Possibility of Cell Block Specimens from Overnight-Stored Bile for Next-Generation Sequencing of Cholangiocarcinoma

The identification of anticancer therapies using next-generation sequencing (NGS) is necessary for the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma. NGS can be easily performed when cell blocks (CB) are obtained from bile stored overnight. We compared NGS results of paired CB and surgically resected specimens (SRS) from the same cholangiocarcinoma cases. Of the prospectively collected 64 bile CBs from 2018 to 2023, NGS was performed for three cases of cholangiocarcinoma that could be compared with the SRS results. The median numbers of DNA and RNA reads were 95,077,806 [CB] vs. 93,161,788 [SRS] and 22,101,328 [CB] vs. 24,806,180 [SRS], respectively. We evaluated 588 genes and found that almost all genetic alterations were attributed to single-nucleotide variants, insertions/deletions, and multi-nucleotide variants. The coverage rate of variants in SRS by those found in CB was 97.9–99.2%, and the coverage rate of SRS genes by CB genes was 99.6–99.7%. The NGS results of CB fully covered the variants and genetic alterations observed in paired SRS samples. As bile CB is easy to prepare in general hospitals, our results suggest the potential use of bile CB as a novel method for NGS-based evaluation of cholangiocarcinoma

Development of Water Purification System by Magnetic Separation Technique and Its Application to the Education for Environment on the Course of Learn-by-Doing Program

This presentation was part of the session : Technology to Support Instructors, Part 2IACEE 11th World Conference on Continuing Engineering EducationA superconducting permanent magnet system capable of generating strong magnetic fields has been constructed by using bulk high temperatures superconductors HTS. The magnetic field in the open space between the face-to-face settled magnetic poles has exceeded 3 T when they were activated at 30 K. We have investigated the magnetic separation technique with respect to Fe ions in the waste water drained from the university laboratories. The performances of bulk magnet system closely came to those of 5 T superconducting solenoid with a ratio over 90 % under the flowing rate of 3 liter/min in spite of the narrower space of strong field. The result attributes to the fact that the bulk magnet system has the steepest gradient among them. This suggests that the magnetic separation by using bulk magnets is effective for the practical water purification systems. The students of Niigata University take various parts in the actual R&D processes that were incorporated as a course of their educational curricula. It is important for the university students to learn the environmental issues by resolving the practical problems surrounding them. In the study, the water purification system has been adapted to the education course to carry out as a project-based learning. We expect that students would acquire strong motivation to learn sciences through the course.Distance Learning and Professional Education ; International Association for Continuing Engineering Educatio