Ovarian cancer is among the most lethal gynecologic malignancies, characterized by high recurrence rates and resistance to conventional therapies. Immunotherapy targeting tumor-immune interactions represents a promising therapeutic strategy. This study investigates how immune activation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) modulates anti-tumor responses against two ovarian cancer cell lines, OVCAR3 and OVCAR8. Preliminary growth curve analysis demonstrates that OVCAR8 proliferates significantly faster than OVCAR3, suggesting a more aggressive and potentially more therapy-resistant phenotype. PBMCs isolated from peripheral blood will be pre-activated overnight with IL-2, anti-CD16, anti-CD3/CD28, or left untreated as a control, then co-cultured with OVCAR3 or OVCAR8 cells. Flow cytometry will be employed to characterize key markers of tumor-immune interaction on both cancer cells and PBMCs, including MHC-I, PD-L1, CD44, and CD54. MHC-I expression will assess tumor visibility to immune effectors, PD-L1 will reveal immune checkpoint activity and potential suppression of PBMC function, CD44 will indicate cancer stem cell properties and aggressiveness, and CD54 will reflect immune synapse formation and killing efficiency. By comparing these markers across treatment conditions and between OVCAR3 and OVCAR8, this study aims to identify which activation strategy most effectively engages PBMCs against aggressive ovarian cancer and uncover mechanisms of immune evasion that may inform future immunotherapeutic approaches.

Rationale/Aim: We aim to evaluate the impact of emergency department (ED) clinician-performed (EDT), versus trauma surgery clinician-performed tertiary exams (TST) on patient length-of-stay (LOS), additional tests, and return visits for trauma patients. Methods: This retrospective pre-post quality improvement study analyzed electronic health records of Code Trauma activations at a level II trauma center, (UCLA Ronald Reagan) from 2024 to 2025, comparing ED LOS before and after a November 2024 workflow change in the clinicians responsible for tertiary exams for cases with no significant traumatic injuries on cross-sectional imaging. We used descriptive statistics to examine patient demographics, clinical information, and operational metrics before the workflow change, and then after stratified by TST or EDT. Results: There were 630 patients in the pre-period (all trauma surgeon tertiary), and 364 patients in the post-period (205 ED clinician tertiary, 159 trauma surgeon tertiary). The ED LOS (minutes) during the pre-period for discharged patients was a median of 462 (IQR=353), and in the post–period it was 553 (IQR=310) for TST and 396 (IQR=204) for EDT. Conclusion: ED clinician-performed tertiary trauma exams in select cases present increased workflow efficiency, informing a scalable workflow change to reduce ED LOS and improve trauma patient throughput.

Linear genomic references enable researchers to elucidate the many functions of the human genome for clinical and scientific studies. Despite their ubiquity, linear references fail to capture population-specific variation which promotes barriers to read mapping and sequence alignment. To address these limitations, the human pangenome is a proposed map of the genome that aims to fill data gaps that are found in linear references and expand biomedical research. The goal of this study is to identify the priorities that are expressed by researchers for a human pangenome reference. To accomplish this, a systematic literature review was conducted using published literature associated with human pangenomics found through structured searches in PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and Web of Science. After articles were screened for applicability to the research question, there were 239 articles remaining for extraction. Direct quotes that relate to priorities including understanding population-specific genomic variation, resolving clinical variant interpretation biases, and expanding completeness and contiguity beyond that found in linear reference genomes were analyzed. The clinical and scientific utility of a pangenome reference is emphasized as a major area of focus and can act as a predictor for the adoption of this reference in future research studies. Analyzing researcher perspectives and priorities crucially highlights the direction of the field as well as the facets that are currently understudied.

Postoperative dysphagia is common after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and may be particularly consequential in octogenarians. Yet, the independent effects of operative extent and advanced age on dysphagia remain incompletely defined after accounting for baseline comorbidity. We sought to determine whether single-level and multilevel ACDF and age are associated with risk of diagnosed dysphagia. Using the TriNetX Research Network, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients aged 80-89 years who underwent ACDF between 2015 and 2022. Cohorts were propensity score matched 1:1 on demographics and comorbidities. The primary outcome was new-onset dysphagia within three years, with secondary outcomes including aspiration pneumonia, readmission, reoperation, and mortality. Secondary matched analyses compared octogenarians with patients 50-79 years, stratified by single-level and multilevel ACDF. After matching, 993 octogenarians remained in each operative cohort. Dysphagia occurred more frequently after multilevel versus single-level ACDF, while rates of aspiration pneumonia, mortality, and readmission were similar. Age-stratified analyses showed octogenarians had higher dysphagia rates than younger patients after single-level but not multilevel ACDF. These findings demonstrate that operative extent and age differentially influence dysphagia risk, highlighting the importance of focused preoperative counseling and dysphagia mitigation strategies when planning multilevel ACDF in octogenarians.

Cardiac arrhythmias affect 37 million individuals worldwide and are a major cause of sudden cardiac death, particularly under stress conditions such as hypothermia, where disrupted ion channel function destabilizes cardiac electrical conduction and increases mortality risk. Current clinical strategies focus on pharmacologic rhythm control or device-based interventions, but they do not address the underlying molecular mechanisms that allow some species to naturally maintain stable cardiac function at near-freezing body temperatures. Here, we present a novel evolutionary model of arrhythmia resistance by investigating naturally occurring SCN5A variants in Artic, hibernating mammals that appear to preserve Nav1.5 sodium channel function, maintain peak Na⁺ current, and minimize arrhythmogenic late Na⁺ leak during hypothermia. Identifying these naturally evolved protective channel adaptations may reveal new molecular targets for preventing hypothermia-induced arrhythmias and enable translation of evolutionary cardiac resilience strategies into therapeutic approaches that improve human cardiac stability in low-temperature and critical care settings.