VMAP: Vaginal Microbiome Atlas during Pregnancy.

Objectives: To enable interactive visualization of the vaginal microbiome across the pregnancy and facilitate discovery of novel insights and generation of new hypotheses.

Material And Methods: Vaginal Microbiome Atlas during Pregnancy (VMAP) was created with R shiny to generate visualizations of structured vaginal microbiome data from multiple studies.

Results: VMAP (http://vmapapp.

Dynamic sampling from adipose tissue using droplet-based microfluidics supports separate mechanisms for glycerol and fatty acid secretion.

Pathologies in adipose (fat) tissue function are linked with human diseases such as diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cancer. Dynamic, rapid release of metabolites has been observed in adipocyte cells and tissue, yet higher temporal resolution is needed to adequately study this process. In this work, a microfluidic device with precise and regular valve-automated droplet sampling, termed a microfluidic analog-to-digital converter (μADC), was used to sample secretions from ∼0.

The Spiral Model of Evolution: Stable Life Forms of Organisms and Unstable Life Forms of Cancers.

If one must prioritize among the vast array of contributing factors to cancer evolution, environmental-stress-mediated chromosome instability (CIN) should easily surpass individual gene mutations. CIN leads to the emergence of genomically unstable life forms, enabling them to grow dominantly within the stable life form of the host. In contrast, stochastic gene mutations play a role in aiding the growth of the cancer population, with their importance depending on the initial emergence of the new system.

Germline variant profiling of CHEK2 sequencing variants in breast cancer patients.

The cell cycle checkpoint kinase 2 (CHEK2) is a tumor suppressor gene coding for a protein kinase with a role in the cell cycle and DNA repair pathways. Variants within CHEK2 are associated with an increased risk of developing breast, colorectal, prostate and several other types of cancer. Comprehensive genetic risk assessment leads to early detection of hereditary cancer and provides an opportunity for better survival.

Challenges in LncRNA Biology: Views and Opinions.

This is a mini-review capturing the views and opinions of selected participants at the 2021 IEEE BIBM 3rd Annual LncRNA Workshop, held in Dubai, UAE. The views and opinions are expressed on five broad themes related to problems in lncRNA, namely, challenges in the computational analysis of lncRNAs, lncRNAs and cancer, lncRNAs in sports, lncRNAs and COVID-19, and lncRNAs in human brain activity.

Comprehensive analysis of the functional impact of single nucleotide variants of human CHEK2.

Loss of function mutations in the checkpoint kinase gene CHEK2 are associated with increased risk of breast and other cancers. Most of the 3,188 unique amino acid changes that can result from non-synonymous single nucleotide variants (SNVs) of CHEK2, however, have not been tested for their impact on the function of the CHEK2-enocded protein (CHK2). One successful approach to testing the function of variants has been to test for their ability to complement mutations in the yeast ortholog of CHEK2, RAD53.

Resonance Raman spectral analysis of the heme site structure of cytochrome c oxidase with its positive regulator CHCHD2.

Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) reduces O, pumps protons in the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and is essential for oxygen consumption in the cell. The coiled-coil-helix-coiled-coil-helix domain-containing 2 (CHCHD2; also known as mitochondrial nuclear retrograde regulator 1 [MNRR1], Parkinson's disease 22 [PARK22] and aging-associated gene 10 protein [AAG10]) is a protein that binds to CcO from the intermembrane space and positively regulates the activity of CcO. Despite the importance of CHCHD2 in mitochondrial function, the mechanism of action of CHCHD2 and structural information regarding its binding to CcO remain unknown.

Parent-reported genetic counselor adherence to the NSGC practice resource for communicating a potential prenatal diagnosis: Impact on the Down syndrome diagnosis experience.

In 2011, the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) published practice resources about communicating a prenatal or postnatal diagnosis of Down syndrome (DS). However, the impact of GC adherence to those recommendations on patient experiences has been unknown. The objective of this analysis was to investigate perceived GC adherence to professional recommendations for delivering a DS diagnosis and the impact on parental diagnosis experiences and the information and support offered.

BRCA Status Dictates Wnt Responsiveness in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.

Unlabelled: The association of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations with increased risk for developing epithelial ovarian cancer is well established. However, the observed clinical differences, particularly the improved therapy response and patient survival in BRCA2-mutant patients, are unexplained. Our objective is to identify molecular pathways that are differentially regulated upon the loss of BRCA1 and BRCA2 functions in ovarian cancer.

Combining the novel FLT3 and MERTK dual inhibitor MRX-2843 with venetoclax results in promising antileukemic activity against FLT3-ITD AML.

FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) mutations occur in approximately one third of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. FLT3-Internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD) mutations are the most common FLT3 mutations and are associated with a poor prognosis. Gilteritinib is a FLT3 inhibitor that is US FDA approved for treating adult patients with relapsed/refractory AML and a FLT3 mutation.

Prostate Cancer-Specific Lysine 53 Acetylation of Cytochrome Drives Metabolic Reprogramming and Protects from Apoptosis in Intact Cells.

Cytochrome (Cyt) is important for both mitochondrial respiration and apoptosis, both of which are altered in cancer cells that switch to Warburg metabolism and manage to evade apoptosis. We earlier reported that lysine 53 (K53) of Cyt is acetylated in prostate cancer. K53 is conserved in mammals that is known to be essential for binding to cytochrome oxidase and apoptosis protease activating factor-1 (Apaf-1).

The vaginal immunoproteome for the prediction of spontaneous preterm birth: A retrospective longitudinal study.

Background: Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Most cases of preterm birth occur spontaneously and result from preterm labor with intact (spontaneous preterm labor [sPTL]) or ruptured (preterm prelabor rupture of membranes [PPROM]) membranes. The prediction of spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) remains underpowered due to its syndromic nature and the dearth of independent analyses of the vaginal host immune response.

The Digital World of Cytogenetic and Cytogenomic Web Resources.

The dynamic growth of technological capabilities at the cellular and molecular level has led to a rapid increase in the amount of data on the genes and genomes of organisms. In order to store, access, compare, validate, classify, and understand the massive data generated by different researchers, and to promote effective communication among research communities, various genome and cytogenetic online databases have been established. These data platforms/resources are essential not only for computational analyses and theoretical syntheses but also for helping researchers select future research topics and prioritize molecular targets.

Studying the Dynamics of Tunneling Tubes and Cellular Spheres.

Cancer cytogenetic analyses often involve cell culture. However, many cytogeneticists overlook interesting phenotypes associated with cultured cells. Given that cytogeneticists need to focus more on phenotypes to comprehend the genotypes, the biological significance of seemingly trivial cellular variations deserves attention.

The Importance of Monitoring Non-clonal Chromosome Aberrations (NCCAs) in Cancer Research.

Cytogenetic analysis has traditionally focused on the clonal chromosome aberrations, or CCAs, and considered the large number of diverse non-clonal chromosome aberrations, or NCCAs, as insignificant noise. Our decade-long karyotype evolutionary studies have unexpectedly demonstrated otherwise. Not only the baseline of NCCAs is associated with fuzzy inheritance, but the frequencies of NCCAs can also be used to reliably measure genome or chromosome instability (CIN).

Mitochondria Transplantation: Rescuing Innate Muscle Bioenergetic Impairment in a Model of Aging and Exercise Intolerance.

Arroum, T, Hish, GA, Burghardt, KJ, Ghamloush, M, Bazzi, B, Mrech, A, Morse, PT, Britton, SL, Koch, LG, McCully, JD, Hüttemann, M, and Malek, MH. Mitochondria transplantation: Rescuing innate muscle bioenergetic impairment in a model of aging and exercise intolerance. J Strength Cond Res 38(7): 1189-1199, 2024-Mitochondria, through oxidative phosphorylation, are crucial for energy production.

Environmental PM-triggered stress responses in digestive diseases.

Airborne particulate matter in fine and ultrafine ranges (aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm, PM) is a primary air pollutant that poses a serious threat to public health. Accumulating evidence has pointed to a close association between inhalation exposure to PM and increased morbidity and mortality associated with modern human complex diseases.

BAPCP: A comprehensive and user-friendly web tool for identifying biomarkers from protein microarray technologies.

Background And Objective: Proteome microarrays are one of the popular high-throughput screening methods for large-scale investigation of protein interactions in cells. These interactions can be measured on protein chips when coupled with fluorescence-labeled probes, helping indicate potential biomarkers or discover drugs. Several computational tools were developed to help analyze the protein chip results.

Identifying potential LGBTQIA competencies for genetic counseling student training.

The LGBTQIA community faces considerable health disparities. Developing and integrating LGBTQIA competencies into healthcare provider training programs is one way to promote inclusive high-quality care to potentially improve this community's health. Currently, there are no established LGBTQIA-specific competencies for genetic counseling graduate programs (GCPs), so training across GCPs likely varies.

Genotype × environment interactions in gene regulation and complex traits.

Genotype × environment interactions (GxE) have long been recognized as a key mechanism underlying human phenotypic variation. Technological developments over the past 15 years have dramatically expanded our appreciation of the role of GxE in both gene regulation and complex traits. The richness and complexity of these datasets also required parallel efforts to develop robust and sensitive statistical and computational approaches.

IRE1α Mediates the Hypertrophic Growth of Cardiomyocytes Through Facilitating the Formation of Initiation Complex to Promote the Translation of TOP-Motif Transcripts.

Background: Cardiomyocyte growth is coupled with active protein synthesis, which is one of the basic biological processes in living cells. However, it is unclear whether the unfolded protein response transducers and effectors directly take part in the control of protein synthesis. The connection between critical functions of the unfolded protein response in cellular physiology and requirements of multiple processes for cell growth prompted us to investigate the role of the unfolded protein response in cell growth and underlying molecular mechanisms.