1,051 results match your criteria: "Broad Institute: The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard[Affiliation]"

Voltage imaging is a powerful technique for studying neuronal activity, but its effectiveness is often constrained by low signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Traditional denoising methods, such as matrix factorization, impose rigid assumptions about noise and signal structures, while existing deep learning approaches fail to fully capture the rapid dynamics and complex dependencies inherent in voltage imaging data. Here, we introduce CellMincer, a novel self-supervised deep learning method specifically developed for denoising voltage imaging datasets.

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In vivo affinity maturation of the CD4 domains of an HIV-1-entry inhibitor.

Nat Biomed Eng

December 2024

The Center for Integrated Solutions to Infectious Diseases, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Human proteins repurposed as biologics for clinical use have been engineered through in vitro techniques that improve the affinity of the biologics for their ligands. However, the techniques do not select against properties, such as protease sensitivity or self-reactivity, that impair the biologics' clinical efficacy. Here we show that the B-cell receptors of primary murine B cells can be engineered to affinity mature in vivo the human CD4 domains of the HIV-1-entry inhibitor CD4 immunoadhesin (CD4-Ig).

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Over the past decade, single-cell genomics technologies have allowed scalable profiling of cell-type-specific features, which has substantially increased our ability to study cellular diversity and transcriptional programs in heterogeneous tissues. Yet our understanding of mechanisms of gene regulation or the rules that govern interactions between cell types is still limited. The advent of new computational pipelines and technologies, such as single-cell epigenomics and spatially resolved transcriptomics, has created opportunities to explore two new axes of biological variation: cell-intrinsic regulation of cell states and expression programs and interactions between cells.

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Macrophages are critical effectors of antibody therapies for lymphoma, but the best targets for this purpose remain unknown. Here, we sought to define a comprehensive repertoire of cell surface antigens that can be targeted to stimulate macrophage-mediated destruction of B-cell lymphoma. We developed a high-throughput assay to screen hundreds of antibodies for their ability to provoke macrophages to attack B-cell lymphoma cells.

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  • Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major cause of heart failure, and this study analyzes genetic factors by examining 14,256 DCM cases and 36,203 participants from the UK Biobank for related traits.
  • Researchers discovered 80 genomic risk loci and pinpointed 62 potential effector genes tied to DCM, including some linked to rare variants.
  • The study uses advanced transcriptomics to explore how cellular functions contribute to DCM, showing that polygenic scores can help predict the disease in the general population and emphasize the importance of genetic testing and development of precise treatments.
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  • Cardiac trabeculae are muscular structures in the heart that have a crucial but not fully understood role in heart function and disease.
  • A study involving over 47,000 participants from the UK Biobank found links between trabecular shape and rare genetic variants in 56 genes related to heart muscle function and development.
  • The research also revealed 68 genetic regions associated with heart condition pathways, indicating that variations in trabeculation may influence the severity of heart diseases like hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy.
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GENCODE 2025: reference gene annotation for human and mouse.

Nucleic Acids Res

January 2025

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK.

GENCODE produces comprehensive reference gene annotation for human and mouse. Entering its twentieth year, the project remains highly active as new technologies and methodologies allow us to catalog the genome at ever-increasing granularity. In particular, long-read transcriptome sequencing enables us to identify large numbers of missing transcripts and to substantially improve existing models, and our long non-coding RNA catalogs have undergone a dramatic expansion and reconfiguration as a result.

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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in humans, yet the molecular basis of AF remains incompletely understood. To determine the cell type-specific transcriptional changes underlying AF, we perform single-nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq) on left atrial (LA) samples from patients with AF and controls. From more than 175,000 nuclei we find that only cardiomyocytes (CMs) and macrophages (MΦs) have a significant number of differentially expressed genes in patients with AF.

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Although diet is a substantial determinant of the human gut microbiome, the interplay between specific foods and microbial community structure remains poorly understood. Coffee is a habitually consumed beverage with established metabolic and health benefits. We previously found that coffee is, among >150 items, the food showing the highest correlation with microbiome components.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Accurate gene annotations are essential for interpreting how genomes function, and the GENCODE consortium has spent twenty years creating reference annotations for human and mouse genomes, serving as a vital resource for researchers globally.
  • - Previous annotations of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were incomplete and poorly organized, hindering research, prompting GENCODE to launch a comprehensive effort that resulted in adding nearly 18,000 novel human genes and over 22,000 novel mouse genes, significantly increasing the catalog of transcripts.
  • - The new annotations not only show evolutionary patterns and link to genetic variants associated with traits but also improve understanding of previously unclear genomic functions, greatly advancing research into both human and mouse genetic diseases.
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Accelerometer-Measured Sedentary Behavior and Risk of Future Cardiovascular Disease.

J Am Coll Cardiol

November 2024

Cardiovascular Disease Initiative, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Telemachus and Irene Demoulas Family Foundation Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • The study explores how sitting for long periods (sedentary behavior) can increase the risk of heart-related issues like atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
  • Researchers analyzed data from over 89,000 participants using accelerometers to measure daily sedentary time and its impact on cardiovascular health.
  • Results indicated that those sitting more than 10.6 hours a day faced significantly higher risks for heart failure and cardiovascular death, and moving more (even a little) could help reduce these risks.
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  • Mendelian randomization is being used to analyze causal effects of genetic factors, but many existing methods may not address the issue of horizontal pleiotropy effectively.
  • Researchers developed MR Corge, a tool that focuses on core genetic instruments tied to biological functions of the exposure, improving sensitivity analysis and minimizing pleiotropy risks.
  • MR Corge has shown reliable results aligning with established biomedical knowledge and is available as an open-sourced R package for broader application in studying polygenic exposure-outcome relationships.
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  • - This study explores how machine learning can predict whether individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) will return to work one year after their injury, using data collected from 586 hospitalized patients across Europe.
  • - By analyzing hospital stay and follow-up data, the researchers found that including follow-up information significantly improved prediction accuracy, going from around 81% to 88%.
  • - The final model, which included five key predictors, achieved 90% accuracy and can help clinicians set realistic goals and tailor interventions for TBI patients, enhancing their chances of returning to work.
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A common missense variant in among African American individuals (rs5491; pK56M) has been associated with risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), but the pathways that lead to HFpEF among those with this variant are not clear. In this analysis of 92 circulating proteins and their associated networks, we identified 7 circulating inflammatory proteins associated with rs5491 among >600 African American individuals. Using weighted coexpression network analysis, 3 protein networks were identified, one of which was associated with rs5491.

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Antimicrobial resistance is a growing health threat, but standard methods for determining antibiotic susceptibility are slow and can delay optimal treatment, which is especially consequential in severe infections such as bacteremia. Novel approaches for rapid susceptibility profiling have emerged that characterize either bacterial response to antibiotics (phenotype) or detect specific resistance genes (genotype). entypic and enotypic through NA detection (GoPhAST-R) is a novel assay, performed directly on positive blood cultures, that integrates rapid transcriptional response profiling with the detection of key resistance gene transcripts, thereby providing simultaneous data on both phenotype and genotype.

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Article Synopsis
  • * By employing single-nucleus RNA sequencing, researchers analyzed over 170,000 astrocyte nuclei across different developmental stages and brain areas in mice and marmosets, revealing distinct regional differences in astrocyte gene expression that are not shared with neurons or other glial cells.
  • * The study found that while astrocytes show regional patterns even in late embryonic stages, their gene expression changes significantly after birth for specialization, with differences in gene expression and maturation timing observed between the two species studied. *
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  • The study explores how genetic factors (polygenic scores or PGS) for psychiatric disorders affect the treatment trajectories of individuals with early-onset Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in secondary care.
  • Researchers used data from a large Danish sample, analyzing 10,577 individuals diagnosed with MDD between ages 10-25 to identify different patterns of treatment over seven years.
  • Findings reveal specific associations between PGS for ADHD and anorexia with treatment trajectories, suggesting that while genetics may influence the path of depression treatment, the effects are small and not currently useful for predicting clinical outcomes.
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  • Whole genome sequencing (WGS) helps identify rare genetic variants that may explain the missing heritability of coronary artery disease (CAD) by analyzing 4,949 cases and 17,494 controls from the NHLBI TOPMed program.
  • The study estimates that the heritability of CAD is around 34.3%, with ultra-rare variants contributing about 50%, especially those with low linkage disequilibrium.
  • Functional annotations show significant enrichment of CAD heritability, highlighting the importance of ultra-rare variants and specific regulatory mechanisms in different cells as major factors influencing genetic risk for the disease.
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Loss of function in protein Z (PROZ) is associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke in the UK Biobank.

J Thromb Haemost

January 2025

Cardiovascular Disease Initiative, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Division of Hematology and Blood Transfusion Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Electronic address:

Background: The vitamin K-dependent coagulation factor protein Z (PZ), encoded by the PROZ gene, is canonically considered to have anticoagulant effects through negative regulation of factor Xa. Paradoxically, higher circulating PZ concentrations have repeatedly been associated with an elevated risk of acute ischemic stroke.

Objectives: We performed a large-scale genetic association study to examine the relationship between germline genetic variants in PROZ and the risk of ischemic stroke.

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Fine-mapping a genome-wide meta-analysis of 98,374 migraine cases identifies 181 sets of candidate causal variants.

medRxiv

May 2024

Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

Migraine is a highly prevalent neurovascular disorder for which genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over one hundred risk loci, yet the causal variants and genes remain mostly unknown. Here, we meta-analyzed three migraine GWAS including 98,374 cases and 869,160 controls and identified 122 independent risk loci of which 35 were new. Fine-mapping of a meta-analysis is challenging because some variants may be missing from some participating studies and accurate linkage disequilibrium (LD) information of the variants is often not available.

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Socio-medical Factors Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders on the Kenyan Coast.

medRxiv

September 2024

Neuroscience Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, P.O Box 230-80108, Kilifi, Kenya.

Article Synopsis
  • * This study analyzed data from two Kenyan studies, identifying risk factors linked to NDDs; significant findings include complications during pregnancy and birth, with specific odds ratios indicating which factors pose the greatest risk.
  • * Recognizing these risk factors, such as labour and birth complications, can help guide preventative measures and interventions for reducing the incidence of NDDs in affected populations.
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Evaluation of expanded 2-aminobenzothiazole library as inhibitors of a model histidine kinase and virulence suppressors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Bioorg Chem

December 2024

Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Minnesota, 308 Harvard Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States; Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, 207 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55454, United States; Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota, 321 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States. Electronic address:

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a rapidly increasing threat to human health. New strategies to combat resistant organisms are desperately needed. One potential avenue is targeting two-component systems, which are the main bacterial signal transduction pathways used to regulate development, metabolism, virulence, and antibiotic resistance.

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  • Type 2 diabetes is a serious disease that affects many Hispanic/Latino people in the U.S. and needs proper nutrition to manage it.
  • To help these communities, nutrition programs should fit their culture and include experts like registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs).
  • Using the right tools to check what people eat can help improve the programs and better meet the needs of those with diabetes.
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Opioid prescription records in existing electronic health record (EHR) databases are a potentially useful, high-fidelity data source for opioid use-related risk phenotyping in genetic analyses. Prescriptions for codeine derived from EHR records were used as targeting traits by screening 16 million patient-level medication records. Genome-wide association analyses were then conducted to identify genomic loci and candidate genes associated with different count patterns of codeine prescriptions.

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