Biology subjects

Champion, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Champion, J..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Nanotextured steel surface exhibits antifungal activity

Fungal adhesion to stainless steel, an alloy commonly used in food and beverage sectors, public and healthcare settings, and numerous medical devices, can give rise to serious infections, ultimately leading to morbidity, mortality, and significant healthcare expenses. In this study, we demonstrate that nanotextured stainless steel (nSS) fabricated using an electrochemical technique is an antibiotic-free biocidal surface against Candida Albicans and Fusarium Oxysporum with 98% and 97% reduction, respectively. The nanoprotrusion features on nSS can have both physical contact with cell membranes and chemical impact on cells through production of reactive species, this material should not contribute to drug resistant fungus as antibiotics can. As nSS is also antibacterial and compatible with mammalian cells, demonstration of antifungal activity gives nSS the potential to be used to create effective, scalable, and sustainable solutions to broadly and responsibly prevent fungal and other microbial infections caused by surface contamination. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=76 SRC="FIGDIR/small/616307v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (22K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@9c037dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a93518org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@dccc6forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1f19515_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Self-Assembled Protein Vesicles as Vaccine Delivery Platform to Enhance Antigen-Specific Immune Responses

Self-assembling protein nanoparticles are beneficial platforms for enhancing the often weak and short-lived immune responses elicited by subunit vaccines. Their benefits include multivalency, similar sizes as pathogens and control of antigen orientation. Previously, the design, preparation, and characterization of self-assembling protein vesicles presenting fluorescent proteins and enzymes on the particle surface have been reported. Here, a full-size model antigen protein, ovalbumin (OVA), was genetically fused to the recombinant vesicle building blocks and incorporated into protein vesicles via self-assembly. Characterization of OVA protein vesicles showed room temperature stability and tunable size and antigen loading ratio. Immunization of mice with OVA protein vesicles induced strong antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses. This work demonstrates the potential of protein vesicles as a modular platform for delivering full-size antigen proteins that can be extended to pathogen antigens to induce antigen specific immune responses.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2022

Guardian crypt-base-goblet-cells protect the human colonic stem cell niche by triggering cholinergic calcium signal-dependent MUC2 secretion and luminal flushing

Mucus secreting goblet cells play a vital role in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. Here we report the discovery of an enigmatic mechanism for the generation of calcium signals that couple cholinergic input to secretion of hydrated mucus in the human colonic stem cell niche. Mechanistic insights for this study were derived from native human colonic crypts and crypt-like organoids expressing MUC2-mNEON. Importantly, we demonstrate that the human colonic stem cell niche is also a cholinergic niche, and that activation of muscarinic receptors initiates calcium signals at the apical pole of intestinal stem cells and neighbouring crypt-base-goblet-cells. The calcium signal trigger zone is defined by a microdomain of juxtaposed calcium stores expressing TPC1 and InsP3R3 calcium channels. Co-activation of TPC1 and InsP3R3 is required for generation of cholinergic calcium signals and downstream secretion of hydrated mucus, which culminates in the flushing of the colonic stem cell niche.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Semantic Integration of Clinical Laboratory Tests from Electronic Health Records for Deep Phenotyping and Biomarker Discovery

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems typically define laboratory test results using the Laboratory Observation Identifier Names and Codes (LOINC) and can transmit them using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) standards. LOINC has not yet been semantically integrated with computational resources for phenotype analysis. Here, we provide a method for mapping LOINC-encoded laboratory test results transmitted in FHIR standards to the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) terms. We annotated the medical implications of 2421 commonly used laboratory tests with HPO terms. Using these annotations, a software assesses laboratory test results and converts each into an HPO term. We validated our approach with EHR data from 15,681 patients with respiratory complaints and identified known biomarkers for asthma. Finally, we provide a freely available SMART on FHIR application that can be used within EHR systems. Our approach allows reusing readily available laboratory tests in EHR for deep phenotyping and using the hierarchical structure of HPO for association studies with medical outcomes and genomics.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryWe present an approach to semantically integrating LOINC-encoded laboratory data with the Human Phenotype Ontology and show that the integrated LOINC data can be used to identify biomarkers for asthma from electronic health record data.

bioinformatics↗