464 results match your criteria: "Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology[Affiliation]"

We have carried out a systems-level analysis of the spatial and temporal dynamics of cell cycle regulators in the fission yeast . In a comprehensive single-cell analysis, we have precisely quantified the levels of 38 proteins previously identified as regulators of the G2 to mitosis transition and of 7 proteins acting at the G1- to S-phase transition. Only 2 of the 38 mitotic regulators exhibit changes in concentration at the whole-cell level: the mitotic B-type cyclin Cdc13, which accumulates continually throughout the cell cycle, and the regulatory phosphatase Cdc25, which exhibits a complex cell cycle pattern.

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Characterization of CD41 cells in the lymph node.

Front Immunol

August 2022

Transplantation Research Center, Renal Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.

Lymph nodes (LNs) are the critical sites of immunity, and the stromal cells of LNs are crucial to their function. Our understanding of the stromal compartment of the LN has deepened recently with the characterization of nontraditional stromal cells. CD41 (integrin αIIb) is known to be expressed by platelets and hematolymphoid cells.

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Lambdoid craniosynostosis (CS) is a congenital anomaly resulting from premature fusion of the cranial suture between the parietal and occipital bones. Predominantly sporadic, it is the rarest form of CS and its genetic etiology is largely unexplored. Exome sequencing of 25 kindreds, including 18 parent-offspring trios with sporadic lambdoid CS, revealed a marked excess of damaging (predominantly missense) de novo mutations that account for ~ 40% of sporadic cases.

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Alterations in a cross-hemispheric circuit associates with novelty discrimination deficits in mouse models of neurodegeneration.

Neuron

October 2022

Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

A major pathological hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, is a significant reduction in the white matter connecting the two cerebral hemispheres, as well as in the correlated activity between anatomically corresponding bilateral brain areas. However, the underlying circuit mechanisms and the cognitive relevance of cross-hemispheric (CH) communication remain poorly understood. Here, we show that novelty discrimination behavior activates CH neurons and enhances homotopic synchronized neural oscillations in the visual cortex.

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Background: Allele-specific KRAS inhibitors are an emerging class of cancer therapies. KRAS-mutant (KRAS) non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) exhibit heterogeneous outcomes, driven by differences in underlying biology shaped by co-mutations. In contrast to KRAS NSCLC, KRAS NSCLC is associated with low/never-smoking status and is largely uncharacterized.

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Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) regulates cell growth and metabolism in response to multiple nutrients, including the essential amino acid leucine. Recent work in cultured mammalian cells established the Sestrins as leucine-binding proteins that inhibit mTORC1 signalling during leucine deprivation, but their role in the organismal response to dietary leucine remains elusive. Here we find that Sestrin-null flies (Sesn) fail to inhibit mTORC1 or activate autophagy after acute leucine starvation and have impaired development and a shortened lifespan on a low-leucine diet.

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Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) controls growth by regulating anabolic and catabolic processes in response to environmental cues, including nutrients. Amino acids signal to mTORC1 through the Rag GTPases, which are regulated by several protein complexes, including GATOR1 and GATOR2. GATOR2, which has five components (WDR24, MIOS, WDR59, SEH1L and SEC13), is required for amino acids to activate mTORC1 and interacts with the leucine and arginine sensors SESN2 and CASTOR1, respectively.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of death among cirrhotic patients, for which chemopreventive strategies are lacking. Recently, we developed a simple human cell-based system modeling a clinical prognostic liver signature (PLS) predicting liver disease progression and HCC risk. In a previous study, we applied our cell-based system for drug discovery and identified captopril, an approved angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, as a candidate compound for HCC chemoprevention.

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Recent trio-based whole-exome sequencing studies of congenital hydrocephalus and nonsyndromic craniosynostosis have identified multiple novel disease genes that have illuminated the pathogenesis of these disorders and shed new insight into the genetic regulation of human brain and skull development. Continued study of these and other historically understudied developmental anomalies has the potential to replace the current antiquated, anatomically based disease classification systems with a molecular nomenclature that may increase precision for genetic counseling, prognostication, and surgical treatment stratification-including when not to operate. Data will also inform future clinical trials, catalyze the development of targeted therapies, and generate infrastructure and publicly available data sets relevant for other related nonsurgical neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric diseases.

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Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune condition of the central nervous system with a well-characterized genetic background. Prior analyses of MS genetics have identified broad enrichments across peripheral immune cells, yet the driver immune subsets are unclear.

Results: We utilize chromatin accessibility data across hematopoietic cells to identify cell type-specific enrichments of MS genetic signals.

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In response to starvation, endospore-forming bacteria differentiate into stress-resistant spores that can remain dormant for years yet rapidly germinate and resume growth in response to nutrients. The small molecule dipicolinic acid (DPA) plays a central role in both the stress resistance of the dormant spore and its exit from dormancy during germination. The locus is required for DPA import during sporulation and has been implicated in its export during germination, but the molecular bases are unclear.

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Extending precision medicine tools to populations at high risk of type 2 diabetes.

PLoS Med

May 2022

Diabetes Unit and Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

In this Perspective, Shivani Misra and Jose C Florez discuss the application of precision medicine tools in under-represented populations.

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A multi-step genomic approach prioritized TBKBP1 gene as relevant for multiple sclerosis susceptibility.

J Neurol

August 2022

Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (DEPT), Dino Ferrari Centre, Neuroscience Section, University of Milan, 20122, Milan, Italy.

Background: Over 200 genetic loci have been associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) explaining ~ 50% of its heritability, suggesting that additional mechanisms may account for the "missing heritability" phenomenon.

Objective: To analyze a large cohort of Italian individuals to identify markers associated with MS with potential functional impact in the disease.

Methods: We studied 2571 MS and 3234 healthy controls (HC) of continental Italian origin.

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Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immune checkpoint protein that suppresses cytotoxic T lymphocytes and is often overexpressed in cancers. Due to favorable clinical trial results, immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is part of Food and Drug Administration approved immuno-oncology therapies; however, not all patients benefit from ICI therapy. High blood platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio has been associated with failure of ICI treatment, but whether platelets have a role in hindering ICI response is unclear.

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Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ∼12,000 y B.P. This shift is hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a decline in physiological health as inferred from skeletal remains.

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Introduction: Patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC experience variable duration of benefit on EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The effect of concurrent genomic alterations on outcome has been incompletely described.

Methods: In this retrospective study, targeted next-generation sequencing data were collected from patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancer treated at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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Polygenic inheritance plays a pivotal role in driving multiple sclerosis susceptibility, an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS. We developed polygenic risk scores (PRS) of multiple sclerosis and assessed associations with both disease status and severity in cohorts of European descent. The largest genome-wide association dataset for multiple sclerosis to date (n = 41 505) was leveraged to generate PRS scores, serving as an informative susceptibility marker, tested in two independent datasets, UK Biobank [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.

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Background: Two variants in the gene encoding apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) that are highly associated with African ancestry are major contributors to the large racial disparity in rates of human kidney disease. We previously demonstrated that recruitment of APOL1 risk variants G1 and G2 from the endoplasmic reticulum to lipid droplets leads to reduced APOL1-mediated cytotoxicity in human podocytes.

Methods: We used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of induced pluripotent stem cells to develop human-derived APOL1 and APOL1 kidney organoids on an isogenic background, and performed bulk RNA sequencing of organoids before and after treatment with IFN-.

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Genetics and functional genomics of multiple sclerosis.

Semin Immunopathol

January 2022

Systems Biology and Computer Science Program, Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases, Department of Neurology, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, 02115 MA, USA.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory neurodegenerative disease with genetic predisposition. Over the last decade, genome-wide association studies with increasing sample size led to the discovery of robustly associated genetic variants at an exponential rate. More than 200 genetic loci have been associated with MS susceptibility and almost half of its heritability can be accounted for.

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Cancer patients frequently develop chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a painful and long-lasting disorder with profound somatosensory deficits. There are no effective therapies to prevent or treat this disorder. Pathologically, CIPN is characterized by a "dying-back" axonopathy that begins at intra-epidermal nerve terminals of sensory neurons and progresses in a retrograde fashion.

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Importance: The risk of airflow limitation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is influenced by combinations of cigarette smoking and genetic susceptibility, yet it remains unclear whether gene-by-smoking interactions are associated with quantitative measures of lung function.

Objective: To assess the interaction of cigarette smoking and polygenic risk score in association with reduced lung function.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This UK Biobank cohort study included UK citizens of European ancestry aged 40 to 69 years with genetic and spirometry data passing quality control metrics.

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Importance: Some prior evidence suggests that adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) may be associated with heart failure (HF). Identifying unique factors associated with the risk of HF and studying HF subtypes are important next steps.

Objective: To investigate the association of APOs with incident HF overall and stratified by HF subtype (preserved vs reduced ejection fraction) among postmenopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI).

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