Project description:Manutencao da producao de metano em industrias sucroalcooleiras a partir da substituicao de vinhaca por glicerol no periodo de entressafra de cana de acucar
Project description:Primary objectives: Avaliar a eficácia da abordagem profilática com minociclina no desenvolvimento de toxicidade dermatológica secundária ao cetuximab
Primary endpoints: Percentagem de doentes que desenvolvem rash associado ao tratamento com cetuximab para o cancro colo-rectal, no grupo experimental comparativamente com o grupo controlo
Project description:Parkinson's disease (PD) is defined by the degeneration of nigral dopaminergic (DA) neurons and can be caused by monogenic mutations of genes such as parkin. The lack of phenotype in parkin knockout mice suggests that human nigral DA neurons have unique vulnerabilities. Here we generate induced pluripotent stem cells from normal subjects and PD patients with parkin mutations. We demonstrate that loss of parkin in human midbrain DA neurons greatly increases the transcription of monoamine oxidases and oxidative stress, significantly reduces DA uptake and increases spontaneous DA release. Lentiviral expression of parkin, but not its PD-linked mutant, rescues these phenotypes. The results suggest that parkin controls dopamine utilization in human midbrain DA neurons by enhancing the precision of DA neurotransmission and suppressing dopamine oxidation. Thus, the study provides novel targets and a physiologically relevant screening platform for disease-modifying therapies of PD.
Project description:Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great promise for in vitro disease modeling and cell replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Both applications crucially require an in-depth profiling of the disease-relevant, iPSC-derived cell type. Midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons derived from pluripotent stem cells are of substantial interest because of their instrumental value for PD therapy. IPSC-derived mDA neuron-like cells have been generated, however, detailed genetic and epigenetic characterization of strictly purified in vitro generated DA neurons has so far lagged behind. We generated mouse Pitx3gfp/+ iPSC-derived DA neurons that, after fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) allowed comprehensive comparison to mesodiencephalic dopaminergic (mdDA) neurons from Fac-sorted Pitx3gfp/+ ventral midbrains. We performed detailed analysis of global gene expression and genome-scale DNA methylation of CpG islands (CGIs) by reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. The reprogramming pathway from fibroblasts to iPSCs left parental cell footprints for both gene expression and DNA methylation. However, most gene expression patterns of iPSC-derived DA neurons closely resembled that of primary mdDA neurons with the strongest correlations for mdDA specific genes. Also, for DNA methylation patterns, high similarities were found for the vast majority of CGIs when comparing primary mdDA neurons with iPSC-derived DA neurons. Additionally, we found de novo DNA methylation during in vitro differentiation for hundreds of genes specifically in lineage-committed neural precursors that persisted in iPSC-derived DA neurons. Our study provides novel detailed characteristics of iPSC-derived DA neurons in comparison to the primary cell type. These findings add important information to our knowledge about these biomedically highly valuable, in vitro generated neurons. Microarray expression study comparing 3 samples of facs-sorted, Pitx3-gfp positive cells from each experimental group to a common reference consisting of adult mouse midbrain RNA. Each sample was analysed in normal and opposite dye orientation.
Project description:Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great promise for in vitro disease modeling and cell replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Both applications crucially require an in-depth profiling of the disease-relevant, iPSC-derived cell type. Midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons derived from pluripotent stem cells are of substantial interest because of their instrumental value for PD therapy. IPSC-derived mDA neuron-like cells have been generated, however, detailed genetic and epigenetic characterization of strictly purified in vitro generated DA neurons has so far lagged behind. We generated mouse Pitx3gfp/+ iPSC-derived DA neurons that, after fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) allowed comprehensive comparison to mesodiencephalic dopaminergic (mdDA) neurons from Fac-sorted Pitx3gfp/+ ventral midbrains. We performed detailed analysis of global gene expression and genome-scale DNA methylation of CpG islands (CGIs) by reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. The reprogramming pathway from fibroblasts to iPSCs left parental cell footprints for both gene expression and DNA methylation. However, most gene expression patterns of iPSC-derived DA neurons closely resembled that of primary mdDA neurons with the strongest correlations for mdDA specific genes. Also, for DNA methylation patterns, high similarities were found for the vast majority of CGIs when comparing primary mdDA neurons with iPSC-derived DA neurons. Additionally, we found de novo DNA methylation during in vitro differentiation for hundreds of genes specifically in lineage-committed neural precursors that persisted in iPSC-derived DA neurons. Our study provides novel detailed characteristics of iPSC-derived DA neurons in comparison to the primary cell type. These findings add important information to our knowledge about these biomedically highly valuable, in vitro generated neurons.
Project description:Multipotent adult stem cells must balance self-renewal with differentiation into various mature cell types. How this activity is molecularly regulated is poorly understood. By using genetic and molecular analyses in vivo, we show that a small network of basic Helix-Loop-Helix (bHLH) transcription factors controls both stemness and bi-potential differentiation in the Drosophila adult intestine. We find that homodimers of Daughterless (Da, homolog to mammalian E proteins) maintain the self-renewal of intestinal stem cells and antagonise the activity of heterodimers of Da and Scute (Sc, homolog to ASCL and known to promote intestinal secretory differentiation). Using RNAseq, we also find that Da and Sc induce complex transcriptional profiles in undifferentiated cells, which must be balanced by intestinal stem cells to perform their function. We find a novel role for the HLH factor Extramacrochaetae (Emc, homolog to Id proteins), titrating Da and Sc to promote absorptive differentiation. We further show that Emc prevents committed absorptive progenitors from de differentiating, underscoring the plasticity of these cells. Switching physical interaction partners in this way enables the active maintenance of stemness, but primes stem cells for differentiation along two alternative fates. Such regulatory logic could be recapitulated in other bipotent stem cell systems.
Project description:While many studies have performed single cell profiling of dopamine (DA) neurons in mice, they have largely been limited by the number of DA neurons captured. Here, we performed single-nucleus RNAseq on DA neurons to refine the DA subtype landscape.