Publications by authors named "SJ Miller"

The incidence of infections attributed to antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) pathogens has increased exponentially over the recent decades reaching 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019. Without intervention, these infections are predicted to cause up to 10 million deaths a year and incur costs of up to 100 trillion US dollars globally by 2050.

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  • * Flow cytometry analysis shows that Ift88 deficiency leads to a notable reduction in the survival of single-positive (SP) thymocytes, but only minimal effects on the overall number of T cells in the spleen and kidney.
  • * The presence of Ift88 proficient T cells compensates for the loss, allowing for continued T cell population even with a deficit in Ift88 deficient cells during certain developmental stages.
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  • The study examines how Medicaid expansion and social factors affect the use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) from 2012 to 2022.
  • Medicaid expansion increases the PrEP-to-need ratio (PnR) but does not significantly boost overall PrEP prevalence.
  • Rural areas, and populations with higher concentrations of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic individuals, face lower rates of PrEP use, highlighting ongoing disparities that need addressing.
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  • - The study investigates transportation-related barriers that people living with HIV face in South Carolina, emphasizing the need to address these issues to enhance care and reduce health disparities in the region.
  • - Interviews with 20 individuals revealed challenges like unreliable and unsafe transportation, as well as stigma, which negatively impact their engagement in HIV care and overall health.
  • - Findings suggest that flexible clinic policies and support from friends and family can help overcome these transportation hurdles, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to improve access to HIV care.
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  • * In the experiment, diabetic mice underwent surgery to induce CLTI, followed by vBA-MSC injections into the affected muscle, which resulted in improved limb perfusion, muscle recovery, and reduced fibrosis when compared to control mice.
  • * Results showed significant upregulation of key genes associated with muscle regeneration and angiogenesis, suggesting that vBA-MSC therapy offers a promising approach to enhance recovery in ischemic muscle conditions.
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Background: Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are an essential place for historically underserved patients to access health care, including screening for colorectal cancer (CRC), one of the leading causes of cancer death in the United States. Novel interventions aimed at increasing CRC screening completion rates at FQHCs are crucial.

Objective: This study conducts user testing of a digital patient navigation tool, called eNav, designed to support FQHC patients in preparing for, requesting, and completing CRC screening tests.

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  • A study was conducted to analyze how often dermatologic surgeons face challenges in identifying the locations of skin cancer tumors before surgery.
  • Out of over 17,000 cases, only 0.60% involved uncertain sites, with these cases more common in older, male patients who had biopsies done over a month prior.
  • Surgeons commonly used various methods to confirm tumor locations, achieving success in identifying 82% of these uncertain sites, while some surgeries were delayed, especially for non-facial tumors.
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Purpose: To assess the association between food insecurity and colorectal cancer screening uptake in screening eligible participants in New York State.

Methods: We analyzed 28,154 adults who participated in New York State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2018 to 2021, were age-eligible for colorectal cancer screening based on the USPSTF guidelines at the time of survey administration and answered a version of the administered survey that included the module on food insecurity. Participants were defined as food insecure if they self-reported being always, usually, or sometimes stressed about having enough money to buy nutritious meals in the past 12 months.

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  • * A study compared the gut microbiomes of aged care residents with and without a UTI history and found that prior UTI history did not significantly impact microbiome composition, although prior UTIs were a predictor of future infections.
  • * The research suggested that there is no clear link between gut microbiota and UTI incidence in older adults, potentially due to high exposure to antibiotics and age-related factors affecting gut health.
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A peptide-catalyzed enantioselective oxidation of sulfides to yield pharmaceutically relevant chiral sulfoxides is reported. Experimental evidence suggesting that a hydrogen bond-donating moiety must be present in the substrate to achieve high levels of enantioinduction is supported by computational modeling of transition states. These models also indicate that dual points of contact between the peptidic catalyst and substrate are likely responsible for the formation of one desired sulfoxide in 94:6 er.

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is a Gram-negative bacterium that is the causative agent of the respiratory disease known as pertussis. Since the switch to the acellular vaccines of DTaP and Tap, pertussis cases in the US have risen and cyclically fallen. We have observed that mRNA pertussis vaccines are immunogenic and protective in mice.

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Objective: Youth living with HIV (YLHIV) in the southern United States experience poor outcomes across the HIV care continuum and are at high-risk for virologic failure. This study used a qualitative, community-engaged approach to inform the development of a tailored mobile Health (mHealth) tool for YLHIV in South Carolina (SC).

Methods: Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with YLHIV in SC (n = 16) and their HIV care providers (n = 15).

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Templated synthesis of proteins containing non-natural amino acids (nnAAs) promises to expand the chemical space available to biological therapeutics and materials, but existing technologies are still limiting. Addressing these limitations requires a deeper understanding of the mechanism of protein synthesis and how it is perturbed by nnAAs. Here we examine the impact of nnAAs on the formation and ribosome utilization of the central elongation substrate: the ternary complex of native, aminoacylated tRNA, thermally unstable elongation factor, and GTP.

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Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States. Despite the rise in Lyme disease incidence, there is no vaccine against B. burgdorferi approved for human use.

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Cancer screenings aid in the early detection of cancer and can help reduce cancer-related mortality. The current model of care for cancer screening is often siloed, based on the targeted cancer site. We tested the acceptability of a new model of care, called the One-Stop-Shop Cancer Screening Clinic, that centralizes cancer screenings and offers patients the option to complete all their recommended cancer screenings within one to two visits.

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Asymmetric hydrogenation of activated olefins using transition metal catalysis is a powerful tool for the synthesis of complex molecules, but traditional metal catalysts have difficulty with enantioselective reduction of electron-neutral, electron-rich, and minimally functionalized olefins. Hydrogenation based on radical, metal-catalyzed hydrogen atom transfer (mHAT) mechanisms offers an outstanding opportunity to overcome these difficulties, enabling the mild reduction of these challenging olefins with selectivity that is complementary to traditional hydrogenations with H. Further, mHAT presents an opportunity for asymmetric induction through cooperative hydrogen atom transfer (cHAT) using chiral thiols.

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Multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests are blood-based tests designed to screen for signals of multiple cancers. There is growing interest and investment in examining the potential benefits and applications of MCED tests. If MCED tests are shown to have clinical utility, it is important to ensure that all people-regardless of their demographic or socioeconomic background-equitably benefit from these tests.

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  • - Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a major cause of kidney failure linked to diabetes and obesity, but effective treatments to slow its progression are currently unavailable.
  • - Research on single-cell transcriptomic profiles from DKD patients and mouse models reveals a growing population of macrophages expressing TREM2 in mice fed a high-fat diet, which correlates with obesity and diabetes.
  • - In mice lacking TREM2, increased kidney damage and cell injury were observed, indicating that boosting TREM2 macrophages could be a promising therapeutic approach for DKD.
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A new class of superbasic, bifunctional peptidyl guanidine catalysts is presented, which enables the organocatalytic, atroposelective synthesis of axially chiral quinazolinediones. Computational modeling unveiled the conformational modulation of the catalyst by a novel phenyl urea N-cap, that preorganizes the structure into the active, folded state. A previously unanticipated noncovalent interaction involving a difluoroacetamide acting as a hybrid mono- or bidentate hydrogen bond donor emerged as a decisive control element inducing atroposelectivity.

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Methods to access chiral sulfur(VI) pharmacophores are of interest in medicinal and synthetic chemistry. We report the desymmetrization of unprotected sulfonimidamides via asymmetric acylation with a cinchona-phosphinate catalyst. The desired products are formed in excellent yield and enantioselectivity with no observed bis-acylation.

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Templated synthesis of proteins containing non-natural amino acids (nnAAs) promises to vastly expand the chemical space available to biological therapeutics and materials. Existing technologies limit the identity and number of nnAAs than can be incorporated into a given protein. Addressing these bottlenecks requires deeper understanding of the mechanism of messenger RNA (mRNA) templated protein synthesis and how this mechanism is perturbed by nnAAs.

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AKI is characterized by a sudden, and usually reversible, decline in kidney function. In mice, ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is commonly used to model the pathophysiologic features of clinical AKI. Macrophages are a unifying feature of IRI as they regulate both the initial injury response as well as the long-term outcome following resolution of injury.

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Clinical trial enrollment is impeded by the significant time burden placed on research coordinators screening eligible patients. With 50,000 new cancer cases every year, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has made increased access for Veterans to high-quality clinical trials a priority. To aid in this effort, we worked with research coordinators to build the MPACT (Matching Patients to Accelerate Clinical Trials) platform with a goal of improving efficiency in the screening process.

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