THE UAB RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Provided herein are Mycobacterium smegmatis porin nanopores, systems that comprise these nanopores, and methods of using and making these nanopores. Such nanopores may be wild-type MspA porins, mutant MspA porins, wild-type MspA paralog porins, wild-type MspA homolog porins, mutant MspA paralog porins, mutant MspA homolog porins, or single-chain Msp porins. Also provided are bacterial strains capable of inducible Msp porin expression.

The invention provides chimeric antigen receptor(s) (CAR(s)) that comprise a fusion protein of CTX or any functional variant thereof or a CTX-like peptide or any functional variant thereof as the extracellular antigen recognition moiety of the CAR. CAR(s) comprising CTX, a CTX-like peptide or functional variants of the foregoing are collectively referred to herein as “CTX-CAR(s).” Such CTX-CAR(s) may further comprise additional moieties or domains in the extracellular domain, a transmembrane domain and at least one intracellular signaling domain. Such CTX-CAR(s) may be expressed in a host cell, such as, but not limited to, an immune effector cell. The present invention also provides methods of treatment (such as, for example, methods for treating cancer) by providing to the patient in need thereof immune effector cells that arc engineered to express a CTX-CAR described herein.

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to medical devices, such as a stent retriever, stint, catheter, comprising coatings. A coating can comprise a fibrin-based material. The fibrin-based material within a coating on a medical device can form covalent bonds with fibrin present in a thrombus for the purposes of a thrombus extraction.

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to pneumococcal vaccines comprising a semisynthetic saponin adjuvant VSA-1. In one aspect, the disclosed vaccines elicit an immune response in a subject that is measurably higher than the response in an otherwise identical subject who receives a vaccine without the semisynthetic saponin adjuvant. In another aspect, the disclosed vaccines are useful across age groups and immunization can be achieved with fewer injections than for standard pneumococcal vaccines. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

The present disclosure presents wearable sensor apparatuses, systems, and related methods. One such apparatus is in the form of a wearable sensor device that comprises a processor and a plurality of gas sensors integrated on the wearable sensor device, in which the gas sensors measure an amount of NO 2 , SO 2 , and O 3 present in ambient air. The wearable sensor device further comprises a peak flow meter sensor integrated on the wearable sensor device; a temperature sensor integrated on the wearable sensor device; a GPS sensor integrated on the wearable sensor device; one or more transceivers integrated on the wearable sensor device; and an electronic display, wherein the processor is coupled to the electronic display and is operable to display sensor data measured from the wearable sensor device.

Disclosed herein is a pipeline to identify variable chains (VCR), which encompass T cell receptors (TCRs) and B cell receptors (BCRs), that recognize epitopes in their low affinity using a bioinformatic statistical method with 10× data that encompasses both preprocessing and identification of antigen-specific VCRs. Also disclosed are methods for treating subjects having viral infections or cancer, the methods comprising administering antibodies from B cells transduced with antigen-specific BCRs and/or modified allogenic T cells transduced with antigen-specific TCRs identified through use of the pipeline.

Provided herein is a peptide array comprising a plurality of flagellin peptides corresponding to highly conserved peptide regions. For example, the peptide array comprises a plurality of Lachnospiraceae flagellin peptides, which can be selected from a hinge region of Lachnospiraceae flagellin. Also provided is antibody of fragment thereof that binds to one or more of the plurality of the flagellin peptides in the peptide array. The peptide array and antibody are useful in determining an immunosignature from a biological sample from a subject. The immunosignature is useful in diagnosis of an immune-mediated disease, in monitoring progression of an immune-mediated disease, in identifying subjects susceptible to certain treatments, and in monitoring treatment response.

Described herein are primers, probes, kits, compositions, and methods related to detection of Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) and mutations in quinolone resistance determining region (QRDR) of parC and gyrA.

Hemopexin, salubrinal, aurothioglucose, and nitrite find uses in treating pulmonary injury from several causes, alone and in combination. Methods of treatment, methods of prevention, and pharmaceutical compositions are provided with those components.

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to a method for treating or preventing a bacterial infection in a subject, the methods including at least the step of administering a composition including a transition metal and avobenzone to the subject. In one aspect, the transition metal can be present as a transition metal salt such as, for example, ZnSO 4 . In a further aspect, the bacterial infection can be caused by any pathogenic bacteria, including, but not limited to, Gram-positive bacteria such as, for example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In one aspect, the compositions can be applied topically in the forms of gels, creams, lotions, sprays, and the like. In any of these aspects, the compositions are non-toxic to mammalian cells. Also disclosed are compositions that can be used to perform the disclosed methods.