A Streamlined High-Throughput LC-MS Assay for Quantifying Peptide Degradation in Cell Culture.

Peptides are widely used in biomaterials due to their easy of synthesis, ability to signal cells, and modify the properties of biomaterials. A key benefit of using peptides is that they are natural substrates for cell-secreted enzymes, which creates the possibility of utilizing cell-secreted enzymes for tuning cell-material interactions. However, these enzymes can also induce unwanted degradation of bioactive peptides in biomaterials, or in peptide therapies.

Formulation Attributes Impact Immune Profile of an Oral and Thermostable COVID-19 Subunit Vaccine.

While approved vaccines for COVID-19 provide protection against severe disease and death, they have limited efficacy in the prevention of infection and virus transmission. Mucosal immunity is preferred over systemic immunity to provide protection at the point of entry against pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2. VaxForm has developed an oral vaccine delivery platform that elicits mucosal and systemic immune responses by targeting immune cells in the gut through C-type lectin receptors.

Engineering Planar Gram-Negative Outer Membrane Mimics Using Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles.

Antibiotic resistance is a major challenge in modern medicine. The unique double membrane structure of Gram-negative bacteria limits the efficacy of many existing antibiotics and adds complexity to antibiotic development by limiting transport of antibiotics to the bacterial cytosol. New methods to mimic this barrier would enable high-throughput studies for antibiotic development.

A Wireless and Wearable Multimodal Sensor to Non-Invasively Monitor Transabdominal Placental Oxygen Saturation and Maternal Physiological Signals.

Poor placental development and placental defects can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as pre-eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, and stillbirth. This study introduces two sensors, which use a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique to measure placental oxygen saturation transabdominally. The first one, an NIRS sensor, is a wearable device consisting of multiple NIRS channels.

Primary Care Clinician Perspectives on Team-Based Welcome Video Visits.

Background: Synchronous virtual visits aid in longitudinal primary care and fulfill unmet needs for patients and clinicians. Virtual visits are widely accepted for specialty consultation and follow-up; however, novel systems-based programs and processes may support earlier engagement.

Aim: Evaluate primary care clinician attitudes and perspectives on patient information obtained team-based, nurse-led virtual visits ahead of face to face visits.

Photoimmunotherapy using indocyanine green-loaded Codium fragile polysaccharide and chitosan nanoparticles suppresses tumor growth and metastasis.

Metastasis and recurrence are the main challenges in cancer treatment. Among various therapeutic approaches, immunotherapy holds promise for preventing metastasis and recurrence. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of treating primary cancer and blocking metastasis and recurrence with photo-immunotherapeutic nanoparticles, which were synthesized using two types of charged polysaccharides.

Renal embolization for trauma: a narrative review.

Renal injuries commonly occur in association with blunt trauma, especially in the setting of motor vehicle accidents. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography is considered the gold-standard imaging modality to assess patients for renal injuries in the setting of blunt and penetrating trauma, and to help classify injuries based on the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma injury scoring scale. The management of renal trauma has evolved in the past several decades, with a notable shift towards a more conservative, nonoperative approach.

A review of the current status and future prospects of the bone remodeling process: Biological and mathematical perspectives.

This review dives into the complex dynamics of bone remodeling, combining biological insights with mathematical perspectives to better understand this fundamental aspect of skeletal health. Bone, being a crucial part of our body, constantly renews itself, and with the growing number of individuals facing bone-related issues, research in this field is vital. In this review, we categorized and classified most common mathematical models used to simulate the mechanical behavior of bone under different loading and health conditions, shedding light on the evolving landscape of bone biology.

Form Equals Function: Influence of Coacervate Architecture on Drug Delivery Applications.

Complex coacervates, formed through electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged polymers, present a versatile platform for drug delivery, providing rapid assembly, selective encapsulation, and responsiveness to environmental stimuli. The architecture and properties of coacervates can be tuned by controlling structural and environmental design factors, which significantly impact the stability and delivery efficiency of the drugs. While environmental design factors such as salt, pH, and temperature play a crucial role in coacervate formation, structural design factors such as polymer concentration, polymer structure, mixing ratio, and chain length serve as the core framework that shapes coacervate architecture.

Neural correlates of preschoolers' passive-viewing false belief: Insights into continuity and change and the function of right temporoparietal activity in theory of mind development.

Behavioral research demonstrates a critical transition in preschooler's mental-state understanding (i.e., theory of mind; ToM), revealed most starkly in performance on tasks about a character's false belief (e.

Sex Differences in Human Brain Structure at Birth.

Background: Sex differences in human brain anatomy have been well-documented, though remain significantly underexplored during early development. The neonatal period is a critical stage for brain development and can provide key insights into the role that prenatal and early postnatal factors play in shaping sex differences in the brain.

Methods: Here, we assessed on-average sex differences in global and regional brain volumes in 514 newborns aged 0-28 days (236 birth-assigned females and 278 birth-assigned males) using data from the developing Human Connectome Project.

Development of a Refugee Health Research Agenda in North America.

The lack of a cohesive, stakeholder-informed refugee health research agenda has been a barrier to promoting, funding, and conducting health research with refugee populations in North America. A cross-sectional study was conducted among individuals working in refugee health in North America (N = 93) to describe major domains within the field of refugee health research and to develop refugee health research priorities. Open-ended survey questions included: (1) What research topics specific to refugee research would you like to see in an international research agenda? (2) Please describe current and important gaps that you believe exist in refugee research and why? Overarching themes focused on the need for the development of research partnerships with refugee communities that are intentional, effective, and driven by the needs of refugee communities.

Campylobacter jejuni from no antibiotics ever (NAE) broilers: prevalence, antibiotic resistance, and virulence genes analysis.

Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) is a leading foodborne illness causing bacteria, and poultry is a major reservoir of this pathogen. With the recent increase in broiler production under the "no antibiotics ever" (NAE) system, this study aimed to assess the prevalence, antibiotic resistance, and virulence characteristics of C.

NIAGADS: A Comprehensive National Data Repository for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia Genetics and Genomics Research.

NIAGADS is the National Institute on Aging (NIA) designated national data repository for human genetics research on Alzheimer's Disease and related dementia (ADRD). NIAGADS maintains a high-quality data collection for ADRD genetic/genomic research and supports genetics data production and analysis. NIAGADS hosts whole genome and exome sequence data from the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) and other genotype/phenotype data, encompassing 209,000 samples.

Contrastive Functional Connectivity Defines Neurophysiology-informed Symptom Dimensions in Major Depression.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent psychiatric disorder characterized by substantial clinical and neurobiological heterogeneity. Conventional studies that solely focus on clinical symptoms or neuroimaging metrics often fail to capture the intricate relationship between these modalities, limiting their ability to disentangle the complexity in MDD. Moreover, patient neuroimaging data typically contains normal sources of variance shared with healthy controls, which can obscure disorder-specific variance and complicate the delineation of disease heterogeneity.

Aptamer-based biotherapeutic conjugate for shear responsive release of Von Willebrand factor A1 domain.

Smart polymers that mimic and even surpass the functionality of natural responsive materials have been actively researched. This study explores the design and characterization of a Single-MOlecule-based material REsponsive to Shear (SMORES) for the targeted release of A1, the platelet binding domain of the blood clotting protein von Willebrand factor (VWF). Each SMORES construct employs an aptamer molecule as the flow transducer and a microparticle to sense and amplify the hydrodynamic force.

Image-Guided Superficial Radiation Therapy for Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas Produces Excellent Freedom from Recurrence Independent of Risk Factors.

: Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) are non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) and the most prevalent cancers in the United States. Image-guided superficial radiotherapy (IGSRT) is a relatively new treatment option that uses high-resolution dermal ultrasound integrated with superficial radiotherapy to improve tumor visualization. IGSRT is a clinically equivalent non-surgical alternative to Mohs micrographic surgery at 2 years of follow-up in early-stage NMSC, but larger cohort studies with longer follow-up periods that allow for analysis of patient outcomes by demographic and disease characteristics are needed.

RERconverge Expansion: Using Relative Evolutionary Rates to Study Complex Categorical Trait Evolution.

Comparative genomics approaches seek to associate molecular evolution with the evolution of phenotypes across a phylogeny. Many of these methods lack the ability to analyze non-ordinal categorical traits with more than two categories. To address this limitation, we introduce an expansion to RERconverge that associates shifts in evolutionary rates with the convergent evolution of categorical traits.

Normative trajectories of extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid during childhood and adolescence defined in a clinically-acquired MRI dataset.

Background: Extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid (eaCSF) refers to the CSF in the subarachnoid spaces that surrounds the brain parenchyma. Benign enlargement of the subarachnoid space (BESS), a condition marked by increased eaCSF thickness, has been associated with macrocephaly and may be associated with subdural collections. However, diagnosis of BESS is complicated by the lack of age-specific normative data which hinders rigorous investigation of its clinical associations.