Publications related to The FDA-approved natural product dihydroergocristine reduces the production of the Alzheimer's disease amyloid-beta peptides

Clinically compliant cryopreservation of differentiated retinal pigment epithelial cells

Cheng Zhao, Gioele La Manno, Alex Russell Lederer

Background aims: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness in elderly patients within developed countries, affecting more than 190 million worldwide. In AMD, the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell layer progressively d ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Accessible and highly observable gastrointestinal organoid model systems for studying host-pathogen interactions

Moritz Hofer

Traditional cell cultures have long been fundamental to biological research, offering an alternative to animal models burdened by ethical constraints and procedural intricacies, often lacking relevance to human physiology and disease. Moreover, their inabi ...

EPFL2024

Deconvolution of ex-vivo drug screening data and bulk tissue expression predicts the abundance and viability of cancer cell subpopulations

Alexandre Coudray

Ex-vivo drug sensitivity screening (DSS) allows the prediction of cancer treatment effectiveness in a personalized fashion. However, it only provides a readout on mixtures of cells, potentially occulting important information on clinically relevant cell su ...

EPFL2023

From Sequence to Dynamics to Function: Computational Design of Allostery and Ligand Selectivity in G-Protein Coupled Receptors

Mahdi Hijazi

The phenomenon of allostery, a general property in proteins that has been heralded as "the second secret of life" remains elusive to our understanding and even more challenging to incorporate into protein design. One example of allosteric proteins with gre ...

EPFL2024

Antibodies expand the scope of angiotensin receptor pharmacology

Patrick Daniel Barth, Shuhao Zhang

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are key regulators of human physiology and are the targets of many small-molecule research compounds and therapeutic drugs. While most of these ligands bind to their target GPCR with high affinity, selectivity is often l ...

2024

Deciphering the nature of cell state transitions in single cells using quantitative modeling of temporal dynamics

Alex Russell Lederer

Cells are the smallest operational units of living systems. Through synthesis of various biomolecules and exchange of signals with the environment, cells tightly regulate their composition to realize a specific functional state. The transformation of a cel ...

EPFL2024

Cyclic Peptides for Drug Development

Christian Heinis, Xinjian Ji, Alexander Lund Nielsen

Cyclic peptides are fascinating molecules abundantly found in nature and exploited as molecular format for drug development as well as other applications, ranging from research tools to food additives. Advances in peptide technologies made over many years ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2024

Fluorescent fatty acid conjugates for live cell imaging of peroxisomes

Luc Reymond, Manon Sandra Bardyn, Fabien Kuttler, Daria Korotkova, Triana Amen, Milena Maria Schuhmacher

Peroxisomes are eukaryotic organelles that are essential for multiple metabolic pathways, including fatty acid oxidation, degradation of amino acids, and biosynthesis of ether lipids. Consequently, peroxisome dysfunction leads to pediatric-onset neurodegen ...

Nature Research2024

Bioengineering functional organoid models across scales

Tania Hübscher

The last two decades have seen the development of organoid models for many different tissues and organs. Organoids are three-dimensional organ-mimetics derived from stem or progenitor cells comprising various specialized cell types, resembling the architec ...

EPFL2024

Optimised three-dimensional in vitro retinoblastoma models tailored for drug discovery and clinical translatability

Irina Sinenko

Retinoblastoma, while relatively rare, stands as the most prevalent intraocular cancer. In Switzerland, the survival rate approaches 100%, but it drops to less than 50% in low-income countries. The current treatment options for retinoblastoma rely on a lim ...

EPFL2023

Alchemical analysis of FDA approved drugs

Jean-Louis Reymond, Philippe Schwaller, Markus Orsi, Daniel Probst

Chemical space maps help visualize similarities within molecular sets. However, there are many different molecular similarity measures resulting in a confusing number of possible comparisons. To overcome this limitation, we exploit the fact that tools desi ...

2023

Bioengineering human mini-intestines with in vivo-like complexity and function

Olga Mitrofanova

Biological research heavily relies on the use of animal models, which has made it difficult to answer specific questions about human biology and disease. However, with the advent of human organoids - miniature versions of tissues generated in 3D human stem ...

EPFL2023

Deciphering the molecular events leading to the global restoration of the chromatin landscape during mitotic exit

Silja Michelle Placzek

Two fundamental properties of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are their ability to self-renew and differentiate into all somatic cell types. Maintenance of their identity faces major challenges when transitioning through mitosis, as most DNA-binding proteins a ...

EPFL2023

The predictive capacity of in vitro preclinical models to evaluate drugs for the treatment of retinoblastoma

Paul Joseph Dyson, Irina Sinenko, Roland Christopher Turnell-Ritson

Retinoblastoma is a rare childhood cancer of the eye. Of the small number of drugs are used to treat retinoblastoma, all have been repurposed from drugs developed for other conditions. In order to find drugs or drug combinations better suited to the improv ...

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Label-free plasmonic microarray for multiplexed analysis of cells and tumor organoids

Yen-Cheng Liu

Investigating the dynamic activities of protein expression and signaling in living organisms is a crucial focus of intense research aimed at elucidating the processes that underlie disease progression and improving treatments and drug development. Resolvin ...

EPFL2023

Exploring the interplay of molecular pattern and valency for selective interactions at the bio-interface

Kaltrina Paloja

Cell-cell communication is fundamental for immune balance. Multivalent interactions of surface receptors at immune interfaces drive specific communication, with stimulatory and inhibitory signals guiding the immune outcome. Notably, the valency, affinity, ...

EPFL2023

Low temperature and mTOR inhibition favor stem cell maintenance in human keratinocyte cultures

Fahd Azzabi Zouraq, Kai Johnsson, Yann Barrandon, Ariane Rochat, Thomas Michael Braschler, Johannes Alexander Mosig, Jean-Baptiste Bureau, Mako Kamiya

Adult autologous human epidermal stem cells can be extensively expanded ex vivo for cell and gene therapy. Identifying the mechanisms involved in stem cell maintenance and defining culture conditions to maintain stemness is critical, because an inadequate ...

WILEY2023

Programming of Multicellular Patterning with Mechano-Chemically Microstructured Cell Niches

Pierre Osteil

Multicellular patterning of stem-cell-derived tissue models is commonly achieved via self-organizing activities triggered by exogenous morphogenetic stimuli. However, such tissue models are prone to stochastic behavior, limiting the reproducibility of cell ...

WILEY2023

Comparative Evaluation of Lipofectamine and Dendrimer for Transfection of Short RNA Into Human T47D and MCF-10A Cell Lines

Erfan Shirzadi

Purpose: Non-viral transfection approaches are extensively used in cancer therapy. The future of cancer therapy lies on targeted and efficient drug/gene delivery. The aim of this study was to determine the transfection yields of two commercially available ...

2023

Observed Kinetics of Enterovirus Inactivation by Free Chlorine Are Host Cell-Dependent

Tamar Kohn, Odile Marie Clotilde Hervás de Nalda-Larivé, Shannon Christa David, Federica Cariti, Shotaro Torii

Virucidal efficacies of disinfectants are typically assessed by infectivity assay utilizing a single type of host cell. Enteroviruses infect multiple host cells via various entry routes, and each entry route may be impaired differently by a given disinfect ...

2023