Biology subjects

Hanson, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Hanson, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Linking Host Covariates to COVID-19 Vaccine-Induced Antibody Dynamics in a Large Healthcare Worker Cohort

Antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccination vary widely across individuals, but the factors shaping these differences and their relation to underlying host-response processes are still not fully understood. Here, we combined longitudinal serological data from 4,553 healthcare workers with a nonlinear mixed-effects model to quantify determinants of vaccine-induced antibody dynamics. This framework captured both population-level trends and inter-individual variability in anti-spike antibody trajectories after vaccination. We found that age, sex, and pre-vaccine infection significantly influenced response dynamics. Male sex and increasing age were associated with weaker initial antibody production but slower waning, while individuals with a pre-vaccine infection had pre-existing anti-spike antibodies and slower initial antibody production and faster waning. These effects translated into substantial long-term differences in predicted antibody levels, reaching up to a 27% decrease in antibody levels one year after the third vaccination. Our results provide a dynamic view of the determinants of vaccine-induced humoral immunity and establish a framework for analyzing heterogeneous immune responses in large longitudinal cohorts.

Systems Biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Ensemble encoding of facial expressions is greater for static faces than dynamic faces

Understanding the behaviour and emotions of other people is predicated on accurately decoding nonverbal facial cues. In the current study, we investigated whether the ensemble encoding of these facial cues is processed differently between moving and static faces. Across two experiments, participants performed a delayed-match-to-sample expression recognition task using dynamic and static stimuli. Ensemble size was manipulated by increasing the number of faces in the target array. In Experiment 1, we presented one, two, and four target faces. In Experiment 2, we presented one, four, and eight target faces. Results demonstrated that while recognition accuracy for dynamic and static faces was comparable when one target face was presented, task accuracy diverged as the ensemble size increased. Specifically, increasing the number of faces in the target array failed to improve task performance for the dynamic expression stimuli. In addition, the results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that when eight faces were presented in the dynamic condition, performance was impaired for all expressions (disgust, fear, and happy) as well as in the non-emotional air-puff condition. This suggests motion in general disrupted the participants ability to extract an accurate summary statistic as the ensemble size was increased.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Integrating protein copy numbers with interaction networks to quantify stoichiometry in mammalian endocytosis

Proteins that drive processes like clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) are expressed at various copy numbers within a cell, from hundreds (e.g. auxilin) to millions (e.g. clathrin). Between cell types with identical genomes, copy numbers further vary significantly both in absolute and relative abundance. These variations contain essential information about each proteins function, but how significant are these variations and how can they be quantified to infer useful functional behavior? Here, we address this by quantifying the stoichiometry of proteins involved in the CME network. We find robust trends across three cell types in proteins that are sub- vs super-stoichiometric in terms of protein function, network topology (e.g. hubs), and abundance. To perform this analysis, we first constructed the interface resolved network of 82 proteins involved in CME in mammals, plus lipid and cargo binding partners, totaling over 600 specific binding interactions. Our model solves for stoichiometric balance by optimizing each copy of a protein interface to match up to its partner interfaces, keeping the optimized copies as close as possible to observed copies. We find highly expressed, structure-forming proteins such as actin and clathrin do tend to be super-stoichiometric, or in excess of their partners, but they are not the most extreme cases. We test sensitivity of network stoichiometry to protein removal and find that hub proteins tend to be less sensitive to removal of any single partner, thus acting as buffers that compensate dosage changes. As expected, tightly coupled protein pairs (e.g. CAPZA2 and CAPZB) are strongly correlated. Unexpectedly, removal of functionally similar cargo adaptor proteins produces widely variable levels of disruption to the network stoichiometry. Our results predict that knockdown of the adaptor protein DAB2 will globally impact the stoichiometry of most other cargo adaptor proteins in Hela cells, with significantly less impact in fibroblast cells. This inexpensive analysis can be applied to any protein network, synthesizing disparate sources of biological data into a relatively simple and intuitive model of binding stoichiometry that can aid in dynamical modeling and experimental design.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Species, causes, and outcomes of wildlife rehabilitation in New York State

Wildlife rehabilitation is a publicly popular though highly controversial practice. State wildlife agencies frequently debate the ecological impact of rehabilitation. Analysis of case records could inform that debate by clarifying and quantifying the causes for rehabilitation, species involved, and treatment outcomes. This information could aid in the ability of regulatory agencies and rehabilitators to make informed decisions and gain insight into causes of species decline. In New York, rehabilitators are licensed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and thus, are required to submit annual reports. Between 2012-2014, 59,370 individual wildlife cases were seen by licensed rehabilitators comprising 31,229 (52.6%) birds, 25,490 (42.9%) mammals, 2,423 (4.1%) reptiles, and 73 (0.1%) amphibians. We identified patterns among taxonomic representation, reasons for presentation, and disposition. Major causes of presentation were trauma (n = 22,672, 38.2%) and orphaning (n = 21,876, 36.8%), with habitat loss (n =3,746, 6.3%), infectious disease (n = 1,992, 3.4%), and poisoning or toxin exposure (n = 864, 1.5%) playing lesser roles. The overall release rate for animals receiving care was 50.2%; 45.4% were either euthanized or died during the rehabilitation process. A relatively small number (0.3%) were permanently non-releasable and placed in captivity, and 4.1% had unknown outcomes. In comparison to data from 1989, wildlife submissions have increased (annual mean 12,583 vs 19,790), as has the release rate, from 44.4% to 50.2%. Utilizing a large data set allowed us to fill knowledge gaps, which can help inform management by both the rehabilitators and the state agencies that regulate them, deepening understanding of the scope and impacts of wildlife rehabilitation.

ecology↗