Salmonella Typhimurium screen identifies shifts in mixed-acid fermentation during gut colonization.

How enteric pathogens adapt their metabolism to a dynamic gut environment is not yet fully understood. To investigate how Salmonella enterica Typhimurium (S.Tm) colonizes the gut, we conducted an in vivo transposon mutagenesis screen in a gnotobiotic mouse model.

Mechanical tuning of virus-like particles.

Hypothesis: Virus-like particles (VLPs) are promising scaffolds for developing mucosal vaccines. For their optimal performance, in addition to design parameters from an immunological perspective, biophysical properties may need to be considered.

Experiments: We investigated the mechanical properties of VLPs scaffolded on the coat protein of Acinetobacter phage AP205 using atomic force microscopy and small angle X-ray scattering.

Comparison of Haller index values calculated with chest radiographs versus CT for pectus excavatum evaluation.

Background: Pectus excavatum is a common chest wall anomaly in children. Pre-operative imaging for pectus excavatum is performed with CT, which is used to calculate the Haller index to determine the severity of pectus excavatum.

Objective: To determine the correlation between Haller index values calculated with two-view chest radiographs and those calculated with CT and to determine, with CT as the reference standard, the diagnostic performance of radiographic Haller index for identifying cases that meet imaging criteria for surgical correction of pectus excavatum.