BRCA1 deficiency in mature CD8+ T lymphocytes impairs antitumor immunity.

Women with BRCA1 germline mutations have approximately an 80% lifetime chance of developing breast cancer. While the tumor suppressor function of BRCA1 in breast epithelium has been studied extensively, it is not clear whether BRCA1 deficiency in non-breast somatic cells also contribute to tumorigenesis. Here, we report that mouse Brca1 knockout (KO) in mature T lymphocytes compromises host antitumor immune response to transplanted syngeneic mouse mammary tumors. T cell adoptive transfer further corroborates CD8+ T cell-intrinsic impact of Brca1 KO on antitumor adaptive immunity. T cell-specific Brca1 KO mice exhibit fewer total CD8+, more exhausted, reduced cytotoxic, and reduced memory tumor-infiltrating T cell populations. Consistent with the preclinical data, cancer-free BRCA1 mutation-carrying women display lower abundance of circulating CD8+ lymphocytes than the age-matched control group. Thus, our findings support the notion that BRCA1 deficiency in adaptive immunity could contribute to BRCA1-related tumorigenesis. We also suggest that prophylactic boosting of adaptive immunity may reduce cancer incidence among at-risk women.

Field-Portable Microplastic Sensing in Aqueous Environments: A Perspective on Emerging Techniques.

Microplastics (MPs) have been found in aqueous environments ranging from rural ponds and lakes to the deep ocean. Despite the ubiquity of MPs, our ability to characterize MPs in the environment is limited by the lack of technologies for rapidly and accurately identifying and quantifying MPs. Although standards exist for MP sample collection and preparation, methods of MP analysis vary considerably and produce data with a broad range of data content and quality. The need for extensive analysis-specific sample preparation in current technology approaches has hindered the emergence of a single technique which can operate on aqueous samples in the field, rather than on dried laboratory preparations. In this perspective, we consider MP measurement technologies with a focus on both their eventual field-deployability and their respective data products (e.g., MP particle count, size, and/or polymer type). We present preliminary demonstrations of several prospective MP measurement techniques, with an eye towards developing a solution or solutions that can transition from the laboratory to the field. Specifically, experimental results are presented from multiple prototype systems that measure various physical properties of MPs: pyrolysis-differential mobility spectroscopy, short-wave infrared imaging, aqueous Nile Red labeling and counting, acoustophoresis, ultrasound, impedance spectroscopy, and dielectrophoresis.

In-focus wavefront sensing using non-redundant mask-induced pupil diversity.

Wavefront estimation using in-focus image data is critical to many applications. This data is invariant to a sign flip with complex conjugation of the complex amplitude in the pupil, making for a non-unique solution. Information from an in-focus image taken through a non-redundant pupil mask (NRM) can break this ambiguity, enabling the true aberration to be determined. We demonstrate this by priming a full pupil Gerchberg-Saxton phase retrieval with NRM fringe phase information. We apply our method to measure simulated aberrations on the segmented James Webb space telescope (JWST) mirror using full pupil and NRM data from its near infrared imager and slitless spectrograph (NIRISS).

Performance of the Gemini Planet Imager's adaptive optics system.

The Gemini Planet Imager's adaptive optics (AO) subsystem was designed specifically to facilitate high-contrast imaging. A definitive description of the system's algorithms and technologies as built is given. 564 AO telemetry measurements from the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey campaign are analyzed. The modal gain optimizer tracks changes in atmospheric conditions. Science observations show that image quality can be improved with the use of both the spatially filtered wavefront sensor and linear-quadratic-Gaussian control of vibration. The error budget indicates that for all targets and atmospheric conditions AO bandwidth error is the largest term.