1,720,962 research outputs found
Cyanine dyes with tail length asymmetry enhance photoselection: A multiscale study on DiD probes in a liquid disordered membrane
No full textVisualization of membrane domains like lipid rafts in natural or artificial membranes is a crucial task for cell biology. For this purpose, fluorescence microscopy is often used. Since fluorescing probes in lipid membranes partition specifically in e.g. local liquid disordered or liquid ordered environments, the consequent changes in their orientation and location are both theoretically and experimentally of interest. Here we focused on a liquid disordered membrane phase and performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the indocarbocyanine DiD probes by varying the length of the attached alkyl tails and also the length of the cyanine backbone. From the probed compounds in a DOPC lipid bilayer at ambient temperature, a varying orientation of the transition dipole moment was observed, which is crucial for fluorescence microscopy and which, through photoselection, was found to be surprisingly more effective for asymmetric probes than for the symmetric ones. Furthermore, we observed that the orientation of the probes was dependent on the tail length; with the methyls or propyls attached, DiD oriented with its tails facing the water, contrary to the ones with longer tails. With advanced hybrid QM/MM calculations we show that the different local environment for differently oriented probes affected the one-photon absorption spectra, that was blue-shifted for the short-tailed DiD with respect to the DiDs with longer tails. We show here that the presented probes can be successfully used for fluorescence microscopy and we believe that the described properties bring further insight for the experimental use of these probes. (c) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.M. P. gratefully acknowledges the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University (Belgium), where she stayed in November 2018. She thanks the Department of Theoretical Chemistry and Biology at KTH for her post doc fellowship. The computational time was provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) through the medium allocations 3-397, 3-156, 3-396, and 3-23 in 2018. The Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC) along with the Herculesstichting (Flanders, Belgium) provided thereupon access to the Breniac cluster. The authors thank Lindsay Leach for language consultation
Improved candidate screening through tailored co-culture assays and precise tuning of protein expression
No full textThe field of biopharmaceuticals is a rapidly growing one. In the last ten years the number of approved biopharmaceuticals has more than doubled. A major hurdle to overcome for increased availability of all the new, effective biopharmaceuticals is the cost of treatment. Much of this can be attributed to the sheer time required for their development. Owing to this, interest in improvements to the biopharmaceuticals and their development process has also rapidly increased. As costs increase the further into development a drug candidate progresses, increasing the fidelity of screening at early stages could alleviate some of the exorbitant costs of development. In paper I, we showcase a novel way of targeting the tumor microenvironment (TME) to allow for TMElocalized CD40 activation. This is of interest as CD40 agonists have shown great potential for immune activation, but with systemic activation leading to severe adverse effects. The localized activation is achieved through the construction of an affinity fusion protein termed an AffiMab through fusion of a platelet derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFRβ) targeting affibody to the heavy chain of a CD40 agonistic monoclonal antibody (mAb). We demonstrate PDGFRβ-dependent activation in a variety of assays, showing that the approach merits further investigation. Building on the activation assays set up in paper I, we aim to generate an in vitro screening platform for immune cell engagers in paper II. Screening candidates for on-target off-tumor activation is essential, as such activation would lead to adverse effects and be a doselimiting factor. To screen for this, we construct a series of plasmids which upon transfecting cells allow for different levels of a cell-surface target protein to be expressed, a so-called target density panel. This is achieved through the use of hairpin forming elements in the 5’ untranslated region of the mRNA dubbed regulatory elements (RgEs). Through use of different RgEs, we show that a target density panel can be generated and validate it in activation assays with the AffiMab developed in paper I. The platforms’ uniform cell surface background due to all different levels of target being expressed in the same host cell line and tunability through use of different RgEs are features that make it interesting for further research. Finally in paper III, we construct and test an improved translation initiation site (TIS) sequence. Using previous studies on the impact of the nucleotides in the sequence on the efficacy of the TIS, we constructed a novel sequence, TISNOV. This sequence enhanced titer and quality for recombinant production of IgG1 and IgG4 in both stable and transient settings. Further research into other TIS sequences and their uses in regulating protein expression, as well as usage of the TISNOV to improve expression of difficult to express proteins such as bispecifics remain interesting. In conclusion this thesis focuses on different manners to improve and hasten development of new biopharmaceuticals through usage of new workflows, platforms, and genetic engineering strategies.Det biologiska läkemedelsfältet är i snabb tillväxt. De senaste tio åren har antalet godkända biologiska läkemedel mer än fördubblats. Den höga kostnaden för behandlingar med biologiska läkemedel är dock ett stort hinder som måste överkommas för att öka tillgängligheten till nya, effektiva behandlingar. Mycket av kostnaden kan attribueras till den långa utvecklingstiden för dem. Som en följd av detta har intresset för förbättringar av biologiska läkemedel och deras framställningsprocess även det ökat kraftigt. Eftersom kostnaderna ökar desto längre in i processen en läkemedelskandidat tar sig är förbättringar av tidiga tester av läkemedelskandidater en god kandidat till att minska de stora kostnaderna för läkemedelsutveckling. I artikel I visar vi ett nytt sätt för att rikta läkemedel mot tumörmikromiljön (TME) och möjliggöra TMEriktad CD40-aktivering. Detta är av intresse då CD40- agonister har visat stor potential för immunaktivering, men lidit av bieffekter som uppkommit av systemisk immunaktivering. Den lokaliserade immunaktiveringen uppnås genom ett fuserat affinitetsprotein benämnt AffiMab, där en affibody riktat mot trombocytrelaterad tillväxtfaktor beta (PDGFRβ) fuserats till den tunga kedjan av en CD40-agonistisk monoklonal antikropp (mAb). Vi visar PDGFRβ-beroende aktivering i ett flertal av aktiveringsanalyser, vilket visar att tillvägagångssättet meriterar fortsatt forskning. Som en påbyggnad till arbetssättet för utvärdering i artikel I avser vi att generera en in vitro platform för utvärdering av immune cell engagers i artikel II. Att utvärdera kandidater för aktivering som är on-target off tumor är essentiellt, då sådan aktivering leder till bieffekter som begränsar doseringen av läkemedlet. För att utvärdera detta konstruerar vi en serie plasmider som efter transfektion leder till olika uttrycksnivåer att ett målprotein på cellytan, en så kallad target density panel. Vi uppnår detta genom att använda oss av hårnålsbildande element i den otranslaterade 5’ regionen av mRNAt benämnda regulatoriska element (RgEs). Genom att använda oss av olika RgEs kan vi visa att olika målproteinsdensiteter kan genereras samt validera dem i aktiveringsanalyser med AffiMaben som utvecklades i artikel I. Den uniforma bakgrunden på cellytorna som följd av att alla nivåer av målprotein uttrycks i samma cellinje samt plattformens reglerbarhet genom användande av olika RgEs är egenskaper som gör att plattformen är intressant för vidare forskning. Slutligen konstruerar vi en förbättrad sekvens för translationinitieringssstället (TIS) och testar den i artikel III. Med grund i tidigare studier kring vilken inverkan olika nukleotider i sekvensen har på effektiviteten hos en TIS konstruerar vi en ny sekvens, TISNOV. Denna sekvens uppvisar ökad titer och kvalitet för rekombinant produktion av IgG1 och IgG4 i transienta och stabila miljöer. Det är av fortsatt intresse att forska djupare kring andra sekvenser av TIS samt deras användning för att förbättra uttrycket av svåruttryckta proteiner såsom bispecifiker. Sammanfattningsvis har denna avhandling fokuserat på olika tillvägagångssätt för att förbättra och påskynda utveckling av nya biologiska läkemedel, såsom nya arbetssätt, nya analysplattformar, och strategier för genmanipulation.QC 2024-05-21</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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