DNA is an intelligent data storage medium due to its stability and high density. It has been used by nature for over 3.5 billion years. Compared with traditional methods, DNA offers better compression and physical density. DNA can retain information for thousands of years. However, challenges exist in scalability, standardization, metadata gathering, biocybersecurity, and specialized tools. Addressing these challenges is crucial for widespread implementation. Collaboration among experts, as well as keeping the future in mind, is needed to unlock the full potential of DNA data storage, which promises low energy costs, high-density storage, and long-term stability.

In Brazil, Plasmodium vivax infection accounts for around 80% of malaria cases. This infection has a substantial impact on the productivity of the local population as the course of the disease is usually prolonged and the development of acquired immunity in endemic areas takes several years. The recent emergence of drug-resistant strains has intensified research on alternative control methods such as vaccines. There is currently no effective available vaccine against malaria; however, numerous candidates have been studied in the past several years. One of the leading candidates is apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1). This protein is involved in the invasion of Apicomplexa parasites into host cells, participating in the formation of a moving junction. Understanding how the genetic diversity of an antigen influences the immune response is highly important for vaccine development. In this study, we analyzed the diversity of AMA1 from Brazilian P. vivax isolates and 19 haplotypes of P. vivax were found. Among those sequences, 33 nonsynonymous PvAMA1 amino acid sites were identified, whereas 20 of these sites were determined to be located in predicted B-cell epitopes. Nonsynonymous mutations were evaluated for their influence on the immune recognition of these antigens. Two distinct haplotypes, 5 and 16, were expressed and evaluated for reactivity in individuals from northern Brazil. Both PvAMA1 variants were reactive. Moreover, the IgG antibody response to these two PvAMA1 variants was analyzed in an exposed but noninfected population from a P. vivax endemic area. Interestingly, over 40% of this population had antibodies recognizing both variants. These results have implications for the design of a vaccine based on a polymorphic antigen. Plasmodium vivax is the most abundant Plasmodium species in Brazil. While this species has been neglected for many years, the recent emergence of drug-resistant strains and the absence of a vaccine intensified the efforts for a better control method. Naturally acquired immune response analysis is a useful tool for understanding the antigenicity of Plasmodium proteins and evaluating the potential of a vaccine candidate. In this study, the genetic variability of one of the leading P. vivax vaccine candidates (PvAMA1) was analyzed. Two distinct variants were expressed and the antibody response was evaluated in infected and noninfected individuals in the Brazilian Amazon. This improved understanding of the magnitude and dynamics of the antibody response will contribute to the knowledge of a vaccine candidate and open new perspectives in vivax malaria vaccine development.

Developability optimisation is an important step for successful biotherapeutic design. For monoclonal antibodies, developability is relatively well characterised. However, progress for novel biotherapeutics such as nanobodies is more limited. Differences in structural features between antibodies and nanobodies render current antibody computational methods unsuitable for direct application to nanobodies. Following the principles of the Therapeutic Antibody Profiler (TAP), we have built the Therapeutic Nanobody Profiler (TNP), an open-source computational tool for predicting nanobody developability. Tailored specifically for nanobodies, it accounts for their unique properties compared to conventional antibodies for more efficient development of this novel therapeutic format. We calibrate TNP metrics using the 36 currently available clinical-stage nanobody sequences. We also collected experimental developability data for 108 nanobodies and examine how these results are related to the TNP guidelines. TNP is available as a web application at opig.stats.ox.ac.uk/webapps/tnp .

Plasmodium vivax, the major cause of malaria in Latin America, has a large subtelomeric multigene family called vir. In the P. vivax genome, about 20% of its sequences are vir genes. Vir antigens are grouped in subfamilies according to their sequence similarities and have been shown to have distinct roles and subcellular locations. However, little is known about vir subfamilies, especially when comes to their functions. To evaluate the diversity, antigenicity, and adhesiveness of Plasmodium vivax VIR-E. Vir-E genes were amplified from six P. vivax isolates from Manaus, North of Brazil. The presence of naturally acquired antibodies to recombinant PvBrVIR-E and PvAMA-1 was evaluated by ELISA. Binding capacity of recombinant PvBrVIR-E was assessed by adhesion assay to CHO-ICAM1 cells. Despite vir-E sequence diversity, among those identified sequences, a representative one was chosen to be expressed as recombinant protein. The presence of IgM or IgG antibodies to PvBrVIR-E was detected in 23.75% of the study population while the presence of IgG antibodies to PvAMA-1 antigen was 66.25% in the same population. PvBrVIR-E was adhesive to CHO-ICAM1. PvBrVIR-E was antigenic and adhesive to CHO-ICAM1.

The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is a South American native rodent with an outstanding capacity to colonize urban environments. In Curitiba, a city worldwide known for its urban planning, the capybara adaptation comprises an interesting case to better understand the challenges in addressing Aichi targets at the local level. Specialized literature, official data and interviews indicate that this species is spreading throughout parks interconnected by rivers. This study illustrates an intricate relationship between capybaras and the urban socio-ecological environment, suggesting that the city only partially addresses Aichi targets. Local authorities are likely to face several challenges for adopting a global agenda on biodiversity. Producing robust knowledge on the urban biota is one fundamental step towards this goal.

Motivation Next-generation sequencing technologies revolutionize our understanding of immunoglobulin (Ig) profile in different immune states. Clonotyping (grouping Ig sequences into B cell clones) allows the investigation of the diversity of repertoires and how they change upon antigen exposure. Despite its importance, there is no consensus on the best method for clonotyping, and the methods developed for that are computationally intractable for large sequencing datasets. This is the case of Change-O, which compares sequences through hamming distance and uses hierarchical clustering for this task. Results We propose implementing an approach to identify B cell clones from Ig repertoire data, named Yclon, that makes an alignment-free comparison of the sequences, focusing on reducing the runtime and computer memory usage. Overall, we find that a hierarchical clustering approach grouped Ig sequences into B cell clones similarly to Change-O. However, we observed that Yclon was around 35 times faster and even was able to process larger than 2 million sequences Ig repertoire, which is a critical part of repertoire studies and enables understanding antibody repertoire structure and affinity maturation. Availability and implementation YClon is written in Python3 and is available on GitHub (https://github.com/jao321/YClon.git) Contact joaodgervasio{at}gmail.com , liza{at}icb.ufmg.br