The invention relates to a system and a method for determining a characteristic of a blood vessel portion, which comprises blood including a contrast agent exhibiting resonant absorption of x-ray photons at a specific energy. The system comprises a tunable monochromatic x-ray source (21) emitting x-ray radiation, an x-ray detector device (22) for detecting the x-ray radiation after it has travelled through the blood vessel portion. A control unit (26) varies a tuning of the x-ray source (21) to vary the energy of the x-ray radiation emitted by the x-ray source (21), and an evaluation unit (27) determines a tuning of the x-ray source (21) at which nuclear resonant absorption of the x-ray radiation incident onto the blood vessel portion occurs and estimates the characteristic on the basis of the determined tuning. The characteristic may particularly be the blood velocity in the blood vessel portion.

The present invention is based, in part, on the discovery of anti-PSGL-1 compositions (e.g., monoclonal antibodies and antigen-binding fragments thereof) that regulate myeloid cell inflammatory phenotypes, such as suppressive myeloid cells, monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, and/or dendritic cells, including polarization, activation, and/or function, and methods of using such anti-PSGL-1 compositions for therapeutic, diagnostic, prognostic, and screening purposes.

The present invention is directed to compositions comprising modified SMARCB1 and uses thereof.

The invention relates to water soluble .sup.18F-prosthetic groups and the synthesis and use of .sup.18F-labeled biological molecules containing the .sup.18F-prosthetic groups for imaging various processes within the body, for detecting the location of molecules associated with disease pathology, and for monitoring disease progression are disclosed.

As a system that enables effective delivery of a pharmaceutical active ingredient to a submucosal tissue of the bladder, a transmucosal delivery system including a conjugate of a hydrophobic compound containing the pharmaceutical active ingredient and chondroitin sulfate is provided.

Plasma kallikrein binding proteins and methods of using such proteins are described.

The specificity of CD4+ TH responses of German cockroach (Bla g) antigens, and whether differences exist in magnitude or functionality as a function of disease severity, is disclosed. Also disclosed are novel German cockroach allergens and epitopes.

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for determining the renal glomerular filtration rate or assessing the renal function in a patient in need thereof. The method includes administering a pyrazine compound of Formula I to a patient and monitoring the rate in which the kidneys of the patient eliminate the pyrazine from the systemic circulation of the patient. The pyrazine compound fluoresces when exposed to electromagnetic radiation which is detected using one or more sensors. The rate in which the fluorescence decreases in the patient is used to calculate the renal glomerular filtration rate in the patient.

In one aspect, methods of generating human monoclonal antibodies that specifically binds to an allergen are provided. In some embodiments, the monoclonal antibodies are generated from sequences identified from isolated single B cells from a human subject who is allergic to the allergen.

The present provides a Positional Isotopomer NMR Tracer Analysis (PINTA) method that can be used to noninvasively assess rates of hepatic mitochondrial oxidation (V.sub.CS) and/or pyruvate carboxylase (V.sub.PC) flux in a subject. In certain embodiments, the methods utilize a combined NMR/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of plasma following infusion of [3-.sup.13C]lactate and glucose tracer. The method of the invention provides investigators with a tool to non-invasively examine the role of altered hepatic mitochondrial metabolism and study the effects of therapeutic interventions for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and type 2 diabetes (T2D).