Springer Nature

Dr Emiliano Trucchi (Marche Polytechnic University) and Dr Céline Le Bohec (University of Strasbourg; Monaco Scientific Center) discuss the genetic basis of cold adaptation in the emperor penguin. Céline also shares her experience of visiting Antarctica. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Selection-driven adaptation to the extreme Antarctic environment in the Emperor penguin” https:...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) causes significant long-term morbidity and mortality, particularly in children. There is some evidence that the innate immune system, in particular neutrophil activity, can be compromised in adult-onset lupus. Yet there is a paucity of data on neutrophil activity in pediatric SLE. This month on Pediapod, we join Early Career Investigator, Rakesh Kumar Pilania, an...

Adenoid Ameloblastoma is a very rare benign odontogenic tumor characterized microscopically by epithelium resembling conventional ameloblastoma, with additional duct-like structures, epithelial whorls, and cribriform architecture. Dentinoid deposits, clusters of clear cells, and ghost-cell keratinization may also be present. These tumors do not harbor BRAF or KRAS mutations and their molecular bas...

In this episode, Dr Sara Nilson (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Dr Jared Decker (University of Missouri) and Prof. Leslie Lyons (University of Missouri) discuss their quest to find the geographical origins of cat domestication. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Genetics of randomly bred cats support the cradle of cat domestication being in the Near East” https://www.nature.com/ar...

Although prophylactic lymph node dissections do not improve survival, the prognostic implications of a positive sentinel node and the benefi ts of removing nodal metastases for loco-regional disease control remain important. There is a strong interest in novel approaches that can improve patients’ selection for sentinel lymphnode biopsies (SLNB) given that 85% of these procedures are negative and...

After a traumatic event, women are more likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Research has been conducted on what might be causing this higher rate of diagnoses; for instance, perhaps women had more cumulative trauma in their lives than the men in question. But scientists say that even taking prior childhood trauma into account, women are still diagnosed at a higher...

Flat lesions of the urothelium with histologic features that falls short of the threshold for urothelial carcinoma in situ (CIS) remains a challenging problem in diagnostic surgical pathology. Among these are flat urothelial hyperplasia, urothelial dysplasia, and atypia of unknown significance; lesions that have struggled under evolving classifications, changing criteria, and limited clinical acti...

In this episode, Dr Paul Maier tells us about his research on the landscape genetics of the Yosemite toad, which only inhabits high-altitude meadows in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Landscape genetics of a sub-alpine toad: climate change predicted to induce upward range shifts via asymmetrical migration corridors” https://rdcu.be/cYehZ

95% of adolescents in the US have access to a smartphone and 45% report being online "almost constantly". Beyond the general time spent on screens, the control over usage and the interference into other activities are also important considerations and could reflect problematic screen use. This week on Pediapod, we meet Early Career Investigator, Professor Jason Nagata from the University of Califo...

Locally recurrent prostate cancer from 53 patients that failed radiation therapy and underwent salvage radical prostatectomy was analyzed for clinicopathological and genomic characteristics. Most radiorecurrent tumors were enriched in cribriform morphologies (invasive cribrifom PCa and intraductal carcinoma with cribriform pattern) and demonstrated potentially targetable genomic alterations (defec...

Social interactions play an essential role in the lives of many animals. But how do we disentangle the genetic and non-genetic factors influencing sociality? In this episode, Dr Irene Godoy (Bielefeld University) tells us about her research on sociality in capuchin monkeys. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Genetic, maternal, and environmental influences on sociality in a pedigreed...

The Baby Doe Regulations, which regulate the provision of life-sustaining treatment to seriously ill neonates, caused a stir amongst neonatologists when they were first enacted in the 1980s. The fear at the time was that they would restrict their ability to provide optimal care to seriously ill patients by mandating the use of aggressive treatments in all but futile cases, irrespective of a patien...

Establishing an efficient and standardized workflow for performing molecular classification on ECs, and reporting both the molecular and histologic findings in an integrative manner, is imperative. Dr. Brooke Howitt discusses with the host her institution’s effort to implement rapid and routine molecular classification on all ECs diagnosed at Stanford.

Most succinate dehydrogenase (SDH)-deficient RCCs demonstrate classic morphology characterized by bland eosinophilic cells with intracytoplasmic inclusions. Increasingly, “variant” morphologic features are recognized. Drs. Anthony Gill and Talia Fuchs discuss with the host their findings in a recent publication in Modern pathology where features such as high-grade nuclear features, necrosis, papil...

Maladaptive aggression, while not a diagnosable neuropsychiatric disorder on its own, often presents as an important comorbid condition with other neuropsychiatric disorders. But while both men and women can and do display aggression, there’s been a bias to thinking of aggression, in both its adaptive and maladaptive forms, as a male behavior. Sam Golden is an assistant professor at the University...

The vast majority of image-detected breast abnormalities are currently diagnosed by percutaneous core needle biopsy (CNB). While management of frankly malignant lesions diagnosed by CNB is now well-defined, there is less consensus on the optimal management of high-risk and selected benign lesions diagnosed by CNB. In this episode, Dr. Benjamin Calhoun from University of North Carolina in Chapel Hi...

Can the sleep and activity patterns of fruit flies help us better understand human metabolic disorders? It’s a big question, and one that we are going to touch upon today, as we hear from Dr Pedro Vale, Katy Monteith (University of Edinburgh), and Lucy Anderson. This episode also touches upon the undergraduate research experience, first publications, and the benefits of peer-review. This episode e...

For depressed preterm neonates, initiating positive pressure ventilation is the most important factor in facilitating transition. Therefore the recommendation for depressed neonates is to immediately cut the umbilical cord and begin resuscitation. However, many studies have shown that delaying the clamping of the umbilical cord also benefits preterm infants by increasing a neonate's blood volume,...

Modern Pathology have recently launched a new series of reviews addressing controversial issues in pathology. In this episode of ModPath CHAT, Dr. Elizabeth Montgomery, a world renowned expert in gastrointestinal pathology gives her point of view on the utility of ancillary testing for risk stratification of Barrett’s esophagus and dysplasia.

Ki-67 assessment is a key step in the diagnosis of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) from all anatomic locations. The application of digital pathology coupled with machine learning has been shown to be highly accurate and reproducible for the evaluation of Ki-67 in NENs. The guest, Dr. Claudio Luchini from the University of Verona in Italy, discusses his recently published systematic review on the s...

Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) occurs in around 45% of infants born below 26 weeks gestational age, causing significant lifelong morbidity and mortality. However, there is currently no effective treatment. In part, this is due to the lack of well-characterised representative preterm animal models with long-term follow up. In this episode, we meet our highlighted Early Career Investigator Olga R...

On the 20th July, The Genetics Society held a fantastic Garden Party to celebrate the 200th birthday of Gregor Mendel: a man regarded by many as the "father of modern genetics". In this episode we showcase a talk given on the day by Prof. Alison Woollard (University of Oxford) titled: ‘Mendel to Modern Genetics’. You can find a recording of the full event on the Genetics Society’s YouTube Channel:...

In a subset of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), the peritoneum is the predominant site of dissemination. While cure can be achieved by cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), this procedure is associated with long-term morbidity and high relapse rates. In this episode of ModPath CHAT, Drs. Siesing and Jirstrom from Lund University in Swe...

Uterine leiomyosarcoma is the most common uterine mesenchymal malignancy. The majority present at stage I with variable clinical outcome. In this episode of ModPath Chat, Dr. David Chapel discusses his recently published multi-institutional study proposing a novel risk stratification model (shown below) for low stage uterine leiomyosarcoma. Risk score = (coagulative necrosis)(1) + (mitoses > 25 pe...

A recent study reported that 53% of mothers reported exposure to violence when they were children. And there is evidence that these experiences negatively impact the health and development of their offspring later on. Associations between maternal exposure to violence, psychopathology and children's mental health outcomes is well documented. However, the pre- and postnatal programming pathways bet...