Focus on the future of clinical care

2006 Annual report of Thomas Jefferson Universit

Orchestrating the future of clinical care

2005 Annual report of Thomas Jefferson University

Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus ODV-E56 is a per os infectivity factor, but is not essential for binding and fusion of occlusion-derived virus to the host midgut

The Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) occlusion-derived virus (ODV) envelope protein ODV-E56 is essential for oral infection of larvae of Heliothis virescens. Bioassays with recombinant clones of AcMNPV lacking a functional odv-e56 gene showed that ODV-E56 was required for infectivity of both polyhedra and to a lesser extent, purified ODV. However, binding and fusion assays showed that ODV lacking ODV-E56 bound and fused to midgut cells at levels similar to ODV of wild-type virus. Fluorescence microscopy of midguts from larvae inoculated with ODV-E56-positive and -negative viruses that express GFP indicated that ODV-E56 was required for infection of the midgut epithelium. Purified ODV-E56 bound to several proteins in midgut-derived brush border membrane vesicles, but failed to rescue infectivity of ODV-E56-negative viruses in trans. These results indicate that ODV-E56 is a per osinfectivity factor (pif-5) required for primary midgut infection at a point before or after virion binding and fusion

Expression, Delivery and Function of Insecticidal Proteins Expressed by Recombinant Baculoviruses

Since the development of methods for inserting and expressing genes in baculoviruses, a line of research has focused on developing recombinant baculoviruses that express insecticidal peptides and proteins. These recombinant viruses have been engineered with the goal of improving their pesticidal potential by shortening the time required for infection to kill or incapacitate insect pests and reducing the quantity of crop damage as a consequence. A wide variety of neurotoxic peptides, proteins that regulate insect physiology, degradative enzymes, and other potentially insecticidal proteins have been evaluated for their capacity to reduce the survival time of baculovirus-infected lepidopteran host larvae. Researchers have investigated the factors involved in the efficient expression and delivery of baculovirus-encoded insecticidal peptides and proteins, with much effort dedicated to identifying ideal promoters for driving transcription and signal peptides that mediate secretion of the expressed target protein. Other factors, particularly translational efficiency of transcripts derived from recombinant insecticidal genes and post-translational folding and processing of insecticidal proteins, remain relatively unexplored. The discovery of RNA interference as a gene-specific regulation mechanism offers a new approach for improvement of baculovirus biopesticidal efficacy through genetic modification

Sexual orientation and associated characteristics among north american academic psychiatrists

We mailed questionnaires inquiring about a range of personal and professional attributes to 972 North American psychiatrists at five leading medical schools in the United States and Canada. Of these, 49% (435 psychiatrists) responded. Of the respondents, 90.9% reported being exclusively heterosexual, 3.5% predominantly heterosexual, and 5.6% bisexual/homosexual. Analyses were performed to assess the relationship between sexual orientation and other variables. We found that exclusive heterosexuals were more likely than other psychiatrists to be Jewish (p = .002), to have first‐degree relatives with psychiatric illness (p =.015), and to have conducted research after residency training (p = .034). Exclusively heterosexual psychiatrists were less likely to have used recreational drugs (p = .025), or to prescribe psychotropic medications to none of their patients (p = .017). Sexual orientation was not correlated with a variety of other personal and professional characteristics. The findings suggest that gay men and lesbians are represented within psychiatry at rates comparable to their estimated representation in society. Moreover, the data invite several hypotheses—for example, that medical students may be drawn to psychiatry for specific reasons such as feeling marginalized due to being gay or bisexual