Bioengineering

Host-associated microbe PCR (hamPCR): accessing new biology through convenient measurement of both microbial load and community composition

1. Derek S. Lundberg
2. Pratchaya Pramoj Na Ayutthaya
3. Annett Strauß
4. Gautam Shirsekar
5. Wen-Sui Lo
6. Thomas Lahaye
7. Detlef Weigel

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Overall, we agree that this new method is potentially impactful although the full versatility of the approach is currently unclear for several reasons. We appreciated the application of the approach to distinct systems and also the relatively low cost of this technique. The diagrams presented (particularly in Figure 3) nicely convey the steps in the protocol with expected sample outcomes to further facilitate the ability of other researchers to employ hamPCR. Overall, we are very positive about this work, but given that the impact of this paper rests on whether or not the technique is widely adopted, some revisions will lower the barrier to entry for future researchers to adopt this approach.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Innervated adrenomedullary microphysiological system to model prenatal nicotine and opioid exposure

1. Jonathan R. Soucy
2. Gabriel Burchett
3. Ryan Brady
4. David T. Breault
5. Abigail N. Koppes
6. Ryan A. Koppes

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: All three reviewers were not convinced that this screening platform has been properly validated vis-à-vis the neurobiology of the adrenal gland, nor that it has a physiologic relevance for the understanding of living processes and organs.

Reviewed by eLife

Condensation tendency and planar isotropic actin gradient induce radial alignment in confined monolayers

1. Tianfa Xie
2. Sarah R St Pierre
3. Nonthakorn Olaranont
4. Lauren E Brown
5. Min Wu
6. Yubing Sun

Reviewed by eLife

Solid State High Throughput Screening Microscopy

1. M. Ashraf
2. S. Mohanan
3. B Sim
4. A. Tam
5. D. Brousseau
6. S. Thibault
7. A. Corbett
8. G. Bub

Reviewed by eLife