Listeria monocytogenes Infection in Israel and Review of Cases Worldwide

Listeria monocytogenes, an uncommon foodborne pathogen, is increasingly recognized as a cause of life-threatening disease. A marked increase in reported cases of listeriosis during 1998 motivated a retrospective nationwide survey of the infection in Israel. From 1995 to 1999, 161 cases were identified; 70 (43%) were perinatal infections, with a fetal mortality rate of 45%. Most (74%) of the 91 nonperinatal infections involved immunocompromised patients with malignancies, chronic liver disease, chronic renal failure, or diabetes mellitus. The common clinical syndromes in these patients were primary bacteremia (47%) and meningitis (28%). The crude case-fatality rate in this group was 38%, with a higher death rate in immunocompromised patients

Exclusivity of barcodes and classifying cells by expression.

<p><b>A)</b> The number of unique RNA transcripts per barcode is plotted for barcodes with more than 200 transcripts coming from a mixed sample of 75% mouse and 25% human cells. Transcripts are included if they map either exclusively to the mouse genome (red) or the human genome (blue). <b>B)</b> The distribution of the number of human transcripts found in barcodes of murine cells (top), the number of murine transcripts found in human cells (middle) and the number of total foreign transcripts expected per barcode calculated as the distribution of the sum of pairs of numbers randomly sampled from the two distributions above. <b>C)</b> After clustering 451 murine cells according to their transcriptomes, the correlation of all murine cell transcriptomes with the aggregated transcriptome of cluster #1 is plotted vs. their correlation with aggregated transcriptome of cluster #2. Green cells are mES, comprising 99% of cells in cluster #1, which consists of 290 cells while mEF cells are red, comprising 86% of cells in cluster #2, which consists of 161 cells. <b>D)</b> The same clustering method was repeated after replacing some of the transcripts in each cell with foreign transcripts randomly chosen from the aggregated transcriptome of all cells. The fraction of correctly classified cells averaged over 20 clustering trials is plotted vs. the number of foreign transcripts that were introduced in each cell before clustering.</p

Microfluidic chip design.

<p><b>A)</b> 96 parallel drop-makers sharing the same oil inlet and the same collection outlet are used as one chip to encapsulate the barcode library emulsion. The device is multilayered, with 325 μm thick distribution channels (black) and 25 μm thick drop makers (gray). <b>B)</b> Co-flow drop maker with separate inlets for cells and lysing buffer that mix at encapsulation. <b>C)</b> “Three point merger” device re-injecting two emulsions and adding buffer at the coalescence junction. The electrode channels are filled with solder to create the electrodes that mediated coalescence at the junction.</p