Published in PloS one
There are substantial variations in household crowding and social mixing patterns across the African meningitis belt. This study finds a clear association between age, increased social mixing and respiratory symptoms. It lays the foundation for designing and implementing more detailed studies of social contact patterns in this region.
Published in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine
Schematic diagram of antibody targeted immunoliposomes binding onto damaged cartilage. Antibodies to type II collagen are normally blocked from binding to the surface of the articular cartilage. Proteolytic enzymes secreted by resident chondrocytes, synoviocytes or infiltrating leukocytes degrade the surface proteins and allow access of the antibod...
Published in TheScientificWorldJournal
For decades, mouse and other rodents have been used for the study of oxidative or related studies such as the effect of fluoride. It is known that rodents normally synthesize their own vitamin C (VC) due to the presence of a key enzyme in ascorbic acid synthesis, l-gulono-lactone-γ-oxidase (Gulo), while humans do not have the capacity of VC synthes...
Published in Molecular bioSystems
Cytological profiling (CP) is an unbiased image-based screening technique that uses automated microscopy and image analysis to profile compounds based on numerous quantifiable phenotypic features. We used CP to evaluate a library of nearly 500 compounds with documented mechanisms of action (MOAs) spanning a wide range of biological pathways. We dev...
Published in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Interpreting variants, especially noncoding ones, in the increasing number of personal genomes is challenging. We used patterns of polymorphisms in functionally annotated regions in 1092 humans to identify deleterious variants; then we experimentally validated candidates. We analyzed both coding and noncoding regions, with the former corroborating ...
Published in Nature genetics
The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network has profiled and analyzed large numbers of human tumors to discover molecular aberrations at the DNA, RNA, protein and epigenetic levels. The resulting rich data provide a major opportunity to develop an integrated picture of commonalities, differences and emergent themes across tumor lineages. The Pa...
Published in Nature
This paper from The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network presents an in-depth genome-wide analysis of endometrial (uterine) carcinomas from more than 350 patients. Based on a series of genomic features including newly identified hotspot mutations in the DNA polymerase gene POLE, and novel mutations in the ARID5B DNA-binding protein, the authors pro...
Published in Genome Biology
BackgroundRetroposed processed gene transcripts are an important source of material for new gene formation on evolutionary timescales. Most prior work on gene retrocopy discovery compared copies in reference genome assemblies to their source genes. Here, we explore gene retrocopy insertion polymorphisms (GRIPs) that are present in the germlines of ...
Published in Nature cell biology
A key issue in cancer biology is whether oncogenic transformation of different cell types of origin within an adult tissue gives rise to distinct tumour subtypes that differ in their prognosis and/or treatment response. We now show that initiation of prostate tumours in basal or luminal epithelial cells in mouse models results in tumours with disti...
Published in International journal of endocrinology
Background. Endogenous cannabinoids (eCBs) are involved in the development and regulation of reproductive behaviors. Likewise, prostaglandins (PGs) drive sexual differentiation and initiation of ovulation. Here, we use lipidomics strategies to test the hypotheses that mating immediately activates the biosynthesis and/or metabolism of eCBs and PGs a...
