Identification of dual-purpose therapeutic targets implicated in aging and glioblastoma multiforme using PandaOmics - an AI-enabled biological target discovery platform.

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive and most common primary malignant brain tumor. The age of GBM patients is considered as one of the disease's negative prognostic factors and the mean age of diagnosis is 62 years. A promising approach to preventing both GBM and aging is to identify new potential therapeutic targets that are associated with both conditions as concurrent drivers. In this work, we present a multi-angled approach of identifying targets, which takes into account not only the disease-related genes but also the ones important in aging. For this purpose, we developed three strategies of target identification using the results of correlation analysis augmented with survival data, differences in expression levels and previously published information of aging-related genes. Several studies have recently validated the robustness and applicability of AI-driven computational methods for target identification in both cancer and aging-related diseases. Therefore, we leveraged the AI predictive power of the PandaOmics TargetID engine in order to rank the resulting target hypotheses and prioritize the most promising therapeutic gene targets. We propose cyclic nucleotide gated channel subunit alpha 3 (CNGA3), glutamate dehydrogenase 1 (GLUD1) and sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) as potential novel dual-purpose therapeutic targets to treat aging and GBM.

From Stress Chains to Acoustic Emission.

A numerical scheme using the combined finite-discrete element method is employed to study a model of an earthquake system comprising a granular layer embedded in a formation. When the formation is driven so as to shear the granular layer, a system of stress chains emerges. The stress chains endow the layer with resistance to shear and on failure launch broadcasts into the formation. These broadcasts, received as acoustic emission, provide a remote monitor of the state of the granular layer of the earthquake system.

Wafer-scale Fabrication of Non-Polar Mesoporous GaN Distributed Bragg Reflectors via Electrochemical Porosification.

Distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) are essential components for the development of optoelectronic devices. For many device applications, it is highly desirable to achieve not only high reflectivity and low absorption, but also good conductivity to allow effective electrical injection of charges. Here, we demonstrate the wafer-scale fabrication of highly reflective and conductive non-polar gallium nitride (GaN) DBRs, consisting of perfectly lattice-matched non-polar (11-20) GaN and mesoporous GaN layers that are obtained by a facile one-step electrochemical etching method without any extra processing steps. The GaN/mesoporous GaN DBRs exhibit high peak reflectivities (>96%) across the entire visible spectrum and wide spectral stop-band widths (full-width at half-maximum >80 nm), while preserving the material quality and showing good electrical conductivity. Such mesoporous GaN DBRs thus provide a promising and scalable platform for high performance GaN-based optoelectronic, photonic, and quantum photonic devices.

Ultrafast, Polarized, Single-Photon Emission from m-Plane InGaN Quantum Dots on GaN Nanowires.

We demonstrate single-photon emission from self-assembled m-plane InGaN quantum dots (QDs) embedded on the side-walls of GaN nanowires. A combination of electron microscopy, cathodoluminescence, time-resolved microphotoluminescence (µPL), and photon autocorrelation experiments give a thorough evaluation of the QD structural and optical properties. The QD exhibits antibunched emission up to 100 K, with a measured autocorrelation function of g(2)(0) = 0.28(0.03) at 5 K. Studies on a statistically significant number of QDs show that these m-plane QDs exhibit very fast radiative lifetimes (260 ± 55 ps) suggesting smaller internal fields than any of the previously reported c-plane and a-plane QDs. Moreover, the observed single photons are almost completely linearly polarized aligned perpendicular to the crystallographic c-axis with a degree of linear polarization of 0.84 ± 0.12. Such InGaN QDs incorporated in a nanowire system meet many of the requirements for implementation into quantum information systems and could potentially open the door to wholly new device concepts.

Electrophysiological models for the heterogeneous canine atria: computational platform for studying rapid atrial arrhythmias.

Heterogeneity in the electrical action potential (AP) properties can provide a substrate for atrial arrhythmias, especially at rapid pacing rates. In order to quantify such substrates, we develop a family of detailed AP models for canine atrial cells. An existing model for the canine right atrial (RA) myocyte was modified based on electrophysiological data from dog to create new models for the canine left atrium (LA), the interatrial Bachmann's bundle (BB), and the pulmonary vein (PV). The heterogeneous AP models were incorporated into a tissue strand model to simulate the AP propagation, and used to quantify conditions for conduction abnormalities (primarily, conduction block at rapid pacing rated) in the canine atria.