Publications by authors named "Michael Werner"

Computationally inferring mechanistic insights from typical biological data is a challenging pursuit. Even the highest-quality experimental data come with challenges. There are always sources of noise, a limit to how often we can measure the system, and we can rarely measure all the relevant states that participate in the underlying complexity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To provide an up-to-date review summarizing the pathophysiology and management of the most common orbital and intracranial complications of acute rhinosinusitis (ARS).

Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted using the following search criteria in the PubMed database: "sinusitis" AND "complications" AND ("orbital" OR "intracranial" OR "osseous" OR "Pott's puffy tumor"). Titles and abstracts were screened for relevance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Developmental plasticity enables the production of alternative phenotypes in response to different environmental conditions. Although significant advances in understanding the ecological and evolutionary implications of plasticity have been made, understanding its genetic basis has lagged. However, a decade of genetic screens in the model nematode has culminated in the identification of more than 30 genes that affect mouth form.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Many barriers prevent transgender women (TW) from fertility preservation (FP) prior to initiating gender-affirming hormones. The decision to move forward with gender affirming bottom surgery presents the last opportunity for these patients to preserve their ability to have genetically related children. However, oftentimes these patients will have azoospermia even after stopping their hormone therapy for an extended period due to the negative effects of these hormones on fertility.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Septins are a highly conserved family of proteins that form palindromic hetero-oligomeric rods, which anneal into non-polar filaments. Via association with the plasma membrane, septin filaments recognize micron-scale membrane curvature, create diffusion barriers, and regulate cell morphogenic events via scaffolding other cytoskeletal polymers (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Germline architecture plays a critical role in the production of functional gametes. Across species, oogenesis involves not only the preparation of the genome for sexual reproduction, but also the dramatic enlargement of a cell compartment to reach a volume sufficient to support embryogenesis. Creating exceptionally large cells is accomplished by a syncytial structure, in which many nucleus-containing compartments are interconnected by cytoplasmic bridges.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

When conducting biomechanical testing or clinical training using embalmed human soft tissues, it is essential to understand their impact on biomechanical properties and their time dependence. Previous studies have investigated this influence, but specific variations over different embalming durations have not been thoroughly addressed to date. Ninety-seven human iliotibial band specimens were obtained from nine donors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Financial toxicity (FT) adversely influences patient quality of life and is a barrier to clinical trial enrollment. Early-phase clinical trials (EPCTs) recruit patients who may have high baseline FT and require additional visits and procedures, potentially increasing FT.

Methods: In this prospective survey study, we sought to assess FT at baseline and after 2 months among patients with advanced solid malignancies participating in EPCTs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Developmental plasticity enables the production of alternative phenotypes in response to different environmental conditions. While significant advances in understanding the ecological and evolutionary implications of plasticity have been made, understanding its genetic basis has lagged. However, a decade of genetic screens in the model nematode has culminated in 30 genes which affect mouth-form plasticity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The non-muscle actomyosin cytoskeleton generates contractile force through the dynamic rearrangement of its constituent parts. Actomyosin rings are a specialization of the non-muscle actomyosin cytoskeleton that drive cell shape changes during division, wound healing, and other events. Contractile rings throughout phylogeny and in a range of cellular contexts are built from conserved components including non-muscle myosin II (NMMII), actin filaments (F-actin), and crosslinking proteins.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) modulators improve pulmonary outcomes in cystic fibrosis (CF) by stabilizing the CFTR protein on respiratory epithelial surfaces. To determine the efficacy of CFTR modulators on sinonasal outcomes in patients with CF, we performed a meta-analysis of clinical trials to date that include functional and radiographic evidence of sinus disease.

Methods: English full-text articles were searched in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Acute invasive fungal sinusitis (AIFS) is an aggressive disease with significant mortality and morbidity. Surgical debridement is a mainstay of treatment. However, orbital involvement may limit its efficacy and is an independent risk factor for mortality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: This scoping review aims to review cases of extranodal marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) of the larynx to establish best management practices for this rare clinical entity.

Methods: In this paper, we report a case of laryngeal MZL, in accordance with CARE guidelines. We then performed a scoping review according to PRISMA-ScR criteria of published cases of MZL involving the larynx.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The actomyosin cortex is an active material that generates force to drive shape changes via cytoskeletal remodeling. Cytokinesis is the essential cell division event during which a cortical actomyosin ring closes to separate two daughter cells. Our active gel theory predicted that actomyosin systems controlled by a biochemical oscillator and experiencing mechanical strain would exhibit complex spatiotemporal behavior.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * In a study of 84 patients, 22.6% were diagnosed with CRS post-surgery, and 58.3% showed signs of sinus inflammation for over six months, indicating a significant issue with sinus health after surgery.
  • * Factors like chemotherapy and prior sinus medication usage were linked to a greater need for sinus treatment, suggesting that further attention to sinus issues post-surgery could improve long-term quality of life for these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Insomnia and repetitive negative thinking (RNT) are both prevalent among cancer survivors, yet little work has investigated their interrelationship. To explore the hypothesis that RNT and insomnia are related, we conducted secondary analyses on data from a pilot clinical trial of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for cancer survivors.

Methods: This study analyzed survey data from 40 cancer survivors with insomnia who participated in a pilot randomized trial of CBT-I.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Venetoclax, a highly selective BCL-2 inhibitor, combined with hypomethylating agents (HMAs) azacitidine or decitabine, is approved for the treatment of newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (ND AML) in patients who are ineligible to receive intensive chemotherapy. Previous clinical studies initiated venetoclax plus HMA in an inpatient setting owing to concerns of tumor lysis syndrome (TLS). This study (NCT03941964) evaluated the efficacy and safety of venetoclax plus HMA in a United States community-based outpatient setting in patients with ND AML (N = 60) who were treatment naïve for AML, ineligible to receive intensive chemotherapy, had no evidence of spontaneous TLS at screening, and were deemed as appropriate candidates for outpatient initiation of venetoclax plus HMA by the investigator.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Comparative approaches show that different organisms can have both similar and different developmental outcomes, highlighting the need for multiple case studies to understand biological principles.
  • The nematode Pristionchus pacificus serves as a model for studying plasticity and epigenetic regulation due to its ability to change morphs based on environmental factors.
  • In comparing P. pacificus to Caenorhabditis elegans, researchers found common epigenetic genes but noted the absence of the PRC2 complex in P. pacificus, suggesting the evolution of new mechanisms for epigenetic regulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Extreme environments enable the study of simplified food-webs and serve as models for evolutionary bottlenecks and early Earth ecology. We investigated the biodiversity of invertebrate meiofauna in the benthic zone of the Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah, USA, one of the most hypersaline lake systems in the world. The hypersaline bays within the GSL are currently thought to support only two multicellular animals: brine fly larvae and brine shrimp.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The use of stereotactic frames is a common practice in neurosurgical interventions such as brain biopsy and deep brain stimulation. However, conventional stereotactic frames have been shown to require modification and adaptation regarding patient and surgeon comfort as well as the increasing demand for individualized medical treatment. To meet these requirements for carrying out state-of-the-art neurosurgery, a 3D print-based, patient-specific stereotactic system was developed and examined for technical accuracy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The nasoseptal flap is a workhorse reconstructive option for anterior skull base defects during endonasal surgery. This paper highlights the versatility of the nasoseptal flap. After providing a brief historical perspective, this review will focus on the relevant primary literature published in the last ten years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Contractile force generation by the cortical actomyosin cytoskeleton is essential for a multitude of biological processes. The actomyosin cortex behaves as an active material that drives local and large-scale shape changes via cytoskeletal remodeling in response to biochemical cues and feedback loops. Cytokinesis is the essential cell division event during which a cortical actomyosin ring generates contractile force to change cell shape and separate two daughter cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF