Project description:Ependymomas are neuroepithelial tumors of the central nervous system (CNS), presenting in both adults and children but accounting for almost 10% of all pediatric CNS tumors and up to 30% of CNS tumors in children under 3 years (Bouffet et al., 2009; McGuire et al., 2009; Rodriguez et al., 2009). In children, most ependymomas arise in the posterior fossa, while most adult ependymomas present around the lower spinal cord and spinal nerve roots. Ependymomas display a wide range of morphological features, and several variants are listed in the World Health Organization (WHO) classification (Ellison et al., 2016). These variants are assigned to three WHO grades (I-III), but the clinical utility of this classification is acknowledged to be limited (Ellison et al., 2011). An increasing understanding of the genomic landscape of ependymoma and the discovery of distinct molecular groups by DNA methylation or gene expression profiling have begun to refine approaches to disease classification and prognostication, but have yet to be translated into clinical routine (Hoffman et al., 2014; Mack et al., 2014; Pajtler et al., 2017; Pajtler et al., 2015; Parker et al., 2014; Wani et al., 2012; Witt et al., 2011). Our comprehensive study of DNA methylation profiling across the entire disease demonstrated three molecular groups for each major anatomic compartment: supratentorial (ST), posterior fossa (PF), and spinal (SP) (Pajtler et al., 2015). In the ST compartment, two molecular groups (ST-EPN-RELA and ST-EPN-YAP1) align with tumors harboring specific genetic alterations, RELA and YAP1 fusion genes, which were initially discovered in a whole genome sequencing study (Parker et al., 2014). Among PF ependymomas, two of three molecular groups, PFA (PF-EPN-A) and PFB (PF-EPN-B), account for nearly all tumors; PF-SE tumors are rare, generally showing the morphology of a subependymoma (Pajtler et al., 2015). PFA tumors are found mainly in infants and young children (median age ≈ 3yrs) and have a relatively poor outcome, while PFB tumors are generally found in young adults (median age ≈ 30yrs) and are associated with a better prognosis (Pajtler et al., 2015; Witt et al., 2011). PFA tumors show few copy number alterations (CNAs), while PFB tumors harbor multiple CNAs that tend to affect entire chromosomes. While recurrent structural variants (SVs) are found in ST ependymomas, recurrent SVs or other mutations, such as single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and insertions or deletions (indels), have not been identified in PF ependymomas to date (Mack et al., 2014; Parker et al., 2014).
Project description:The aim of this study is to assess natural variation in transcriptional responses to salt stress in rice. We utilized a diversity panel (RDP1) described in Zhao et al 2011. Eight day old rice seedlings were subjected to a gradual 6 dS·m-1 salt stress for a period of 24h. RNA seqeuncing was performed on shoot tissue using Illumina HiSeq 2500.
Project description:The aim of this study was to use NGS RNAseq deep-sequencing in order to characterize the polyadenylated mRNAs and lncRNAs expressed in LNCaP cells treated with androgen hormone compared with untreated LNCaP cells (GSE79301). Trimmed reads were mapped using the hg19 genome with TopHat v.2.0.12 and Bowtie v.2.2.3. The assembly was guided by a custom GTF file created with transcripts fromhuman lncRNA annotations from GENCODE v19 (Harrow, Frankish et al.2012) and those already annotated as lincRNAs in (Cabili, Trapnell et al. 2011; Prensner, Iyer et al. 2011; Hangauer, Vaughn et al. 2013). The diferencial expression was calculated by the sum of exon read count per gene with HTSeq (Anders, Pyl et al. 2015), followed by a DESeq2 analysis (Love, Huber et al. 2014).
Project description:Maslinic acid is a novel phytochemical reported to exert prominent anti-cancer effects and it was hypothesized that this compound induces cellular apoptosis through the activation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway (Martin et al, 2007) — thereby resulting in significant inhibition of cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner (Reyes-Zurita et al, 2009). Prior studies on maslinic acid in its function as a time-dependent inhibitor in both tumorigenesis and inflammation events by targeting multiple signaling pathways; particularly the NF-ĸB, MAPK (Li et al, 2010; Yap, et al, 2011) and JNK (Reyes-Zurita et al, 2011) pathways were mostly based on proteomic analyses (Li et al, 2010; Yap et. al., 2011). However, these results may not depict an accurate scenario of the signaling networks involved due to protein degradation, alternate splicing and extensive post-translational processing. Hence, this study aimed to construct a temporal-based global gene expression profile of the effects of maslinic acid by using the microarray technology. The aim of this project is to construct the complete global mRNA profile of the effects of maslinic acid in inhibiting early-antigen formation in Raji cells.
Project description:The TNF superfamily is large, including TNF ligands (n = 19) and TNF receptors (n = 29),as determined following the completion of large-scale sequencing of the human and mouse genomes. These members not only function in immune cells but are also involved in respiratory and intestinal diseases, and some members may act as a double-edged sword. Tumor necrosis factor-like cytokine 1A (TL1A, also known as TNFSF15) is the only known death receptor 3 (DR3, also known as TNFRSF25) ligand (Meylan et al., 2011). The TL1A/DR3 axis plays a role in the regulation of intestinal immunity and fibrosis (Valatas et al., 2019), asthma airway remodeling (Zhang et al., 2022; Herro et al., 2010), and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases (Herro et al., 2021), exacerbating disease progression. However, some researchers have proposed that the TL1A/DR3 axis has a protective role in some disease models. A novel role for TL1A/DR3 in protection against intestinal injury was reported by Jia et al (Jia et al., 2016). Yang et al. revealed a protective effect of TL1A against intracerebral hemorrhage-induced secondary brain injury and infection (Yang et al., 2021). In addition, TL1A maintains the blood–retinal barrier by modulating SHP-1-Src-VE-cadherin signaling in diabetic retinopathy, as verified by Li et al (Li et al., 2021). However, the role of TL1A/DR3 in ARDS has not been explored.
Project description:ObjectivesPhenotyping plants in a field environment can involve a variety of methods including the use of automated instruments and labor-intensive manual measurement and scoring. Researchers also collect language-based phenotypic descriptions and use controlled vocabularies and structures such as ontologies to enable computation on descriptive phenotype data, including methods to determine phenotypic similarities. In this study, spoken descriptions of plants were collected and observers were instructed to use their own vocabulary to describe plant features that were present and visible. Further, these plants were measured and scored manually as part of a larger study to investigate whether spoken plant descriptions can be used to recover known biological phenomena.Data descriptionData comprise phenotypic observations of 686 accessions of the maize Wisconsin Diversity panel, and 25 positive control accessions that carry visible, dramatic phenotypes. The data include the list of accessions planted, field layout, data collection procedures, student participants' (whose personal data are protected for ethical reasons) and volunteers' observation transcripts, volunteers' audio data files, terrestrial and aerial images of the plants, Amazon Web Services method selection experimental data, and manually collected phenotypes (e.g., plant height, ear and tassel features, etc.; measurements and scores). Data were collected during the summer of 2021 at Iowa State University's Agricultural Engineering and Agronomy Research Farms.
Project description:Bronchial Epithelial Cells were isolated processed as described (Chu et al., 2002 and Zhao et al., 2011). The objective of the study was to identify differentially expressed genes between normal control (NC), mild-moderate asthmatic (MMA) and severe asthmatic (SA) patients.
Project description:The function of DFNA5 remained unknown for a long time, but previous functional studies by Op de Beeck et al. (2011) revealed that DFNA5 induces a growth defect in mutDFNA5- transfected HEK293T cells, as well as other cells, leading to PCD (Op de Beeck et al., 2011). The cell death-inducing capacity of DFNA5 was not only restricted to human cell lines, but was also observed in the yeast model Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Van Rossom et al., 2012). This inspired us to perform a transcriptomic analysis using two different model organisms (mammalian, HEK293T, and yeast, S.cerevisiae) to further elucidate the mechanisms related to DFNA5.
Project description:The function of DFNA5 remained unknown for a long time, but previous functional studies by Op de Beeck et al. (2011) revealed that DFNA5 induces a growth defect in mutDFNA5- transfected HEK293T cells, as well as other cells, leading to PCD (Op de Beeck et al., 2011). The cell death-inducing capacity of DFNA5 was not only restricted to human cell lines, but was also observed in the yeast model Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Van Rossom et al., 2012). This inspired us to perform a transcriptomic analysis using two different model organisms (mammalian, HEK293T, and yeast, S.cerevisiae) to further elucidate the mechanisms related to DFNA5.