Publications by authors named "Sophie Zhang"

Article Synopsis
  • Chemotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is used to boost immunotherapy effectiveness, but certain tumors, especially triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), often remain unresponsive.
  • The study identifies IRE1α, an ER stress sensor, as a key factor that limits the immune-boosting effects of taxane chemotherapy in these tumors by silencing double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and preventing a type of inflammatory cell death called pyroptosis.
  • Inhibiting IRE1α allows taxane to produce more dsRNA, which activates immune responses, transforming PD-L1-negative TNBC tumors into ones that are sensitive to immunotherapy.
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3,4-Dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (DOPA) serves as a post-translational modification amino acid present in mussel foot proteins. Mussels exploit the exceptional adhesive properties of DOPA to adhere to a wide range of surfaces. This study presents the development of sticky proteins and bacteria through the site-specific incorporation of DOPA using Genetic Code Expansion Technology.

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Recent years have seen a remarkable growth in the field of protein-based medical treatments. Nevertheless, concerns have arisen regarding the cytotoxicity limitations, low affinity, potential immunogenicity, low stability, and challenges to modify these proteins. To overcome these obstacles, proximity-induced chemistry has emerged as a next-generation strategy for advancing protein therapeutics.

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Article Synopsis
  • researchers discovered kinetin, a small molecule that can correct the ELP1 splicing defect, and have developed more effective derivatives called splicing modulator compounds (SMCs).
  • The new compound PTC258 not only restores correct ELP1 splicing in mouse brains but also significantly improves survival, gait, and retinal function in mice with FD, demonstrating its potential as a therapeutic treatment.
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Mindfulness-based interventions, an evidence-based stress reduction approach, may help incarcerated people cope with stress-related problems in the challenging environment of prison. However, due to their unique living environment, the duration and instructor guidance required by standard mindfulness-based interventions would be infeasible in most prisons. Therefore, the aims of the current study were to test the effects of two different 4-day interventions (i.

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How autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is understood (i.e., as a medical problem or natural human variation) has profound implications for how healthcare services are designed and delivered.

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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been intense debate over SARS-CoV-2's mode of transmission and appropriate personal protective equipment for health care workers in low-risk settings. The objective of this review is to identify and appraise the available evidence (clinical trials and laboratory studies on masks and respirators, epidemiological studies, and air sampling studies), clarify key concepts and necessary conditions for airborne transmission, and shed light on knowledge gaps in the field. We find that, except for aerosol-generating procedures, the overall data in support of airborne transmission-taken in its traditional definition (long-distance and respirable aerosols)-are weak, based predominantly on indirect and experimental rather than clinical or epidemiological evidence.

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The neural correlates of decision making have been extensively studied with tasks involving a choice between two alternatives that is guided by visual cues. While a large body of work argues for a role of the lateral intraparietal (LIP) region of cortex in these tasks, this role may be confounded by the interaction between LIP and other regions, including medial temporal (MT) cortex. Here, we describe a simplified linear model of decision making that is adapted to two tasks: a motion discrimination and a categorization task.

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