Digital Commons Network^™

Medicine During The Holocaust: A Comparative Study Of Righteous Dutch, German, And Italian Physicians, Vincent Tse, Salvatore Mangione

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: Authoritarianism can hinder altruism, even among physicians, the most altruistic members of society. Hence, we postulated that the proportion of doctors who saved Jews during the Holocaust (i.e. “Righteous Among the Nations”) was higher in a democratic country like the Netherlands as compared to authoritarian ones like Germany and Italy.

Methods: We analyzed the Yad Vashem database and other census data to determine the total populations, numbers of physicians, numbers of “Righteous”, and numbers of “Righteous” physicians in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands during WWII. A chi-squared analysis for independence evaluated the association between proportion of “Righteous” physicians to …

Exercise Performance In Ordinary Children And Adolescents: Baseline, Pandemic, And Post-Pandemic, Abby Skiena, Gina D'Aloisio, Ms, Takeshi Tsuda, Md

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic might have created considerable negative impacts on the physical fitness of ordinary adolescents, which may pose a major threat to long-term cardiovascular health.

Methods: Healthy adolescents (ages 11 to 18) who underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) were grouped into baseline (~ 3/2020), pandemic (4/2020 ~12/2022), and post-pandemic (1/2023~ 5/2024) periods. Data are shown as mean ± standard deviation.

Results: Peak oxygen consumption (VO2/kg) and peak work rate (WR/kg) were significantly reduced during pandemic in both sexes and did not improve during post-pandemic in males (Table 1). The decline of peak oxygen pulse (OP/kg) …

Characterizing The Effects Of Antimuscarinics On Rhoa Signaling, Zuhra Tukhtamisheva, Elizabeth L. Mcduffie, Jordan Lee, Steven S. An, Reynold A. Panettieri Jr., Charles Scott

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: Airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma is driven by acetylcholine-mediated activation of the muscarinic acetylcholine 3 receptor (M3R), promoting bronchoconstriction, mucus hypersecretion, and airway remodeling. Despite directly targeting this pathway, antimuscarinics remain adjunctive rather than first-line therapy, suggesting a disconnect between biological rationale and clinical efficacy. Recent work from the Scott Lab at Thomas Jefferson University demonstrates that M3R in human airway smooth muscle (HASM) cells drives muscle shortening through G_12/13–driven RhoA signaling rather than through G_q/11-dependent calcium flux. We therefore investigated whether clinically prescribed antimuscarinics effectively inhibit G_12/13-dependent RhoA signaling in HASM cells.

Methods: …

Interrelationship Between Body Mass Index, Venous Sinus Pressures, Craniospinal Elastance, And Intracranial Pressure In Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, Rachel Wang, Ba, Bs, Scott W. Keith, Phd, Pascal M. Jabbour, Md, Stavropoula I. Tjoumakaris, Md, Michael J. Marmura, Md, Michael R. Gooch, Md, Hsiangkuo Yuan, Md, Phd

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: To investigate the interrelationship between body mass index (BMI), venous sinus pressure (VSP), and craniospinal elastance in determining lumbar puncture opening pressure (LP OP) in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

Methods: A single-center retrospective chart review was conducted to identify patients who received venous manometry (8/2021-11/2025) followed by LP within 7 days before stenting. VSPs were measured at standardized locations, including the torcula (TP) and sigmoid/jugular (SIJ) sinuses. Elastance was calculated as (OP – closing pressure)/volume of CSF removed. Statistical analysis (JASP 0.19.3) was performed using generalized linear model (Gaussian identity; scaled center) to assess relationships between LP OP, BMI, …

Comparative Analysis Of Fsrt And Srs For Vestibular Schwannoma Using A Large Multi-Institutional Dataset, Ian Argento, Bs, Daniel Uralov, Md, Jacob Beiriger, Md, Anika Walia, Bs, Kalena Liu, Bs, Wenyin Shi, Md, Jacob B. Hunter, Md

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) both achieve high control rates of vestibular schwannomas (VS), but their comparative effects on functional outcomes remain uncertain. Prior studies are limited by small sample sizes and heterogeneous methods.

Methods: Deidentified data were analyzed from 100 healthcare organizations through TriNetX. Adults with VS (ICD-10: D33.3) and sensorineural hearing loss (H90.A/H90.1–H90.8) were included. Patients with neurofibromatosis or prior surgical resection were excluded. Treatment cohorts consisted of single-session SRS or ≥2-sessions of FSRT. Propensity score matching (1:1) yielded 909 patients per cohort. Outcomes—including hearing loss, cerebral edema, hydrocephalus, and cranial nerve …

Assessing Familiarity And Comfortability Of Phase 2 Skmc Students In Working With The Intellectually Disabled Population, Lily N. Dudash, Jessica Tomaszewski, Md, Talia Gillespie, Katie Labgold, Phd, Mph

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: People living with an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD) are at increased risk of poor health outcomes due to inadequate access to quality healthcare. Literature suggests that trainees are underprepared to adjust their clinical practice to treat these patients, which may implicate undergraduate medical education curriculum. This study assessed the comfortability of SKMC students who have completed Phase 2 of the JeffMD curriculum in performing clinical tasks while caring for patients with IDD, and if that comfort is affected by prior experience. We predict that students will report low levels of comfort and be engaged in an educational intervention. …

The Impact Of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Factors And Insurance Status On Outcomes Following Reduction Mammoplasty, Teresa Chan, Kelsey Van Housen, Mspas, Emily Isch, Md, Judith Monzy, Julianne Bartz, Matthew Jekins, Md, David Kim, Md, Andrew Newsman, Md, Heather Mcmahon, Md

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: The impact of socioeconomic status (SES) and neighborhood-level deprivation on surgical outcomes in breast reduction remains unclear. This study evaluated the effect of area deprivation index (ADI) and insurance status on postoperative outcomes following reduction mammoplasty.

Methods: A retrospective review of reduction mammoplasty cases was conducted at a single institution over a 7-year period. Patients ≥18 years old who underwent reduction mammoplasty for benign macromastia were included. Zip-code linked ADI, insurance type, and postoperative complication rate were assessed.

Results: A total of 594 patients were analyzed. Mean age was 36.2 ± 13.1 years and mean body mass index (BMI) …

Neck Circumference As A Novel Predictor Of Cardiovascular Risk Assessed Using Framingham And Prevent Equations, Stephen Garrova, Roshaan Gilani, Steven Muller, Jean Pierre Charpentier, Brian Fedgchin, Glenn Cooper, Cindy Cheng

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: While body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are standard clinical tools for anthropometric cardiovascular risk assessment, they are limited by measurement variability and patient discomfort. Neck circumference (NC) may offer a novel, convenient, and accurate alternative anthropometric measure for assessment of cardiovascular risk.

Methods: Standardized anthropometric measurements (NC, WC, BMI) were obtained by trained medical students from eligible patients (n = 110, 68% female, 75% African American) from primary care and cardiology offices in an IRB-approved cohort study with retrospective chart review. Electronic medical record data extraction via double data entry was used to calculate cardiovascular …

Jefferson Heart Health (Jhh): A Successful Student-Delivered Motivational Interviewing Pilot Program To Lower Cardiovascular Disease (Cvd) Risk, Nicholas Tomasko, Bs, Cindy Cheng, Md, Phd, Rafael Hernandez, Bs, Alessandra Sapon, Bs

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: The Jefferson Heart Health (JHH) program utilizes student health coaching by trained undergraduate and medical students supporting patients to sustain lifestyle changes and subsequently determine: how can we effectively educate patients by improving adherence to lifestyle recommendations? Also, what is the effectiveness of student-delivered health coaching for reducing patient cardiovascular risk? With our unique student-delivered program, we promote cost-effective lifestyle interventions for lowering overall cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden.

Methods: We successfully completed a four-week pilot with consistent patient attendance. Certified student JHH coaches, supervised by the certified obesity-management specialist and principal investigator, met weekly with 23 patients: 82.6% female/17.4% …

Systematic Evaluation Of Batch Effects In The Cancer Genome Atlas Program Underscores The Need For Batch-Controlled Analysis, Zhongxuan Chen, Stepan Nersisyan, Isidore Rigoutsos, Eric Londin

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: To systematically assess the impact of batch effects on differential expression of isomiR, mRNA, and non-coding RNA (sncRNA) across 13 The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cancer types and develop a standardized, batch-controlled analysis protocol for TCGA datasets.

Methods: Data analysis and visualization were performed using Python v3.12. Plots were generated using matplotlib and seaborn. isomiR, mRNA, and sncRNA sequences across 13 TCGA cancer types were used. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed using scikit-learn for dimensionality reduction. Differential expression was conducted using DESeq2 under the following protocols: 1) primary tumor samples vs matched normal samples processed in the same …

Elucidating The Binding Site Of The Arrestin-Biased Agonist Icl1-20, Kesara Wein, Roger Armen, Jeffrey L. Benovic, Charles P. Scott

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Background and Purpose: 6.7 million Americans live with congestive heart failure (CHF). In CHF, catecholamines are released into cardiac tissue, bind β-adrenergic receptors (βARs), and activate G-protein signaling cascades, causing ischemia and apoptosis. Accordingly, β-blockers are used to antagonize catecholamine binding to βARs and suppress apoptotic downstream effects. However, β-blockers have dose-limiting hypotension, bradycardia and fail to stimulate the cardioprotective β-arrestin signaling pathway. These limits create opportunities for the development of drugs that selectively stimulate β-arrestin signaling while suppressing cardiotoxic G protein signaling. We have previously reported a biased agonist of the β-arrestin pathway (ICL1-20) that selectively stimulates β-arrestin recruitment …

Survival Impact Of Intraoperative Co2 Dysregulation In Patients Undergoing Pancreaticoduodenectomy For Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, Ashley Wetzel, Andrea Feci, Joseph Gorman, Isabel Lavine, Edoardo Manca, Richard Zheng, Md, Nader Hanna, Md, Harish Lavu, Md, Charles J. Yeo, Md, Avinoam Nevler, Md

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) are aggressive malignancies with poor prognoses. Emerging evidence suggests tissue hypercapnia (elevated CO₂) promotes aggressive, treatment resistant tumor biology. End-tidal CO₂ (ETCO₂) offers a composite measure of ventilation, systemic perfusion, and tissue CO₂ production. During curative-intent pancreaticoduodenectomy, we hypothesized that intraoperative ETCO₂ could serve as a marker of tissue CO₂ dyscapnia; both low levels indicating decreased circulatory reserves and high levels indicating tissue hypercapnia may result in worse outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review (2017-2023) of 343 patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy for PDAC. Intraoperative ETCO₂ data …

Evaluating The Impact Of Bard1 Isoform Targeting On Pdac Growth And Response To Olaparib, Lily Zekavat, Samuel Zion, Boxuan Wei, Avinoam Nevler, Aditi Jain

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Background

• BRCA-Associated Ring Domain 1 (BARD1), a heterodimeric binding partner of the tumor suppressor BRCA1, plays an essential role in homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair. Mutations in BARD1 increase cancer susceptibility and result in a molecular phenotype that predicts sensitivity to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibition (PARPi), including Olaparib.
• Several alternatively spliced isoforms of BARD1, including BARD1δ and BARD1φ, have also been implicated in tumor progression. These isoforms, characterized by deletion of exons 2-6 and 3-6, respectively, lack the RING domain required for BRCA1 interaction (Figure 1). 
• Upregulation of BARD1 isoforms is associated with poor prognosis in several tumor types. However, the …

Primary Care Use And Clinical Outcomes In A Prevalent Cohort Of Patients Receiving Hemodialysis, Dustin Le, Hatem Najar, Zoheb Backer, Rohanit Singh, Byoungjun Kim, Morgan E. Grams, Laura Plantinga, Bernard G. Jaar

Division of Nephrology Faculty Papers

Rationale & Objective - Primary care is associated with improved health outcomes, but whether this is true for patients receiving dialysis is unclear. We evaluated the association of primary care use in the previous year and clinical outcomes using a prevalent cohort of patients receiving hemodialysis.

Study Design - Retrospective cohort study.

Setting & Participants - United States Renal Data System registry of prevalent patients requiring maintenance in-center on January 1, 2019, linked with Medicare claims data.

Exposure - Primary care use was defined as ≥ 1 outpatient visit to a provider with the specialty of Family, General, Geriatric, or …

National Landscape Of Pediatric And Adult Inpatient Sickle Cell Disease Care, Ashley M. Jenkins, Spoorthy Vangala, Matthew Mcintosh, Robert Legros, Sophie Lanzkron, Kevin Fiscella

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Jackson-Pratt Drain-Related Challenges And A Potential Explanation For Associated Surgical Site Pain Variability Following Breast Mastectomy And Reconstruction, Spencer Haber, Bs, Krishna Koka, Bs, Elizabeth Simon, Bs, Devin Williams, Bs, Andrew Newman, Md

Alpha Omega Alpha Research Symposium Posters

Background: The Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain is a closed suction drain used in surgeries throughout the body. This prevents seroma formation through continual negative pressure drainage while resisting collapse and obstruction. JP drains are mainstays in breast reconstruction and mastectomy.

Methods: Through a literature review using keywords such as “Surgical Site Infection” (SSI), “Quality of Life” (QOL), and “Surgical Site Pain” (SSP), we summarized JP drain-related complications in breast reconstruction and mastectomy. Although the drain effectively reduces seroma formation, there has been a lack of innovation in addressing these issues. There is no standardized approach to JP drain post-operative care or …

Hangout Hour: A Safe Space Fostering Community Within The Adolescent Young Adult (Aya) Community, Brooke Ashmore, Makena Krier

2025

Pacific Rxtracts - February 2026, Pacific Rxtracts

Pacific RxTracts

Articles:

• Reducing Proteinuria – FDA Accelerates Approval of Sibeprenlimab
• FDA Approves Oral Semaglutide as First GLP-1 Pill for Weight Loss
• New First-Line Digital Treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Ammoxetine: A Potential New Antidepressant For Major Depressive
• Extended-Release Buprenorphine Dosing in Individuals With High-Risk Opioid Use
• Managing Acute Agitation Without Injections: Oral Medications in the ED
• Prescription Stimulant Continuation in Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes
• Zoliflodacin - A New Treatment For Gonorrhea
• Intranasal Dexmedetomidine for Postoperative Sleep Quality After Gynecologic Laparoscopy
• FDA Approves Depemokimab, the First Twice-Yearly Biologic for Severe Eosinophilic Asthma Cancer Care
• Engineering Allogeneic CD7-Targeted CAR-T Cells Through Targeted Base …

Clinician Perceptions Of Barriers And Strategies To Improve Pediatric Hypertension Detection, Abbas H. Zaidi, Erica D. Sood, Sarah De Ferranti, Fabliha Khurshan, Samuel Gidding, Varsha Zadokar, Jonathan M Miller, Anne E Kazak

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

IMPORTANCE: Pediatric hypertension remains underrecognized despite its high prevalence (approximately 5%) and long-term cardiovascular implications. Although guidelines for screening and diagnosis exist, less than 25% of affected children are diagnosed, and more than half do not receive timely follow-up care. Clinician-specific implementation barriers and directly informed strategies, which may alleviate this gap, are insufficiently described.

OBJECTIVE: To identify clinician-reported barriers and actionable recommendations to improve pediatric hypertension detection and follow-up in primary care using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted between November 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023, with health care …

Anxiety Or Depression Trends By Disability Status And Demographic Intersections In Us Adults, 2019-2023, David Adzrago, Kayo Fujimoto, J Michael Wilkerson, Typhanye V Dyer, Faustine Williams

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Importance: Mental health problems, particularly anxiety and depression, remain among the leading causes of disease burden in the US. However, trends in anxiety and depression across disability status and demographics remain understudied.

Objective: To examine trends in anxiety and depression prevalence among US adults from 2019 to 2023 by disability status and demographic characteristics.

Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study used national population-based data from the National Health Interview Surveys from 2019 to 2023. Data were collected from household probability samples of noninstitutionalized US civilian adults aged at least 18 years. Data analyses were performed from December 6, 2024, …

Detecting Stigmatizing Language In Clinical Notes With Large Language Models For Addiction Care, Rohan Sethi, John Caskey, Yanjun Gao, Matthew M. Churpek, Timothy A. Miller, Anoop Mayampurath, Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, Majid Afshar, Dmitriy Dligach

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Intensive care units (ICU) produce numerous progress notes that may contain stigmatizing language that perpetuate negative biases and punitive approaches against patients. Patients with substance use disorders are particularly vulnerable to stigma. This study examined the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in the identification of stigmatizing language. We annotated a dataset with over 77,000 stigmatizing and non-stigmatizing notes from the MIMIC-III database. We utilized Meta's Llama-3 8B Instruct LLM to run the following experiments for stigma detection: zero-shot; in-context learning; in-context learning with a selective retrieval; supervised fine-tuning (SFT); and keyword search. All approaches were evaluated on a held-out …

Costs Of Single Maintenance And Reliever Therapy Vs Traditional Therapy For Asthma, Tri Pham, Abigail R Barker, Sarah A Eisenstein, Eliot Jost, Anna Volerman, Krutika Chauhan, Ross C Brownson, Timothy Mcbride, Mark D Huffman, Kaharu Sumino, Lynn B Gerald, Mario Castro, Anne E Dixon, James G Krings

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Despite strong guideline support, single maintenance and reliever therapy (SMART) for asthma is underused in the US. Limited insurance coverage of SMART-compatible inhalers remains a major barrier to its adoption.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the annual asthma management costs of SMART vs traditional therapy from a US health care payer perspective.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This economic evaluation used a probabilistic decision-tree model with Monte Carlo simulations to compare the total asthma management costs for patients prescribed SMART vs traditional therapy, conducting analyses from September 1, 2024, to March 13, 2025. Input data were extracted through a systematic review of …

A Multicomponent Strategy To Increase Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Rates In Primary Care: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial, Ruoyun Wang, Lei Liu, Sherry Dodd, Sharon Graham, Shannon Rook, Lauren Ericson, Katie Plax, Abigail Barker, Virginia Mckay, Michelle I Silver, Jason G Newland, Allison A King

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination prevents multiple cancers, yet vaccination rates by the recommended age remain well below national goals.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a multicomponent strategy in increasing HPV vaccination rates in primary care settings by 13 years of age.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cluster randomized clinical trial with a parallel-group design and 1:1 allocation was conducted at 20 pediatrics primary care practices from a practice-based research network in the St Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area by clinicians delivering routine well-child visits within participating practices. The intervention was implemented over 24 months (July 1, 2020, to September …

Longitudinal Multiomic Signatures Of Ards And Sepsis Inflammatory Phenotypes Identify Pathways Associated With Mortality, Narges Alipanah-Lechner, Pratik Sinha, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUNDCritically ill patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis exhibit distinct inflammatory phenotypes with divergent clinical outcomes, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. These phenotypes, derived from clinical data and protein biomarkers, were associated with metabolic differences in a pilot study.METHODSWe performed integrative multiomics analysis of blood samples from 160 patients with ARDS in the ROSE trial, randomly selecting 80 patients from each latent class analysis-defined inflammatory phenotype (hyperinflammatory and hypoinflammatory) with phenotype probability greater than 0.9. Untargeted plasma metabolomics and whole-blood transcriptomics at day 0 and day 2 were analyzed using multimodal factor analysis (MEFISTO). …

Biologically-Inspired Multiscale Neuromorphic Architecture, Christian O'Reilly, Ramtin Zand

Publications

This white paper proposes a biologically-inspired multiscale neuromorphic architecture that bridges key gaps between artificial neural networks (ANNs), spiking neural networks (SNNs), and biological neural networks (BNNs). While SNNs offer promising energy efficiency, their broader adoption remains limited by suboptimal performance and the need for novel learning paradigms. To address these challenges, the proposed framework integrates structural and functional principles observed in the brain, including hierarchical organization, sparse and modular connectivity, predictive coding, and diverse neuronal dynamics.

The architecture operates across micro-, meso-, and macro-scales, incorporating neuron-level diversity (e.g., excitatory/inhibitory and principal/support cells), canonical microcircuits (CMCs), and large-scale hierarchical organization. …

Osimertinib Activates A Tgf-Β2-Dependent Secretory Program That Drives Lung Adenocarcinoma Progression, Madhurima Ghosh, Chao Wu, Abhishek Kumar, Monique Nilsson, John V Heymach, Weina Zhao, Jiang Yu, Xin Liu, Na Ding, Shike Wang, Guan-Yu Xiao, Angelo Chen, Kate Grimley, William K Russell, Chad J Creighton, Xiaochao Tan, Jonathan M Kurie

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs) that are vulnerable to the EGFR antagonist osimertinib (Osi) eventually relapse, owing in part to the emergence of drug-tolerant persister (DTP) cells that arise through epigenetic mechanisms. Intratumoral DTP cells can herald a worse clinical outcome, but the way in which DTP cells influence LUAD progression remains unclear. Osi-resistant (OR) cells exhibit typical DTP cell features, including a propensity to undergo senescence and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which can activate heightened secretory states. Therefore, we postulated that OR cells influence LUAD progression through paracrine mechanisms. To test this hypothesis, we utilized congenic pairs of EGFR-mutant LUAD cell …

The Impact Of Vascular Management On Postoperative Complications In Patients Undergoing Surgery For Retroperitoneal Leiomyosarcoma, Neha Malik, Seokhun Kim, Christopher P Scally, Emily Z Keung, Heather Lillemoe, Keila E Torres, Kelly K Hunt, Sophia Khan, Christina L Roland, Heather G Lyu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Retroperitoneal leiomyosarcomas are aggressive malignancies. Complete surgical resection with negative margins is crucial to decrease the risk of recurrence but can be risky due to vascular involvement. The aim of our study was to evaluate the different approaches to IVC and renal vein management and their impact on postoperative complications.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patients who underwent surgery for retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma with IVC and/or renal vein involvement at our institution from 2016 to 2024. Patients were stratified by intraoperative vascular management, including ligation only versus varying forms of vascular reconstruction. Postoperative complications, including bleeding, transfusions, the …

Women's Preferences For Home-Based Self-Sampling Or Clinic-Based Testing For Cervical Cancer Screening, Joël Fokom Domgue, Monalisa Chandra, Olajumoke Oladoyin, Manali Desai, Robert Yu, Sanjay Shete

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Importance: While home-based self-sampling for cervical cancer screening is an evidence-based strategy proven to increase screening access and uptake, it is not currently recommended in the US despite recent Food and Drug Administration approval of the first at-home self-sampling device. Little nationally representative research has examined preference for and drivers of home-based self-sampling over clinic-based testing (the standard of care).

Objective: To assess women's perspectives about, reasons for considering, and factors associated with preferring at-home self-sampling for cervical cancer screening.

Design, setting, and participants: This population-based cross-sectional study used data from the 2024 Health Interview National Trends Survey (HINTS 7), …

Dispersion-Enhanced Nitrogen-Centered Photocatalysis Of The Direct Hydrogen Atom Transfer, Jiasong Zhang, Kaitong Zhuang, Ramon Trevino, Babu Raj Dhungana, Huiying Sun, Shuyu Yin, Yuting Li, Jacob A Sanchez, Xiaoyu Xia, Ramy Elerian, Yao Sun, Seth O Fremin, Chao Huang, Min He, Maosheng Cheng, Oleg V Larionov, Shengfei Jin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The development of structurally distinct and modular photocatalysts for direct hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) has emerged as a key frontier in radical-mediated C-H functionalization of strong carbon-hydrogen bonds. Despite the largely untapped potential across the fields of organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and materials science, few classes of direct HAT photocatalysts are currently known, and the approaches to enhancing their photocatalytic activity remain underdeveloped. We report herein the development of nitrogen-centered direct HAT photocatalysts based on the acridine framework, which leverage a C9-ortho-biaryl substituent for enhancing the photocatalytic activity through stabilizing dispersion interactions with the substrate as the key steering effect. …

Cd8+ T Cells In The Tumor Microenvironment Modulate The Response To Endocrine Therapy In Breast Cancer, Fabiana Napolitano, Yunguan Wang, Dhivya R Sudhan, Paula I Gonzalez-Ericsson, Luigi Formisano, Nisha Unni, Shahbano Shakeel, James Z Zhu, Khushi Ahuja, Lei Guo, María Rosario Chica-Parrado, Yuki Matsunaga, Pamela Luna, Chang-Ching A Lin, Yasuaki Uemoto, Kyung-Min Lee, Hongli Ma, Nathaniel J Evans, Alberto Servetto, Saurabh Mendiratta, Spencer D Barnes, Roberto Bianco, Yisheng V Fang, Lin Xu, Jeon Lee, Tao Wang, Justin M Balko, Gordon B Mills, Marilyne Labrie, Ariella B Hanker, Carlos L Arteaga

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The role of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) in modulating responses to antiestrogen therapy in hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancers remains unclear. We analyzed pre- and on-treatment biopsies from patients with HR+ breast cancer treated with letrozole to induce estrogen deprivation (ED). Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, assessed by H&E staining, and immune-related gene sets, including IFN-γ signaling genes, measured by RNA-Seq, were increased in ED-resistant tumors. Cyclic immunofluorescence and spatial transcriptomics revealed an abundance of CD8+ T cells and enhanced antigen processing and immune gene signatures in ED-resistant tumors. In this group, the expression of CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 - chemokine …