Bryant & Stratton College

The fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, is the causative agent of chytridiomycosis and a leading cause of global decline in amphibian populations. The first stages of chytridiomycosis include: inflammation, hyperkeratosis, lethargy, loss of righting reflex, and disruption of internal electrolyte levels leading to eventual death of the host. Previous work indicates that B. dendrobatidis can produce immunomodulatory compounds and other secreted molecules that regulate the growth of the fungus. In this study, filtrates of the fungus grown in media and water were subjected to ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and analyzed using Compound Discoverer 3.0. Identification of cyclo(phenylalanyl-prolyl), chitobiose, and S-adenosylmethionine were verified by their retention times and fragmentation patterns from B. dendrobatidis supernatants. Previous studies have analyzed the effects of B. dendrobatidis on amphibian models, in vitro, or in cell culture. We studied the effects of live B. dendrobatidis cells, spent culture filtrates containing secreted metabolites, and cyclo(pheylalanyl-prolyl) on wax moth larvae (Galleria mellonella). Concentrated filtrates caused melanization within 24h, while live B. dendrobatidis caused melanization within 48h. Here we show B. dendrobatidis produces secreted metabolites previously unreported. The impacts of these chemicals were tested on an alternate non-amphibian model system that has been used for other fungi to study pathogenicity traits in this fungus.

In their introduction, Koerber and Sauers state that this book will look at examples of technologies that are becoming important to libraries and will provide a framework for examining future techn...

Sharon Markless and David Streatfield. London, England: Facet Publishing, 2013, 253 pp., ISBN: 978-1-85604-812-5, softcover, £49.95 (CILIP members: £39.96).In this update to the 2006 edition, Markl...

Making suitable modeling choices is crucial for successful in silico drug design, and one of the most important of these is the proper extraction and curation of data from qHTS screens, and the use of optimized statistical learning methods to obtain valid models. More specifically, we aim to learn the top-1 % most potent compounds against a variety of targets in a procedure we call virtual screening hit identification (VISHID). To do so, we exploit quantitative high-throughput screens (qHTS) obtained from PubChem, descriptors derived from molecular structures, and support vector machines (SVM) for model generation. Our results illustrate how an appreciation of subtle issues underlying qHTS data extraction and the resulting SVM models created using these data can enhance the effectiveness of solutions and, in doing so, accelerate drug discovery.

While research indicates that humans tend potentially to develop towards wisdom in later years, a review of mainly participant-determined groups and courses in 338 lifelong learning centers for older people shows little interest in wisdom or personal development activities. With the suggestion that this apparent lack of interest may be partially owing to the lack of programs for cultivating wisdom, a model is presented that can be practised both independently and in formal education settings, and whose results can be assessed.