Considerations Regarding High Oil Density Bioreactor-Scale Fermentations of Yarrowia lipolytica Using CFD Modeling and Experimental Validation.

Hydrophobic feedstocks such as waste cooking oil have recently been considered for microbial biotransformation due to their abundance, low cost, and unique advantage for lipid-derived fermentation products. Most fermentations with hydrophobic substrates are conducted at the tube or flask scale (less than 1 L total volume) or with the hydrophobic substrate comprising a small fraction of the media. Low substrate concentrations require additional feeding.

Standardizing Fetal Movement Monitoring using Count the Kicks.

Stillbirth affects 1 in 175 pregnancies in the United States. There are significant racial and ethnic disparities in rates of stillbirth. Rates of stillbirth are highest among non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander and non-Hispanic Black women, more than twice the rate of non-Hispanic White women.

Outcomes of Near-Total and Subtotal Resection of Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: To evaluate tumor control and facial nerve outcomes after gross-total (GTR), near-total (NTR), and subtotal resection (STR) of sporadic vestibular schwannomas (VS).

Data Sources: PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched in August 2021 through inception following PRISMA guidelines.

Review Methods: English language articles reporting tumor control and facial nerve outcomes of adults (≥18 years) with NTR and STR of VS were evaluated.

Transcriptional regulation of living materials via extracellular electron transfer.

Engineered living materials combine the advantages of biological and synthetic systems by leveraging genetic and metabolic programming to control material-wide properties. Here, we demonstrate that extracellular electron transfer (EET), a microbial respiration process, can serve as a tunable bridge between live cell metabolism and synthetic material properties. In this system, EET flux from Shewanella oneidensis to a copper catalyst controls hydrogel cross-linking via two distinct chemistries to form living synthetic polymer networks.

Design and synthesis of synthetic promoters for consistency of gene expression across growth phases and scale in .

Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology endeavors benefit from promoters that perform consistently (or robustly) with respect to cellular growth phase (exponential and stationary) and fermentation scale (microtiter plates, tubes, flasks, and bioreactors). However, nearly all endogenous promoters (especially in ) do not perform in this manner. In this work, a hybrid promoter engineering strategy is leveraged to create novel synthetic promoters with robustness across these conditions.

Leveraging a Y. lipolytica naringenin chassis for biosynthesis of apigenin and associated glucoside.

Flavonoids are a diverse set of natural products with promising bioactivities including anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and neuroprotective properties. Previously, the oleaginous host Yarrowia lipolytica has been engineered to produce high titers of the base flavonoid naringenin. Here, we leverage this host along with a set of E.

Contribution of macrophages to neural survival and intracochlear tissue remodeling responses following cochlear implantation.

Background: Cochlear implants (CIs) restore hearing to deafened patients. The foreign body response (FBR) following cochlear implantation (post-CI) comprises an infiltration of macrophages, other immune and non-immune cells, and fibrosis into the scala tympani, a space that is normally devoid of cells. This FBR is associated with negative effects on CI outcomes including increased electrode impedances and loss of residual acoustic hearing.

Does a Gluten-Free Diet Improve Quality of Life and Sleep in Patients with Non-Coeliac Gluten/Wheat Sensitivity?

Introduction: The role of a gluten-free diet (GFD) in Non-Coeliac Gluten/Wheat Sensitivity (NCGWS) is unclear. We present the largest study comparing adherence to a GFD in patients with Coeliac Disease (CD) and NCGWS and assess its impact on quality of life (QoL) and sleep in patients with NCGWS.

Methods: Patients with NCGWS at a tertiary centre completed the Coeliac Disease Adherence Test (CDAT), Coeliac Symptom Index (CSI) and Sleep Condition Indicator (SCI).

Using oils and fats to replace sugars as feedstocks for biomanufacturing: Challenges and opportunities for the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica.

More than 200 million tons of plant oils and animal fats are produced annually worldwide from oil, crops, and the rendered animal fat industry. Triacylglycerol, an abundant energy-dense compound, is the major form of lipid in oils and fats. While oils or fats are very important raw materials and functional ingredients for food or related products, a significant portion is currently diverted to or recovered as waste.

Evolving tolerance of Yarrowia lipolytica to hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous phase waste.

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is an emerging method for thermochemical conversion of wet organic waste and biomass into renewable biocrude. HTL also produces an aqueous phase (HTL-AP) side stream containing 2-4% light organic compounds that require treatment. Although anaerobic digestion (AD) of HTL-AP has shown promise, lengthy time periods were required for AD microbial communities to adapt to metabolic inhibitors in HTL-AP.

Metabolic engineering of E. coli for β-alanine production using a multi-biosensor enabled approach.

β-alanine is an important biomolecule used in nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and chemical synthesis. The relatively eco-friendly bioproduction of β-alanine has recently attracted more interest than petroleum-based chemical synthesis. In this work, we developed two types of in vivo high-throughput screening platforms, wherein one was utilized to identify a novel target ribonuclease E (encoded by rne) as well as a redox-cofactor balancing module that can enhance de novo β-alanine biosynthesis from glucose, and the other was employed for screening fermentation conditions.

Correlating IgG Levels with Neutralising Antibody Levels to Indicate Clinical Protection in Healthcare Workers at Risk during a Measles Outbreak.

The rapid transmission of measles poses a great challenge for measles elimination. Thus, rapid testing is required to screen the health status in the population during measles outbreaks. A pseudotype-based virus neutralisation assay was used to measure neutralising antibody titres in serum samples collected from healthcare workers in Sheffield during the measles outbreak in 2016.

Non-Responsive and Refractory Coeliac Disease: Experience from the NHS England National Centre.

Unlabelled: We characterised the aetiology of non-responsive coeliac disease (NRCD) and provided contemporary mortality data in refractory coeliac disease (RCD) from our centre. We also measured urine gluten immunogenic peptides (GIPs) in patients with established RCD1 to evaluate gluten exposure in these individuals.

Methods: This was a longitudinal cohort study conducted in Sheffield, UK.

Toward a Digital Health Intervention for Vestibular Rehabilitation: Usability and Subjective Outcomes of a Novel Platform.

Digital technologies are increasingly available and are reducing in cost. There is an opportunity to move to a digital health approach in vestibular rehabilitation (VR), but there is a paucity of suitable systems available and a consequent lack of evidence to support their use. This study aimed to investigate a novel digital platform developed specifically for VR (comprising clinician software, a wearable sensor, and a patient-facing app).

Adult celiac disease with persistent IBS-type symptoms: a pilot study of an adjuvant FODMAP diet.

Aim: This pilot study assessed the benefits of an adjuvant low FODMAP diet (LFD) in adult CD patients established on GFD who had a normal remission biopsy.

Background: Patients with biopsy-proven adult celiac disease (CD) may have on-going gastrointestinal symptoms despite adherence to a gluten-free diet (GFD). Functional gut symptoms, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), is one cause of persistent symptoms in CD patients.

Adapting Problem Management Plus for Implementation: Lessons Learned from Public Sector Settings Across Rwanda, Peru, Mexico and Malawi.

Problem Management Plus (PM+) is a low-intensity psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization that can be delivered by nonspecialists to address common mental health conditions in people affected by adversity. Emerging evidence demonstrates the efficacy of PM+ across a range of settings. However, the published literature rarely documents the adaptation processes for psychological interventions to context or culture, including curriculum or implementation adaptations.

Stepped care for depression at integrated chronic care centers (IC3) in Malawi: study protocol for a stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Malawi is a low-income country in sub-Saharan Africa that has limited resources to address a significant burden of disease-including HIV/AIDS. Additionally, depression is a leading cause of disability in the country but largely remains undiagnosed and untreated. The lack of cost-effective, scalable solutions is a fundamental barrier to expanding depression treatment.

Microbial valorization of underutilized and nonconventional waste streams.

The growing burden of waste disposal coupled with natural resource scarcity has renewed interest in the remediation, valorization, and/or repurposing of waste. Traditional approaches such as composting, anaerobic digestion, use in fertilizers or animal feed, or incineration for energy production extract very little value out of these waste streams. In contrast, waste valorization into fuels and other biochemicals via microbial fermentation is an area of growing interest.

Augmenting the living plant mesophyll into a photonic capacitor.

Living plants provide an opportunity to rethink the design and fabrication of devices ordinarily produced from plastic and circuit boards and ultimately disposed of as waste. The spongy mesophyll is a high -surface area composition of parenchyma cells that supports gas and liquid exchange through stomata pores within the surface of most leaves. Here, we investigate the mesophyll of living plants as biocompatible substrates for the photonic display of thin nanophosphorescent films for photonic applications.

A Case of GCH-1 Mutation Dopa-Responsive Dystonia Requiring High Doses of Levodopa for Treatment.

Background: Mutations in the GCH-1 gene are associated with Autosomal Dominant Dopamine Responsive Dystonia (DYT 5). One of the hallmarks of this condition is dramatic and sustained response to low doses of levodopa.

Case Report: We present the case of a 22 year old female patient with genetically confirmed GCH-1 Dopa-Responsive Dystonia who had no response to low dose Levodopa but who achieved symptom control on a total dose of 900 mg/day.

Evaluating clinical outcomes of routinely delivered task-shared care for depression in rural Haiti.

Background: There is a growing literature in support of the effectiveness of task-shared mental health interventions in resource-limited settings globally. However, despite evidence that effect sizes are greater in research studies than actual care, the literature is sparse on the impact of such interventions as delivered in routine care. In this paper, we examine the clinical outcomes of routine depression care in a task-shared mental health system established in rural Haiti by the international health care organization Partners In Health, in collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Health, following the 2010 earthquake.