This Is My Neighborhood: An Exploration of Culturally Relevant Agency to Support High School Latinx Students in an Urban Career Academy

The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives and strategies internal and external stakeholders used to support students in a career academy serving a predominately Latinx community. Within this case study, the principal of the school was Latinx, grew up within the same community as the school, and therefore shared the same culture as his students. Thus, we wondered how effective the principal would be in overcoming the cultural, political, and social barriers of students in the predominately Latinx school. We found the school leaders had a heightened awareness of organizational, cultural, and political complexities because of their own personal investment as well as their lived experiences of living and growing up in the community. The identities of the school leaders, then, led to a collective sense of agency and transformational leadership practices that facilitated a change in the grim situations and prospects of their students, and motivated them to become role models and community leaders providing resources and supports to ensure the high academic performance of students in the academy. However, we also realized that cultural understanding may sometimes lead to parochial views on what is best for students, leading to practices that prevent the exploration of student options beyond high school

CAR T Cells in Solid Tumors: Blueprints for Building Effective Therapies

Genetic redirection of T lymphocytes with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) has soared from treating cancers preclinically to FDA approval for hematologic malignancies and commercial-grade production scale in under 30 years. To date, solid tumors are less susceptible to CAR therapies and instead have been treated more successfully with immune checkpoint blockade or tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy. Here, we discuss the current challenges in treating solid tumors with CAR T cells, and the obstacles within the host and tumor microenvironment hindering their efficacy. We present a novel three-pronged approach for enhancing the efficacy of CAR T cells whereby a single infusion product can synergize the power of an optimal CAR construct, a highly potent T cell subset, and rejuvenate the endogenous immune response to conquer therapeutically-resistant solid tumors

A Learning Village: Utilizing a Holistic Approach to Create Connections between Community College Pre-Engineering Students and Iowa State’s College of Engineering

As part of a 5-year NSF grant, the partnership between Iowa State University (ISU) and Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) resulted in the Student Enrollment and Engagement through Connections (SEEC) project. This project is driven by five distinct Objective Teams (O-Teams) with each responsible for achieving specific objectives. These objectives are directly aligned with the project’s goal of increasing the number of students entering and earning an engineering degree at ISU. The SEEC project provided the opportunity to model and build a “learning village” based on ISU’s nationally recognized learning community foundation, and to increase student connections between these Iowa educational institutions. The intent of this paper is to chronicle the accomplishments of one of the O-Teams, the Learning Village Team, in the quest to achieve its overarching objective of “building a learning village that enhances student connections and creates ISU connections for community college pre-engineering transfer students.

Fueling Cancer Immunotherapy With Common Gamma Chain Cytokines

Adoptive T cell transfer therapy (ACT) using tumor infiltrating lymphocytes or lymphocytes redirected with antigen receptors (CAR or TCR) has revolutionized the field of cancer immunotherapy. Although CAR T cell therapy mediates robust responses in patients with hematological malignancies, this approach has been less effective for treating patients with solid tumors. Additionally, toxicities post T cell infusion highlight the need for safer ACT protocols. Current protocols traditionally expand T lymphocytes isolated from patient tumors or from peripheral blood to large magnitudes in the presence of high dose IL-2 prior to infusion. Unfortunately, this expansion protocol differentiates T cells to a full effector or terminal phenotype in vitro, consequently reducing their long-term survival and antitumor effectiveness in vivo. Post-infusion, T cells face further obstacles limiting their persistence and function within the suppressive tumor microenvironment. Therapeutic manipulation of T cells with common γ chain cytokines, which are critical growth factors for T cells, may be the key to bypass such immunological hurdles. Herein, we discuss the primary functions of the common γ chain cytokines impacting T cell survival and memory and then elaborate on how these distinct cytokines have been used to augment T cell-based cancer immunotherapy

The inner junction protein CFAP20 functions in motile and non-motile cilia and is critical for vision

Motile and non-motile cilia are associated with mutually-exclusive genetic disorders. Motile cilia propel sperm or extracellular fluids, and their dysfunction causes primary ciliary dyskinesia. Non-motile cilia serve as sensory/signalling antennae on most cell types, and their disruption causes single-organ ciliopathies such as retinopathies or multi-system syndromes. CFAP20 is a ciliopathy candidate known to modulate motile cilia in unicellular eukaryotes. We demonstrate that in zebrafish, cfap20 is required for motile cilia function, and in C. elegans, CFAP-20 maintains the structural integrity of non-motile cilia inner junctions, influencing sensory-dependent signalling and development. Human patients and zebrafish with CFAP20 mutations both exhibit retinal dystrophy. Hence, CFAP20 functions within a structural/functional hub centered on the inner junction that is shared between motile and non-motile cilia, and is distinct from other ciliopathy-associated domains or macromolecular complexes. Our findings suggest an uncharacterised pathomechanism for retinal dystrophy, and potentially for motile and non-motile ciliopathies in general

The inner junction protein CFAP20 functions in motile and non-motile cilia and is critical for vision

Motile and non-motile cilia are associated with mutually-exclusive genetic disorders. Motile cilia propel sperm or extracellular fluids, and their dysfunction causes primary ciliary dyskinesia. Non-motile cilia serve as sensory/signalling antennae on most cell types, and their disruption causes single-organ ciliopathies such as retinopathies or multi-system syndromes. CFAP20 is a ciliopathy candidate known to modulate motile cilia in unicellular eukaryotes. We demonstrate that in zebrafish, cfap20 is required for motile cilia function, and in C. elegans, CFAP-20 maintains the structural integrity of non-motile cilia inner junctions, influencing sensory-dependent signalling and development. Human patients and zebrafish with CFAP20 mutations both exhibit retinal dystrophy. Hence, CFAP20 functions within a structural/functional hub centered on the inner junction that is shared between motile and non-motile cilia, and is distinct from other ciliopathy-associated domains or macromolecular complexes. Our findings suggest an uncharacterised pathomechanism for retinal dystrophy, and potentially for motile and non-motile ciliopathies in general.</p

Determinants of recovery from post-COVID-19 dyspnoea: analysis of UK prospective cohorts of hospitalised COVID-19 patients and community-based controls

Background The risk factors for recovery from COVID-19 dyspnoea are poorly understood. We investigated determinants of recovery from dyspnoea in adults with COVID-19 and compared these to determinants of recovery from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea. Methods We used data from two prospective cohort studies: PHOSP-COVID (patients hospitalised between March 2020 and April 2021 with COVID-19) and COVIDENCE UK (community cohort studied over the same time period). PHOSP-COVID data were collected during hospitalisation and at 5-month and 1-year follow-up visits. COVIDENCE UK data were obtained through baseline and monthly online questionnaires. Dyspnoea was measured in both cohorts with the Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify determinants associated with a reduction in dyspnoea between 5-month and 1-year follow-up. Findings We included 990 PHOSP-COVID and 3309 COVIDENCE UK participants. We observed higher odds of improvement between 5-month and 1-year follow-up among PHOSP-COVID participants who were younger (odds ratio 1.02 per year, 95% CI 1.01–1.03), male (1.54, 1.16–2.04), neither obese nor severely obese (1.82, 1.06–3.13 and 4.19, 2.14–8.19, respectively), had no pre-existing anxiety or depression (1.56, 1.09–2.22) or cardiovascular disease (1.33, 1.00–1.79), and shorter hospital admission (1.01 per day, 1.00–1.02). Similar associations were found in those recovering from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea, excluding age (and length of hospital admission). Interpretation Factors associated with dyspnoea recovery at 1-year post-discharge among patients hospitalised with COVID-19 were similar to those among community controls without COVID-19. Funding PHOSP-COVID is supported by a grant from the MRC-UK Research and Innovation and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) rapid response panel to tackle COVID-19. The views expressed in the publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service (NHS), the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. COVIDENCE UK is supported by the UK Research and Innovation, the National Institute for Health Research, and Barts Charity. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funders