Innovative strategies to increase cardiac donor availability.

Heart transplantation is a life-saving procedure for many people throughout the world. Data shows that in 2024, there was an increase in the volume of adult heart transplantation in the United States even as there was a decrease in the volume of pediatric heart transplantation to the lowest volume in a decade. Organ availability remains a major limiting factor affecting transplant volume.

A Methodological Framework for the Efficient Characterization of Peripheral Nerve Stimulation Parameters.

Objective: Restoring movement and somatosensation with peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) requires precise neural activation. Pulse amplitude (PA) and pulse width (PW) modulate neural response differently, offering potential for improved selectivity. However, simultaneously modulating both parameters is rare due to the time required to map the two-dimensional space.

Domino partial heart transplantation.

Heart valve replacement in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery poses problems because conventional heart valve implants do not have the ability to grow. This mandates serial reoperations for implant exchanges until an adult-size implant can fit. Partial heart transplantation eliminates these reoperations because the transplanted valves grow.

Beyond low lignin: Identifying the primary barrier to plant biomass conversion by fermentative bacteria.

Renewable alternatives for nonelectrifiable fossil-derived chemicals are needed and plant matter, the most abundant biomass on Earth, provide an ideal feedstock. However, the heterogeneous polymeric composition of lignocellulose makes conversion difficult. Lignin presents a formidable barrier to fermentation of nonpretreated biomass.

Phenotype-driven assessment of the ancestral trajectory of sulfur biooxidation in the thermoacidophilic archaea Sulfolobaceae.

Certain members of the family Sulfolobaceae represent the only archaea known to oxidize elemental sulfur, and their evolutionary history provides a framework to understand the development of chemolithotrophic growth by sulfur oxidation. Here, we evaluate the sulfur oxidation phenotype of Sulfolobaceae species and leverage comparative genomic and transcriptomic analysis to identify the key genes linked to sulfur oxidation. Metabolic engineering of the obligate heterotroph revealed that the known cytoplasmic components of sulfur oxidation alone are not sufficient to drive prolific sulfur oxidation.

Using Pose Estimation and 3D Rendered Models to Study Leg-Mediated Self-righting by Lanternflies.

The ability to upright quickly and efficiently when overturned on the ground (terrestrial self-righting) is crucial for living organisms and robots. Previous studies have mapped the diverse behaviors used by various animals to self-right on different substrates, and proposed physical models to explain how body morphology can favor specific self-righting methods. However, to our knowledge, no studies have quantified and modeled all of an animal's limb motions during these complicated behaviors.

Reconnecting the Hand and Arm to the Brain: Efficacy of Neural Interfaces for Sensorimotor Restoration After Tetraplegia.

Background And Objectives: Paralysis after spinal cord injury involves damage to pathways that connect neurons in the brain to peripheral nerves in the limbs. Re-establishing this communication using neural interfaces has the potential to bridge the gap and restore upper extremity function to people with high tetraplegia. We report a novel approach for restoring upper extremity function using selective peripheral nerve stimulation controlled by intracortical microelectrode recordings from sensorimotor networks, along with restoration of tactile sensation of the hand using intracortical microstimulation.

The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal: An open access genetic resource dedicated to type 2 diabetes and related traits.

Associations between human genetic variation and clinical phenotypes have become a foundation of biomedical research. Most repositories of these data seek to be disease-agnostic and therefore lack disease-focused views. The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal (T2DKP) is a public resource of genetic datasets and genomic annotations dedicated to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related traits.

Sizing up spotted lanternfly nymphs for instar determination and growth allometry.

A major ongoing research effort seeks to understand the behavior, ecology and control of the spotted lanternfly (SLF) (Lycorma delicatula), a highly invasive pest in the U.S. and South Korea.

Sidechain Diversification of Grandifloracin Allows Identification of Analogues with Enhanced Anti-Austerity Activity against Human PANC-1 Pancreatic Cancer Cells.

The natural product (+)-grandifloracin is a potent "anti-austerity" agent, able to suppress the ability of various pancreatic cancer cell lines to tolerate conditions of nutrient deprivation. Such anti-austerity agents represent a promising approach to cancer chemotherapy. Here we report the synthesis and biological evaluation of racemic analogues of grandifloracin bearing diverse sidechains, of which two show enhanced potency in comparison with the natural product.

Correlating chemical sensitivity and basal gene expression reveals mechanism of action.

Changes in cellular gene expression in response to small-molecule or genetic perturbations have yielded signatures that can connect unknown mechanisms of action (MoA) to ones previously established. We hypothesized that differential basal gene expression could be correlated with patterns of small-molecule sensitivity across many cell lines to illuminate the actions of compounds whose MoA are unknown. To test this idea, we correlated the sensitivity patterns of 481 compounds with ∼19,000 basal transcript levels across 823 different human cancer cell lines and identified selective outlier transcripts.

Harnessing Connectivity in a Large-Scale Small-Molecule Sensitivity Dataset.

Unlabelled: Identifying genetic alterations that prime a cancer cell to respond to a particular therapeutic agent can facilitate the development of precision cancer medicines. Cancer cell-line (CCL) profiling of small-molecule sensitivity has emerged as an unbiased method to assess the relationships between genetic or cellular features of CCLs and small-molecule response. Here, we developed annotated cluster multidimensional enrichment analysis to explore the associations between groups of small molecules and groups of CCLs in a new, quantitative sensitivity dataset.

Advancing Biological Understanding and Therapeutics Discovery with Small-Molecule Probes.

Small-molecule probes can illuminate biological processes and aid in the assessment of emerging therapeutic targets by perturbing biological systems in a manner distinct from other experimental approaches. Despite the tremendous promise of chemical tools for investigating biology and disease, small-molecule probes were unavailable for most targets and pathways as recently as a decade ago. In 2005, the NIH launched the decade-long Molecular Libraries Program with the intent of innovating in and broadening access to small-molecule science.

The baric probe: a novel long-term implantable intracranial pressure monitor with ultrasound-based interrogation.

Object: Prompt diagnosis of shunt malfunction is critical in preventing neurological morbidity and death in individuals with hydrocephalus; however, diagnostic methods for this condition remain limited. For several decades, investigators have sought a long-term, implantable intracranial pressure (ICP) monitor to assist in the diagnosis of shunt malfunction, but efforts have been impeded by device complexity, marked measurement drift, and limited instrumentation lifespan. In the current report, the authors introduce an entirely novel, simple, compressible gas design that addresses each of these problems.

The nanometre-scale physiology of bone: steric modelling and scanning transmission electron microscopy of collagen-mineral structure.

The nanometre-scale structure of collagen and bioapatite within bone establishes bone's physical properties, including strength and toughness. However, the nanostructural organization within bone is not well known and is debated. Widely accepted models hypothesize that apatite mineral ('bioapatite') is present predominantly inside collagen fibrils: in 'gap channels' between abutting collagen molecules, and in 'intermolecular spaces' between adjacent collagen molecules.

Proteomics of the nucleus ovoidalis and field L brain regions of zebra finch.

The purpose of present study is to analyze the brain proteome of the nucleus ovoidalis (OV) and Field L regions of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). The OV and Field L are important brain nuclei in song learning in zebra finches; their analyses identified a total of 79 proteins. The zebra finch brain proteome analyses are poised to provide clues about cell and circuit layout as well as possible circuit function.

Intriguing microbial diversity associated with metal-rich particles from a freshwater reservoir.

During the late summer to early fall, Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins, CO, USA is fully stratified and exhibits seasonally high fluxes of iron, manganese, and metal-rich particles into the water column. Particles were collected from the mid-region of the hypolimnion and examined for metal content. Nucleic acids extracted from the particles were used to construct bacterial and archaeal 16S rDNA clone libraries.