Transgenic ferret models define pulmonary ionocyte diversity and function.

Speciation leads to adaptive changes in organ cellular physiology and creates challenges for studying rare cell-type functions that diverge between humans and mice. Rare cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)-rich pulmonary ionocytes exist throughout the cartilaginous airways of humans, but limited presence and divergent biology in the proximal trachea of mice has prevented the use of traditional transgenic models to elucidate ionocyte functions in the airway. Here we describe the creation and use of conditional genetic ferret models to dissect pulmonary ionocyte biology and function by enabling ionocyte lineage tracing (FOXI1-Cre::ROSA-TG), ionocyte ablation (FOXI1-KO) and ionocyte-specific deletion of CFTR (FOXI1-Cre::CFTR).

The Non-Anhydrous, Minimally Basic Synthesis of the Dopamine D Agonist [18F]MCL-524.

The dopamine D agonist MCL-524 is selective for the D receptor in the high-affinity state (D), and, therefore, the PET analogue, [F]MCL-524, may facilitate the elucidation of the role of D in disorders such as schizophrenia. However, the previously reported synthesis of [F]MCL-524 proved difficult to replicate and was lacking experimental details. We therefore developed a new synthesis of [F]MCL-524 using a "non-anhydrous, minimally basic" (NAMB) approach.