1. |
- Marouli, Eirini, et al.
(author)
-
Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height
- 2017
-
In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 542:7640, s. 186-190
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with approximately 700 common associated variants identified through genome-wide association studies so far. Here, we report 83 height-associated coding variants with lower minor-allele frequencies (in the range of 0.1-4.8%) and effects of up to 2 centimetres per allele (such as those in IHH, STC2, AR and CRISPLD2), greater than ten times the average effect of common variants. In functional follow-up studies, rare height increasing alleles of STC2 (giving an increase of 1-2 centimetres per allele) compromised proteolytic inhibition of PAPP-A and increased cleavage of IGFBP-4 in vitro, resulting in higher bioavailability of insulin-like growth factors. These 83 height-associated variants overlap genes that are mutated in monogenic growth disorders and highlight new biological candidates (such as ADAMTS3, IL11RA and NOX4) and pathways (such as proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan synthesis) involved in growth. Our results demonstrate that sufficiently large sample sizes can uncover rare and low-frequency variants of moderate-to-large effect associated with polygenic human phenotypes, and that these variants implicate relevant genes and pathways.
|
|
2. |
- Surendran, Praveen, et al.
(author)
-
Discovery of rare variants associated with blood pressure regulation through meta-analysis of 1.3 million individuals
- 2020
-
In: Nature Genetics. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 52:12, s. 1314-1332
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Genetic studies of blood pressure (BP) to date have mainly analyzed common variants (minor allele frequency > 0.05). In a meta-analysis of up to similar to 1.3 million participants, we discovered 106 new BP-associated genomic regions and 87 rare (minor allele frequency <= 0.01) variant BP associations (P < 5 x 10(-8)), of which 32 were in new BP-associated loci and 55 were independent BP-associated single-nucleotide variants within known BP-associated regions. Average effects of rare variants (44% coding) were similar to 8 times larger than common variant effects and indicate potential candidate causal genes at new and known loci (for example, GATA5 and PLCB3). BP-associated variants (including rare and common) were enriched in regions of active chromatin in fetal tissues, potentially linking fetal development with BP regulation in later life. Multivariable Mendelian randomization suggested possible inverse effects of elevated systolic and diastolic BP on large artery stroke. Our study demonstrates the utility of rare-variant analyses for identifying candidate genes and the results highlight potential therapeutic targets.
|
|
3. |
- Bousquet, Jean, et al.
(author)
-
ARIA digital anamorphosis : Digital transformation of health and care in airway diseases from research to practice
- 2021
-
In: Allergy. European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0105-4538 .- 1398-9995. ; 76:1, s. 168-190
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Digital anamorphosis is used to define a distorted image of health and care that may be viewed correctly using digital tools and strategies. MASK digital anamorphosis represents the process used by MASK to develop the digital transformation of health and care in rhinitis. It strengthens the ARIA change management strategy in the prevention and management of airway disease. The MASK strategy is based on validated digital tools. Using the MASK digital tool and the CARAT online enhanced clinical framework, solutions for practical steps of digital enhancement of care are proposed.
|
|
4. |
- Erzurumluoglu, A. Mesut, et al.
(author)
-
Meta-analysis of up to 622,409 individuals identifies 40 novel smoking behaviour associated genetic loci
- 2020
-
In: Molecular Psychiatry. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 1359-4184 .- 1476-5578. ; 25:10, s. 2392-2409
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Smoking is a major heritable and modifiable risk factor for many diseases, including cancer, common respiratory disorders and cardiovascular diseases. Fourteen genetic loci have previously been associated with smoking behaviour-related traits. We tested up to 235,116 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) on the exome-array for association with smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, pack-years, and smoking cessation in a fixed effects meta-analysis of up to 61 studies (up to 346,813 participants). In a subset of 112,811 participants, a further one million SNVs were also genotyped and tested for association with the four smoking behaviour traits. SNV-trait associations with P < 5 × 10-8 in either analysis were taken forward for replication in up to 275,596 independent participants from UK Biobank. Lastly, a meta-analysis of the discovery and replication studies was performed. Sixteen SNVs were associated with at least one of the smoking behaviour traits (P < 5 × 10-8) in the discovery samples. Ten novel SNVs, including rs12616219 near TMEM182, were followed-up and five of them (rs462779 in REV3L, rs12780116 in CNNM2, rs1190736 in GPR101, rs11539157 in PJA1, and rs12616219 near TMEM182) replicated at a Bonferroni significance threshold (P < 4.5 × 10-3) with consistent direction of effect. A further 35 SNVs were associated with smoking behaviour traits in the discovery plus replication meta-analysis (up to 622,409 participants) including a rare SNV, rs150493199, in CCDC141 and two low-frequency SNVs in CEP350 and HDGFRP2. Functional follow-up implied that decreased expression of REV3L may lower the probability of smoking initiation. The novel loci will facilitate understanding the genetic aetiology of smoking behaviour and may lead to the identification of potential drug targets for smoking prevention and/or cessation.
|
|
5. |
- Newton-Cheh, Christopher, et al.
(author)
-
Genome-wide association study identifies eight loci associated with blood pressure
- 2009
-
In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-1718 .- 1061-4036. ; 41:6, s. 666-676
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Elevated blood pressure is a common, heritable cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. To date, identification of common genetic variants influencing blood pressure has proven challenging. We tested 2.5 million genotyped and imputed SNPs for association with systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 34,433 subjects of European ancestry from the Global BPgen consortium and followed up findings with direct genotyping (N <= 71,225 European ancestry, N <= 12,889 Indian Asian ancestry) and in silico comparison (CHARGE consortium, N 29,136). We identified association between systolic or diastolic blood pressure and common variants in eight regions near the CYP17A1 (P = 7 x 10(-24)), CYP1A2 (P = 1 x 10(-23)), FGF5 (P = 1 x 10(-21)), SH2B3 (P = 3 x 10(-18)), MTHFR (P = 2 x 10(-13)), c10orf107 (P = 1 x 10(-9)), ZNF652 (P = 5 x 10(-9)) and PLCD3 (P = 1 x 10(-8)) genes. All variants associated with continuous blood pressure were associated with dichotomous hypertension. These associations between common variants and blood pressure and hypertension offer mechanistic insights into the regulation of blood pressure and may point to novel targets for interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease.
|
|
6. |
- Finegan, Donal P., et al.
(author)
-
Spatial dynamics of lithiation and lithium plating during high-rate operation of graphite electrodes
- 2020
-
In: Energy and Environmental Science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1754-5692 .- 1754-5706. ; 13:8, s. 2570-2584
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The principal inhibitor of fast charging lithium ion cells is the graphite negative electrode, where favorable conditions for lithium plating occur at high charge rates, causing accelerated degradation and safety concerns. The local response of graphite, both at the electrode and particle level, when exposed to fast charging conditions of around 6C is not well understood. Consequently, the conditions that lead to the onset of lithium plating, as well as the local dynamics of lithium plating and stripping, have also remained elusive. Here, we use high-speed (100 Hz) pencil-beam X-ray diffraction to repeatedly raster along the depth of a 101 µm thick graphite electrode in 3 µm steps during fast (up to 6C) charge and discharge conditions. Consecutive depth profiles from separator to current collector were each captured in 0.5 seconds, giving an unprecedented spatial and temporal description of the state of the electrode and graphite's staging dynamics during high rate conditions. The electrode is preferentially activated near the separator, and the non-uniformity increases with rate and is influenced by free-energy barriers between graphite's lithiation stages. The onset of lithium plating and stripping was quantified, occurring only within the first 15 µm from the separator. The presence of lithium plating changed the behavior of the underlying graphite, such as causing co-existence of LiC6 and graphite in the fully discharged state. Finally, the staging behavior of graphite at different rates was quantified, revealing a high dependency on rate and drastic hysteresis between lithiation and delithiation.
|
|
7. |
- Fitzka, M., et al.
(author)
-
High Speed In Situ Synchrotron Observation of Cyclic Deformation and Phase Transformation of Superelastic Nitinol at Ultrasonic Frequency
- 2020
-
In: Experimental Mechanics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0014-4851 .- 1741-2765. ; 60:3, s. 317-328
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The near equi-atomic intermetallic Ni Ti alloy Nitinol is used for medical implants, notably in self-expanding stent grafts and heart valve frames, which are subjected to several hundred million load cycles in service. Increasing the testing frequency to the ultrasonic range would drastically shorten the testing times and make the very-high cycle regime experimentally accessible. Such tests are, however, only meaningful if the material response at ultrasonic frequency is identical to that observed in conventional fatigue tests. A novel fatigue testing setup where superelastic Nitinol dog bone specimens are loaded at ultrasonic cycling frequency is presented. Loading conditions resemble in vivo loading (i.e., repeated cyclic loading with relatively small strain amplitudes, specimens in a pre-strained multi-phase state). Strains and phase transformations during ultrasonic frequency cycling are quantitatively measured in an X-ray diffraction (XRD) synchrotron experiment and compared to the material response at low frequency. The XRD experiment confirms that forward and reverse stress-induced phase transformation from austenite to martensite via the intermediate R-phase occurs during low frequency (0.1 Hz, strain rate ε˙ ≈ 10−3 s−1) and ultrasonic frequency (20 kHz, ε˙ ≈ 102 s−1) cycling. Since the same deformation mechanisms are active at low and ultrasonic frequency, these findings imply a general applicability of the ultrasonic fatigue testing technique to Nitinol.
|
|
8. |
- Li, C., et al.
(author)
-
Precise strain profile measurement as a function of depth in thermal barrier coatings using high energy synchrotron X-rays
- 2016
-
In: Scripta Materialia. - : Elsevier BV. - 1359-6462 .- 1872-8456. ; 113, s. 122-126
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have developed a method of directly measuring the strain gradient as a function of depth in plasma sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs). A 92.8 keV monochromatic synchrotron X-ray beam was used to penetrate the 10 × 10 × 8 mm samples in transmission geometry. The samples had been heated to 1150 °C and held at that temperature for 190 h. The diffraction patterns were collected using a DECTRIS pilatus3 X CdTe 300 K area detector. The patterns were analyzed by partial circular integration followed by full Rietveld refinement to obtain the lattice parameters of the TBC top coat at 25 μm intervals as function of depth. The coatings surviving the heat treatment process without significant damage were found to exhibit a variable compressive stress state inside the top coat. This was found to be about − 600 MPa at the bond coat interface decreasing in a non-linear fashion towards the surface. By refinement of the data collected from sectors of whole Debye Scherrer rings we were able to estimate both the in-plane and out-of-plane strain.
|
|
9. |
|
|
10. |
- Lejaeghere, Kurt, et al.
(author)
-
Reproducibility in density functional theory calculations of solids.
- 2016
-
In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 351:6280, s. 1415-1422
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The widespread popularity of density functional theory has given rise to an extensive range of dedicated codes for predicting molecular and crystalline properties. However, each code implements the formalism in a different way, raising questions about the reproducibility of such predictions. We report the results of a community-wide effort that compared 15 solid-state codes, using 40 different potentials or basis set types, to assess the quality of the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof equations of state for 71 elemental crystals. We conclude that predictions from recent codes and pseudopotentials agree very well, with pairwise differences that are comparable to those between different high-precision experiments. Older methods, however, have less precise agreement. Our benchmark provides a framework for users and developers to document the precision of new applications and methodological improvements.
|
|