Education for a Future in Crisis: Developing a Humanities-Informed STEM Curriculum

In the popular imagination, science and technology are often seen as fields of knowledge production critical to social progress and a cooperative future. This optimistic portrayal of technological advancement also features prominently in internal discourses amongst scientists, industry leaders, and STEM students alike. Yet, an overwhelming body of research, investigation, and first-person accounts highlight the varying ways modern science, technology, and engineering industries contribute to the degradation of our changing environments and exploit and harm global low-income and marginalized populations. By and large, siloed higher-education STEM curricula provide inadequate opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to critically analyze the historical and epistemological foundations of scientific knowledge production and even fewer tools to engage with and respond to modern community-based cases. Here, we describe the development of a humanities- and social sciences-informed curriculum designed to address the theory, content, and skill-based needs of traditional STEM students considering technoscientific careers. In essence, this course is designed to foster behavior change, de-center dominant ways of knowing in the sciences, and bolster self-reflection and critical-thinking skills to equip the developing STEM workforce with a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the social, political, and economic role of science and technology. This curriculum has the potential to empower STEM-educated professionals to contribute to a more promising, inclusive future. Our framework foregrounds key insights from science and technology studies, Black and Native feminisms, queer theory, and disability studies, alongside real-world case studies using critical pedagogies.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure, 4 table

Pelagic Sargassum events in Jamaica : Provenance, morphotype abundance, and influence of sample processing on biochemical composition of the biomass

Pelagic Sargassum species have been known for centuries in the Sargasso Sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. In 2011, a new area concentrating high biomass of these brown algae started developing in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean. Since then, massive and recurrent Sargassum influxes have been reported in the Caribbean and off the coast of Western Africa. These Sargassum events have a major negative impact on coastal ecosystems and nearshore marine life, and affect socio-economic sectors, including public health, coastal living, tourism, fisheries, andmaritime transport. Despite recent advances in the forecasting of Sargassum events, and elucidation of the seaweed composition, many knowledge gaps remain, including morphotype abundance during Sargassum events, drift of the seaweeds in the months prior to stranding, and influence of sample processing methods on biomass biochemical composition. Using seaweeds harvested on the coasts of Jamaica in summer of 2020,we observed that S. fluitans III was themost abundantmorphotype at different times and sampling locations. No clear difference in the geographical origin, or provenance, of the Sargassummats was observed. Themajority of Sargassumbacktracked fromboth north and south of Jamaica experienced ambient temperatures of around 27 °C and salinity in the range of 34–36 psu before stranding.We also showed that cheap (sun) compared to expensive (freeze) drying techniques influence the biochemical composition of biomass. Sun-drying increased the proportion of phenolic compounds, but had a deleterious impact on fucoxanthin content and on the quantities of monosaccharides, except for mannitol. Effects on the content of fucose containing sulfated polysaccharides depended on the method used for their extraction, and limited variation was observed in ash, protein, and fatty acid content within most of the sample locations investigated. These observations are important for the storage and transport of the biomass in the context of its valorisation

The complement cascade as a mediator of tissue growth and regeneration

Recent evidence has demonstrated that the complement cascade is involved in a variety of physiologic and pathophysiologic processes in addition to its role as an immune effector. Research in a variety of organ systems has shown that complement proteins are direct participants in maintenance of cellular turnover, healing, proliferation and regeneration. As a physiologic housekeeper, complement proteins maintain tissue integrity in the absence of inflammation by disposing of cellular debris and waste, a process critical to the prevention of autoimmune disease. Developmentally, complement proteins influence pathways including hematopoietic stem cell engraftment, bone growth, and angiogenesis. They also provide a potent stimulus for cellular proliferation including regeneration of the limb and eye in animal models, and liver proliferation following injury. Here, we describe the complement cascade as a mediator of tissue growth and regeneration

Evaluation of Clonal Hematopoiesis in Pediatric ADA-SCID Gene Therapy Participants

Autologous stem cell transplant with gene therapy (ASCT-GT) provides curative therapy while reducing pretransplant immune-suppressive conditioning and eliminating posttransplant immune suppression. Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP)-associated mutations increase and telomere lengths (TLs) shorten with natural aging and DNA damaging processes. It is possible that, if CHIP is present before ASCT-GT or mutagenesis occurs after busulfan exposure, the hematopoietic stem cells carrying these somatic variants may survive the conditioning chemotherapy and have a selective reconstitution advantage, increasing the risk of hematologic malignancy and overall mortality. Seventy-four peripheral blood samples (ranging from baseline to 120 months after ASCT-GT) from 10 pediatric participants who underwent ASCT-GT for adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immune deficiency (ADA-SCID) after reduced-intensity conditioning with busulfan and 16 healthy controls were analyzed for TL and CHIP. One participant had a significant decrease in TL. There were no CHIP-associated mutations identified by the next-generation sequencing in any of the ADA-SCID participants. This suggests that further studies are needed to determine the utility of germline analyses in revealing the underlying genetic risk of malignancy in participants who undergo gene therapy. Although these results are promising, larger scale studies are needed to corroborate the effect of ASCT-GT on TL and CHIP. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00794508

Molecular and Anatomical Signatures of Sleep Deprivation in the Mouse Brain

Sleep deprivation (SD) leads to a suite of cognitive and behavioral impairments, and yet the molecular consequences of SD in the brain are poorly understood. Using a systematic immediate-early gene (IEG) mapping to detect neuronal activation, the consequences of SD were mapped primarily to forebrain regions. SD was found to both induce and suppress IEG expression (and thus neuronal activity) in subregions of neocortex, striatum, and other brain regions. Laser microdissection and cDNA microarrays were used to identify the molecular consequences of SD in seven brain regions. In situ hybridization (ISH) for 222 genes selected from the microarray data and other sources confirmed that robust molecular changes were largely restricted to the forebrain. Analysis of the ISH data for 222 genes (publicly accessible at http://sleep.alleninstitute.org ) provided a molecular and anatomic signature of the effects of SD on the brain. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and the neocortex exhibited differential regulation of the same genes, such that in the SCN genes exhibited time-of-day effects while in the neocortex, genes exhibited only SD and waking (W) effects. In the neocortex, SD activated gene expression in areal-, layer-, and cell type-specific manner. In the forebrain, SD preferentially activated excitatory neurons, as demonstrated by double-labeling, except for striatum which consists primarily of inhibitory neurons. These data provide a characterization of the anatomical and cell type-specific signatures of SD on neuronal activity and gene expression that may account for the associated cognitive and behavioral effects

Perspectives on ENCODE

The Encylopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project launched in 2003 with the long-term goal of developing a comprehensive map of functional elements in the human genome. These included genes, biochemical regions associated with gene regulation (for example, transcription factor binding sites, open chromatin, and histone marks) and transcript isoforms. The marks serve as sites for candidate cis-regulatory elements (cCREs) that may serve functional roles in regulating gene expression1. The project has been extended to model organisms, particularly the mouse. In the third phase of ENCODE, nearly a million and more than 300,000 cCRE annotations have been generated for human and mouse, respectively, and these have provided a valuable resource for the scientific community.11Nsciescopu

Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes

AbstractThe human and mouse genomes contain instructions that specify RNAs and proteins and govern the timing, magnitude, and cellular context of their production. To better delineate these elements, phase III of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project has expanded analysis of the cell and tissue repertoires of RNA transcription, chromatin structure and modification, DNA methylation, chromatin looping, and occupancy by transcription factors and RNA-binding proteins. Here we summarize these efforts, which have produced 5,992 new experimental datasets, including systematic determinations across mouse fetal development. All data are available through the ENCODE data portal (https://www.encodeproject.org), including phase II ENCODE1 and Roadmap Epigenomics2 data. We have developed a registry of 926,535 human and 339,815 mouse candidate cis-regulatory elements, covering 7.9 and 3.4% of their respective genomes, by integrating selected datatypes associated with gene regulation, and constructed a web-based server (SCREEN; http://screen.encodeproject.org) to provide flexible, user-defined access to this resource. Collectively, the ENCODE data and registry provide an expansive resource for the scientific community to build a better understanding of the organization and function of the human and mouse genomes.11Nsciescopu