Publications

There Goes the Neighbourhood-A Multi-City Study Reveals Ticks and Tick-Borne Pathogens Commonly Occupy Urban Green Spaces

Jani J Sormunen et al.

Zoonoses Public Health. 2025 May;72(3):313-323. doi: 10.1111/zph.13208. Epub 2025 Jan 16.

CONCLUSIONS: Ticks and TBPs are commonplace in urban green spaces in Finland. Enzootic cycles for Borrelia and Rickettsia appear to be well maintained within cities, leading to widespread risk of infection therein. Our results suggest that nymph densities are highest in urban forests of medium size, whereas small or large forests show reduced densities. Green spaces of roughly similar risk can be found in cities of different sizes, emphasising that the identification of areas of particularly...

Proteomic profiling reveals alterations in metabolic and cellular pathways in severe obesity and following metabolic bariatric surgery

Prince Dadson et al.

Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2025 Mar 1;328(3):E311-E324. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.00220.2024. Epub 2025 Jan 17.

In this study, we investigated the impact of bariatric surgery on the adipose proteome to better understand the metabolic and cellular mechanisms underlying weight loss following the procedure. A total of 46 patients with severe obesity were included, with samples collected both before and after bariatric surgery. In addition, 15 healthy individuals without obesity who did not undergo surgery served as controls and were studied once. We utilized quantitative liquid chromatography-tandem mass...

Efficiently accelerated bioimage analysis with NanoPyx, a Liquid Engine-powered Python framework

Bruno M Saraiva et al.

Nat Methods. 2025 Feb;22(2):283-286. doi: 10.1038/s41592-024-02562-6. Epub 2025 Jan 2.

The expanding scale and complexity of microscopy image datasets require accelerated analytical workflows. NanoPyx meets this need through an adaptive framework enhanced for high-speed analysis. At the core of NanoPyx, the Liquid Engine dynamically generates optimized central processing unit and graphics processing unit code variations, learning and predicting the fastest based on input data and hardware. This data-driven optimization achieves considerably faster processing, becoming broadly...

Harnessing artificial intelligence to reduce phototoxicity in live imaging

J Cell Sci. 2024 Feb 1;137(3):jcs261545. doi: 10.1242/jcs.261545. Epub 2024 Feb 7.

Fluorescence microscopy is essential for studying living cells, tissues and organisms. However, the fluorescent light that switches on fluorescent molecules also harms the samples, jeopardizing the validity of results - particularly in techniques such as super-resolution microscopy, which demands extended illumination. Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled software capable of denoising, image restoration, temporal interpolation or cross-modal style transfer has great potential to rescue live imaging data and limit photodamage. Yet we believe the focus should be on maintaining light-induced damage at levels that preserve natural cell behaviour. In this Opinion piece, we argue that a shift in role for AIs is needed - AI should be used to extract rich insights from gentle imaging rather than recover compromised data from harsh illumination. Although AI can enhance imaging, our ultimate goal should be to uncover biological truths, not just retrieve data. It is essential to prioritize minimizing photodamage over merely pushing technical limits. Our approach is aimed towards gentle acquisition and observation of undisturbed living systems, aligning with the essence of live-cell fluorescence microscopy.

AXL-TBK1 driven AKT3 activation promotes metastasis

Emily N Arner et al.

Sci Signal. 2024 Dec 17;17(867):eado6057. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.ado6057. Epub 2024 Dec 17.

The receptor tyrosine kinase AXL promotes tumor progression, metastasis, and therapy resistance through the induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Here, we found that activation of AXL resulted in the phosphorylation of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) and the downstream activation of AKT3 and Snail, a transcription factor critical for EMT. Mechanistically, we showed that TBK1 directly bound to and phosphorylated AKT3 in a manner dependent on the multiprotein complex mTORC1. Upon...

Engineering and Targeting Neutrophils for Cancer Therapy

Adv Mater. 2024 May;36(19):e2310318. doi: 10.1002/adma.202310318. Epub 2024 Feb 20.

Neutrophils are the most abundant white blood cells in the circulation and act as the first line of defense against infections. Increasing evidence suggests that neutrophils possess heterogeneous phenotypes and functional plasticity in human health and diseases, including cancer. Neutrophils play multifaceted roles in cancer development and progression, and an N1/N2 paradigm of neutrophils in cancer is proposed, where N1 neutrophils exert anti-tumor properties while N2 neutrophils display tumor-supportive and immune-suppressive functions. Selective activation of beneficial neutrophil population and targeted inhibition or re-polarization of tumor-promoting neutrophils has shown an important potential in tumor therapy. In addition, due to the natural inflammation-responsive and physical barrier-crossing abilities, neutrophils and their derivatives (membranes and extracellular vesicles (EVs)) are regarded as advanced drug delivery carriers for enhanced tumor targeting and improved therapeutic efficacy. In this review, the recent advances in engineering neutrophils for drug delivery and targeting neutrophils for remodeling tumor microenvironment (TME) are comprehensively presented. This review will provide a broad understanding of the potential of neutrophils in cancer therapy.