12 research outputs found
Marching toward implementation of an ultra-high density dynamic perfusion process
Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract
EnzymeâTriggered Assembly of Glycan Nanomaterials
A comprehensive molecular understanding of carbohydrate aggregation is key to optimize carbohydrate utilization and to engineer bioinspired analogues with tailored shapes and properties. However, the lack of wellâdefined synthetic standards has substantially hampered advances in this field. Herein, we employ a phosphorylationâassisted strategy to synthesize previously inaccessible long oligomers of cellulose, chitin, and xylan. These oligomers were subjected to enzymeâtriggered assembly (ETA) for the onâdemand formation of wellâdefined carbohydrate nanomaterials, including elongated platelets, helical bundles, and hexagonal particles. Cryoâelectron microscopy and electron diffraction analysis provided molecular insights into the aggregation behavior of these oligosaccharides, establishing a direct connection between the resulting morphologies and the oligosaccharide primary sequence. Our findings demonstrate that ETA is a powerful approach to elucidate the intrinsic aggregation behavior of carbohydrates in nature. Moreover, the ability to access a diverse array of morphologies, expanded with a nonânatural sequence, underscores the potential of ETA, coupled with sequence design, as a robust tool for accessing programmable glycan architectures
Controlling the Assembly of Cellulose-Based Oligosaccharides through Sequence Modifications
Peptides and nucleic acids with programmable sequences are widely explored for the production of tunable, self-assembling functional materials. Herein we demonstrate that the primary sequence of oligosaccharides can be designed to access materials with tunable shapes and properties. Synthetic cellulose-based oligomers were assembled into 2D or 3D rod-like crystallites. Sequence modifications within the oligosaccharide core influenced the molecular packing and led to the formation of square-like assemblies based on the rare cellulose IVII allomorph. In contrast, modifications at the termini generated elongated aggregates with tunable surfaces, resulting in self-healing supramolecular hydrogels
Putting Children First: New Frontiers in the Fight Against Child Poverty in Africa
Despite important strides in the fight against poverty in the past two decades, child poverty remains widespread and persistent, particularly in Africa. Poverty in all its dimensions is detrimental for early childhood development and often results in unreversed damage to the lives of girls and boys, locking children and families into intergenerational poverty. This edited volume contributes to the policy initiatives aiming to reduce child poverty and academic understanding of child poverty and its solutions by bringing together applied research from across the continent. With the Sustainable Development Goals having opened up an important space for the fight against child poverty, not least by broadening its conceptualization to be multidimensional, this collection aims to push the frontiers by challenging existing narratives and exploring alternative understandings of the complexities and dynamics underpinning child poverty. Furthermore, it examines policy options that work to address this critical challenge.Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) at the University of Bergen.publishedVersio
Controlling the Assembly of CelluloseâBased Oligosaccharides through Sequence Modifications
International audiencePeptides and nucleic acids with programmable sequences are widely explored for the production of tunable, selfâassembling functional materials. Herein we demonstrate that the primary sequence of oligosaccharides can be designed to access materials with tunable shapes and properties. Synthetic celluloseâbased oligomers were assembled into 2D or 3D rodâlike crystallites. Sequence modifications within the oligosaccharide core influenced the molecular packing and led to the formation of squareâlike assemblies based on the rare cellulose IV II allomorph. In contrast, modifications at the termini generated elongated aggregates with tunable surfaces, resulting in selfâhealing supramolecular hydrogels
Supplemental material for Right ventricular stroke work correlates with outcomes in pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension
<p>Supplemental material for Right ventricular stroke work correlates with outcomes in pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension by Weiguang Yang, Alison L. Marsden, Michelle T. Ogawa, Charlotte Sakarovitch, Keeley K. Hall, Marlene Rabinovitch and Jeffrey A. Feinstein in Pulmonary Circulation</p
Putting Children First: New Frontiers in the Fight Against Child Poverty in Africa
Despite important strides in the fight against poverty in the past two decades, child poverty remains widespread and persistent, particularly in Africa. Poverty in all its dimensions is detrimental for early childhood development and often results in unreversed damage to the lives of girls and boys, locking children and families into intergenerational poverty. This edited volume contributes to the policy initiatives aiming to reduce child poverty and academic understanding of child poverty and its solutions by bringing together applied research from across the continent. With the Sustainable Development Goals having opened up an important space for the fight against child poverty, not least by broadening its conceptualization to be multidimensional, this collection aims to push the frontiers by challenging existing narratives and exploring alternative understandings of the complexities and dynamics underpinning child poverty. Furthermore, it examines policy options that work to address this critical challenge
Ruins for the future
In 2011 a tsunami over 20 meters high struck Japan's northeastern coastline. Along with causing close to 20,000 deaths, it destroyed many buildings, leaving behind a landscape of ruins. In the years since the disaster, various groups in Japan have interpreted these ruins as a way to work through âwhat went wrong.â Some pointed to local officialsâ failure to properly prepare for the disaster, as well as the form of economic development that they had promoted. Others, however, particularly state officials, argued that the ruins of failed development reveal something that can be used to stimulate economic recovery and legitimize further development. Ironically, these groups mobilized the debris of âprogressâ to advance progress itself, complicating theories of recent ruins as âcounter-sites.â This shows that actors can construct and leverage the truth content of ruins in support of the very ideologies and processes that caused their ruination in the first place. [3.11, disaster, governance, materiality, modernity, ruination, Japan] Global Challenges (FSW
Structural basis of steroid hormone perception by the receptor kinase BRI1
International audiencePolyhydroxylated steroids are regulators of body shape and size in higher organisms. In metazoans, intracellular receptors recognize these molecules. Plants, however, perceive steroids at membranes, using the membrane-integral receptor kinase BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1 (BRI1). Here we report the structure of the Arabidopsis thaliana BRI1 ligand-binding domain, determined by X-ray diffraction at 2.5âĂ
resolution. We find a superhelix of 25 twisted leucine-rich repeats (LRRs), an architecture that is strikingly different from the assembly of LRRs in animal Toll-like receptors. A 70-amino-acid island domain between LRRs 21 and 22 folds back into the interior of the superhelix to create a surface pocket for binding the plant hormone brassinolide. Known loss- and gain-of-function mutations map closely to the hormone-binding site. We propose that steroid binding to BRI1 generates a docking platform for a co-receptor that is required for receptor activation. Our findings provide insight into the activation mechanism of this highly expanded family of plant receptors that have essential roles in hormone, developmental and innate immunity signalling