Complex Coacervate-based Materials for Biomedicine

There has been increasing interest in complex coacervates for deriving and trans- porting biomaterials. Complex coacervates are a dense, polyelectrolyte-rich liq- uid that results from the electrostatic complexation of oppositely charged macroions. Coacervates have long been used as a strategy for encapsulation, par- ticularly in food and personal care products. More recent efforts have focused on the utility of this class of materials for the encapsulation of small molecules, pro- teins, RNA, DNA, and other biomaterials for applications ranging from sensing to biomedicine. Furthermore, coacervate-related materials have found utility in other areas of biomedicine, including cartilage mimics, tissue culture scaffolds, and adhesives for wet, biological environments. Here, we discuss the self- assembly of complex coacervate-based materials, current challenges in the intel- ligent design of these materials, and their utility applications in the broad field of biomedicine

ASEAN Orthopaedic Association Education Committee - Orthopaedic curriculum for residency training 2019

In November 2013, Dr Dohar Tobing, who was the President of the ASEAN Orthopaedic Association at that time, organized a Seminar on Orthopaedic Education in Yogyakarta to discuss residency training in ASEAN. At this initial meeting the training program in each country was presented by representatives from each ASEAN country. Subsequently the ASEAN Orthopaedic Association established the Education Committee under the chairmanship of Professor Lee Eng Hin to develop a common syllabus/curriculum for all ASEAN countries based on minimum standards required to practice competently as a general orthopaedic surgeon. The main objective of having a common curriculum is to facilitate exchanges of residents and fellows amongst the ASEAN countries to increase their exposure to orthopaedic conditions in the region and improve their breadth and depth of knowledge and skills. The first meeting of the Education Committee was held in Cebu in November 2014 and the Committee has since met twice a year in May and November. Training programs in the ASEAN countries were discussed and a consensus was reached on the structure and length of the training program for the AOA curriculum. In May 2016, three workgroups were formed under the leadership of Professor David Choon, Dr Dohar Tobing and Professor Lee Eng Hin to develop the detailed curriculum in the following areas: a) General Orthopaedics/Trauma/Infection/Sports/Pathophysiology/Basic Science Lead: David Choon Members: Arturo C. Canete, Jean Pierre F. Leung, Apipop Kritsaneephaiboon, Maung Mg Htwe, Sabarul A. Mokhtar b) Adult Orthopaedics/Spine/Upper Limb/Foot & Ankle/Biomaterials/Biomechanics Lead: Dohar Tobing Members: Myint Thaung, Peter Lee, Yeo Sing Jin, Kamarul Ariffin Khalid, Khin Mg Myint, Azlina Abbas c) Pediatrics/Oncology Lead: Lee Eng Hin Members: Edward HM Wang, Kanyika Chamniprasas, Pornchai Mulpruek, Istan Irmansyah Irsan, Abdul Razak Sulaiman, Wan Faisham Nu’man Wan Ismail In addition to their contributions as workgroup members, the following individuals made substantial contributions in the following areas: Pathophysiology/Basic Science: Vivek Ajit Singh and David Choon General Ortho: Wan Faisham Nu’man Wan Ismail and Kamarul Ariffin Khalid Trauma: Arturo Cañete and Jean Pierre Leung Sports Medicine: Aung Myo Win Adult-Hip & Knee: Maung Mg Htwe and Myint Thaung Spine: Dohar Tobing Upper limb/Hand: Khin Mg Myint Foot & Ankle: Inderjeet Singh Paediatrics: Lee Eng Hin and Abdul Razak Sulaiman Oncology: Edward Wang and Istan Irmansyah Irsa

Complementary Sequential Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) and Cell-Free Tumor DNA (ctDNA) Profiling Reveals Metastatic Heterogeneity and Genomic Changes in Lung Cancer and Breast Cancer

Introduction Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) are tumor components present in circulation. Due to the limited access to both CTC enrichment platforms and ctDNA sequencing in most laboratories, they are rarely analyzed together. Methods Concurrent isolation of ctDNA and single CTCs were isolated from lung cancer and breast cancer patients using the combination of size-based and CD45-negative selection method via DropCell platform. We performed targeted amplicon sequencing to evaluate the genomic heterogeneity of CTCs and ctDNA in lung cancer and breast cancer patients. Results Higher degrees of genomic heterogeneity were observed in CTCs as compared to ctDNA. Several shared alterations present in CTCs and ctDNA were undetected in the primary tumor, highlighting the intra-tumoral heterogeneity of tumor components that were shed into systemic circulation. Accordingly, CTCs and ctDNA displayed higher degree of concordance with the metastatic tumor than the primary tumor. The alterations detected in circulation correlated with worse survival outcome for both lung and breast cancer patients emphasizing the impact of the metastatic phenotype. Notably, evolving genetic signatures were detected in the CTCs and ctDNA samples during the course of treatment and disease progression. Conclusions A standardized sample processing and data analysis workflow for concurrent analysis of CTCs and ctDNA successfully dissected the heterogeneity of metastatic tumor in circulation as well as the progressive genomic changes that may potentially guide the selection of appropriate therapy against evolving tumor clonality

Analysis of clinically relevant variants from ancestrally diverse Asian genomes.

10.1038/s41467-022-34116-9Nat Commun1316694