Aliphatic Ketone Claisen Rearrangement: Troubleshooting the Transetherification Step by Identifying a Stable Acid Catalyst.

After optimization for retention of catalytic activity, 4-chlorobenzoic acid emerged as the optimal catalyst for the aliphatic ketone Claisen rearrangement. The optimal catalyst enables a one-pot, metal-free, catalytic protocol from allylic alcohols to γ,δ-unsaturated ketones. The optimized process tolerates a range of substrates, including substituents with acid-labile protecting groups.

Quantitative assessment of the impact of standard agreement templates on multisite clinical trial start up time.

Contracting delays remain a challenge to the successful initiation of multisite clinical research in the US. The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Contracts Processing Study showed average contract negotiation duration of > 100 days for industry-sponsored or investigator-initiated contracts. Such delays create enormous costs to sponsors and to patients waiting to use new evidence-based treatments.

Antibody avidity-based approach to estimate population-level incidence of hepatitis C.

Background & Aims: Accurate HCV incidence estimates are critical for monitoring progress towards HCV elimination goals, including an 80% reduction in HCV incidence by 2030. Moreover, incidence estimates can help guide prevention and treatment programming, particularly in the context of the US opioid epidemic.

Methods: An inexpensive, Genedia-based HCV IgG antibody avidity assay was evaluated as a platform to estimate cross-sectional, population-level primary HCV incidence using 1,840 HCV antibody and RNA-positive samples from 875 individuals enrolled in 5 cohort studies in the US and India.

Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Indigenous Populations in the United States and Canada.

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Canadian Indigenous people are disproportionally affected by hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection yet are frequently underrepresented in epidemiologic studies and surveys often used to inform public health efforts. We performed a systematic review of published and unpublished literature and summarized our findings on HCV prevalence in these Indigenous populations. We found a disparity of epidemiologic literature of HCV prevalence among AI/AN in the United States and Indigenous people in Canada.