| 1. |
- Chen, F., et al.
(author)
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Reply to "comment on 'Ultrafast terahertz-field-driven ionic response in ferroelectric BaTiO3 ' "
- 2018
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In: Physical Review B. - 2469-9950. ; 97:22
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this reply to S. Durbin's comment on our original paper "Ultrafast terahertz-field-driven ionic response in ferroelectric BaTiO3," we concur that his final equations 8 and 9 more accurately describe the change in diffracted intensity as a function of Ti displacement. We also provide an alternative derivation based on an ensemble average over unit cells. The conclusions of the paper are unaffected by this correction.
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| 2. |
- Chen, F., et al.
(author)
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Ultrafast terahertz-field-driven ionic response in ferroelectric BaTiO3
- 2016
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In: Physical Review B. - 1098-0121. ; 94:18
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The dynamical processes associated with electric field manipulation of the polarization in a ferroelectric remain largely unknown but fundamentally determine the speed and functionality of ferroelectric materials and devices. Here we apply subpicosecond duration, single-cycle terahertz pulses as an ultrafast electric field bias to prototypical BaTiO3 ferroelectric thin films with the atomic-scale response probed by femtosecond x-ray-scattering techniques. We show that electric fields applied perpendicular to the ferroelectric polarization drive large-amplitude displacements of the titanium atoms along the ferroelectric polarization axis, comparable to that of the built-in displacements associated with the intrinsic polarization and incoherent across unit cells. This effect is associated with a dynamic rotation of the ferroelectric polarization switching on and then off on picosecond time scales. These transient polarization modulations are followed by long-lived vibrational heating effects driven by resonant excitation of the ferroelectric soft mode, as reflected in changes in the c-axis tetragonality. The ultrafast structural characterization described here enables a direct comparison with first-principles-based molecular-dynamics simulations, with good agreement obtained.
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| 3. |
- Såmark-Roth, A., et al.
(author)
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Compex: a cubic germanium detector
- 2020
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In: European Physical Journal A. Hadrons and Nuclei. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-601X. ; 56:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Compex detector is an electrically cooled, composite germanium detector that uses four coaxial, cubic-shaped, single-encapsulated germanium crystals. This novel detector allows for new heights in photon detection efficiency in decay spectroscopy setups using box-shaped vacuum chambers. Its spectroscopic performance and detection efficiency is evaluated by means of source measurements. Motivated by Compex’s unique cubic germanium crystals, the Lund scanning system has been developed. The constructed system is used to characterise the response as a function of interaction position within a Compex crystal. Sensitivity across the front face, pulse shapes, and rise times have been analysed. Future development and applications of the Compex detector are discussed.
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| 4. |
- Hammer, Quirin, et al.
(author)
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Combined Genetic Ablation of CD54 and CD58 in CAR Engineered Cytotoxic Lymphocytes Effectively Averts Allogeneic Immune Cell Rejection
- 2022
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In: Blood. - : American Society of Hematology. - 0006-4971 .- 1528-0020. ; 140:Supplement 1, s. 1165-1166
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Allogeneic cell therapies hold promise to be cost effective with scaled manufacturing for multi-dosing and on-demand off-the-shelf availability. A critical consideration for allogeneic cell products is their ability to persist, maintain function and avoid rejection by the patient's immune system. Genetic knockout (KO) of beta-2-microglobulin (B2M) leads to complete loss of cell-surface human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I expression and efficiently abrogates CD8+ T-cell reactivity. However, loss of HLA class I triggers NK cell-mediated missing-self recognition and manipulation of B2M must therefore be combined with other immune-modulating strategies to limit recipient NK cell reactivity.We hypothesized that rejection by the patient's immune system can be diminished in primary CAR T cells, iPSC-derived T (iT) and NK (iNK) cells by reverse-engineering common tumor escape mechanisms. The adhesion molecules CD54 and CD58 are both present at the target cell side of the immune synapse, and loss of either of these molecules have previously been reported to elicit immune escape. Here, we show that the combined deletion of CD54 and CD58 in allogeneic immune effector cells makes them resistant to rejection by recipient immune cells through unidirectional reduced synapse formation (Figure 1A).HLA class I down-regulation by B2M silencing in primary T and NK cells triggered potent cytotoxicity by resting allogeneic NK cells. This response was mostly driven by educated NK cells expressing either NKG2A or killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) binding to HLA-E and HLA-C, respectively. However, over-expression of HLA-E or single HLA-C ligands in a K562 screening model only shut down the specific response of the NK cell subset carrying the cognate inhibitory receptor, resulting in only partial resistance to NK cells at the bulk level. Notably, the introduction of HLA-E was particularly detrimental in donors with expanded NKG2C+ NK cell subsets, due to its stimulatory effect through the activating NKG2C receptor. In contrast, combined deletion of CD54 and CD58 in target cells uniquely decreased the response of all tested NK cell subsets and showed universal reduction across NK cell populations from 18 healthy donors (Figure 1B). To delineate the mechanisms behind the increased resistance of target cells carrying these edits, we studied NK cell-target cell interactions at the single cell level by confocal microscopy in microchips. Allogeneic NK cells formed fewer conjugates and failed to form productive immune synapses with CD54-/-CD58-/- target cells, supporting the notion that they are more resistant to NK-cell mediated killing by unidirectional altered adhesion.We next introduced these edits in primary B2M-/- T cells engineered to express a second generation CAR19 from the TRAC locus. Corroborating the K562 screen, CD54-/-CD58-/-B2M-/- CAR-T cells had a selective survival advantage over B2M-/- CAR T cells and HLA-E-over-expressing B2M-/- CAR T cells in conventional mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) assays in vitro. Furthermore, we established an in vivo model to probe the effect of different genetic edits on the persistence of allogeneic cell therapy products. To this end, a mixed population of B2M-/- CAR T cells additionally bearing either CD54 and/or CD58 KO, HLA-E over-expression, or no further edits were infused into mice harboring allogeneic healthy donor PBMC. We found that CD54-/-CD58-/-B2M-/- CAR T cells had significantly better in vivo persistence compared to both B2M-/- CAR T cells and HLA-E+B2M-/- CAR T cells in the presence of PBMC from healthy donors (Figure 1B).Although multiplexed editing is feasible in primary CAR T cells, the iPSC platform has an unmatched capacity for homogenously introducing multiple immune-evasion strategies for off-the-shelf cell therapy. Similar to primary CAR T cells, multiplexed edited CD54-/-CD58-/-B2M-/-CIITA-/- iNK cells showed normal growth kinetics and were resistant to rejection by activated allogeneic NK cells in MLR assays.Together, these data demonstrate that reverse-engineering of common tumor escape mechanisms, which render target cells less susceptible to immune synapse formation, is an effective strategy to avert immune rejection of allogeneic CAR T and iPSC-derived CAR NK cells.
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| 5. |
- Hammer, Quirin, et al.
(author)
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Genetic ablation of adhesion ligands averts rejection of allogeneic immune cells
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- A significant barrier to the broad clinical implementation of allogeneic cell therapies is rejection of the allogeneic cells by the recipient immune system. Silencing of β-2-microglobulin (B2M) expression is a commonly employed strategy to evade T cell mediated rejection; however, the absence of B2M triggers missing-self responses by recipient natural killer (NK) cells. Here, we demonstrate that deletion of the adhesionligands CD54 and CD58 on allogeneic cells dampens recipient NK cell reactivityindependent of NK cell sub-population and inhibitory receptor expression. Additionally,genetic ablation of CD54 and CD58 in B2M-deficient allogeneic CAR T cells andinduced pluripotent stem cell-derived NK (iPSC-NK) cells reduces their susceptibility to rejection by recipient NK cells both in vitro and in vivo without affecting their anti-tumor effector potential. Thus, these data show that genetic ablation of adhesion ligands effectively mitigates rejection of allogeneic immune cells, enabling the generation of rejection-resistant allogeneic cell products.
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| 6. |
- Philippon, Camille, et al.
(author)
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Allelic variation of KIR and HLA tunes the cytolytic payload and determines functional hierarchy of NK cell repertoires
- 2023
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In: Blood Advances. - : American Society of Hematology. - 2473-9529 .- 2473-9537. ; 7:16, s. 4492-4504
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The functionality of natural killer (NK) cells is tuned during education and is associated with remodeling of the lysosomal compartment. We hypothesized that genetic variation in killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) and HLA, which is known to influence the functional strength of NK cells, fine-tunes the payload of effector molecules stored in secretory lysosomes. To address this possibility, we performed a high-resolution analysis of KIR and HLA class I genes in 365 blood donors and linked genotypes to granzyme B loading and functional phenotypes. We found that granzyme B levels varied across individuals but were stable over time in each individual and genetically determined by allelic variation in HLA class I genes. A broad mapping of surface receptors and lysosomal effector molecules revealed that DNAM-1 and granzyme B levels served as robust metric of the functional state in NK cells. Variation in granzyme B levels at rest was tightly linked to the lytic hit and downstream killing of major histocompatibility complex-deficient target cells. Together, these data provide insights into how variation in genetically hardwired receptor pairs tunes the releasable granzyme B pool in NK cells, resulting in predictable hierarchies in global NK cell function.
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| 7. |
- Trigo, M., et al.
(author)
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Fourier-transform inelastic X-ray scattering from time- and momentum-dependent phonon-phonon correlations
- 2013
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In: Nature Physics. - 1745-2473. ; 9:12, s. 790-794
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The macroscopic characteristics of a material are determined by its elementary excitations, which dictate the response of the system to external stimuli. The spectrum of excitations is related to fluctuations in the density-density correlations and is typically measured through frequency-domain neutron(1) or X-ray(2-4) scattering. Time-domain measurements of these correlations could yield a more direct way to investigate the excitations of solids and their couplings both near to and far from equilibrium. Here we show that we can access large portions of the phonon dispersion of germanium by measuring the diffuse scattering from femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser pulses. A femtosecond optical laser pulse slightly quenches the vibrational frequencies, producing pairs of high-wavevector phonons with opposite momenta. These phonons manifest themselves as time-dependent coherences in the displacement correlations(5) probed by the X-ray scattering. As the coherences are preferentially created in regions of strong electron-phonon coupling, the time-resolved approach is a natural spectroscopic tool for probing low-energy collective excitations in solids, and their microscopic interactions.
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