53 research outputs found
ResearchFlow: Understanding the Knowledge Flow between Academia and Industry
Understanding, monitoring, and predicting the flow of knowledge between academia and industry is of critical importance for a variety of stakeholders, including governments, funding bodies, researchers, investors, and companies. To this purpose, we introduce ResearchFlow, an approach that integrates semantic technologies and machine learning to quantifying the diachronic behaviour of research topics across academia and industry. ResearchFlow exploits the novel Academia/Industry DynAmics (AIDA) Knowledge Graph in order to characterize each topic according to the frequency in time of the related i) publications from academia, ii) publications from industry, iii) patents from academia, and iv) patents from industry. This representation is then used to produce several analytics regarding the academia/industry knowledge flow and to forecast the impact of research topics on industry. We applied ResearchFlow to a dataset of 3.5M papers and 2M patents in Computer Science and highlighted several interesting patterns. We found that 89.8% of the topics first emerge in academic publications, which typically precede industrial publications by about 5.6 years and industrial patents by about 6.6 years. However this does not mean that academia always dictates the research agenda. In fact, our analysis also shows that industrial trends tend to influence academia more than academic trends affect industry. We evaluated ResearchFlow on the task of forecasting the impact of research topics on the industrial sector and found that its granular characterization of topics improves significantly the performance with respect to alternative solutions
Enantioselective, intermolecular benzylic CâH amination catalysed by an engineered iron-haem enzyme
CâH bonds are ubiquitous structural units of organic molecules. Although these bonds are generally considered to be chemically inert, the recent emergence of methods for CâH functionalization promises to transform the way synthetic chemistry is performed. The intermolecular amination of CâH bonds represents a particularly desirable and challenging transformation for which no efficient, highly selective, and renewable catalysts exist. Here we report the directed evolution of an iron-containing enzymatic catalystâbased on a cytochrome P450 monooxygenaseâfor the highly enantioselective intermolecular amination of benzylic CâH bonds. The biocatalyst is capable of up to 1,300 turnovers, exhibits excellent enantioselectivities, and provides access to valuable benzylic amines. Iron complexes are generally poor catalysts for CâH amination: in this catalyst, the enzyme's protein framework confers activity on an otherwise unreactive iron-haem cofactor
Modeling vascular inflammation and atherogenicity after inhalation of ambient levels of ozone: exploratory lessons from transcriptomics
BackgroundEpidemiologic studies have linked inhalation of air pollutants such as ozone to cardiovascular mortality. Human exposure studies have shown that inhalation of ambient levels of ozone causes airway and systemic inflammation and an imbalance in sympathetic/parasympathetic tone.MethodsTo explore molecular mechanisms through which ozone inhalation contributes to cardiovascular mortality, we compared transcriptomics data previously obtained from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells obtained from healthy subjects after inhalational exposure to ozone (200âppb for 4âh) to those of various cell samples from 11 published studies of patients with atherosclerotic disease using the Nextbio genomic data platform. Overlapping gene ontologies that may be involved in the transition from pulmonary to systemic vascular inflammation after ozone inhalation were explored. Local and systemic enzymatic activity of an overlapping upregulated gene, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), was measured by zymography after ozone exposure.ResultsA set of differentially expressed genes involved in response to stimulus, stress, and wounding were in common between the ozone and most of the atherosclerosis studies. Many of these genes contribute to biological processes such as cholesterol metabolism dysfunction, increased monocyte adherence, endothelial cell lesions, and matrix remodeling, and to diseases such as heart failure, ischemia, and atherosclerotic occlusive disease. Inhalation of ozone increased MMP-9 enzymatic activity in both BAL fluid and serum.ConclusionsComparison of transcriptomics between BAL cells after ozone exposure and various cell types from patients with atherosclerotic disease reveals commonly regulated processes and potential mechanisms by which ozone inhalation may contribute to progression of pre-existent atherosclerotic lesions
Oxeiptosis, a ROS-induced caspase-independent apoptosis-like cell-death pathway.
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated by virus-infected cells; however, the physiological importance of ROS generated under these conditions is unclear. Here we found that the inflammation and cell death induced by exposure of mice or cells to sources of ROS were not altered in the absence of canonical ROS-sensing pathways or known cell-death pathways. ROS-induced cell-death signaling involved interactions among the cellular ROS sensor and antioxidant factor KEAP1, the phosphatase PGAM5 and the proapoptotic factor AIFM1. Pgam5(-/-) mice showed exacerbated lung inflammation and proinflammatory cytokines in an ozone-exposure model. Similarly, challenge with influenza A virus led to increased infiltration of the virus, lymphocytic bronchiolitis and reduced survival of Pgam5(-/-) mice. This pathway, which we have called 'oxeiptosis', was a ROS-sensitive, caspase independent, non-inflammatory cell-death pathway and was important for protection against inflammation induced by ROS or ROS-generating agents such as viral pathogens
Biochemical Establishment and Characterization of EncMâs Flavin-N5-oxide Cofactor
The
ubiquitous flavin-dependent monooxygenases commonly catalyze
oxygenation reactions by means of a transient C4aâperoxyflavin.
A recent study, however, suggested an unprecedented flavin-oxygenating
species, proposed as the flavin-N5-oxide (Fl<sub>N5[O]</sub>), as
key to an oxidative Favorskii-type rearrangement in the biosynthesis
of the bacterial polyketide antibiotic enterocin. This stable superoxidized
flavin is covalently tethered to the enzyme EncM and converted into
FADH<sub>2</sub> (Fl<sub>red</sub>) during substrate turnover. Subsequent
reaction of Fl<sub>red</sub> with molecular oxygen restores the postulated
Fl<sub>N5[O]</sub> via an unknown pathway. Here, we provide direct
evidence for the Fl<sub>N5[O]</sub> species via isotope labeling,
proteolytic digestion, and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry
of EncM. We propose that formation of this species occurs by hydrogen-transfer
from Fl<sub>red</sub> to molecular oxygen, allowing radical coupling
of the formed protonated superoxide and anionic flavin semiquinone
at N5, before elimination of water affords the Fl<sub>N5[O]</sub> cofactor.
Further biochemical and spectroscopic investigations reveal important
features of the Fl<sub>N5[O]</sub> species and the EncM catalytic
mechanism. We speculate that flavin-N5-oxides may be intermediates
or catalytically active species in other flavoproteins that form the
anionic semiquinone and promote access of oxygen to N5
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