Right-hand-side updating for fast computing of genomic breeding values

Since both the number of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) used in genomic prediction and the number of individuals used in training datasets are rapidly increasing, there is an increasing need to improve the efficiency of genomic prediction models in terms of computing time and memory (RAM) required

West-Life: A Virtual Research Environment for structural biology

The West-Life project (https://about.west-life.eu/)is a Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Commission to provide data processing and data management services for the international community of structural biologists, and in particular to support integrative experimental approaches within the field of structural biology. It has developed enhancements to existing web services for structure solution and analysis, created new pipelines to link these services into more complex higher-level workflows, and added new data management facilities. Through this work it has striven to make the benefits of European e-Infrastructures more accessible to life-science researchers in general and structural biologists in particular

The cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response to HTLV-I: the main determinant of disease?

There is a powerful, chronically activated cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response to the Tax protein of human T-cell leukaemia virus type I (HTLV-I) in most people infected with the virus. The CTL select variant sequences of Tax which escape immune recognition and interfere with recognition of the wild-type protein. This positive selection process is more efficient in healthy HTLV-I carriers than in patients with tropical spastic paraparesis, an inflammatory neurological disease associated with HTLV-I. The mean virus load is more than 10-fold greater in patients with this neurological disease than in healthy carriers of HTLV-I. We conclude that anti-Tax CTL play an important part in limiting the rate of replication of HTLV-I. We suggest that the outcome of infection with HTLV-I is primarily determined by the CTL response of the individual: low CTL responders to HTLV-I develop a high virus load, resulting in widespread chronic activation of T cells. The activated T cells then invade the tissues and cause bystander tissue damage, probably by releasing cytokines and other soluble substances. An efficient CTL response to HTLV-I limits the equilibrium virus load, and so reduces the chance of developing inflammatory disease

High activated and memory cytotoxic T-cell responses to HTLV-1 in healthy carriers and patients with tropical spastic paraparesis

The cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response to HTLV-1 is directed mainly against the Tax protein. Circulating, activated Tax-specific CTL can be found in a majority of healthy carriers and patients with the HTLV-1-associated disease tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). In this study we present data on the Tax-specific CTL response of 26 HTLV-1 carriers, including 10 newly recruited subjects. Rex-specific CTL were not found in any subjects investigated. Activated and memory CTL responses were determined separately in 4 healthy carriers, 3 HAM/TSP patients, and 1 “seronegative HAM/TSP.” In all subjects, the mean frequency of peptide-specific memory cells per epitope (1/1307) was high. There was no significant difference in mean memory CTL frequency per epitope or in the proportion of subjects with activated CTL between healthy carriers and HAM/TSP patients. One individual with HAM/TSP had an unusually high frequency response to two peptides, suggesting immunodominance of epitope recognition in this individual. We conclude that the magnitude and components of the HTLV-1-specific CTL response do not differ between healthy carriers and HAM/TSP patients. These data do not support a specific CTL-mediated component in the pathogenesis of HAM/TSP