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Near‐Infrared organic light emitting diode (NIR OLED) that can be potentially applied to flexible devices and bio/medical applications based on NIR emitter and optical effects are proposed. The proposed NIR OLEDs can freely control the peak wavelength in the NIR region of 720 ~ 760 nm and offer the possibility of finding the optimal point of best photo‐therapeutic effects in the NIR region.

Deformable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based optoelectronic devices hold promise for various wearable applications including biomedical systems and displays, but current OLED technologies require high voltage and lack the power needed for wearable photodynamic therapy (PDT) applications and wearable displays. This paper presents a parallel-stacked OLED (PAOLED) with high power, more than 100 mW/cm2, at low voltage (<8 V). The current dispersion ratio can be tuned by optimizing the structure of the individual OLEDs stacked to create the PAOLED, allowing control of the PAOLED’s wavelength shapes, current efficiency, and power. In this study, a fabricated PAOLED operated reliably for 100 h at a high power of 35 mW/cm2. Confirming its potential application to PDT, the measured singlet oxygen generation ratio of the PAOLED was found to be 3.8 times higher than the reference OLED. The high-power PAOLED achieved a 24% reduction in melanoma cancer cell viability after a short (0.5 h) irradiation. In addition, a white light PAOLED with color tuning was realized through OLED color combination, and a high brightness of over 30 000 cd/m2was realized, below 8.5 V. In conclusion, the PAOLED was demonstrated to be suitable for a variety of low-voltage, high-power wearable optoelectronic applications.

Wilson’s disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by ATP7Bgene mutation. The frequency of WD is about 1 in 30 000 worldwide. In the present study, we screened 14 835 dried blood spots (DBSs) from asymptomatic Korean neonates and retrospectively reviewed massively parallel sequencing of 1090 control individuals to estimate carrier frequency. TaqMan real-time PCR assays were conducted to detect six mutations that account for 58.3% of mutations in Korean WD patients: c.2333G>T (p.Arg778Leu), c.2621C>T (p.Ala874Val), c.3086C>T (p.Thr1029Ile), c.3247C>T (p.Leu1083Phe), c.3556G>A (p.Gly1186Ser) and c.3809A>G (p.Asn1270Ser). We also retrospectively reviewed data from 1090 individuals with various indications other than WD for whom whole-exome or panel sequencing data were available. Mutant allele frequency based on the six most common mutations was 0.0067 among the total of 14 835 DBSs screened. Given that these six mutations account for 58.3% of mutations in Korean WD patients, the corrected mutant allele frequency is 0.0115 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.0103–0.0128). Corresponding incidence (q2) and carrier frequency (2pq) were estimated to be 1:7561 and 1:44, respectively. In retrospective data analysis of 1090 control individuals, allele frequency of pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants was 0.0096 (95% CI: 0.0063–0.0146). Corresponding carrier frequency was estimated to be 1:53. Estimated allele and carrier frequencies based on DNA screening were relatively higher than those reported previously based on clinical ascertainment.

Near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes (NIR OLEDs) have significant potential for wearable phototherapeutic applications because of the unique properties of the OLEDs, including their free-form electronics and the excellent biomedical effects of NIR emission. In spite of their tremendous promise, given that the majority of NIR OLEDs in previous research have relied on the utilization of an intrinsically brittle indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode, their practicality in the field of wearable electronics is inherently constrained. Here, we report wearable and wavelength-tunable NIR OLEDs that employ a high-performance NIR emitter and an innovative architecture by replacing the ITO with a silver (Ag) electrode. The NIR OLEDs permit wavelength tuning of emissions from 700 to 800 nm and afford stable operation even under repeated bending conditions. The NIR OLEDs provide a lowered device temperature of 37.5 °C even during continuous operation under several emission intensities. In vitro experiments were performed with freshly fabricated NIR OLEDs. The outcomes were evaluated against experimental results performed using the same procedure utilizing blue, green, and red OLEDs. When exposed to NIR light irradiation, the promoting effect of cell proliferation surpassed the proliferative responses observed under the influence of visible light irradiation. The proliferation effect of human hair follicle dermal papilla cells is clearly related to the irradiation wavelength and time, thus underscoring the potential of wavelength-tunable NIR OLEDs for efficacious phototherapy. This work will open novel avenues for wearable NIR OLEDs in the field of biomedical application.

Flexible see-through displays are considered to be the next generation smart display, providing improved information flow, safety, situational awareness, and overall user experience in smart windows, automotive displays, glass-form biomedical displays, and augmented reality systems. 2D titanium carbides (MXenes) are promising material as electrodes of the transparent and flexible displays due to their high transparency, metallic conductivity, and flexibility. However, current MXene-based devices have insufficient air stability and lack engineering schemes to develop matrix-addressable display forms with sufficient pixels to display information. Here, we develop an ultraflexible and environmentally stable MXene-based organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display by combining high performance MXene electrodes, flexible OLEDs, and ultrathin and functional encapsulation systems. The MXene material was synthesized and used to fabricate a highly reliable MXene-based OLED that can stably operate in air condition for over 2000 h, endure repetitive bending deformation of 1.5 mm radius, and maintain environmental stability for 6 h when exposed to wet surroundings. The RGB MXene-based OLEDs were fabricated, (1691 cd m–2at 40.4 mA cm–2for red, 1377 cd m–2at 4.26 mA cm–2for green, and 1475 cd m–2at 18.6 mA cm–2for blue) and a matrix-addressable transparent OLED display was demonstrated that could display letters and shapes.

ABSTRACTWe evaluated high-resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis as a tool for detecting rifampin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosisin an accurate, affordable, and rapid manner. Two hundred seventeen M. tuberculosisclinical isolates of known resistance phenotype were used. Twenty-nine known rpoBmutant DNAs, including rare mutations, were also included. Four pairs of primers were designed: rpoB-F/R (for codons 516 to 539 of rpoB), rpoB-516F/R (for codons 508 to 536 of rpoB), katG-F/R (for the codon 315 region of katG), and inhA-F/R (for the nucleotide substitution of C to T at position -15 of inhA). An HRM curve was generated for each isolate after real-time PCR differentiated the mutant from the wild-type strains. DNA sequencing of the target regions was performed to confirm the results of the HRM curve analysis. All but one of the 73 RIF-resistant (RIF-R) strains and all 124 RIF-susceptible (RIF-S) isolates were correctly identified by HRM curve analysis of rpoB. Twenty-seven of 29 known rpoBmutants were detected. In HRM curve analysis of katGand inhA, 90 INH-R strains that harbored katGor inhAmutations, or both, and all INH-S strains were correctly identified. Ten phenotypically INH-R strains not harboring katGor inhAmutations were not detected. The HRM curve analysis will be a useful method for detection of RIF and INH resistance in M. tuberculosisin a rapid, accurate, simple, and cost-effective manner.

Ethnically specific data on genetic variation are crucial for understanding human biology and for clinical interpretation of variant pathogenicity. We analyzed data obtained by deep sequencing 1303 Korean whole exomes; the data were generated by three independent whole exome sequencing projects (named the KOEX study). The primary focus of this study was to comprehensively analyze the variant statistics, investigate secondary findings that may have clinical actionability, and identify loci that should be cautiously interpreted for pathogenicity. A total of 495 729 unique variants were identified at exonic regions, including 169 380 nonsynonymous variants and 4356 frameshift insertion/deletions. Among these, 76 607 were novel coding variants. On average, each individual had 7136 nonsynonymous single-nucleotide variants and 74 frameshift insertion/deletions. We classified 13 pathogenic and 13 likely pathogenic variants in 56 genes that may have clinical actionability according to the guidelines of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, and the Association for Molecular Pathology. The carrier frequency of these 26 variants was 2.46% (95% confidence interval 1.73–3.46). To identify loci that require cautious interpretation in clinical sequencing, we identified 18 genes that are prone to sequencing errors, and 671 genes that are highly polymorphic and carry excess nonsynonymous variants. The catalog of identified variants, its annotation and frequency information are publicly available (http://koex.snu.ac.kr). These findings should be useful resources for investigating ethnically specific characteristics in human health and disease.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

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