Biomedical Informatics Commons^™

A/B Testing Of User Enrollment Forms To Enhance Diversity In The Biomedical Workforce Via The National Research Mentoring Network: User-Centered Design Case Study, Toufeeq Ahmed Syed, Erika L Thompson, Jason Johnson, Zainab Latif, Nan Kennedy, Damaris Javier, Katie Stinson, Jamboor K Vishwanatha

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is a National Institutes of Health-funded program for diversifying the science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine research workforce through the provision of mentoring, networking, and professional development resources. The NRMN provides mentoring resources to members through its online platform-MyNRMN.

OBJECTIVE: MyNRMN helps members build a network of mentors. Our goal was to expand enrollment and mentoring connections, especially among those who have been historically underrepresented in biomedical training and the biomedical workforce.

METHODS: To improve the ease of enrollment, we implemented the split testing of iterations of our user interface for platform registration. …

Improving Laboratory Animal Genetic Reporting: Lag-R Guidelines, Lydia Teboul, James Amos-Landgraf, Fernando J Benavides, Marie-Christine Birling, Steve D M Brown, Elizabeth Bryda, Rosie Bunton-Stasyshyn, Hsian-Jean Chin, Martina Crispo, Fabien Delerue, Michael Dobbie, Craig L Franklin, Ernst-Martin Fuchtbauer, Xiang Gao, Christelle Golzio, Rebecca Haffner, Yann Hérault, Martin Hrabe De Angelis, Kevin C Kent Lloyd, Terry R Magnuson, Lluis Montoliu, Stephen A Murray, Ki-Hoan Nam, Lauryl M J Nutter, Eric Pailhoux, Fernando Pardo Manuel De Villena, Kevin Peterson, Laura Reinholdt, Radislav Sedlacek, Je Kyung Seong, Toshihiko Shiroishi, Cynthia Smith, Toru Takeo, Louise Tinsley, Jean-Luc Vilotte, Søren Warming, Sara Wells, C Bruce Whitelaw, Atsushi Yoshiki, Asian Mouse Mutagenesis Resource Association, Celphedia Infrastructure, Infrafrontier Consortium, International Mammalian Genome Society, International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, International Society For Transgenic Technologies, Mutant Mouse Resource And Research Centers, Phenomics Australia, Rrrc- Rat Resource And Research Center, Guillaume Pavlovic

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The biomedical research community addresses reproducibility challenges in animal studies through standardized nomenclature, improved experimental design, transparent reporting, data sharing, and centralized repositories. The ARRIVE guidelines outline documentation standards for laboratory animals in experiments, but genetic information is often incomplete. To remedy this, we propose the Laboratory Animal Genetic Reporting (LAG-R) framework. LAG-R aims to document animals' genetic makeup in scientific publications, providing essential details for replication and appropriate model use. While verifying complete genetic compositions may be impractical, better reporting and validation efforts enhance reliability of research. LAG-R standardization will bolster reproducibility, peer review, and overall scientific rigor.

The Use Of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Values For Differentiating Bevacizumab-Related Cytotoxicity From Tumor Recurrence And Radiation Necrosis In Glioblastoma, Kamand Khalaj, Michael A Jacobs, Jay-Jiguang Zhu, Yoshua Esquenazi, Sigmund Hsu, Nitin Tandon, Alireza Akhbardeh, Xu Zhang, Roy Riascos, Arash Kamali

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: Glioblastomas (GBM) are the most common primary invasive neoplasms of the brain. Distinguishing between lesion recurrence and different types of treatment related changes in patients with GBM remains challenging using conventional MRI imaging techniques. Therefore, accurate and precise differentiation between true progression or pseudoresponse is crucial in deciding on the appropriate course of treatment. This retrospective study investigated the potential of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map values derived from diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) as a noninvasive method to increase diagnostic accuracy in treatment response.

METHODS: A cohort of 21 glioblastoma patients (mean age: 59.2 ± 11.8, 12 Male, 9 Female) …

Post-Immunotherapy Ctla-4 Ig Treatment Improves Antitumor Efficacy, Stephen Mok, Didem Ağaç Çobanoğlu, Huey Liu, James J Mancuso, James P Allison

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immune checkpoint therapies (ICT) improve overall survival of patients with cancer but may cause immune-related adverse events (irAEs) such as myocarditis. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 immunoglobulin fusion protein (CTLA-4 Ig), an inhibitor of T cell costimulation through CD28, reverses irAEs in animal models. However, concerns exist about potentially compromising antitumor response of ICT. In mouse tumor models, we administered CTLA-4 Ig 1) concomitantly with ICT or 2) after ICT completion. Concomitant treatment reduced antitumor efficacy, while post-ICT administration improved efficacy without affecting frequency and function of CD8 T cells. The improved response was independent of the ICT used, whether …

Influence Of Polypyrrole On Phosphorus- And Tio2-Based Anode Nanomaterials For Li-Ion Batteries, Chiwon Kang, Kibum Song, Seungho Ha, Yujin Sung, Yejin Kim, Keun-Young Shin, Byung Hyo Kim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Phosphorus (P) and TiO2 have been extensively studied as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high specific capacities. However, P is limited by low electrical conductivity and significant volume changes during charge and discharge cycles, while TiO2 is hindered by low electrical conductivity and slow Li-ion diffusion. To address these issues, we synthesized organic–inorganic hybrid anode materials of P–polypyrrole (PPy) and TiO2–PPy, through in situ polymerization of pyrrole monomer in the presence of the nanoscale inorganic materials. These hybrid anode materials showed higher cycling stability and capacity compared to pure P and TiO2. The enhancements are attributed …

Loss Of The Dna Repair Gene Rnase H2 Identifies A Unique Subset Of Ddr-Deficient Leiomyosarcomas, Michael S Nakazawa, Ian M Silverman, Victoria Rimkunas, Artur Veloso, Dominik Glodzik, Adrienne Johnson, Toshiro K Ohsumi, Shreyaskumar R Patel, Anthony P Conley, Christina L Roland, Pamela T Soliman, Hannah C Beird, Chia-Chin Wu, Davis R Ingram, Rossana Lazcano, Dawon Song, Khalida M Wani, Alexander J Lazar, Timothy A Yap, Wei-Lien Wang, J Andrew Livingston

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Targeting the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway is an emerging therapeutic approach for leiomyosarcoma (LMS), and loss of RNase H2, a DDR pathway member, is a potentially actionable alteration for DDR-targeted treatments. Therefore, we designed a protein- and genomic-based RNase H2 screening assay to determine its prevalence and prognostic significance. Using a selective RNase H2 antibody on a pan-tumor microarray (TMA), RNase H2 loss was more common in LMS (11.5%, 9/78) than across all tumors (3.8%, 32/843). In a separate LMS cohort, RNase H2 deficiency was confirmed in uterine LMS (U-LMS, 21%, 23/108) and soft-tissue LMS (ST-LMS; 30%, 39/102). In …

Inhibition Of Malt1 And Bcl2 Induces Synergistic Antitumor Activity In Models Of B-Cell Lymphoma, Joshua P Plotnik, Adam E Richardson, Haopeng Yang, Estela Rojas, Velitchka Bontcheva, Colleen Dowell, Sydney Parsons, Ashley Wilson, Vida Ravanmehr, Christine Will, Paul Jung, Haizhong Zhu, Sarathy Karunan Partha, Sanjay C Panchal, Raghuveer Singh Mali, Frederick J Kohlhapp, Ryan A Mcclure, Cyril Y Ramathal, Mariam D George, Manisha Jhala, Nathaniel L Elsen, Wei Qiu, Russell A Judge, Chin Pan, Anthony Mastracchio, Jared Henderson, Jonathan A Meulbroek, Michael R Green, William N Pappano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The activated B cell (ABC) subset of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is characterized by chronic B-cell receptor signaling and associated with poor outcomes when treated with standard therapy. In ABC-DLBCL, MALT1 is a core enzyme that is constitutively activated by stimulation of the B-cell receptor or gain-of-function mutations in upstream components of the signaling pathway, making it an attractive therapeutic target. We discovered a novel small-molecule inhibitor, ABBV-MALT1, that potently shuts down B-cell signaling selectively in ABC-DLBCL preclinical models leading to potent cell growth and xenograft inhibition. We also identified a rational combination partner for ABBV-MALT1 in the BCL2 …

Assessment Of Patient-Derived Xenograft Growth And Antitumor Activity: The Nci Pdxnet Consensus Recommendations, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Michael W Lloyd, Soner Koc, Yvonne A Evrard, Lisa M Mcshane, Michael T Lewis, Kurt W Evans, Dali Li, Lawrence Rubinstein, Alana Welm, Dennis A Dean, Anuj Srivastava, Jeffrey W Grover, Min J Ha, Huiqin Chen, Xuelin Huang, Kaushik Varadarajan, Jing Wang, Jack A Roth, Bryan Welm, Ramaswamy Govinden, Li Ding, Salma Kaochar, Nicholas Mitsiades, Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Meenhard Herylyn, Michael A Davies, Geoffrey I Shapiro, Ryan Fields, Jose G Trevino, Joshua C Harrell, Nci Pdxnet Consortium, James H Doroshow, Jeffrey H Chuang, Jeffrey A Moscow

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Although patient-derived xenografts (PDX) are commonly used for preclinical modeling in cancer research, a standard approach to in vivo tumor growth analysis and assessment of antitumor activity is lacking, complicating the comparison of different studies and determination of whether a PDX experiment has produced evidence needed to consider a new therapy promising. We present consensus recommendations for assessment of PDX growth and antitumor activity, providing public access to a suite of tools for in vivo growth analyses. We expect that harmonizing PDX study design and analysis and assessing a suite of analytical tools will enhance information exchange and facilitate identification …

Discret: Synthesizing Faithful Explanations For Treatment Effect Estimation, Yinjun Wu, Mayank Keoliya, Kan Chen, Neelay Velingker, Ziyang Li, Emily J Getzen, Qi Long, Mayur Naik, Ravi B Parikh, Eric Wong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Designing faithful yet accurate AI models is challenging, particularly in the field of individual treatment effect estimation (ITE). ITE prediction models deployed in critical settings such as healthcare should ideally be (i) accurate, and (ii) provide faithful explanations. However, current solutions are inadequate: state-of-the-art black-box models do not supply explanations, post-hoc explainers for black-box models lack faithfulness guarantees, and self-interpretable models greatly compromise accuracy. To address these issues, we propose DISCRET, a self-interpretable ITE framework that synthesizes faithful, rule-based explanations for each sample. A key insight behind DISCRET is that explanations can serve dually as database queries to identify similar …

Fedgmmat: Federated Generalized Linear Mixed Model Association Tests, Wentao Li, Han Chen, Xiaoqian Jiang, Arif Harmanci

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Increasing genetic and phenotypic data size is critical for understanding the genetic determinants of diseases. Evidently, establishing practical means for collaboration and data sharing among institutions is a fundamental methodological barrier for performing high-powered studies. As the sample sizes become more heterogeneous, complex statistical approaches, such as generalized linear mixed effects models, must be used to correct for the confounders that may bias results. On another front, due to the privacy concerns around Protected Health Information (PHI), genetic information is restrictively protected by sharing according to regulations such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This limits data sharing …

Ultrapotent Broadly Neutralizing Human-Llama Bispecific Antibodies Against Hiv-1, Jianliang Xu, Tongqing Zhou, Krisha Mckee, Baoshan Zhang, Cuiping Liu, Alexandra F Nazzari, Amarendra Pegu, Chen-Hsiang Shen, Jordan E Becker, Michael F Bender, Payton Chan, Anita Changela, Ridhi Chaudhary, Xuejun Chen, Tal Einav, Young Do Kwon, Bob C Lin, Mark K Louder, Jonah S Merriam, Nicholas C Morano, Sijy O'Dell, Adam S Olia, Reda Rawi, Ryan S Roark, Tyler Stephens, I-Ting Teng, Emily Tourtellott-Fogt, Shuishu Wang, Eun Sung Yang, Lawrence Shapiro, Yaroslav Tsybovsky, Nicole A Doria-Rose, Rafael Casellas, Peter D Kwong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Broadly neutralizing antibodies are proposed as therapeutic and prophylactic agents against HIV‐1, but their potency and breadth are less than optimal. This study describes the immunization of a llama with the prefusion‐stabilized HIV‐1 envelope (Env) trimer, BG505 DS‐SOSIP, and the identification and improvement of potent neutralizing nanobodies recognizing the CD4‐binding site (CD4bs) of vulnerability. Two of the vaccine‐elicited CD4bs‐targeting nanobodies, G36 and R27, when engineered into a triple tandem format with llama IgG2a‐hinge region and human IgG1‐constant region (G36×3‐IgG2a and R27×3‐IgG2a), neutralized 96% of a multiclade 208‐strain panel at geometric mean IC80s of 0.314 and 0.033 µg mL−1, respectively. Cryo‐EM …

Effect Of Medicaid Expansion On Cancer Treatment And Survival Among Medicaid Beneficiaries And The Uninsured, Kristin M Primm, Hui Zhao, Naomi N Adjei, Charlotte C Sun, Alen Haas, Larissa A Meyer, Shine Chang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid coverage for people with low income in the United States. Expanded insurance coverage could promote more timely access to cancer treatment, which could improve overall survival (OS), yet the long-term effects of Medicaid expansion (ME) remain unknown. We evaluated whether ME was associated with improved timely treatment initiation (TTI) and 3-year OS among patients with breast, cervical, colon, and lung cancers who were affected by the policy.

METHODS: Medicaid-insured or uninsured patients aged 40-64 with stage I-III breast, cervical, colon, or non-small cell lung cancer within the National Cancer Database (NCDB). A difference-in-differences …

Identification Of Immune-Associated Biomarkers Of Diabetes Nephropathy Tubulointerstitial Injury Based On Machine Learning: A Bioinformatics Multi-Chip Integrated Analysis, Lin Wang, Jiaming Su, Zhongjie Liu, Shaowei Ding, Yaotan Li, Baoluo Hou, Yuxin Hu, Zhaoxi Dong, Jingyi Tang, Hongfang Liu, Weijing Liu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a major microvascular complication of diabetes and has become the leading cause of end-stage renal disease worldwide. A considerable number of DN patients have experienced irreversible end-stage renal disease progression due to the inability to diagnose the disease early. Therefore, reliable biomarkers that are helpful for early diagnosis and treatment are identified. The migration of immune cells to the kidney is considered to be a key step in the progression of DN-related vascular injury. Therefore, finding markers in this process may be more helpful for the early diagnosis and progression prediction of DN.

METHODS: The …

A Deep Catalogue Of Protein-Coding Variation In 983,578 Individuals, Kathie Y Sun, Xiaodong Bai, Siying Chen, Suying Bao, Chuanyi Zhang, Manav Kapoor, Joshua Backman, Tyler Joseph, Evan Maxwell, George Mitra, Alexander Gorovits, Adam Mansfield, Boris Boutkov, Sujit Gokhale, Lukas Habegger, Anthony Marcketta, Adam E Locke, Liron Ganel, Alicia Hawes, Michael D Kessler, Deepika Sharma, Jeffrey Staples, Jonas Bovijn, Sahar Gelfman, Alessandro Di Gioia, Veera M Rajagopal, Alexander Lopez, Jennifer Rico Varela, Jesús Alegre-Díaz, Jaime Berumen, Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Pablo Kuri-Morales, Jason Torres, Jonathan Emberson, Rory Collins, Regeneron Genetics Center, Rgc-Me Cohort Partners; Michael Cantor, Michael Cantor, Timothy Thornton, Hyun Min Kang, John D Overton, Alan R Shuldiner, M Laura Cremona, Mona Nafde, Aris Baras, Gonçalo Abecasis, Jonathan Marchini, Jeffrey G Reid, William Salerno, Suganthi Balasubramanian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Rare coding variants that substantially affect function provide insights into the biology of a gene1-3. However, ascertaining the frequency of such variants requires large sample sizes4-8. Here we present a catalogue of human protein-coding variation, derived from exome sequencing of 983,578 individuals across diverse populations. In total, 23% of the Regeneron Genetics Center Million Exome (RGC-ME) data come from individuals of African, East Asian, Indigenous American, Middle Eastern and South Asian ancestry. The catalogue includes more than 10.4 million missense and 1.1 million predicted loss-of-function (pLOF) variants. We identify individuals with rare biallelic pLOF variants in 4,848 genes, 1,751 of …

Targeting Of Cyp2e1 By Mirnas In Alcohol-Induced Intestine Injury, Hyejin Mun, Sungyul Lee, Suyoung Choi, Ji-Hoon Jeong, Seungbeom Ko, Yoo Lim Chun, Benjamin Deaton, Clay T Yeager, Audrey Boyette, Juliana Palmera, London Newman, Ping Zhou, Soona Shin, Dong-Chan Kim, Cari A Sagum, Mark T Bedford, Young-Kook Kim, Jaeyul Kwon, Junyang Jung, Jeong Ho Chang, Je-Hyun Yoon

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Although binge alcohol-induced gut leakage has been studied extensively in the context of reactive oxygen species-mediated signaling, it was recently revealed that post-transcriptional regulation plays an essential role as well. Ethanol (EtOH)-inducible cytochrome P450-2E1 (CYP2E1), a key enzyme in EtOH metabolism, promotes alcohol-induced hepatic steatosis and inflammatory liver disease, at least in part by mediating changes in intestinal permeability. For instance, gut leakage and elevated intestinal permeability to endotoxins have been shown to be regulated by enhancing CYP2E1 mRNA and CYP2E1 protein levels. Although it is understood that EtOH promotes CYP2E1 induction and activation, the mechanisms that regulate CYP2E1 expression …

Ghcu, A Molecular Chaperone, Regulates Leaf Curling By Modulating The Distribution Of Kngh1 In Cotton, Yihao Zang, Chenyu Xu, Lishan Yu, Longen Ma, Lisha Xuan, Sunyi Yan, Yayao Zhang, Yiwen Cao, Xiaoran Li, Zhanfeng Si, Jieqiong Deng, Tianzhen Zhang, Yan Hu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Leaf shape is considered to be one of the most significant agronomic traits in crop breeding. However, the molecular basis underlying leaf morphogenesis in cotton is still largely unknown. In this study, through genetic mapping and molecular investigation using a natural cotton mutant cu with leaves curling upward, the causal gene GHCU is successfully identified as the key regulator of leaf flattening. Knockout of GHCU or its homolog in cotton and tobacco using CRISPR results in abnormal leaf shape. It is further discovered that GHCU facilitates the transport of the HD protein KNOTTED1-like (KNGH1) from the adaxial to the abaxial …

Genetic Analysis Of Seven Patients With Inherited Ichthyosis And Nagashima-Type Palmoplantar Keratoderma, Jing Zhang, Yue Yao, Ya Tan, Hua-Ying Hu, Lin-Xi Zeng, Guo-Qiang Zhang

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Inherited ichthyosis comprises a series of heterogeneous dermal conditions; it mainly manifests as widespread hyperkeratosis, xerosis and scaling of the skin. At times, overlapping symptoms require differential diagnosis between ichthyosis and several other similar disorders. The present study reports seven patients with confirmed or suspected to be associated with ichthyosis by conducting a thorough clinical and genetic investigation. Genetic testing was conducted using whole-exome sequencing, with Sanger sequencing as the validation method. The MEGA7 program was used to analyze the conservation of amino acid residues affected by the detected missense variants. The enrolled patients exhibited ichthyosis-like but distinct clinical manifestations. …

Change In Trust In Us Government Health Agencies For Cancer Information In The Covid-19 Era, Onyema G Chido-Amajuoyi, Rajesh Talluri, Henry K Onyeaka, Itunu Sokale, Gideon T Dosunmu, Noelle Loconte, Sanjay Shete

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This cross-sectional study assesses changes in levels of public trust in US government health agencies providing cancer information.

Machine Learning Identifies Prognostic Subtypes Of The Tumor Microenvironment Of Nsclc, Duo Yu, Michael J Kane, Eugene J Koay, Ignacio I Wistuba, Brian P Hobbs

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The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a fundamental role in tumorigenesis, tumor progression, and anti-cancer immunity potential of emerging cancer therapeutics. Understanding inter-patient TME heterogeneity, however, remains a challenge to efficient drug development. This article applies recent advances in machine learning (ML) for survival analysis to a retrospective study of NSCLC patients who received definitive surgical resection and immune pathology following surgery. ML methods are compared for their effectiveness in identifying prognostic subtypes. Six survival models, including Cox regression and five survival machine learning methods, were calibrated and applied to predict survival for NSCLC patients based on PD-L1 expression, CD3 expression, …

Mutation Order In Acute Myeloid Leukemia Identifies Uncommon Patterns Of Evolution And Illuminates Phenotypic Heterogeneity, Matthew Schwede, Katharina Jahn, Jack Kuipers, Linde A Miles, Robert L Bowman, Troy Robinson, Ken Furudate, Hidetaka Uryu, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Yuya Sasaki, Asiri Ediriwickrema, Brooks Benard, Andrew J Gentles, Ross Levine, Niko Beerenwinkel, Koichi Takahashi, Ravindra Majeti

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has a poor prognosis and a heterogeneous mutation landscape. Although common mutations are well-studied, little research has characterized how the sequence of mutations relates to clinical features. Using published, single-cell DNA sequencing data from three institutions, we compared clonal evolution patterns in AML to patient characteristics, disease phenotype, and outcomes. Mutation trees, which represent the order of select mutations, were created for 207 patients from targeted panel sequencing data using 1 639 162 cells, 823 mutations, and 275 samples. In 224 distinct orderings of mutated genes, mutations related to DNA methylation typically preceded those related to …

Fc Engineering By Monoclonal Mammalian Cell Display For Improved Affinity And Selectivity Towards Fcγrs, Zening Wang, Minhyo Kang, Afshin Ebrahimpour, Chuan Chen, Xin Ge

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Fc optimization can significantly enhance therapeutic efficacy of monoclonal antibodies. However, existing Fc engineering approaches are sub-optimal with noted limitations, such as inappropriate glycosylation, polyclonal libraries, and utilizing fragment but not full-length IgG display. Applying cell cycle arrested recombinase-mediated cassette exchange, this study constructed high-quality monoclonal Fc libraries in CHO cells, displayed full-length IgG on cell surface, and preformed ratiometric fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) with the antigen and individual FcγRs. Identified Fc variants were quantitatively evaluated by flow cytometry, ELISA, kinetic and steady-state binding affinity measurements, and cytotoxicity assays. An error-prone Fc library focusing on the hinge-CH2 region was …

Evaluating Automatically Generated Normal Tissue Contours For Safe Use In Head And Neck And Cervical Cancer Treatment Planning, Raphael Douglas, Adenike Olanrewaju, Raymond Mumme, Lifei Zhang, Beth M Beadle, Laurence Edward Court

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is a widely accepted treatment method for head and neck (HN) and cervical cancers; however, creating contours and plan optimization for VMAT plans is a time-consuming process. Our group has created an automated treatment planning tool, the Radiation Planning Assistant (RPA), that uses deep learning models to generate organs at risk (OARs), planning structures and automates plan optimization. This study quantitatively evaluates the quality of contours generated by the RPA tool.

Methods: For patients with HN (54) and cervical (39) cancers, we retrospectively generated autoplans using the RPA. Autoplans were generated using deep-learning and RapidPlan …

Autocontouring Of Primary Lung Lesions And Nodal Disease For Radiotherapy Based Only On Computed Tomography Images, Stephen Skett, Tina Patel, Didier Duprez, Sunnia Gupta, Tucker Netherton, Christoph Trauernicht, Sarah Aldridge, David Eaton, Carlos Cardenas, Laurence E Court, Daniel Smith, Ajay Aggarwal

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background and purpose: In many clinics, positron-emission tomography is unavailable and clinician time extremely limited. Here we describe a deep-learning model for autocontouring gross disease for patients undergoing palliative radiotherapy for primary lung lesions and/or hilar/mediastinal nodal disease, based only on computed tomography (CT) images.

Materials and methods: An autocontouring model (nnU-Net) was trained to contour gross disease in 379 cases (352 training, 27 test); 11 further test cases from an external centre were also included. Anchor-point-based post-processing was applied to remove extraneous autocontoured regions. The autocontours were evaluated quantitatively in terms of volume similarity (Dice similarity coefficient [DSC], surface …

Dynamic Stem-Loop Extension By Pol Θ And Templated Insertion During Dna Repair, Denisse Carvajal-Maldonado, Yuzhen Li, Mark Returan, April M Averill, Sylvie Doublié, Richard D Wood

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Theta-mediated end joining (TMEJ) is critical for survival of cancer cells when other DNA double-stranded break repair pathways are impaired. Human DNA polymerase theta (Pol θ) can extend ssDNA oligonucleotides, but little is known about preferred substrates and mechanism. We show that Pol θ can extend both ssDNA and RNA substrates by unimolecular stem-loop synthesis initiated by only two 3' terminal base pairs. Given sufficient time, Pol θ uses alternative pairing configurations that greatly expand the repertoire of sequence outcomes. Further primer-template adjustments yield low-fidelity outcomes when the nucleotide pool is imbalanced. Unimolecular stem-loop synthesis competes with bimolecular end joining, …

Uldp-Fl: Federated Learning With Across-Silo User-Level Differential Privacy, Fumiyuki Kato, Li Xiong, Shun Takagi, Yang Cao, Masatoshi Yoshikawa

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Differentially Private Federated Learning (DP-FL) has garnered attention as a collaborative machine learning approach that ensures formal privacy. Most DP-FL approaches ensure DP at the record-level within each silo for cross-silo FL. However, a single user's data may extend across multiple silos, and the desired user-level DP guarantee for such a setting remains unknown. In this study, we present Uldp-FL, a novel FL framework designed to guarantee user-level DP in cross-silo FL where a single user's data may belong to multiple silos. Our proposed algorithm directly ensures user-level DP through per-user weighted clipping, departing from group-privacy approaches. We provide a …

Does Differential Privacy Prevent Backdoor Attacks In Practice?, Fereshteh Razmi, Jian Lou, Li Xiong

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Differential Privacy (DP) was originally developed to protect privacy. However, it has recently been utilized to secure machine learning (ML) models from poisoning attacks, with DP-SGD receiving substantial attention. Nevertheless, a thorough investigation is required to assess the effectiveness of different DP techniques in preventing backdoor attacks in practice. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of DP-SGD and, for the first time, examine PATE and Label-DP in the context of backdoor attacks. We also explore the role of different components of DP algorithms in defending against backdoor attacks and will show that PATE is effective against these attacks due …

Radiation Dose Attenuation Using Radpad In Cath Lab For Primary And Secondary Operators – Radar-Cath Study, Sandeepan Saha, Aditya Kapoor, Kamlesh Raut, Arpita Katheria, Harshit Khare, Ankit Sahu, Roopali Khanna, Sudeep Kumar, Naveen Garg, Satyendra Tewari

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Radiation injury is an important concern for interventional cardiologists and needs to be addressed. RADPAD is a radiation protection drape that has been shown to reduce the radiation exposure of the primary operator (PO). While Indian data on radiation exposure of the PO in the cath lab are scarce, the exposure of the secondary operator (SO) is even less well studied.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of RADPAD drapes in reducing radiation doses in the cath lab for the primary as well as the secondary operator.

METHODS: A total of 160 patients (40 …

Eus-Guided Hydrogel Injection To Separate Pancreatic Head Carcinoma From Duodenum For Enhanced Radiotherapy: Multi-Site Feasibility Study, Manoop S Bhutani, Amol K Narang, Kai Ding, Brenna Casey, Kumar Krishnan, Eugene J Koay, Theodore S Hong, Joseph M Herman, Kristen H Griffin, Eun Ji Shin

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Background and study aims The proximity of a pancreas head tumor to the duodenum often limits delivery of an ablative dose of radiation therapy. This study evaluated the feasibility and safety of using an injectable polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel between the head of the pancreas and duodenum.

Patients and methods In a multi-site feasibility cohort study of patients with localized pancreatic cancer, PEG hydrogel was injected under endoscopic ultrasound guidance to temporarily position the duodenum away from the pancreas. Procedure characteristics were recorded, including hydrogel volume and space created. Patients were monitored for adverse events (AEs) and radiotherapy toxicity.

Results …

Sequencing Of Kaposi’S Sarcoma Herpesvirus (Kshv) Genomes From Persons Of Diverse Ethnicities And Provenances With Kshv-Associated Diseases Demonstrate Multiple Infections, Novel Polymorphisms, And Low Intra-Host Variance, Vickie A Marshall, Elena M Cornejo Castro, Charles A Goodman, Nazzarena Labo, Isabella Liu, Nicholas C Fisher, Kyle N Moore, Ananthakrishnan Nair, Taina Immonen, Brandon F Keele, Mark N Polizzotto, Thomas S Uldrick, Yunxiang Mu, Tanuja Saswat, Laurie T Krug, Kevin M Mcbride, Kathryn Lurain, Ramya Ramaswami, Robert Yarchoan, Denise Whitby

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Recently published near full-length KSHV genomes from a Cameroon Kaposi sarcoma case-control study showed strong evidence of viral recombination and mixed infections, but no sequence variations associated with disease. Using the same methodology, an additional 102 KSHV genomes from 76 individuals with KSHV-associated diseases have been sequenced. Diagnoses comprise all KSHV-associated diseases (KAD): Kaposi sarcoma (KS), primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), KSHV-associated large cell lymphoma (KSHV-LCL), a type of multicentric Castleman disease (KSHV-MCD), and KSHV inflammatory cytokine syndrome (KICS). Participants originated from 22 different countries, providing the opportunity to obtain new near full-length sequences of a wide diversity of KSHV genomes. …

Ccr2+ Monocytes Promote White Matter Injury And Cognitive Dysfunction After Myocardial Infarction, Edward B Thorp, Mallory Filipp, Maria Dima, Chunfeng Tan, Matthew Feinstein, Brian Popko, Matthew Deberge

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Survivors of myocardial infarction are at increased risk for vascular dementia. Neuroinflammation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of vascular dementia, yet little is known about the cellular and molecular mediators of neuroinflammation after myocardial infarction. Using a mouse model of myocardial infarction coupled with flow cytometric analyses and immunohistochemistry, we discovered increased monocyte abundance in the brain after myocardial infarction, which was associated with increases in brain-resident perivascular macrophages and microglia. Myeloid cell recruitment and activation was also observed in post-mortem brains of humans that died after myocardial infarction. Spatial and single cell transcriptomic profiling of brain-resident myeloid cells …