Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by vascular remodeling driven in part by apoptosis-resistant pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). Na/H exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) regulates intracellular pH and plasma membrane cytoskeleton anchoring, influencing PASMC migration and proliferation, but the role of NHE1 in apoptosis remains unclear. NHE activity and NHE1 surface expression were increased in […]

Ketamine is an NMDA-receptor antagonist, which alters the state of wakeful consciousness at high doses. At lower doses, it induces reversible psychotic-like symptoms and has been used as a pharmacological model of psychosis. In this study, we explore whether low doses of ketamine disrupt conscious access in relation with its psychotomimetic effects, and investigate the […]

Anisotropic biological tissues contain hierarchical complexity from the nano to macro length scales. While novel fabrication strategies have advanced the creation of biomimetic architectures, most rely on biologically derived polymers that possess inherent batch-to-batch variability. Here, we fabricate omnidirectional anisotropic nanofibrous hydrogels using synthetic, self-assembling MultiDomain Peptides (MDPs). Using support bath-assisted extrusion 3D printing, MDP […]

Parkinsons disease (PD) is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disorder that has been modeled extensively in animals, primarily rodents, but also in non-human primates and non-mammalian organisms. However, no single animal model fully recapitulates the hallmarks of PD pathology. Here, we extend this work by modeling PD for the first time in the spiny mouse (Acomys dimidiatus), […]

The non-coding genome encodes complex regulatory logic that orchestrates gene expression and cell identity. While machine learning models for functional genomics have advanced our understanding of the cis-regulatory code, sequence-to-function models, DNA language models, and generative models have evolved as separate paradigms despite probing the same underlying regulatory biology. We introduce Nona, a multimodal masked […]

Animal survival in fluctuating environments depend on the ability to modulate their developmental pace in response to nutrient availability, a phenomenon known as developmental plasticity. In Drosophila larvae, we uncover a critical endocrine mechanism that coordinates this process under conditions of amino acid restriction. We identify the peptide hormone Limostatin as an enterokine, produced by […]

When Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells transition from a glucose-rich environment to low glucose conditions, the expression of genes that were previously repressed by glucose is derepressed, enabling the cell to adapt metabolic processes to the available carbon source. The Snf1 pathway is one of the primary signaling pathways responsible for orchestrating glucose sensing and signaling. In […]

Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek) is a vital source of digestible proteins and is well-suited for the plant-based protein industry. In this study, we analyzed pod morphological traits in the Iowa Mungbean Diversity (IMD) panel with 372 genotypes (2022-23) with AI-assisted image phenotyping using 2,418 pod images. Pod morphological traits were extracted using deep […]

CIC::DUX4 sarcoma (CDS) is a lethal cancer driven by a fusion between tumor suppressor Capicua (CIC) and pioneer transcription factor double homeobox 4 (DUX4). To develop an immunocompetent pre-clinical model of CDS, we previously generated three genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) of CDS with CIC::DUX4 regulated by loxP-STOP-loxP cassettes. However, all three models developed spontaneous […]

The Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ sequencing platform offers a path towards bedside genomics, producing long reads that can completely cover a gene of interest, and thus detect any known or novel variant the gene contains. However, the analysis of these long reads to identify actionable genotypes remains challenging and typically requires customization depending on the target […]