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3i Initiative Weekly Updates
Welcome to the 3i Weekly Update, your source for 3i relevant news and events. Please send all items of interest to Nicole.Frank@hsc.utah.edu by the end of the day on Thursdays.
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- Utah Cardiac Recovery Symposium
- THURSDAY, MARCH 18 - FRIDAY, MARCH 19 - 3i Initiative Spring 2021 Symposium - FRIDAY, ARPIL 30, 2021, 8:00 AM -5:00 PM
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Brian Evavold, PhD and Peter Jensen, MD named AAI Distinguished Fellows
Brian Evavold, PhD and Professor of Pathology, and Peter Jensen, MD and Professor and Chair of Pathology have both been recognized as American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Distinguished Fellows.
According to AAI, “This program annually recognizes members for distinguished careers and outstanding scientific contributions as well as their service to AAI and the immunology community. It honors active, long-term members (25 or more years) who have demonstrated one or more of the following: excellence in research accomplishment in the field of immunology; exceptional leadership to the immunology community in academia, foundations, nonprofits, industry, or government at a national or international level; notable distinction as an educator. Election as a Distinguished Fellow is among the highest honors bestowed by AAI.”
We join in celebrating this recognition of the incredible careers of Drs. Jensen and Evavold.
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Asymptomatic COVID-19 TestingFebruary 3, 201
**Please share this message broadly with your colleges/departments/units. Thank you. **
We would like to remind our community that the University of Utah is now offering free asymptomatic COVID-19 testing for all UU researchers, staff, faculty, and students. Testing is fast and easy and results are returned by email within 24 hours. The Office of the Vice President for Research strongly encourages all researchers and research/VPR staff who visit campus to be tested weekly.
Testing is conveniently available by appointment at two accessible locations - Fort Douglas Officer Club and the Olpin Student Union Building
Schedule Your Asymptomatic COVID-19 Test Here
BEFORE YOUR APPOINTMENT :
1) Do not eat or drink within 30 minutes of getting tested
2) Bring your UID card.
For general information about the testing process, please visit the COVID-19 testing website or contact campuscovidtesting@utah.edu.
Please Help Us Keep U Healthy!
Asymptomatic testing is conducted weekly throughout the semester as a way to identify COVID-19 in people who are not showing any symptoms of the disease. Because you might contract the virus and transmit it to others before you ever experience symptoms, weekly asymptomatic testing may identify that you are positive and need to isolate, thus helping prevent the spread of the virus.
Sincerely,
Andy Weyrich, Vice President for Research
Diane Pataki, Associate Vice President for Research
Erin Rothwell, Associate Vice President for Research
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- Authors from the U can publish open access at no cost - The J. Willard Marriott Library has negotiated a new agreement between the University of Utah and Cambridge University Press. Under this agreement, as of Jan. 1, 2021, authors from the U who have articles accepted in a journal published by Cambridge University Press will have the opportunity to make their article open access at no extra cost. The article will become freely available to those on the web
- Open Postdoctoral Research Position - The Puri Lab at the University of Utah seeks to hire a postdoctoral research associate to work on a funded project studying the biosynthesis of natural products made by underexplored bacteria. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Chemistry, Microbiology, or a related field, and experience with protein expression, purification, and enzymology. Interested applicants should contact Aaron Puri directly (a.puri@utah.edu) with a cover letter, CV, and contact information for 3 references.
- SEAL (Science Excelerator and Leadership) Program Position Open - With this change in mind, the Gregg lab at the University of Utah is transitioning to a new model of science and discovery that caters to professional scientists by launching the SEAL (Science Excelerator and Leadership) Program. We are investigating new ways to take on higher impact scientific problems and make major advances in a shorter period of time. To help with this, the lab will transition to a new name – the Precision Brain Genetics Lab. This name change reflects the focus of the science and important roles of senior investigators in the lab and their capability to obtain independent grants if they wish. Right now, we are seeking to recruit a new SEAL program scientist to the lab at the level of a career track assistant professor, staff scientist or postdoctoral fellow.
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3i Funding Opportunities
Current Federal and Private FOAs applicable to the 3is can be found on the U's pivot page. New FOAs announced this week:
A monthly funding newsletter from PIVOT is sent to 3i investigators on the 2nd Monday of the month. If you have not been receiving the newsletter and would like to be added, please email Nicole.Frank@hsc.utah.edu.
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3i Investigator PublicationsCongratulations to the teams who published this week. If you have a publication that you would like included, please email us.
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Am J Infect Control. 2021 Jan 27;:
Authors: Taber P, Weir C, Butler JM, Graber CJ, Jones MM, Madaras-Kelly K, Zhang Y, Chou AF, Samore MH, Goetz MB, Glassman PA
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate antimicrobial stewards' experiences of using a dashboard display integrating local and national antibiotic use data implemented in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This paper reports early formative evaluation.
DESIGN: Qualitative interviewing.
SETTING: Eight VA hospitals participated with established antimicrobial stewardship (AS) programs participated in the pilot.
PARTICIPANTS: Six infectious disease physicians and eight clinical pharmacists agreed to be interviewed (n=14).
METHODS: A three-part qualitative interview script was used involving a description of local stewardship activities, a Critical Incident description of dashboard use, and general questions regarding attitudes towards the tool. An inductive open coding approach was used for analysis.
RESULTS: We found four themes showing the complexities of using stewardship tools: i) Data validity is socially negotiated; ii) Performance feedback motivates and persuades social goals when situated in an empirical distribution; iii) Shared problem awareness is aided by authoritative data; and iv) The AS dashboard encourages connections with local quality improvement culture.
CONCLUSIONS: Social dimensions of antimicrobial stewardship tool use emerged as distinct from, and equally important as decision support provided by the dashboard. Successful stewardship tools should be designed to support both the social and cognitive needs of users.
PMID: 33515622 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Eval Program Plann. 2020 Dec;83:101859.
Authors: Watt MH, Knettel BA, Knippler ET, Kisigo G, Ngocho JS, Renju J, Rogathi J, Sao SS, Minja L, Osaki H, Mwamba RN, Mmbaga BT
Abstract
HIV stigma has a profound impact on clinical outcomes and undermines the quality of life of people living with HIV (PLWH). Among HIV-negative individuals, misinformation and prejudicial attitudes about HIV can fuel stigma and contribute to discrimination against PLWH. Antenatal care (ANC), with its focus on universal HIV testing, provides a unique entry point to address HIV stigma. This study describes the development of a counseling intervention to address HIV stigma among women and their partners attending a first ANC appointment in Tanzania. Formative work to inform the intervention consisted of qualitative interviews with 32 pregnant and postpartum women (both women living with HIV and HIV-negative women) and 20 healthcare workers. Data were analyzed iteratively, using a thematic analysis approach, to identify intervention targets. The resulting intervention, Maisha (Swahili for "Life"), includes three sessions informed by the HIV Stigma Framework and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: a video and brief counseling session prior to HIV testing and, for those who test seropositive for HIV, two additional sessions building on the video content. A pilot test of the intervention is in process. Addressing HIV stigma at the first ANC visit can help individuals living with HIV to overcome stigma-related barriers to the initiation and maintenance of HIV care, and can reduce stigmatizing attitudes among those who test negative for HIV.
PMID: 32795711[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Read more
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Elife. 2021 Feb 02;10:
Authors: Brintz BJ, Haaland B, Howard J, Chao DL, Proctor JL, Khan AI, Ahmed SM, Keegan LT, Greene T, Keita AM, Kotloff KL, Platts-Mills JA, Nelson EJ, Levine AC, Pavia AT, Leung DT
Abstract
Traditional clinical prediction models focus on parameters of the individual patient. For infectious diseases, sources external to the patient, including characteristics of prior patients and seasonal factors, may improve predictive performance. We describe the development of a predictive model that integrates multiple sources of data in a principled statistical framework using a post-test odds formulation. Our method enables electronic real-time updating and flexibility, such that components can be included or excluded according to data availability. We apply this method to the prediction of etiology of pediatric diarrhea, where 'pre-test' epidemiologic data may be highly informative. Diarrhea has a high burden in low-resource settings, and antibiotics are often over-prescribed. We demonstrate that our integrative method outperforms traditional prediction in accurately identifying cases with a viral etiology, and show that its clinical application, especially when used with an additional diagnostic test, could result in a 61% reduction in inappropriately prescribed antibiotics.
PMID: 33527894 [PubMed - in process]
J Rheumatol. 2021 Feb 01;:
Authors: Frech TM, Ou Z, Presson AP
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Sublingual microscopy assesses systemic sclerosis (SSc) vasculopathy. Digital thermal monitoring (DTM) may identify patients at risk for digital ulcer (DU). The purpose of this analysis was to assess sublingual microscopy and DTM in SSc patients with and with no previous DU in order to determine the utility of these clinical tools.
METHODS: SSc registry patients with clinical data had both DTM and sublingual microscopy on the same day were included in this cross-sectional analysis. DTM quantifies vascular reactivity index (VRI). Sublingual microscopy measures longitudinal red blood cell fraction (RBC fract) and perfused boundary region (PBR). We evaluated the pairwise association between VRI, RBCfract and PBR in a monotonic relationship using Spearman's rank correlation in the DU subset. Correlation coefficients (rs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were reported.
RESULTS: Ninety patients were included; 29 had digital pits and/or active DU and 61 never had a DU. The only significant clinical feature associated with DU was modified Rodnan skin score (p=0.003) with DU being higher. The VRI was lower in patients with DU (p=0.01). The higher RBCfract the lower PBR (rs =- 0.71, 95% CI: -0.86, -0.47, p<0.001). VRI was not associated with RBCfract or PBR (p=0.24 or 0.55, respectively) in the DU patients.
CONCLUSION: DTM is a useful tool for assessing SSc-DU. While sublingual microscopy measurements did not significantly correlate to VRI in SSc-DU patients, a longitudinal study may be more helpful in capturing vasculopathy activity prior to possibly irreversible damage.
PMID: 33526620 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
J Clin Oncol. 2020 06 20;38(18):2062-2076
Authors: Mehta RS, Holtan SG, Wang T, Hemmer MT, Spellman SR, Arora M, Couriel DR, Alousi AM, Pidala J, Abdel-Azim H, Agrawal V, Ahmed I, Al-Homsi AS, Aljurf M, Antin JH, Askar M, Auletta JJ, Bhatt VR, Chee L, Chhabra S, Daly A, DeFilipp Z, Gajewski J, Gale RP, Gergis U, Hematti P, Hildebrandt GC, Hogan WJ, Inamoto Y, Martino R, Majhail NS, Marks DI, Nishihori T, Olsson RF, Pawarode A, Diaz MA, Prestidge T, Rangarajan HG, Ringden O, Saad A, Savani BN, Schoemans H, Seo S, Schultz KR, Solh M, Spitzer T, Storek J, Teshima T, Verdonck LF, Wirk B, Yared JA, Cahn JY, Weisdorf DJ
Abstract
PURPOSE: There is no consensus on the best choice of an alternative donor (umbilical cord blood [UCB], haploidentical, one-antigen mismatched [7/8]-bone marrow [BM], or 7/8-peripheral blood [PB]) for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for patients lacking an HLA-matched related or unrelated donor.
METHODS: We report composite end points of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)-free relapse-free survival (GRFS) and chronic GVHD (cGVHD)-free relapse-free survival (CRFS) in 2,198 patients who underwent UCB (n = 838), haploidentical (n = 159), 7/8-BM (n = 241), or 7/8-PB (n = 960) HCT. All groups were divided by myeloablative conditioning (MAC) intensity or reduced intensity conditioning (RIC), except haploidentical group in which most received RIC. To account for multiple testing, P < .0071 in multivariable analysis and P < .00025 in direct pairwise comparisons were considered statistically significant.
RESULTS: In multivariable analysis, haploidentical group had the best GRFS, CRFS, and overall survival (OS). In the direct pairwise comparison of other groups, among those who received MAC, there was no difference in GRFS or CRFS among UCB, 7/8-BM, and 7/8-PB with serotherapy (alemtuzumab or antithymocyte globulin) groups. In contrast, the 7/8-PB without serotherapy group had significantly inferior GRFS, higher cGVHD, and a trend toward worse CRFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.38; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.69; P = .002) than the 7/8-BM group and higher cGVHD and trend toward inferior CRFS (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.63; P = .0006) than the UCB group. Among patients with RIC, all groups had significantly inferior GRFS and CRFS compared with the haploidentical group.
CONCLUSION: Recognizing the limitations of a registry retrospective analysis and the possibility of center selection bias in choosing donors, our data support the use of UCB, 7/8-BM, or 7/8-PB (with serotherapy) grafts for patients undergoing MAC HCT and haploidentical grafts for patients undergoing RIC HCT. The haploidentical group had the best GRFS, CRFS, and OS of all groups.
PMID: 32364845 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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J Orthop Res. 2021 Feb 02;:
Authors: Tashjian RZ, Kazmers NH, Epperson RT, Honeggar M, Ma Y, Chalmers PN, Williams DL, Jurynec MJ
Abstract
Estrogen deficiency has been shown to negatively influence rotator cuff tendon healing. Therefore, the addition of an estrogen-like-compound (ELC) in a non-estrogen deficient animal may improve the quality of a rotator cuff repair. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an ELC, diethylstilbestrol (DES), on tendon healing in a murine rotator cuff repair model.Thirty-three male wild type mice (C57BL/6NJ) were randomly divided into three study groups. Group 1-unoperated mice with normal rotator cuff tendons. Groups 2 & 3 consisted of surgically repaired rotator cuff tendons; Group 2 (Repair Only) was the standard repair group (no DES injected), while Group 3 (Repair + DES) was the experimental repair group (injected with DES). Comparing the maximal thickness of calcified fibrocartilage to uncalcified fibrocartilage, the ratios for the Control (intact tendon), Repair Only, and Repair + DES groups were 2:1, 0.9:1 and 1.7:1. RNA expression data demonstrated upregulation of chondrogenic, angiogenic and tendon modulation genes in the Repair Only group compared to Control (intact tendon) group (p<0.04 for all), and that addition of DES further increased the osteogenic, angiogenic, and tendon modulation gene expression compared to the Repair Only group(p<0.02). Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that addition of DES further increased osteogenic, angiogenic and tendon maturation protein expression at the enthesis compared to standard repairs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
PMID: 33533088 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Blood. 2020 06 18;135(25):2204-2205
Authors: O'Connell RM, Rao DS
PMID: 32556135 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Assist Reprod Genet. 2020 Jun;37(6):1467-1476
Authors: Garg D, Johnstone EB, Lomo L, Fair DB, Rosen MP, Taylor R, Silver B, Letourneau JM
Abstract
Treatment for cancer has the potential to significantly diminish fertility and, further, to negatively impact the obstetrical outcomes of pregnancies that do occur. Cancer survivors have decreased rates of fertility and increased rates of pregnancy complications, such as preterm birth and low birth weight, after exposure to chemotherapy. To date, research on the impact of chemotherapy and radiotherapy on fertility and pregnancy outcomes has focused largely on the gonadotoxic effect of cancer treatments on ovaries, while the uterus and endometrium have not been extensively studied. It is intuitive, however, that decreased fertility and poorer obstetrical outcomes may be substantially mediated through injury to a highly mitotic tissue like the endometrium, which is also central to embryo implantation and utero-placental exchange. Pregnancy complications in cancer survivors might be due to compromised blood supply to the endometrium and myometrium affecting placentation or altered remodeling of the pregnant uterus secondary to radiation fibrosis. Alterations in endometrial receptivity at the molecular level could affect pregnancy implantation and early pregnancy loss, but later complications also can occur. This review focuses on understanding the unintended effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy on uterine function in female cancer survivors and the impact on pregnancy, and summarizes mechanisms to protect and treat the uterus before and after cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
PMID: 32342270 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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