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- Wang, Zhaoming, et al.
(författare)
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Imputation and subset-based association analysis across different cancer types identifies multiple independent risk loci in the TERT-CLPTM1L region on chromosome 5p15.33
- 2014
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Ingår i: Human Molecular Genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0964-6906 .- 1460-2083. ; 23:24, s. 6616-6633
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have mapped risk alleles for at least 10 distinct cancers to a small region of 63 000 bp on chromosome 5p15.33. This region harbors the TERT and CLPTM1L genes; the former encodes the catalytic subunit of telomerase reverse transcriptase and the latter may play a role in apoptosis. To investigate further the genetic architecture of common susceptibility alleles in this region, we conducted an agnostic subset-based meta-analysis (association analysis based on subsets) across six distinct cancers in 34 248 cases and 45 036 controls. Based on sequential conditional analysis, we identified as many as six independent risk loci marked by common single-nucleotide polymorphisms: five in the TERT gene (Region 1: rs7726159, P = 2.10 × 10(-39); Region 3: rs2853677, P = 3.30 × 10(-36) and PConditional = 2.36 × 10(-8); Region 4: rs2736098, P = 3.87 × 10(-12) and PConditional = 5.19 × 10(-6), Region 5: rs13172201, P = 0.041 and PConditional = 2.04 × 10(-6); and Region 6: rs10069690, P = 7.49 × 10(-15) and PConditional = 5.35 × 10(-7)) and one in the neighboring CLPTM1L gene (Region 2: rs451360; P = 1.90 × 10(-18) and PConditional = 7.06 × 10(-16)). Between three and five cancers mapped to each independent locus with both risk-enhancing and protective effects. Allele-specific effects on DNA methylation were seen for a subset of risk loci, indicating that methylation and subsequent effects on gene expression may contribute to the biology of risk variants on 5p15.33. Our results provide strong support for extensive pleiotropy across this region of 5p15.33, to an extent not previously observed in other cancer susceptibility loci.
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- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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- Bao, Qinye, et al.
(författare)
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Energy Level Alignment of N-Doping Fullerenes and Fullerene Derivatives Using Air-Stable Dopant
- 2017
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Ingår i: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1944-8244 .- 1944-8252. ; 9:40, s. 35476-35482
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Doping has been proved to be one of the powerful technologies to achieve significant improvement in the performance of organic electronic devices. Herein, we systematically map out the interface properties of solution-processed air-stable n-type (4(1,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzoimidazol-2-yl)phenyl) doping fullerenes and fullerene derivatives and establish a universal energy level alignment scheme for this class of n-doped system. At low doping levels at which the charge-transfer doping induces mainly bound charges, the energy level alignment of the n-doping organic semiconductor can be described by combining integer charger transfer-induced shifts with a so-called double-dipole step. At high doping levels, significant densities of free charges are generated and the charge flows between the organic film and the conducting electrodes equilibrating the Fermi level in a classic "depletion layer" scheme. Moreover, we demonstrate that the model holds for both n- and p-doping of pi-backbone molecules and polymers. With the results, we provide wide guidance for identifying the application of the current organic n-type doping technology in organic electronics.
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- Bao, Qinye, et al.
(författare)
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The Effect of Oxygen Uptake on Charge Injection Barriers in Conjugated Polymer Films
- 2018
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Ingår i: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1944-8244 .- 1944-8252. ; 10:7, s. 6491-6497
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The energy offset between the electrode Fermi level and organic semiconductor transport levels is a key parameter controlling the charge injection barrier and hence efficiency of organic electronic devices. Here, we systematically explore the effect of in situ oxygen exposure on energetics in n-type conjugated polymer P(NDI2OD-T2) films. The analysis reveals that an interfacial potential step is introduced for a series of P(NDI2OD-T2) electrode contacts, causing a nearly constant downshift of the vacuum level, while the ionization energies versus vacuum level remain constant. These findings are attributed to the establishment of a so-called double-dipole step via motion of charged molecules and will modify the charge injection barriers at electrode contact. We further demonstrate that the same behavior occurs when oxygen interacts with p-type polymer TQ1 films, indicating it is possible to be a universal effect for organic semiconductOrs.
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- Guo, Xuewen, et al.
(författare)
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Novel small-molecule zwitterionic electrolyte with ultralow work function as cathode modifier for inverted polymer solar cells
- 2018
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Ingår i: Organic electronics. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 1566-1199 .- 1878-5530. ; 59, s. 15-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Interfacial compatibility between the electrode and organic semiconductor plays a critical role in controlling the charge transport and hence efficiency of organic solar cell. Here, we introduce a novel small-molecule zwitterionic electrolyte (S1) combined with ZnO as electron transporting interlayer employed for the inverted PTB7:PC71BM bulk heterojunction solar cell. The resulting device with the S1/ZnO stacked interlayer achieves a high PCE of 8.59%, obtaining a 16.2% improvement over the control device performance of 7.4% without the S1 attributed to the significant increased short-circuit current density and fill factor. The interfacial properties are investigated. It is found that the S1/ZnO interlayer possess an ultralow work function of 3.6 eV, which originates from the interfacial double dipole step induced by the zwitterionic side chain electrostatic realignment at interface. The S1/ZnO interlayer exhibits the excellent charge extraction ability, suppresses the charge recombination loss and decreases the series resistance at the active layer/electrode contact.
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- Guo, Xuewen, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding the effect of N2200 on performance of J71 : ITIC bulk heterojunction in ternary non-fullerene solar cells
- 2019
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Ingår i: Organic electronics. - : Elsevier. - 1566-1199 .- 1878-5530. ; 71, s. 65-71
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- None-fullerene solar cells with ternary architecture have attracted much attention because it is an effective approach for boosting the device power conversion efficiency. Here, the crystalline polymer N2200 as the third component is integrated into J71: ITIC bulk heterojunction. A series of characterizations indicate that N2200 could increase photo-harvesting, balanced hole and electron mobilities, enhanced exciton dissociation, and suppressed charge recombination, which result in the comprehensive improvement of open circuit voltage, short circuit current and fill factor in the device. Moreover, after introduction of N2200, the morphology of the ternary active layer is optimized, and the film crystallinity is improved. This work demonstrates that adding a small quantity of high crystallization acceptor into non-fullerene donor: acceptor mixture is a promising strategy toward developing high-performance organic solar cells.
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- Huang, Qiangsheng, et al.
(författare)
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Ultracompact tapered coupler for the Si/III-V heterogeneous integration
- 2015
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Ingår i: Applied Optics. - 1559-128X .- 2155-3165. ; 54:14, s. 4327-4332
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An ultracompact tapered coupler, which is suitable for mode transformation between a 220 nm high silicon wire waveguide and a Si/III-V hybrid waveguide, is proposed for Si/III-V heterogeneous integration. The tapered coupler is composed of three sections. Since the tapered coupler avoids exciting the unwanted high-order modes in the III-V waveguide, the length of the tapered coupler can be dramatically shortened. In the proposed structure, the total length of the trisectional tapered coupler can be as short as 8 mu m with a fundamental mode-coupling efficiency of over 95% in a bandwidth of over 100 nm. The alignment tolerance of the proposed structure is also analyzed.
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- Sun, Xianqiang, et al.
(författare)
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Residues remote from the binding pocket control the antagonist selectivity towards the corticotropin-releasing factor receptor-1
- 2015
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 5, s. 8066-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The corticotropin releasing factors receptor-1 and receptor-2 (CRF1R and CRF2R) are therapeutic targets for treating neurological diseases. Antagonists targeting CRF1R have been developed for the potential treatment of anxiety disorders and alcohol addiction. It has been found that antagonists targeting CRF1R always show high selectivity, although CRF1R and CRF2R share a very high rate of sequence identity. This has inspired us to study the origin of the selectivity of the antagonists. We have therefore built a homology model for CRF2R and carried out unbiased molecular dynamics and well-tempered metadynamics simulations for systems with the antagonist CP-376395 in CRF1R or CRF2R to address this issue. We found that the side chain of Tyr(6.63) forms a hydrogen bond with the residue remote from the binding pocket, which allows Tyr(6.63) to adopt different conformations in the two receptors and results in the presence or absence of a bottleneck controlling the antagonist binding to or dissociation from the receptors. The rotameric switch of the side chain of Tyr356(6.63) allows the breaking down of the bottleneck and is a perquisite for the dissociation of CP-376395 from CRF1R.
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10. |
- Tang, Yong, et al.
(författare)
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Enhancement of fermentable sugar yield by competitive adsorption of non-enzymatic substances from yeast and cellulase on lignin
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Biotechnology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1472-6750. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Enhancement of enzymatic digestibility by some supplementations could reduce enzyme loading and cost, which is still too high to realize economical production of lignocellulosic biofuels. A recent study indicates that yeast hydrolysates (YH) have improved the efficiency of cellulases on digestibility of furfural residues (FR). In the current work, the components of YH were separated by centrifugation and size exclusion chromatography and finally characterized in order to better understand this positive effect. Results: A 60.8% of nitrogen of yeast cells was remained in the slurry (YHS) after hydrothermal treatment. In the supernatant of YH (YHL), substances of high molecular weight were identified as proteins and other UV-absorbing compounds, which showed close molecular weight to components of cellulases. Those substances attributed to a synergetic positive effect on enzymatic hydrolysis of FR. The fraction of YHL ranged from 1.19 to 2.19 mL (elution volume) contained over 50% of proteins in YHL and had the best performance in stimulating the release of glucose. Experiment results proved the adsorption of proteins in YHL on lignin. Conclusions: Supplementation of cellulases with YH enhances enzymatic digestibility of FR mainly by a competitive adsorption of non-enzymatic substances on lignin. The molecular weight of these substances has a significant impact on their performance. Different strategies can be used for a good utilization of yeast cells in terms of biorefinery concept.
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