Erratum: Building the foundation for equitable and inclusive research: Seed grant programs to facilitate development of diverse CBPR community-academic research partnerships - CORRIGENDUM.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1017/cts.2022.495.].

Building the foundation for equitable and inclusive research: Seed grant programs to facilitate development of diverse CBPR community-academic research partnerships.

Introduction: The effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships to address health inequities is well documented. CBPR integrates knowledge and perspectives of diverse communities throughout the research process, following principles that emphasize trust, power sharing, co-learning, and mutual benefits. However, institutions and funders seldom provide the time and resources needed for the critical stage of equitable partnership formation and development. Methods: Since 2011, the Detroit Urban Research Center, collaborating with other entities, has promoted the development of new community-academic research partnerships through two grant programs that combine seed funding with capacity building support from community and academic instructors/mentors experienced in CBPR. Process and outcomes were evaluated using mixed methods. Results: From 2011 to 2021, 50 partnerships received grants ranging from $2,500 to $30,000, totaling $605,000. Outcomes included equitable partnership infrastructure and processes, innovative pilot research, translation of findings to interventions and policy change, dissemination to multiple audiences, new proposals and projects, and sustained community-academic research partnerships. All partnerships continued beyond the program; over half secured additional funding. Conclusions: Keys to success included participation as community-academic teams, dedicated time for partnership/relationship development, workshops to develop equity-based skills, relationships, and projects, expert community-academic instructor guidance, and connection to additional resources. Findings demonstrate that small amounts of seed funding for newly forming community-academic partnerships, paired with capacity building support, can provide essential time and resources needed to develop diverse, inclusive, equity-focused CBPR partnerships. Building such support into funding initiatives and through academic institutions can enhance impact and sustainability of translational research toward advancing health equity.

Control of Brain State Transitions with a Photoswitchable Muscarinic Agonist.

The ability to control neural activity is essential for research not only in basic neuroscience, as spatiotemporal control of activity is a fundamental experimental tool, but also in clinical neurology for therapeutic brain interventions. Transcranial-magnetic, ultrasound, and alternating/direct current (AC/DC) stimulation are some available means of spatiotemporal controlled neuromodulation. There is also light-mediated control, such as optogenetics, which has revolutionized neuroscience research, yet its clinical translation is hampered by the need for gene manipulation. As a drug-based light-mediated control, the effect of a photoswitchable muscarinic agonist (Phthalimide-Azo-Iper (PAI)) on a brain network is evaluated in this study. First, the conditions to manipulate M2 muscarinic receptors with light in the experimental setup are determined. Next, physiological synchronous emergent cortical activity consisting of slow oscillations-as in slow wave sleep-is transformed into a higher frequency pattern in the cerebral cortex, both in vitro and in vivo, as a consequence of PAI activation with light. These results open the way to study cholinergic neuromodulation and to control spatiotemporal patterns of activity in different brain states, their transitions, and their links to cognition and behavior. The approach can be applied to different organisms and does not require genetic manipulation, which would make it translational to humans.

An ultra-compact integrated system for brain activity recording and stimulation validated over cortical slow oscillations in vivo and in vitro.

The understanding of brain processing requires monitoring and exogenous modulation of neuronal ensembles. To this end, it is critical to implement equipment that ideally provides highly accurate, low latency recording and stimulation capabilities, that is functional for different experimental preparations and that is highly compact and mobile. To address these requirements, we designed a small ultra-flexible multielectrode array and combined it with an ultra-compact electronic system. The device consists of a polyimide microelectrode array (8 µm thick and with electrodes measuring as low as 10 µm in diameter) connected to a miniaturized electronic board capable of amplifying, filtering and digitalizing neural signals and, in addition, of stimulating brain tissue. To evaluate the system, we recorded slow oscillations generated in the cerebral cortex network both from in vitro slices and from in vivo anesthetized animals, and we modulated the oscillatory pattern by means of electrical and visual stimulation. Finally, we established a preliminary closed-loop algorithm in vitro that exploits the low latency of the electronics (<0.5 ms), thus allowing monitoring and modulating emergent cortical activity in real time to a desired target oscillatory frequency.

Bistability, Causality, and Complexity in Cortical Networks: An In Vitro Perturbational Study.

Measuring the spatiotemporal complexity of cortical responses to direct perturbations provides a reliable index of the brain's capacity for consciousness in humans under both physiological and pathological conditions. Upon loss of consciousness, the complex pattern of causal interactions observed during wakefulness collapses into a stereotypical slow wave, suggesting that cortical bistability may play a role. Bistability is mainly expressed in the form of slow oscillations, a default pattern of activity that emerges from cortical networks in conditions of functional or anatomical disconnection. Here, we employ an in vitro model to understand the relationship between bistability and complexity in cortical circuits. We adapted the perturbational complexity index applied in humans to electrically stimulated cortical slices under different neuromodulatory conditions. At this microscale level, we demonstrate that perturbational complexity can be effectively modulated by pharmacological reduction of bistability and, albeit to a lesser extent, by enhancement of excitability, providing mechanistic insights into the macroscale measurements performed in humans.

Community Partner Perspectives on Benefits, Challenges, Facilitating Factors, and Lessons Learned from Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships in Detroit.

BACKGROUND: There is an extensive body of literature on community-based participatory research (CBPR) and the role of community-academic partnerships, much of which has involved community partners in the conceptualization and preparation of publications. However, there has been a relative dearth of solely community voices addressing these topics, given the other roles and responsibilities which community members and leaders of community-based organizations (CBOs) have. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to share the perspectives of three long-time (>20 years) community partners involved in the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center and its affiliated partnerships. CONCLUSION: In this article, we community partners provide our assessment of the benefits and challenges in using a CBPR approach at the personal, organizational, and community levels; the factors that facilitate effective partnerships; and our lessons learned through engagement in CBPR. We also present specific recommendations from a community perspective to researchers and institutions interested in conducting CBPR.

Role of motility in the colonization of uropathogenic Escherichia coli in the urinary tract.

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) causes most uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) in humans. Flagellum-mediated motility and chemotaxis have been suggested to contribute to virulence by enabling UPEC to escape host immune responses and disperse to new sites within the urinary tract. To evaluate their contribution to virulence, six separate flagellar mutations were constructed in UPEC strain CFT073. The mutants constructed were shown to have four different flagellar phenotypes: fliA and fliC mutants do not produce flagella; the flgM mutant has similar levels of extracellular flagellin as the wild type but exhibits less motility than the wild type; the motAB mutant is nonmotile; and the cheW and cheY mutants are motile but nonchemotactic. Virulence was assessed by transurethral independent challenges and cochallenges of CBA mice with the wild type and each mutant. CFU/ml of urine or CFU/g bladder or kidney was determined 3 days postinoculation for the independent challenges and at 6, 16, 48, 60, and 72 h postinoculation for the cochallenges. While these mutants colonized the urinary tract during independent challenge, each of the mutants was outcompeted by the wild-type strain to various degrees at specific time points during cochallenge. Altogether, these results suggest that flagella and flagellum-mediated motility/chemotaxis may not be absolutely required for virulence but that these traits contribute to the fitness of UPEC and therefore significantly enhance the pathogenesis of UTIs caused by UPEC.