Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

MONDAY, July 1, 2024 -- In a clinical practice guideline issued by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis and published online June 13 in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis , recommendations are presented for the treatment of congenital hemophilia. Suely M. Rezende, M.D., Ph.D., from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and colleagues developed an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for hemophilia treatment. Thirteen questions were selected by a multidisciplinary panel: 11 addressed the treatment of hemophilia A and two addressed hemophilia B treatment. For hemophilia A, the panel addressed questions relating to prophylactic and episodic treatment with factor VIII concentrates, bypassing agents, nonfactor therapy (emicizumab) (with and without inhibitors), as well as immune tolerance induction. Questions on prophylactic and episodic treatment of bleeding events with factor IX concentrates were addressed for hemophilia B. For all 13 recommendations, agreement was reached. For severe and moderately severe hemophilia A and B without inhibitors, prophylaxis is strongly recommended over episodic treatment of bleeding events. Prophylaxis with emicizumab or with factor VIII concentrates is recommended for hemophilia A, and prophylaxis with purified plasma-derived factor IX or standard or extended half-life recombinant factor IX concentrates is recommended for hemophilia B without inhibitors. "With hemophilia management being complex, our guideline provides clarity, guiding treatment decisions with evidence-based insight, yet highlighting the importance of making treatment decisions consistent with patients' individual risks, values, and preferences," Rezende said in a statement. Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Scientists have developed a software package to help answer key questions about genetic factors associated with shared characteristics among different species. Aston University has worked with international partners to develop a software package to help scientists answer key questions about genetic factors associated with shared characteristics among different species. Called CALANGO (comparative analysis with annotation-based genomic components), it has the potential to help geneticists investigate vital issues such as antibacterial resistance and improvement of agricultural crops. This work ,"CALANGO: a phylogeny-aware comparative genomics tool for discovering quantitative genotype-phenotype associations across species," has been published in the journal Patterns. It is the result of a four year collaboration between Aston University, the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and other partners in Brazil, Norway and the US. Similarities between species may arise either from shared ancestry (homology) or from shared evolutionary pressures (convergent evolution). For example, ravens, pigeons and bats can all fly, but the first two are birds whereas bats are mammals. This means that the biology of flight in ravens and pigeons is likely to share genetic aspects due to their common ancestry. Both species are able to fly nowadays because their last common ancestor -- an ancestor bird -- was also a flying organism. In contrast, bats have the ability to fly via potentially different genes than the ones in birds, since the last common ancestor of birds and mammals was not a flying animal. Untangling the genetic components shared due to common ancestry from the ones shared due to common evolutionary pressures requires sophisticated statistical models that take common ancestry into account. So far, this has been an obstacle for scientists who want to understand the emergence of complex traits across different species, mainly due to the lack of proper frameworks to investigate these associations. The new software has been designed to effectively incorporate vast amounts of genomic, evolutionary and functional annotation data to explore the genetic mechanisms which underly similar characteristics between different species sharing common ancestors. Although the statistical models used in the tool are not new, it is the first time they have been combined to extract novel biological insights from genomic data. The technique has the potential to be applied to many different areas of research, allowing scientists to analyse massive amounts of open-source genetic data belonging to thousands of organisms in more depth. Dr Felipe Campelo from the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Aston University,said: "There are many exciting examples of how this tool can be applied to solve major problems facing us today. These include exploring the co-evolution of bacteria and bacteriophages and unveiling factors associated with plant size, with direct implications for both agriculture and ecology." "Further potential applications include supporting the investigation of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and of the yield of plant and animal species of economic importance." The corresponding author of the study, Dr Francisco Pereira Lobo from the Department of Genetics, Ecology and Evolution at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, said: "Most genetic and phenotypic variations occur between different species, rather than within them. Our newly developed tool allows the generation of testable hypotheses about genotype-phenotype associations across multiple species that enable the prioritisation of targets for later experimental characterization." Further information:

The winners of the 48th annual competition showcase a spectacular blend of science and artistry under the microscope MELVILLE, N.Y., Oct. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nikon Instruments Inc. today unveiled the winners of the 48th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. This year's first place prize was awarded to Grigorii Timin, supervised by Dr. Michel Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva, for his remarkable image of an embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko. Masterfully blending imaging technology and artistic creativity, Timin utilized high-resolution microscopy and image-stitching to capture this species of Phelsuma grandis day gecko. Continue Reading Nikon Small World Embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis) A visually stunning and painstaking technique, Timin used image-stitching to merge hundreds of images together to create the final image of his gecko. Preparing the sample was an added challenge. Timin performed whole-mount fluorescent staining and tissue clearing to capture the entire embryonic hand with a confocal microscope. "This embryonic hand is about 3 mm (0.12 in) in length, which is a huge sample for high-resolution microscopy," said Timin. "The scan consists of 300 tiles, each containing about 250 optical sections, resulting in more than two days of acquisition and approximately 200 GB of data." The final result gives a glimpse into the hidden beauty and complexity of the gecko, highlighting the nerves in a cyan color and the bones, tendons, ligaments, skin and blood cells in a range of warmer colors. "This particular image is beautiful and informative, as an overview and also when you magnify it in a certain region, shedding light on how the structures are organized on a cellular level," said Timin. He went on to say, "The Nikon Small World Competition is a great opportunity to share how impressive nature is on a microscopic level, not only within a scientific community but also with the general public." "Each year, Nikon Small World receives an array of microscopic images that exhibit exemplary scientific technique and artistry. This year was no exception," said Eric Flem, Communications and CRM Manager, Nikon Instruments. "At the intersection of art and science, this year's competition highlights stunning imagery from scientists, artists, and photomicrographers of all experience levels and backgrounds from across the globe." Second place was awarded to Dr. Caleb Dawson for his image of breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli. Taking a week to process, the myoepithelial cells were stained with multiple rounds of fluorescent dyes and captured with a confocal microscope. Third place was captured by Satu Paavonsalo and Dr. Sinem Karaman for their image of blood vessel networks in the intestine of an adult mouse. In addition to the top three winners, Nikon Small World recognized 89 photos out of thousands of entries from scientists and artists across the globe. The 2022 judging panel included: Dr. Gustavo Menezes, Associate Professor and Head of the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais Dr. Nikolay Nikolov, Senior Video Journalist at The New York Times Annaliese Nurnberg, Photo Editor at The Washington Post Dr. Clare Waterman, Cell Biologist and Member of the National Academy of Sciences For additional information, please visit , or follow the conversation on Facebook, Twitter @NikonSmallWorld and Instagram @NikonInstruments. NIKON SMALL WORLD WINNERS 1st Place Grigorii Timin & Dr. Michel Milinkovitch University of Geneva Department of Genetics and Evolution Geneva, Switzerland Embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis) Confocal 63X (Objective Lens Magnification) 2nd Place Dr. Caleb Dawson WEHI, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research Department of Immunology Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli Confocal 40X (Objective Lens Magnification) 3rd Place Satu Paavonsalo & Dr. Sinem Karaman University of Helsinki Individualized Drug Therapy Research Program, Faculty of Medicine Helsinki, Finland Blood vessel networks in the intestine of an adult mouse Confocal 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) 4th Place Dr. Andrew Posselt University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Surgery Mill Valley, California, USA Long-bodied cellar/daddy long-legs spider (Pholcus phalangioides) Image Stacking 3X (Objective Lens Magnification) 5th Place Alison Pollack San Anselmo, California, USA Slime mold (Lamproderma) Image Stacking, Reflected Light 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) 6th Place Ole Bielfeldt Macrofying Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Unburned particles of carbon released when the hydrocarbon chain of candle wax breaks down Brightfield, Image Stacking 2.5X (Objective Lens Magnification) 7th Place Dr. Jianqun Gao & Prof. Glenda Halliday University of Sydney Central Clinical School / Professor Glenda Halliday's Lab Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Human neurons derived from neural stem cells (NSCs) Confocal, Fluorescence 20X (Objective Lens Magnification) 8th Place Dr. Nathanaël Prunet University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Biology Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA Growing tip of a red algae Confocal 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) 9th Place Dr. Marek Sutkowski Warsaw University of Technology Institute of Microelectronics and Optoelectronics Warsaw, Poland Liquid crystal mixture (smectic Felix 015) Image Stacking, Polarized Light 40X (Objective Lens Magnification) 10th Place Murat Öztürk Ankara, Turkey A fly under the chin of a tiger beetle Image Stacking 3.7X (Objective Lens Magnification) 11th Place Ye Fei Zhang Jiang Yin, Jiangsu, China Moth eggs Image Stacking 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) 12th Place Brett M. Lewis Queensland University of Technology Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Autofluorescence of a single coral polyp (approx. 1 mm) Fluorescence, Image Stacking 20X (Objective Lens Magnification) 13th Place Randy Fullbright Fullbright Studio Vernal, Utah, USA Agatized dinosaur bone Image Stacking 60X (Objective Lens Magnification) 14th Place Nadia Efimova Amicus Therapeutics Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Differentiated cultured mouse myoblasts with lysosomes (cyan/green), nuclei (yellow), F-actin (magenta) Confocal 40X (Objective Lens Magnification) 15th Place Dr. Ziad El-Zaatari Houston Methodist Hospital Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine Houston, Texas, USA Cross sections of normal human colon epithelial crypts Brightfield 20X (Objective Lens Magnification) 16th Place Dr. Olivier Leroux Ghent University Department of Biology & Department of Plants and Crops Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium Longitudinal section through a white asparagus shoot tip Fluorescence 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) 17th Place Dr. Daniel Wehner & Julia Kolb Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light Department of Biological Optomechanics Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany Tail fin of a zebrafish larva with peripheral nerves (green) and extracellular matrix (violet) Confocal 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) 18th Place Dr. Julien Resseguier University of Oslo Department of Biosciences / Immunology Oslo, Viken, Norway Network of macrophages (white blood cells) of an adult zebrafish intestine Confocal, Deconvolution, Fluorescence 60X (Objective Lens Magnification) 19th Place Dr. Tagide deCarvalho University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Keith R. Porter Imaging Facility Baltimore, Maryland, USA Bacterial biofilm on a human tongue cell Confocal 63X (Objective Lens Magnification) 20th Place Hui Lin & Dr. Kim McBride Nationwide Children's Hospital Center for Cardiovascular Research Columbus, Ohio, USA Human cardiomyocytes (heart cells) derived from induced pluripotent stem cells Fluorescence 60X (Objective Lens Magnification) HONORABLE MENTIONS Dr. Dylan T. Burnette Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Department of Cell and Developmental Biology Nashville, Tennessee, USA A crawling cell Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) 60X (Objective Lens Magnification) Dr. Amy C. Engevik Medical University of South Carolina Department of Regenerative Medicine & Cell Biology Charleston, South Carolina, USA Intestinal villi (brush border in magenta) Fluorescence 20X (Objective Lens Magnification) Dr. Laurent Formery University of California Berkeley Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Pacific Grove, California, USA Two-month old juvenile sea star (Patiria miniata) Confocal, Fluorescence, Image Stacking 20X (Objective Lens Magnification) Karl Gaff Dublin, Ireland Midge larva collected from a fresh water pond Polarized Light 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) Gerd Günther Düsseldorf, Germany Young stem of garden bamboo (Fargesia sp.) Fluorescence 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) Dr. Zhiguo He University Jean Monnet School of Medicine Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, Rhône-Alpes, France The actomyosin network at the apical pole of human corneal endothelial cells (revealed by immunofluorescence) Fluorescence 60X (Objective Lens Magnification) Bre Hewitt Drexel University Department of Biology Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Migrating human fibroblast stained for the golgi (orange), the actin cytoskeleton (magenta), and the nucleus (cyan) Confocal, Fluorescence 60X (Objective Lens Magnification) Reuben Philip Mount Sinai Hospital Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute Toronto, Ontario, Canada A cell with extra centrosomes beginning to divide Confocal 60X (Objective Lens Magnification) Alison Pollack San Anselmo, California, USA Slime mold (Didymium clavus) Image Stacking, Reflected Light 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) Jan Rosenboom Rostock, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany Diatom (Actinoptychus sp.) Differential Interference Contrast (DIC), Image Stacking 100X (Objective Lens Magnification) Dr. Igor Siwanowicz Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Janelia Research Campus Ashburn, Virginia, USA Radula (rasping tongue) of a marine snail (Turbinidae family) Confocal 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) Sebastian Sparenga McCrone Research Institute Chicago, Illinois, USA Recrystallized Vitamin C Polarized Light 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) Dr. Andrea Tedeschi The Ohio State University / Wexner Medical Center Department of Neuroscience Columbus, Ohio, USA Murine sensory-motor cortex following mild traumatic brain injury in a transgenic mouse (expressing Thy1-GFP) Confocal 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) Wim van Egmond Micropolitan Museum Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands Larva of an anemone, found in marine plankton Darkfield 6.3X (Objective Lens Magnification) Ye Fei Zhang Jiang Yin, Jiangsu, China Butterfly egg Image Stacking 10X (Objective Lens Magnification) About Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition The Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition is open to anyone with an interest in photography or video. Participants may upload digital images and videos directly at . For additional information, contact Nikon Small World, Nikon Instruments Inc., 1300 Walt Whitman Road, Melville, NY 11747, USA, or phone (631) 547-8569. Entry forms for Nikon's 2023 Small World and Small World in Motion Competitions are available at About Nikon Instruments Inc. Nikon Instruments Inc. is the US microscopy arm of Nikon Healthcare, a world leader in the development and manufacture of optical and digital imaging technology for biomedical applications. For more information, visit or contact us at 1-800-52-NIKON. SOURCE Nikon Instruments Inc.