EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: We present the approach to remote extemporaneous compounding teaching taken by three pharmacy schools: Monash University Malaysia, University of Michigan, and University of Maryland. Prior to delivery, students were either supplied with or asked to procure a set of easily accessible ingredients and equipment to conduct the extemporaneous practicals from home. We conducted lessons remotely using both synchronous and asynchronous delivery, and demonstrated, taught, and assessed practical lab skills using video conferencing modalities.

FINDINGS: We successfully conducted remote teaching of extemporaneous compounding, where similar learning outcomes to the face-to-face implementation were achieved. At Monash University Malaysia, > 90% of students responding to the post-activity surveys found the remote extemporaneous sessions useful for their learning, and qualitative comments supported these views. Mean scores from the remote extemporaneous labs in 2021 were similar to those when conducted physically in 2019, supporting the effectiveness of the approach. The different approaches attempted by the three institutions highlighted the flexibility in implementation that can be considered to achieve similar outcomes.

METHODS: Here, we show a robust episomal and xeno-free reprogramming strategy for human iPS generation from dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) which renders good efficiency (0.19%) over a short time frame (13-18 days).

RESULTS: The robustness of DPSCs as starting cells for iPS induction is found due to their exceptional inherent stemness properties, developmental origin from neural crest cells, specification for tissue commitment, and differentiation capability. To investigate the epigenetic basis for the high reprogramming efficiency of DPSCs, we performed genome-wide DNA methylation analysis and found that the epigenetic signature of DPSCs associated with pluripotent, developmental, and ecto-mesenchymal genes is relatively close to that of iPS and embryonic stem (ES) cells. Among these genes, it is found that overexpression of PAX9 and knockdown of HERV-FRD improved the efficiencies of iPS generation.

METHODS: We first generated 14 primary human subject-derived ASCs and stable immortalized CD10 knockdown and overexpression lines for 4 subjects by the lentiviral transduction system. To evaluate the role of CD10 in adipogenesis, the adipogenic potential of the human subject samples were scored against their respective CD10 transcript levels. Assessment of UCP1 expression levels was performed to correlate CD10 levels to the browning potential of mature ASCs. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and Western blot analysis were performed to determine CD10-dependent regulation of various targets. Seahorse analysis of oxidative metabolism and lipolysis assay were studied. Lastly, as a proof-of-concept study, we used CD10 as a prospective marker for screening nuclear receptor ligands library.

RESULTS: We identified intrinsic CD10 levels as a positive determinant of adipocyte maturation as well as browning potential of ASCs. Interestingly, CD10 regulates ASC's adipogenic maturation non-canonically by modulating endogenous lipolysis without affecting the classical peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ)-dependent adipogenic pathways. Furthermore, our CD10-mediated screening analysis identified dexamethasone and retinoic acid as stimulator and inhibitor of adipogenesis, respectively, indicating CD10 as a useful biomarker for pro-adipogenic drug screening.