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Introduction Near-peer blended learning is a method of combining online virtual teaching with traditional face-to-face lectures delivered by senior students. In this study, we wanted to evaluate the student perceptions of this novel method of education and characterise its overall effectiveness. Methods A hybrid Integrated Science and Clinical Examination (ISCE) revision session was hosted simultaneously in-person and online. The session was delivered by fourth-year medical students to over 100 second-year medical students. A survey was sent to students prior to the session to deduce the topics they required most help in. Feedback forms evaluated students’ confidence, satisfaction with the format of the session, and overall student engagement using blended learning with free text responses which recorded individual opinions of students. Tutor perceptions were also obtained using feedback forms that assessed knowledge, confidence, whether they would attend, and teach a hybrid event in the future and their personal preferences on teaching styles. Results The results showed that students had a much better understanding of the content after the session and the format was deemed well-suited for delivering ISCE teaching (p = 0.001). Thematic analysis revealed students preferred a hybrid approach for ISCE teaching considering it catered to a wider audience. Live demonstrations that are not well executed in virtual formats are compensated for with in-person teaching. 96% of participants expressed that the material was aimed at their level due to relatability achieved through near-peer teaching. Three of the four tutors preferred a hybrid method of teaching while one preferred a sole online model. An overall increase in tutors’ knowledge and confidence was seen after the session. Conclusion Overall positive feedback provides evidence that blended learning using near-peer teaching should be utilised by educational institutions with the potential of revolutionising the delivery of medical education in this post-pandemic.

Regulation of cell division is crucial for the development of multicellular organisms, and in plants, this is in part regulated by the D-type cyclins (CYCD) and cyclin-dependent kinase A (CDKA) complex. Cell division regulation in Physcomitrium differs from other plants, by having cell division checks at both the G1 to S and G2 to M transition, controlled by the CYCD1/CDKA2 and CYCD2/CDKA1 complexes, respectively. This led us to hypothesize that upregulation of cell division could be archived in Bryophytes, without the devastating phenotypes observed in Arabidopsis. Overexpressing lines of PpCYCD1, PpCYCD2, PpCDKA1, or PpCDKA2 under Ubiquitin promotor control provided transcriptomic and phenotypical data that confirmed their involvement in the G1 to S or G2 to M transition control. Interestingly, combinatorial overexpression of all four genes produced plants with dominant PpCDKA2 and PpCYCD1 phenotypes and led to plants with twice as large gametophores. No detrimental phenotypes were observed in this line and two of the major carbon sinks in plants, the cell wall and starch, were unaffected by the increased growth rate. These results show that the cell cycle characteristics of P. patens can be manipulated by the ectopic expression of cell cycle regulators.

Background Near-peer medical education serves as an important method of delivering education to junior students by senior students. Due to the reduced clinical exposure because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a mentorship scheme to help medical students with their Integrated Structured Clinical Examinations (ISCEs) by providing a combination of near-peer mentorship together with lecture-based teaching on a weekly basis for a 12-week period. Students attended a specialty-focused lecture every Tuesday followed by a small group teaching session organised by their tutor. Methods A longitudinal evaluative interventional study was undertaken by the international student led medical education organisation, OSCEazy. The teaching programme was organised and conducted by third year medical students to a recruited cohort of second year medical students. Students’ perceptions of ISCEs (confidence, anxiety, and overall performance) were evaluated using 5-point Likert scales while their knowledge of the specialty was assessed using 10 single best answer questions which were distributed via Google® forms at the start and end of each week. In addition, we assessed tutor perceptions of their teaching and learning experience. Results Seventy-two tutees were enrolled in the programme (mean age: 24.4, female: 77.8%). 88.9% of the participants had not attended any online ISCE teaching prior to this. They preferred in-person ISCE teaching as compared to virtual sessions [median 4.5 (IQR 4–5) vs 3 (IQR 3–4), p p p p = 0.37, Performance: median 3 (IQR 3–4) vs median 3 (IQR 3–4), p p Conclusion Online near-peer teaching increases the confidence of both tutees and tutors involved while enhancing the tutees’ knowledge of the specialty. Thus, medical schools should incorporate near-peer teaching in their curriculum to enhance the student learning experience.

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Bryophytes (including mosses, liverworts and hornworts) are a heterogeneous group of terrestrial plants, which comprise over 24,000 species worldwide. Given the various biological activities reported from bryophytes, they have a huge commercial potential. Due to their minute size and rather small biomass in various ecosystems, bryophytes are a seldom part of ethnomedicine and rarely subject to medicinal and chemical analyses. Still, hundreds of novel natural products have been isolated from bryophytes. Bryophytes have been shown to contain numerous potentially useful natural products, including polysaccharides, lipids, rare amino acids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, quinones and many other specialized metabolites. Additionally, different bryophyte extracts and isolated compounds have shown antimicrobial, antiviral, cytotoxic, nematocidal, insecticidal, effects on smooth and non-striated muscles, weight loss, plant growth regulators and allelopathic activities. Bryophytes also cause allergies and contact dermatitis. All these effects highlight bryophytes as potential source for herbal remedies and production of chemicals to be used in various products.

Securing a molecular toolbox including diverse promoters is essential for genome engineering. However, native promoters have limitations such as the available number or the length of the promoter. In this work, three short synthetic promoters were characterized by using the yellow fluorescent protein Venus. All of the tested promoters were active and showed higher mRNA expression than housekeeping gene PpAct7, and similar protein expression level to the AtUBQ10 promoter. This study shows that few cis-regulatory elements are enough to establish a strong promoter for continuous expression of genes in plants. Along with this, the study enhance the number of available promotors to be used in P. patens. It also demonstrates the potential to construct multiple non-native promoters on demand, which would aid to resolve one bottleneck in multiple pathway expression in P. patens and other plants.

Cyanobacterial lipid droplets (LDs) are packed with hydrophobic energy-dense compounds and have great potential for biotechnological expression and the compartmentalization of high value compounds. Nostoc punctiforme normally accumulates LDs containing neutral lipids, and small amounts of heptadecane, during the stationary phase of growth. In this study, we further enhanced heptadecane production in N. punctiforme by introducing extrachromosomal copies of aar/adc genes, and report the discovery of a putative novel lipase encoded by Npun_F5141, which further enhanced alkane production. Extra copies of all three genes in high light conditions resulted in a 16-fold higher accumulation of heptadecane compared to the wild type strain in the exponential phase. LD accumulation during exponential phase also increased massively to accommodate the heptadecane production. A large number of small, less fluorescent LDs were observed at the cell periphery in exponential growth phase, whereas fewer number of highly fluorescent, much larger LDs were localized towards the center of the cell in the stationary phase. These advances demonstrate that cyanobacterial LDs are an ideal model platform to make industrially relevant compounds, such as alkanes, during exponential growth, and provide insight into LD formation in cyanobacteria.

Inclusions of neutral lipids termed lipid droplets (LDs) located throughout the cell were identified in the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme by staining with lipophylic fluorescent dyes. LDs increased in number upon entry into stationary phase and addition of exogenous fructose indicating a role for carbon storage, whereas high-light stress did not increase LD numbers. LD accumulation increased when nitrate was used as the nitrogen source during exponential growth as compared to added ammonia or nitrogen-fixing conditions. Analysis of isolated LDs revealed enrichment of triacylglycerol (TAG), α-tocopherol, and C17 alkanes. LD TAG from exponential phase growth contained mainly saturated C16 and C18 fatty acids, whereas stationary phase LD TAG had additional unsaturated fatty acids characteristic of whole cells. This is the first characterization of cyanobacterial LD composition and conditions leading to their production. Based upon their abnormally large size and atypical location, these structures represent a novel sub-organelle in cyanobacteria.