Point-of-care tests, diagnostic uncertainty and antimicrobial stewardship in the ICU: procalcitonin or PCR to aid antibiotic-stop decisions - an observational cohort study.

Objectives: Intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians stop antibiotics more often, with a negative infection: point-of-care test (PCR-POCT). Simulated cases of diagnostic uncertainty regarding infection resolution led clinicians to choose options such as procalcitonin (PCT) and/or PCR-POCTs +/- de-escalation to aid stop decisions. We hypothesised that a direct infection indicator, PCR-POCT, would influence stop judgements more than indirect PCT.

Multidimensional Effects of Stress on Neuronal Exosome Levels and Simultaneous Transcriptomic Profiles.

Background: An excess of exosomes, nanovesicles released from all cells and key regulators of brain plasticity, is an emerging therapeutic target for stress-related mental illnesses. The effects of chronic stress on exosome levels are unknown; even less is known about molecular drivers of exosome levels in the stress response.

Methods: We used our state-of-the-art protocol with 2 complementary strategies to isolate neuronal exosomes from plasma, ventral dentate gyrus, basolateral amygdala, and olfactory bulbs of male mice to determine the effects of chronic restraint stress (CRS) on exosome levels.

A platform for multimodal pooled genetic screens reveals regulators of liver function.

Organ function requires coordinated activities of thousands of genes in distinct, spatially organized cell types. Understanding the basis of emergent tissue function requires approaches to dissect the genetic control of diverse cellular and tissue phenotypes . Here, we develop paired imaging and sequencing methods to construct large-scale, multi-modal genotype-phenotypes maps in tissue with pooled genetic perturbations.