Abstract There is growing interest in reverse mentoring from an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) perspective across the higher education (HE) sector. An interesting and under‐explored area is the extent to which reverse mentoring may be utilised to connect the student body with university leadership, a significant category of people making decisions that impact on student experiences but whom students may rarely (or in some cases never) interact with, often being associated with the idea of the faceless ‘university’. Consideration of the disconnect between students and university leaders and what, if anything, reverse mentoring conversations can bring to this space, has been limited. This paper shines a light on these relationships (and their importance) through its critical exploration of a reverse mentoring scheme via which students at a range of levels and from diverse disciplines and under‐represented backgrounds mentored senior leaders within a Russell Group university on EDI‐related topics. It is one of the first studies to collaboratively consider the perspectives of mentors (students from under‐represented backgrounds) and mentees (those in senior leadership positions), exploring the role and impact of reverse mentoring via novel applications of adapted indicators of leader–member exchange theory and facets of multicultural, ecological and relational mentoring. Key themes include understanding diverse identities, navigating hierarchies, influencing institutional change, creating compassionate, safe spaces and transforming practice through engagement with lived‐experience expertise. This paper seeks to further develop understanding of the intersections between student belonging and HE leadership through the vehicle of reverse mentoring.
ABSTRACT The ability of the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) to regenerate its damaged axons is limited, in part because of its inability to muster the required energy production machinery to the axon to support the regrowth. Although mitochondria have long been considered the primary source of metabolic support, recent research has expanded the focus to include glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway, both of which contribute to local energy production and redox balance during regeneration. This review summarizes current advances in our understanding of these metabolic processes and integrates them into a conceptual framework that may inform further research and the development of strategies to enhance axon regeneration in the adult CNS.
ABSTRACT Methylene‐tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is an important enzyme for acetogenic carbon fixation, but the redox mechanism driving this reaction is not clearly understood. Previous enzymology work and energetic accounting on species such as Clostridium autoethanogenum has led to confounding results when placed in the context of in vivo experiments. In this work, we create multiple C. autoethanogenum strains harboring alternative MTHFR enzyme complexes as well as genome‐scale metabolic models to better understand how these organisms conserve energy on gas substrates. The inclusion of a Type‐III MTHFR unexpectedly allows for higher growth than expected and suggests the possibility of an additional redox balancing cycle employed during autotrophic growth.
ABSTRACT Quantification of cyanobacterial CO 2 fixation rates is vital to determining their potential as industrial strains in a circular bioeconomy. Currently, however, CO 2 fixation rates are most often determined through indirect and/or low‐resolution methods, resulting in an incomplete picture of both dynamic behaviors and total carbon fixation potential. To address this, we developed the “Automated Carbon and CO 2 Experimental Sampling System” (ACCESS); a low‐cost system for in situ off‐gas analysis that supports the automated acquisition of high‐resolution volumetric CO 2 uptake rates from multiple cyanobacterial cultures in parallel. Carbon fixation data obtained via ACCESS were first independently validated by elemental analysis of cultivated biomass. Using ACCESS, we then demonstrate how the volumetric CO 2 uptake rate of two model cyanobacteria, Synechococcus sp . PCC 7002 and Synechocystis sp . PCC 6803, accelerates linearly to a maximum before then decaying monotonically to cessation by stationary phase. Furthermore, consistent with the expected stoichiometry, strong correlations were also found to exist between cell growth and carbon fixation, both in terms of rates as well as total levels. The novel insights made possible via ACCESS will aid other cyanobacterial researchers in diverse fundamental and applied research efforts.
ABSTRACT An open‐source modeling platform, called Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 Fast (ADM1F), is introduced to achieve fast and numerically stable simulations of anaerobic digestion processes. ADM1F is compatible with an iPython interface to facilitate model configuration, simulation, data analysis, and visualization. Faster simulations and more stable results are accomplished by implementing an advanced open‐source library of numerical methods called Portable Extensive Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) to solve the ADM1 system of equations. Leveraging PETSc, ADM1F can consistently complete a steady‐state simulation under 0.2 s, over 99% faster than a benchmark ADM1 model implemented with MATLAB while achieving agreement of model outputs within 1% of those obtained with the benchmark model. For dynamic simulations, however, ADM1F has a computational speed advantage only when the influent characteristics update more frequently than every 4 h. The ability of ADM1F to be useful as a tool to study anaerobic digestion systems is demonstrated through two example implementations of ADM1F: (1) a two‐phase co‐digestion scenario evaluating the impact of the organic loading rate and the substrate composition on reactor performance and stability, and (2) a conventional digester scenario assessing the effectiveness of recovery strategies after disruptions that led to instability. These examples demonstrate how the high simulation speed and the convenience of the iPython interface allow ADM1F to complete complex analyses within minutes, much faster than computational strategies currently reported in the literature.
ABSTRACT The devastating global toll precipitated by the SARS CoV‐2 outbreak and the profound impact of vaccines in stemming that outbreak has established the need for molecular platforms capable of rapidly delivering effective, safe and accessible medical interventions in pandemic preparedness. We describe a simple, efficient and adaptable process to produce SARS CoV‐2 virus‐like particles (VLPs) that can be readily scaled for manufacturing. A rapid but gentle method of tangential flow filtration using a 100 kDa semi‐permeable membrane concentrates and buffer exchanges 0.5 L of SARS CoV‐2 VLP containing supernatant into low salt and optimal pH for anion exchange chromatography. VLPs are washed, eluted under high salt, dialyzed into physiological buffer, sterile filtered and aliquoted for storage at –80°C. Purification is completed in less than 2 days. A simple quality control process includes Western blot for coincident detection of Spike, Membrane and Envelope protein as a proxy for intact VLP, ELISA to detect conformationally sensitive Spike using readily available anti‐Spike and/or anti‐RBD antibodies, and negative stain and immunogold electron microscopy to validate particulate, Spike crowned VLPs. This process to produce SARS CoV‐2 VLPs for preclinical studies serves as a roadmap for preparation of more distantly related VLPs for pandemic preparedness.