On the Fence

Over a hundred years ago, my great-great grandmother fled Germany by herself to come to the United States to escape the abuse of her father. She had no connections in this country and nowhere to go. That same century my ancestors from Ireland crossed the Atlantic to make a better life in America. They were discriminated against for their religion and for their nationality. Ana* and her husband, two hardworking Mexicans, paid a coyote to help them cross the Rio Grande into the United States ten years ago. They saw no future for their two young girls in Mexico and could not make ends meet. The family has struggled with racial profiling and prejudices since they arrived. On the surface there are no differences in these stories. With other opportunities exhausted, these determined people uprooted their lives and moved to an unknown country, where the language, religion, and customs are different and friends or family are limited. [excerpt

Owning Up To The Age Old Excuse

A few days ago, I was having a conversation with an older gentleman. He was friendly and very interested in my studies, but every now and then he would interject some racist slur or joke. He insistently referred to undocumented individuals as illegals because, according to him, “that’s exactly what they are.” He also made a few comments about Aryan dominance yet claimed that he wasn’t racist because he discriminates against all non-Aryans equally. The man clearly expected me to laugh along with him, especially with those last remarks, as if it were completely normal to utter them in an everyday conversation. He justified his words by saying “that’s just how it used to be”, ”I’m old-school”, and “everyone’s overly sensitive these days.” [excerpt

Fearless: Emily Hauck

Beginning with an interest in Spanish language that led her to Argentina and Spain, Emily decided to use the language skills she acquired during her gap year after high school and time spent studying abroad to get herself connected to the Latino community in Adams County. Volunteering with different organizations and programs like the LIU #12 Migrant Education Programs, Casa de la Cultura, and El Centro, Emily started seeing the big picture—making connections between the immigration stories, people she was meeting, and the greater national dialogue on immigration issues. [excerpt

Toddlers with elevated Autism symptoms show slowed habituation to faces

We explored social information processing and its relation to social and communicative symptoms in toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their siblings. Toddlers with more severe symptoms of autism showed slower habituation to faces than comparison groups; slower face learning correlated with poorer social skills and lower verbal ability. Unaffected toddlers who were siblings of children with ASD also showed slower habituation to faces compared with toddlers without siblings with ASD. We conclude that slower rates of face learning may be an endophenotype of ASD and is associated with more severe symptoms among affected individuals

Monitoring Aptamer–Protein Interactions Using Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Analytical Chemistry, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac401764cAptamers are short single-stranded pieces of DNA or RNA capable of binding to analytes with specificity and high affinity. Due to their comparable selectivity, stability, and cost, over the last two decades, aptamers have started to challenge antibodies in their use on many technology platforms. The binding event often leads to changes in the aptamer’s secondary and tertiary structure; monitoring such changes has led to the creation of many new analytical sensors. Here, we demonstrate the use of a tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) technology to monitor the interaction between several DNA aptamers and their target, thrombin. We immobilized the aptamers onto the surface of superparamagnetic beads, prior to their incubation with the thrombin protein. The protein binding to the aptamer caused a conformational change resulting in the shielding of the polyanion backbone; this was monitored by a change in the translocation time and pulse frequency of the particles traversing the pore. This signal was sensitive enough to allow the tagless detection of thrombin down to nanomolar levels. We further demonstrate the power of TRPS by performing real time detection and characterization of the aptamer–target interaction and measuring the association rates of the thrombin protein to the aptamer sequences

Rubella virus infected macrophages and neutrophils define patterns of granulomatous inflammation in inborn and acquired errors of immunity

Rubella virus (RuV) has recently been found in association with granulomatous inflammation of the skin and several internal organs in patients with inborn errors of immunity (IEI). The cellular tropism and molecular mechanisms of RuV persistence and pathogenesis in select immunocompromised hosts are not clear. We provide clinical, immunological, virological, and histological data on a cohort of 28 patients with a broad spectrum of IEI and RuV-associated granulomas in skin and nine extracutaneous tissues to further delineate this relationship. Combined immunodeficiency was the most frequent diagnosis (67.8%) among patients. Patients with previously undocumented conditions, i.e., humoral immunodeficiencies, a secondary immunodeficiency, and a defect of innate immunity were identified as being susceptible to RuV-associated granulomas. Hematopoietic cell transplantation was the most successful treatment in this case series resulting in granuloma resolution; steroids, and TNF-α and IL-1R inhibitors were moderately effective. In addition to M2 macrophages, neutrophils were identified by immunohistochemical analysis as a novel cell type infected with RuV. Four patterns of RuV-associated granulomatous inflammation were classified based on the structural organization of granulomas and identity and location of cell types harboring RuV antigen. Identification of conditions that increase susceptibility to RuV-associated granulomas combined with structural characterization of the granulomas may lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of RuV-associated granulomas and discover new targets for therapeutic interventions

Extended clinical and immunological phenotype and transplant outcome in CD27 and CD70 deficiency

Biallelic mutations in the genes encoding CD27 or its ligand CD70 underlie inborn errors of immunity (IEIs) characterized predominantly by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated immune dysregulation, such as chronic viremia, severe infectious mononucleosis, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), lymphoproliferation, and malignancy. A comprehensive understanding of the natural history, immune characteristics, and transplant outcomes has remained elusive. Here, in a multi-institutional global collaboration, we collected the clinical information of 49 patients from 29 families (CD27, n = 33; CD70, n = 16), including 24 previously unreported individuals and identified a total of 16 distinct mutations in CD27, and 8 in CD70, respectively. The majority of patients (90%) were EBV1 at diagnosis, but only similar to 30% presented with infectious mononucleosis. Lymphoproliferation and lymphoma were the main clinical manifestations (70% and 43%, respectively), and 9 of the CD27-deficient patients developed HLH. Twenty-one patients (43%) developed autoinflammatory features including uveitis, arthritis, and periodic fever. Detailed immunological characterization revealed aberrant generation of memory B and T cells, including a paucity of EBV-specific T cells, and impaired effector function of CD81 T cells, thereby providing mechanistic insight into cellular defects underpinning the clinical features of disrupted CD27/CD70 signaling. Nineteen patients underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) prior to adulthood predominantly because of lymphoma, with 95% survival without disease recurrence. Our data highlight the marked predisposition to lymphoma of both CD27- and CD70-deficient patients. The excellent outcome after HSCT supports the timely implementation of this treatment modality particularly in patients presenting with malignant transformation to lymphoma