University of Nebraska Medical Center

Mapping Ligand-Induced Conformational Changes during the Enzymatic Cycle of Human Geranylgeranyl Diphosphate Synthase

Abstract Geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGDPS) catalyzes the condensation reaction between two isoprenoid substrates: farnesyl diphosphate (FDP) and isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP), to form geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGDP). Due to the flexible nature of the GGDPS active si...

Accuracy of commercial pollen forecasts in the United States

Approximately 80 million Americans suffer from seasonal pollen allergies, and many rely on commercial pollen forecasts to guide exposure reduction and medication timing. However, these forecasts are proprietary, and their accuracy has never been comprehensively evaluated. Here, w...

Perspectives on Gender Equity: A National Survey of Pediatric Hospital Medicine Division Leaders

OBJECTIVE: To assess pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) division leaders' perspectives on gender equity in their divisions and organizations. METHODS: In 2025, we conducted a cross-sectional Research Electronic Data Capture survey distributed via email to 236 PHM division leaders....

A scoping review and conceptual framework mapping the determinants of malaria vaccine acceptance among adults in Africa

Abstract Background Malaria remains a severe public health crisis in Africa, causing 94% of global cases and 95% of deaths in 2023. While the rollout of the RTS, S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M vaccines marks a historic shift, long-term public health success relies on adult acceptance pa...

The Nuances of Cost-Related Medication Non-Adherence in Patients Receiving Immunosuppression Compared to Patients with Chronic Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Medication adherence rates across diseases that require immunosuppression, including autoimmune diseases, are low. While cost barriers affect medication adherence, it is unknown whether adherence rates related to cost barriers differ between medically immunosuppressed...

Population pharmacokinetics modeling of albendazole and its active metabolite, albendazole sulfoxide in mass drug administration against lymphatic filariasis

ABSTRACT Albendazole (ALB), a benzimidazole antiparasitic, is widely used in mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns against lymphatic filariasis (LF). It is rapidly metabolized to its active form, albendazole sulfoxide (ALB-OX), which exhibits considerable interindividual varia...

Claudin-2 protects from enteropathogenic E. coli-infection and colitis by promoting crypt fetalization via β1-integrin/FAK/YAP signaling

Abstract Citrobacter rodentium ( Cra ) infection, a murine model of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) infection, induces crypt proliferation that potentially promotes mucosal healing and pathogen clearance, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood....

Network analysis reveals that total hip arthroplasty restores shared segmental motion before segmental differentiation

Unilateral hip osteoarthritis (HOA) reshapes whole-body movement, and total hip arthroplasty (THA) restores function only partially—but conventional kinematic analyses fall short of characterizing how the body’s distributed coordination reorganizes. Network analyses of inter-segm...

Barriers to Reducing Subthreshold Phototherapy for Neonatal Jaundice

OBJECTIVE: In a national, multicenter quality improvement (QI) collaborative to reduce subthreshold inpatient phototherapy, the proportion of subthreshold encounters was high at baseline and remained high after the intervention period. This study aimed to assess why clinicians st...

Evaluation of Antiviral Drugs’ Central Nervous System Distribution Using In Vitro Blood–Brain and Blood-CSF Barrier Models: The Impact of Serum Protein Concentration

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) and blood–cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB) are dynamic neurovascular interfaces that maintain central nervous system (CNS) homeostasis by tightly regulating paracellular and transcellular molecular transport. Intercellular communication between ad...

Competency Shapes Capacity: Strengthening the US Governmental Epidemiology Workforce.

. 2026;116(S5):S436-S445. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308699).

Frontline Perspectives: WIC Clinic Emergency Preparedness Following Hurricane Helene

Abstract Introduction The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) targets nutrition and health behaviors of high-risk populations. WIC is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides services in 4 areas: nutrition education...

Neural Mechanisms of Heart-Lung Crosstalk in Chronic Heart Failure

BACKGROUND: The cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex and pulmonary spinal afferent reflex amplify sympathetic activity and may contribute to chronic heart failure. We hypothesized that cardiac injury triggers a cardiac nerve-mediated cytokine uptake cascade that propagates neural...

Variations in Equitable Sociocultural Interactions Across Learning Activities in Pre-K to Third-Grade Classrooms

This study used secondary data collected in public elementary schools from 2016 to 2019 to examine variations in equitable sociocultural interactions, measured by the Assessing Classroom Sociocultural Equity Scale (ACSES), among classroom formats (e.g., whole group, small group),...

An iron-regulated methionine redox axis governs adipose browning and cancer cachexia

Abstract Adipose browning and atrophy are early events of cachexia, a lethal metabolic disorder affecting nearly half of the population with cancer. Here, using individual-derived specimens and mouse models, we identified an iron-dependent pathway that initiates adipose browning...

A qualitative case study on HIV treatment and prevention perceptions within a substance use treatment facility

People with substance use disorders (SUD) are disproportionately impacted by HIV due to overlapping structural, behavioral, and access disparities. Despite advances in antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis, barriers to HIV testing, prevention, and engagement in care...

Targeting TGFBR1 with the Investigational Inhibitor TP-6379 Improves Hematopoiesis in Low-Risk MDS Ex Vivo

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is characterized by S100A9-mediated constitutive innate immune activation that leads to the inflammatory death of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs). This suppressive microenvironment includes the secretion of TGFβ and is phenocopied by the...

High-grade astrocytoma with piloid features: a clinical and genomic analysis of prognostic factors using a large cohort

BACKGROUND: High-grade astrocytoma with piloid features (HGAP) is a recently defined tumor type that is not well-understood. Prognostic factors of clinical outcomes are not well-established. METHODS: Methylation profiling was performed on tumor samples, many at the National Cance...

Performance of the iBox Prognostication System in African American Kidney Transplant Recipients

Background: The iBox is a validated prognostication system that predicts long-term death-censored graft loss in kidney transplant recipients, but its performance in the specific population of African American recipients has not been fully studied. Methods: We conducted a multicen...

ViSTA: variant-integrated sequence transformer architecture learns DNA mutational contexts for breast cancer subtyping

While DNA language models have shown promise in regulatory and functional prediction tasks, patient-specific mutation profiles remain underutilized due to the difficulty of modeling complex and vast genomic data. We introduce ViSTA, a BERT-based DNA language model pretrained and...