Burlington College was a private, nonprofit liberal arts college located in Burlington, Vermont, that offered associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees, as well as several professional certificates. Although regionally accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the college was placed on probation in July 2014 for failing to meet the accreditor's standards regarding financial resources. The college announced on May 16, 2016, that it would cease operations on May 27.
Introduction and Objective: Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is an incretin that signals satiety and regulates islet hormone secretion. GLP-1 drugs manage diabetes and promote weight loss, but most patients discontinue, leading to weight regain and metabolic decline. We developed a novel pancreatic gene therapy (PGTx) for sustained meal-regulated GLP-1 production from beta cells. Here, we assessed the potential for PGTx to prevent metabolic disease progression in lean and diet-induced obesity (DIO) mice. Methods: We created an AAV vector encoding Exendin-4 with an insulin promoter for beta-cell-specific expression. Four groups were studied for 5 weeks (n=8 per group): 1) started on 60% high-fat diet (HFD), treated with single-dose IP PGTx (8.3e11 VGs), and maintained on HFD (DIO PGTx) 2) started on chow diet (CD), given PGTx, and switched to HFD at week (wk) 3 (Lean PGTx+HFD) 3) started and maintained on CD (Lean) 4) started on CD and switched to HFD at wk 3 (Lean+HFD). Body weight (BW) and blood glucose (BG) were evaluated as disease markers. Data are reported as mean percent change from baseline (BL) or wk 3. Results: PGTx was well-tolerated. In the DIO PGTx cohort, PGTx reduced BW by 20% at wk 3 and maintained weight loss through wk 5 on HFD (-17%). BW at wk 5 increased by 25% in the Lean+HFD cohort when switched to HFD. However, in the Lean PGTx+HFD group, BW was reduced by 6% at wk 3, and did not rise above BL after the HFD switch. In parallel, PGTx reduced BG by 38% at wk 3 and maintained BG reduction through wk 5 on HFD (-32%). In the Lean+HFD group, BG at wk 5 increased by 20% when switched to HFD. In the Lean PGTx+HFD group, PGTx induced a BG reduction of 15% at wk 3 and prevented HFD-induced hyperglycemia as evidenced by a BG level 9% below BL at wk 5. Conclusion: These data suggest that PGTx can durably reduce weight and glycemia in DIO and prevent weight gain and hyperglycemia when treatment is initiated before HFD. Lean mice receiving PGTx exhibited less weight loss than their DIO counterparts, suggesting a self-limiting mechanism that could enhance the PGTx safety profile. T.J. Kieffer: Employee; Fractyl Health, Inc. Stock/Shareholder; Fractyl Health, Inc. C. Hutch: None. S. Kernodle: None. A.L. Fitzpatrick: Employee; Fractyl Health, Inc. E. Cozzi: Employee; Fractyl Health, Inc. Stock/Shareholder; Fractyl Health, Inc. S. Slomovic: Employee; Fractyl Health, Inc. Stock/Shareholder; Fractyl Health, Inc. J. Caplan: Employee; Fractyl Health, Inc. Stock/Shareholder; Fractyl Health, Inc. H. Rajagopalan: Board Member; Fractyl Health, Inc. Employee; Fractyl Health, Inc. Stock/Shareholder; Fractyl Health, Inc. R.J. Seeley: Advisory Panel; Amgen Inc. Research Support; Amgen Inc, Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca. Consultant; AstraZeneca. Research Support; Glyscend Therapeutics. Advisory Panel; Structure Therapeutics, Inc, CinRx, Eccogene. Consultant; Juvena.
The Psychiatric Consultation Service at Massachusetts General Hospital sees medical and surgical inpatients with comorbid psychiatric symptoms and conditions. During their twice-weekly rounds, Dr Stern and other members of the Consultation Service discuss diagnosis and management of hospitalized patients with complex medical or surgical problems who also demonstrate psychiatric symptoms or conditions. These discussions have given rise to rounds reports that will prove useful for clinicians practicing at the interface of medicine and psychiatry. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord 2025;27(1):24f03831. Author affiliations are listed at the end of this article.
Planned Hardware Experiments and DemonstrationsEMC and SIPI hardware experiments and demonstrations continue to be a very popular symposium event, and this year will be no exception.The event's purpose is to demonstrate important, fundamental EMC and SIPI topics and contemporary areas of interest through practical experiments and demonstrations that may be based on hardware configurations, software programming, or a combination of both.With the virtual symposium this year, many of those shown below will be available via a video format.
I read with interest the In Memoriam for Dr. Michael H. Brooke.1 There are few that have the ability to observe and conceptualize and then transduce into words in a manner immediately understood by any and all. As an aspiring neuromuscular clinician of the early 1980s, Dr. Brooke's writings served to inspire and educate me, and countless others of my generation, in a manner unsurpassed by any other author I can recall. This marks the passing of a neuromuscular legend.
