine learning yield design rules for retron gene editors.

The bacterial retron reverse transcriptase system has served as an intracellular factory for single-stranded DNA in many biotechnological applications. In these technologies, a natural retron non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is modified to encode a template for the production of custom DNA sequences by reverse transcription. The efficiency of reverse transcription is a major limiting step for retron technologies, but we lack systematic knowledge of how to improve or maintain reverse transcription efficiency while changing the retron sequence for custom DNA production.

An experimental census of retrons for DNA production and genome editing.

Retrons are bacterial immune systems that use reverse-transcribed DNA (RT-DNA) to detect phage infection. They are also deployed for genome editing, where they are modified so that the RT-DNA encodes an editing donor. Retrons are common in bacterial genomes, and thousands of unique retrons have been predicted bioinformatically.

Hospital Admission Rates and Mortality Among Emergency Department Patients with COVID-19 Discharged with Remote Patient Monitoring with or without HOME - A Value-Based Approach.

Background: The pandemic caused by the novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) overwhelmed healthcare systems with emergency department (ED) and hospital overcrowding. Our hospital system was able to discharge a subset of COVID-19 patients home with remote patient monitoring (RPM) and home oxygen (HOME) if needed, which opened up beds for the more critical patients. The objective of this study was to review the all-cause 30-day mortality and admission rates for patients chosen for our program, and to additionally examine the financial impact.

Continuous multiplexed phage genome editing using recombitrons.

Bacteriophage genome editing can enhance the efficacy of phages to eliminate pathogenic bacteria in patients and in the environment. However, current methods for editing phage genomes require laborious screening, counterselection or in vitro construction of modified genomes. Here, we present a scalable approach that uses modified bacterial retrons called recombitrons to generate recombineering donor DNA paired with single-stranded binding and annealing proteins for integration into phage genomes.