YPAR, Critical Whiteness, and Generative Possibilities. A Response to “Sam and Cristina: A Dialogue Between a High School Teacher and Student about the Commoditization of People of Color”

In this response to the article by Tanner and Corrie, the authors provide three critiques of the methodology and theoretical framing of the study with the hopes of informing future scholarship and practice. Specifically, the three critiques addressed in this paper include the integration of CWS frameworks and YPAR methodology, the application and description of CWS and YPAR frameworks, and the role of power in the relationship between educator and student that served as the central medium for the study

Chronic FLT3-ITD Signaling in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Is Connected to a Specific Chromatin Signature

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by recurrent mutations that affect the epigenetic regulatory machinery and signaling molecules, leading to a block in hematopoietic differentiation. Constitutive signaling from mutated growth factor receptors is a major driver of leukemic growth, but how aberrant signaling affects the epigenome in AML is less understood. Furthermore, AML cells undergo extensive clonal evolution, and the mutations in signaling genes are often secondary events. To elucidate how chronic growth factor signaling alters the transcriptional network in AML, we performed a system-wide multi-omics study of primary cells from patients suffering from AML with internal tandem duplications in the FLT3 transmembrane domain (FLT3-ITD). This strategy revealed cooperation between the MAP kinase (MAPK) inducible transcription factor AP-1 and RUNX1 as a major driver of a common, FLT3-ITD-specific gene expression and chromatin signature, demonstrating a major impact of MAPK signaling pathways in shaping the epigenome of FLT3-ITD AML

CD70/CD27 signaling promotes blast stemness and is a viable therapeutic target in acute myeloid leukemia.

Aberrant proliferation, symmetric self-renewal, increased survival, and defective differentiation of malignant blasts are key oncogenic drivers in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Stem cell gene signatures predict poor prognosis in AML patients; however, with few exceptions, these deregulated molecular pathways cannot be targeted therapeutically. In this study, we demonstrate that the TNF superfamily ligand-receptor pair CD70/CD27 is expressed on AML blasts and AML stem/progenitor cells. CD70/CD27 signaling in AML cells activates stem cell gene expression programs, including the Wnt pathway, and promotes symmetric cell divisions and proliferation. Soluble CD27, reflecting the extent of CD70/CD27 interactions in vivo, was significantly elevated in the sera of newly diagnosed AML patients and is a strong independent negative prognostic biomarker for overall survival. Blocking the CD70/CD27 interaction by mAb-induced asymmetric cell divisions and differentiation in AML blasts and AML stem/progenitor cells inhibited cell growth and colony formation and significantly prolonged survival in murine AML xenografts. Importantly, hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells from healthy BM donors express neither CD70 nor CD27 and were unaffected by blocking mAb treatment. Therefore, targeting CD70/CD27 signaling represents a promising therapeutic strategy for AML

Why Honors? A Critical Case Study of Value and Status in Honors Education

The purpose of this study is to explore how staff and students in one honors college perceive and communicate the value that students receive as a result of their participation in the honors college. Examining the honors college experience through the lens of Bourdieu's Theory of Social Reproduction, with a particular focus on the acquisition of cultural capital, the study examines the ways that various structural, experiential, and reputational aspects of the honors college experience impact the ways that students value, and are valued by, the institution. The primary research question addressed through this research was, "what is the value of the honors college experience at the Saguaro State University (SSU) for honors college students?" Data for study was collected in the Fall and Spring of 2019 through qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 26 participants, 14 staff and 12 students from the honors college at Saguaro State University. Data were coded and analyzed through the lens of Bourdieu's Theory of Social Reproduction, from which emerged the following three themes: 1) A disconnect between staff and student assessments of the value of the honors college experience for students, 2) The centrality of exclusivity to the value of the honors college experience, and 3) A difference in student’s perceptions based on both the student’s racial identity and their academic class year. Lastly, implications from the study spoke to the impacts of maintaining or reimagining the structure and impact of the honors college experience at SSU and focused on the ways in which honors education can serve as a mechanism for social reproduction or as a vehicle for structural change and equity in higher education