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Tumour draining lymph node-generated CD8 T cells play a role in controlling lung metastases after a primary tumour is removed but not when adjuvant immunotherapy is usedSurgical resection of cancer remains the frontline therapy for millions of patients annually, but post-operative recurrence is common, with a relapse rate of around 45% for non-small cell lung cancer. The tumour draining lymph nodes (dLN) are resected at the time of surgery for staging purposes, and this cannot be a null event for patient survival and future response to immune checkpoint blockade treatment. This project investigates cancer surgery, lymphadenectomy, onset of metastatic disease, and response to immunotherapy in a novel model that closely reflects the clinical setting. In a murine metastatic lung cancer model, primary subcutaneous tumours were resected with associated dLNs remaining intact, completely resected or partially resected.
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Personalised analytics for rare disease diagnosticsHere we focus on the problem of prioritising variants with respect to the observed disease phenotype
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A phenotype centric benchmark of variant prioritisation toolsWe hypothesised that the performance of variant prioriisation tools may vary by disease phenotype.
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Pushing the boundaries of rare disease diagnostics with the help of the first Undiagnosed HackathonTimo Lassmann BSc (Hons) MSc PhD Feilman Fellow; Head, Precision Health Research and Head, Computational Biology timo.lassmann@thekids.org.au

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Timo LassmannFeilman Fellow; Head, Precision Health Research and Head, Computational Biology
Research
Study Protocol for a Stepped-Wedge Cluster (Nested) Randomized Controlled Trial of Antenatal Colostrum Expression (ACE) Instruction in First-Time Mothers: The ACE StudyAlthough many mothers initiate breastfeeding, supplementation with human-milk substitutes (formula) during the birth hospitalization is common and has been associated with early breastfeeding cessation. Colostrum hand expressed in the last few weeks before birth, known as antenatal colostrum expression (ACE), can be used instead of human-milk substitutes. However, evidence is lacking on the efficacy of ACE on breastfeeding outcomes and in non-diabetic mothers.

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What’s in a name?In WA, 60,000 kids live with a rare disease, and of those about half do not have a diagnosis. At The Kids, researchers are leading the charge in developing a method to identify genetic variations, so that kids like Charlotte can get answers.
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CRISPR-Cas9-generated PTCHD1 2489T>G stem cells recapitulate patient phenotype when undergoing neural inductionAn estimated 3.5%-5.9% of the global population live with rare diseases, and approximately 80% of these diseases have a genetic cause. Rare genetic diseases are difficult to diagnose, with some affected individuals experiencing diagnostic delays of 5-30 years. Next-generation sequencing has improved clinical diagnostic rates to 33%-48%. In a majority of cases, novel variants potentially causing the disease are discovered.
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SAMStat 2: quality control for next generation sequencing dataSAMStat is an efficient program to extract quality control metrics from fastq and SAM/BAM files. A distinguishing feature is that it displays sequence composition, base quality composition and mapping error profiles split by mapping quality. This allows users to rapidly identify reasons for poor mapping including the presence of untrimmed adapters or poor sequencing quality at individual read positions.
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Electrostatic Filters to Reduce COVID-19 Spread in Bubble CPAP: An in vitro Study of Safety and EfficacyBubble CPAP may be used in infants with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Electrostatic filters may reduce cross infection. This study aims to determine if including a filter in the bubble CPAP circuit impacts stability of pressure delivery. A new electrostatic filter was placed before (pre) or after (post) the bubble CPAP generator, or with no filter (control) in an in vitro study. Pressure was recorded at the nasal interface for 18 h (6 L/min; 7 cm H2O) on 3 occasions for each configuration. Filter failure was defined as pressure >9 cm H2O for 60 continuous minutes. The filter was weighed before and after each experiment.