Publications by authors named "T M Hallam"

Article Synopsis
  • Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the primary cause of permanent blindness in developed countries, with certain genetic variations in the complement factor I (CFI) gene increasing the risk of developing the disease.
  • Research focusing on the Finnish population revealed novel CFI rare variants (RVs) in individuals with dry AMD, highlighting the need to understand how these genetic factors influence disease progression.
  • Functional assays showed the G547R variant severely disrupts CFI's regulatory role in the complement system, while another variant, G328R, affects protein production; these findings suggest that certain RVs significantly contribute to AMD risk in this population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Various polytypes of van der Waals (vdW) materials can be formed by sulfur and tin, which exhibit distinctive and complementary electronic properties. Hence, these materials are attractive candidates for the design of multifunctional devices. This work demonstrates direct selective growth of tin sulfides by laser irradiation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rare variants (RVs) in the gene encoding the regulatory enzyme complement factor I (CFI; FI) that reduce protein function or levels increase age-related macular degeneration risk. A total of 3357 subjects underwent screening in the SCOPE natural history study for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, including CFI sequencing and serum FI measurement. Eleven CFI RV genotypes that were challenging to categorize as type I (low serum level) or type II (normal serum level, reduced enzymatic function) were characterized in the context of pure FI protein in C3b and C4b fluid phase cleavage assays and a novel bead-based functional assay (BBFA) of C3b cleavage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Therapeutic bioconjugates are emerging as an essential tool to combat human disease. Site-specific conjugation technologies are widely recognized as the optimal approach for producing homogeneous drug products. Non-natural amino acid (nnAA) incorporation allows the introduction of bioconjugation handles at genetically defined locations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted substantial attention from the photovoltaic research community, with the power conversion efficiency (PCE) already exceeding 26%. Current state-of-the-art devices rely on Spiro-OMeTAD as the hole-transporting material (HTM); however, Spiro-OMeTAD is costly due to its complicated synthesis and expensive product purification, while its low conductivity ultimately limits the achievable device efficiency. In this work, we build upon our recently introduced family of low-cost amide-based small molecules and introduce a molecule (termed TPABT) that results in high conductivity values (∼10 S cm upon addition of standard ionic additives), outperforming our previous amide-based material (EDOT-Amide-TPA, ∼10 S cm) while only costing an estimated $5/g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF