Publications

Globally, prostate cancer is the second most common malignancy in males, with over 400 thousand men dying from the disease each year. A common treatment modality for localized prostate cancer is radiotherapy. However, up to half of high-risk patients can relapse with radiorecurrent prostate cancer, the aggressive clinical progression of which remains severely understudied. To address this, we have established an orthotopic mouse model for study that recapitulates the aggressive clinical...

In May 2017, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) became the primary subtyping method for Salmonella in Canada. As a result of the increased discriminatory power provided by WGS, 16 multi-jurisdictional outbreaks of Salmonella associated with frozen raw breaded chicken products were identified between 2017 and 2019. The majority (15/16) were associated with S. enteritidis, while the remaining outbreak was associated with S. Heidelberg. The 16 outbreaks included a total of 487 cases with ages ranging...

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CH4 is promising for carbon neutrality and renewable energy storage but confronts low CH4 selectivity, especially at high current densities. The key challenge lies in promoting *CO intermediate and *H coupling while minimizing side reactions including C-C coupling or H-H coupling, which is particularly difficult at high current density due to abundant intermediates. Here we report a cooperative strategy to address this challenge using Cu-based catalysts...

The present study investigated the covalent binding behavior of the flavonoids, catechin, eriodictyol, luteolin and quercetin with β-lactoglobulin (βlg). Since the four flavonoids possess the identical A- and B-ring structures, effects of the C-rings on the properties of flavonoids and the corresponding semiquinones are revealed. Experimental methods including DLS and CD spectra indicated that with quercetin at room temperature did not induce aggregation of βlg, whilst binding with the other...

Amine antioxidants (ANs) are emerging organic pollutants that are widely used in industrial products. The extensive use of ANs has polluted the environments. At present, there is no report on the pollution situation of ANs in wetland environment. In this study, samples of water, ice, sediment, and soil were collected in the Songhua Wetland to study the behavior of ANs. Total concentrations of ANs ranged from 27.4 to 137 ng L^(-1) in water, 88.8-127 ng L^(-1) in ice, 46.0-169 ng g^(-1) dw in...

Computational variant effect predictors (VEPs) are providing increasingly strong evidence to classify the pathogenicity of missense variants. Precision vs. recall analysis is useful in evaluating VEP performance, especially when adjusted for imbalanced test sets. Here, we describe VEPerform, a web-based tool for evaluating the performance of VEPs at the gene level using balanced precision vs. recall curve (BPRC) analysis.

CONCLUSION: Using a Delphi method, international experts reached consensus to generate expert clinical practice statements providing guidance to clinicians worldwide on the management of sepsis in resource-limited settings. These statements complement existing guidelines where evidence is lacking and add relevant aspects of sepsis management that are not addressed by current international guidelines. Future studies are needed to assess the effects of these practice statements and address...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibits an ∼4:1 male-to-female sex bias and is characterized by early-onset impairment of social/communication skills, restricted interests, and stereotyped behaviors. Disruption of the Xp22.11 locus has been associated with ASD in males. This locus includes the three-exon PTCHD1, an adjacent multi-isoform long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) named PTCHD1-AS (spanning ∼1 Mb), and a poorly characterized single-exon RNA helicase named DDX53 that is intronic to PTCHD1-AS....

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) displays a notable male bias in prevalence. Research into rare (<0.1) genetic variants on the X chromosome has implicated over 20 genes in ASD pathogenesis, such as MECP2, DDX3X, and DMD. The "female protective effect" in ASD suggests that females may require a higher genetic burden to manifest symptoms similar to those in males, yet the mechanisms remain unclear. Despite technological advances in genomics, the complexity of the biological nature of sex chromosomes...

The incorporation of sequencing technologies in frontline and public health healthcare settings was vital in developing virus surveillance programs during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, increased data acquisition poses challenges for both rapid and accurate analyses. To overcome these hurdles, we developed the SARS-CoV-2 Illumina GeNome Assembly Line (SIGNAL) for quick bulk...

BACKGROUND: Gliomas are a major cause of cancer-related death among children, adolescents, and young adults (age 0-40 years). Primary mismatch repair deficiency (MMRD) is a pan-cancer mechanism with unique biology and therapeutic opportunities. We aimed to determine the extent and impact of primary MMRD in gliomas among children, adolescents, and young adults.

The eukaryotic CCR4-NOT deadenylase complex is a highly conserved regulator of mRNA metabolism that influences the expression of the complete transcriptome, representing a prime target for a generalist bacterial pathogen. We show that a translocated bacterial effector protein, PieF (Lpg1972) of Legionella pneumophila, directly interacts with the CNOT7/8 nuclease module of CCR4-NOT, with a dissociation constant in the low nanomolar range. PieF is a robust in vitro inhibitor of the DEDD-type...

Site-selective O-arylations of glycoside-derived diols have been achieved by couplings with bromoarenes upon irradiation with blue LEDs in the presence of an iridium photocatalyst and a nickel complex. The use of hexamethylenetetramine (hexamine) in place of quinuclidine, along with the application of a methoxy-substituted 2,2'-bipyridine ligand, provided improvements in yield for this relatively challenging substrate class. Selective arylation took place at the less sterically hindered OH...

Antibody-based research applications are critical for biological discovery. Yet there are no industry standards for comparing the performance of antibodies in various applications. We describe a knockout cell line-based antibody characterization platform, developed and approved jointly by industry and academic researchers, that enables the systematic comparison of antibody performance in western blot, immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence. The scalable protocols, which require minimal...

Alternative splicing is essential for plants, enabling a single gene to produce multiple transcript variants to boost functional diversity and fine-tune responses to environmental and developmental cues. At-RS31, a plant-specific splicing factor in the Serine/Arginine (SR)-rich protein family, responds to light and the Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway, yet its downstream targets and regulatory impact remain unknown.To identify At-RS31 targets, we applied individual-nucleotide...

Here, we describe an innovative and efficient method for screening peptide activators of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) utilizing a protein-protein interaction (PPI) approach. We designed a library of 92,918 peptides fused with transmembrane domains of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins (GPI-APs). We employed a pooled lentiviral system to promote the expression of these proteins at the cellular membrane and evaluate their ability to activate GPCRs. We then used...

INTRODUCTION: The agriculture genomics community has numerous data submission standards available, but the standards for describing and storing single-cell (SC, e.g., scRNA- seq) data are comparatively underdeveloped.

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Various birth characteristics may influence healthy childhood development, including the risk of developing childhood brain tumors (CBTs). In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between delivery methods, obstetric history, and birth anthropometrics with the risk of CBTs. This study used data from the Childhood Brain Tumour Epidemiology Study of Ontario (CBREO) which included children 0-15 years of age and newly diagnosed with CBTs from 1997 to 2003. Multivariable logistic...

CONCLUSION: The Genetics Adviser is a comprehensive, interactive, patient-centered application found to have high acceptability and usability for pre- and post-test genomic testing, counseling, and return of results adaptable for multiple testing platforms, populations, and settings.