Abstract: Provided are methods, compositions and kits to detect anti-folic acid antibodies in a sample, which are useful for identifying risk of pathologies associated with increased or decreased levels of anti-folic acid antibodies including infertility, folate responsive birth defects, folate responsive blood disorders, heart and vascular diseases, neurological disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and cancers.

Abstract: Brain tumors remain the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children and often are associated with long-term sequelae among survivors of current therapies. Telomerase and telomeres play important roles in cancer, representing attractive therapeutic targets to treat children with poor-prognosis brain tumors such as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), high-grade glioma (HGG) and high-risk medulloblastoma (MB). It has shown that DIPG, HGG and MB frequently express telomerase activity. It is now shown that the telomerase-dependent incorporation of 6-thio-2?deoxyguanosine (6-thio-dG), a telomerase substrate precursor analog, into telomeres leads to telomere dysfunction-induced foci (TIFs) along with extensive genomic DNA damage, cell growth inhibition and cell death of primary stem-like cells derived from patients with DIPG, HGG and MB. Importantly, the effect of 6-thio-dG is persistent even after drug withdrawal.

Abstract: A quad-polymer composition includes monomers of (a) acrylonitrile, (a) vinylimidazole, (c) methyl acrylate and (d) either acrylic acid or itaconic acid. Such quad-polymer compositions may be used to form fibers (such as by melt spinning) that may then be annealed, stabilized, and/or carbonized to produce carbon fibers. The quad-polymer composition may be used for supercapacitors, lithium battery electrodes once carbonized, and as synthesized, it may be used for wound healing fibers, fabrics, coatings, and films, and anti-bacterial/anti-microbial fibers, fabrics, coatings and films. The carbon fibers formed from the quad-polymer composition may be used for the fiber composites for automobile, aerospace structures, marine structures, military equipment/parts, sporting goods, robotics, furniture, and electronic parts.

Abstract: A method for assembling heterogeneous components. The assembly process includes using a vacuum based pickup mechanism in conjunction with sub-nm precise moiré alignment techniques resulting in highly accurate, parallel assembly of feedstocks.

Abstract: Sheath-run artificial muscles (or SRAMs) are described in which the dimensional changes and/or modulus changes of a sheath on the surface of a twisted or coiled host yarn or fiber drives torsional and tensile actuation. The sheath-core artificial muscle includes a sheath on a coiled core yarn or fiber that has inserted twist, in which the sheath does not include a yarn, the coiled core yarn or fiber includes a core yarn or fiber, the sheath can change volume, modulus, or a combination thereof when actuated by an influence source to drive actuation, and the influence source is selected from a group consisting of absorption processes, desorption processes, changes in temperature, changes in external pressure, changes in a magnetic field, changes in an electric field, exposures to actinic radiation, electrochemical charge and discharge, chemical reactions, and combinations thereof.

Abstract: A system for producing a three-dimensional object from a fluid medium includes image processing units. The fluid medium is configured to solidify when subjected to a prescribed light stimulation. Each image processing unit includes at least one light emitting source configured to emit light, and at least one mirror system configured to reflect the light emitted by the light emitting source. The mirror system includes a manipulating system for adjusting the direction of the emitted light, a control system for controlling the manipulating system, and at least one optical element configured to manipulate the emitted light and to project the emitted light onto an area of a surface of the fluid medium to form an image on the surface. The image processing units are configured to form corresponding images on the surface, and are configured to be movable at least in a lateral direction relative to the surface.

Abstract: The present specification provides combinations of active agents for the improved treatment of Her2+ cancers and associated methods of treatments. The combinations comprise an RXR agonist and a Her2-targeted therapeutic agent and may optionally further comprise thyroid hormone.

Abstract: Modular dendrimers with cationic groups and lipophilic groups are provided herein. In some aspects, the dendrimers provided herein may be formulated in compositions which contain a nucleic acid and one or more helper excipients. In some aspects, these compositions may also be used to treat diseases or disorders with a therapeutic nucleic acid.

Abstract: The present disclosure in various aspects provides methods for making pharmaceutical compositions for treating neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., demyelinating diseases), such as but not limited to multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, and transverse myelitis. The pharmaceutical compositions impact specific antibody-mediated processes involved in the biology of neurodegenerative disease. In certain aspects, the disclosure provides pharmaceutical compositions for treating neurodegenerative disease, which are based on inhibiting the action of pathologic antibodies, or alternatively providing antibodies to stimulate neuroprotection or repair processes.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to steroidal glucocorticoid receptor (GR) ligands and related compositions that degrade the GR and/or modulate its activity that may be utilized as pharmaceuticals for the treatment of diseases including cancer.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to defined solutions for organ (heart, liver, kidney, etc,) vascular composite allografts or autografts (VCA: hand, limb, face, etc.) or tissue (peripheral nerves, spinal cord, skin) storage that preserve the electrophysiological functions of axons contained therein. The disclosure also concerns the use of isolated peripheral nerve segments and solid organs preserved in the defined solutions in autograft or allograft transplantation procedures, as well as the use of isolated peripheral nerve segments and solid organs preserved in the defined solutions in autograft/allograft transplantation procedures in combination with the peripheral nerve repair techniques of neurorrhaphy and axonal fusion primarily using polyethylene glycol known as PEG-fusion.

Abstract: Methods and compositions for agonizing a type-2 orexin receptor (OX2R) in a cell determined to be in need thereof, including the general method of (a) administering to a subject a cyclic guanidinyl OX2R agonist and (b) detecting a resultant enhanced wakefulness or increased resistance to diet-induced accumulation of body fat, or abbreviated recovery from general anesthesia or jet lag.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides one or more amino lipids such as an amino lipids containing a sulfonic acid or sulfonic acid derivative of the formulas: wherein the variables are as defined herein. These amino lipids may be used in compositions with one or more helper lipids and a nucleic acid therapeutic agent. These compositions may be used to treat a disease or disorder such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, or other genetic diseases.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of training a neural network to improve a characteristic of a protein comprises collecting a set of amino acid sequences from a database, compiling each amino acid sequence into a three-dimensional crystallographic structure of a folded protein, training a neural network with a subset of the three-dimensional crystallographic structures, identifying, with the neural network, a candidate residue to mutate in a target protein, and identifying, with the neural network, a predicted amino acid residue to substitute for the candidate residue, to produce a mutated protein, wherein the mutated protein demonstrates an improvement in a characteristic over the target protein. A system for improving a characteristic of a protein is also described. Improved blue fluorescent proteins generated using the system are also described.

Abstract: Neural interfaces with the peripheral nervous system have been developed to provide a direct communication pathway between peripheral nerves and prosthetic limbs. Described herein is a method of making a microchannel integrated neural interface device comprising a plurality of hollow cylindrical electrodes in a PDMS scaffold, which can control the reinnervated muscles and interpret neurological signals. The acquired bioelectrical signals can be used for the interpretation of mind and create a neural map.

Abstract: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal muscle disease caused by the lack of dystrophin, which maintains muscle membrane integrity. Provided herein are methods of using adenine base editor (ABE) to modify splice sites of the dystrophin gene, causing skipping or refraining of common DMD exon deletion mutations, restoring dystrophin expression. Also provided herein are methods of using prime editing to reframe the dystrophin open reading frame and restore dystrophin expression.

Abstract: An electrical device, comprising a softening polymer layer, an electrode layer on a surface of the softening polymer layer and a cover polymer layer on the surface of the softening polymer layer. An opening in the polymer cover layer is filled with a reflowed solder, one end of the reflowed solder, located inside the opening, contacts a contact pad site portion of the electrode layer, and another end of the reflowed solder contacts an electrical connector electrode of the device.

Abstract: A device for ion chromatography comprises a tube with an inlet opening and an outlet opening and an inner diameter from about 40 microns to about 10 microns. There is an aperture through one side of the tube into a lumen of the tube. At least a portion of the inner surface of the tube has a first charge. An ion exchange barrier covers the aperture on an outside surface of the tube. The inner surface of the tube, from the inlet opening to the aperture, is coated with ion exchange particles having a diameter ranging from about 30 nm to about 200 nm. The ion exchange particles have a second charge opposite the first charge. The inner surface of the tube, from the outlet opening to the aperture, is not coated with ion exchange particles.

Abstract: Methods of reconstituting lyophilized Annamycin and methods of treating patients are described.

Abstract: Some methods comprise, for each of one or more lesions of a patients brain, from data taken at first and second times, determining two or more lesion characteristics including a lesion's volume change and whether the lesion moved toward a center of the brain. Some methods comprise, for each lesion, determining whether one or more criteria are satisfied, including a volume-and-displacement-based criterion that is satisfied when the change in the volume of the lesion is less than zero and the lesion moved toward the brain's center or the change in the volume of the lesion is greater than zero and the lesion did not move toward the brain's center. Some methods comprise characterizing whether the patient has multiple sclerosis and/or the progression, regression, or stability of multiple sclerosis based at least in part on the assessment of the one or more criteria for each of the lesion(s).