Concordia University

About: Concordia University is a education organization based out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Control theory. The organization has 13565 authors who have published 31084 publications receiving 783525 citations. The organization is also known as: Sir George Williams University & Loyola College, Montreal.

Stabilizing climate requires near-zero emissions

Abstract: [1] Current international climate mitigation efforts aim to stabilize levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere However, human-induced climate warming will continue for many centuries, even after atmospheric CO2 levels are stabilized In this paper, we assess the CO2 emissions requirements for global temperature stabilization within the next several centuries, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity We show first that a single pulse of carbon released into the atmosphere increases globally averaged surface temperature by an amount that remains approximately constant for several centuries, even in the absence of additional emissions We then show that to hold climate constant at a given global temperature requires near-zero future carbon emissions Our results suggest that future anthropogenic emissions would need to be eliminated in order to stabilize global-mean temperatures As a consequence, any future anthropogenic emissions will commit the climate system to warming that is essentially irreversible on centennial timescales

Large‐scale essential gene identification in Candida albicans and applications to antifungal drug discovery

Abstract: Summary Candida albicans is the primary fungal pathogen of humans. Despite the need for novel drugs to combat fungal infections [Sobel, J.D. (2000) Clin Infectious Dis 30: 652], antifungal drug discovery is currently limited by both the availability of suitable drug targets and assays to screen corresponding targets. A functional genomics approach based on the diploid C. albicans genome sequence, termed GRACETM (gene replacement and conditional expression), was used to assess gene essentiality through a combination of gene replacement and conditional gene expression. In a systematic application of this approach, we identify 567 essential genes in C. albicans. Interestingly, evaluating the conditional phenotype of all identifiable C. albicans homologues of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae essential gene set [Giaever, G., Chu, A.M., Ni, L., Connelly, C., Riles, L., Veronneau, S., et al. (2002) Nature 418: 387–391] by GRACE revealed only 61% to be essential in C. albicans, emphasizing the importance of performing such studies directly within the pathogen. Construction of this conditional mutant strain collection facilitates large-scale examination of terminal phenotypes of essential genes. This information enables preferred drug targets to be selected from the C. albicans essential gene set by phenotypic information derived both in vitro, such as cidal versus static terminal phenotypes, as well as in vivo through virulence studies using conditional strains in an animal model of infection. In addition, the combination of phenotypic and bioinformatic analyses further improves drug target selection from the C. albicans essential gene set, and their respective conditional mutant strains may be directly used as sensitive whole-cell assays for drug screening.