I am particularly grateful to my graduate students for all that they have taught me. I am also grateful to Professor James Ironside for his generous support and his encouragement. The monoclonal antibody MAR-1 used in CDI was generously supplied by Dr Albrecht Groener (CSL Behring, Marburg, Germany). The transgenic animal brains used in PMCA experiments were generously provided by Dr Rona Barron and Professor Jean Manson (Roslin Institute, The University of Edinburgh, UK). The

analysis of animal prion diseases was carried out in collaboration with Drs Martin C646 Jeffrey and Lorenzo Gonzalez (AHVLA, Lasswade, UK). Animal prion disease specimens were obtained by request from the AHVLA Biological Archive Group (Weybridge, UK). All human brain specimens were obtained by request from the Medical Research Council NCJDRSU Brain and Tissue Bank. Ethical approval for their use is covered by LREC 2000/4/157 (Prof J. W. Ironside). The development of PMCA was funded by the Chief Scientists Office of the Scottish Government (Grant reference CZB/4/357 and CZB/4/688) and through collaboration with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion

Service (Prof Marc Paclitaxel in vivo Turner, Dr Ian MacGregor and Dr Christopher Prowse) and UK Forum funding. The investigation of human stem cell responses to human prion infectivity was also supported by a Chief Scientists Office grant to Dr Paul De Sousa and colleagues (MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh) (Grant reference CZB/4/588). The work of the NCJDRSU is funded by the Department of Health, UK and by the Scottish Government. This is an independent report commissioned and funded by the Policy Research Program in the Department of Health, UK. The views expressed in the publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Department of Health. “
“FIG4 is a phosphatase that regulates intracellular vesicle trafficking along the endosomal-lysosomal pathway. Mutations of FIG4 lead to the development of Charcot-Marie-Tooth

disease type 4J and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Moreover, ALS-associated proteins (transactivation response DNA protein 43 (TDP-43), fused in sarcoma (FUS), optineurin, ubiquilin-2, charged mutivesicular body protein 2b (CHMP2B) and valosin-containing protein) BCKDHA are involved in inclusion body formation in several neurodegenerative diseases. Using immunohistochemistry, we examined the brains and spinal cords of patients with various neurodegenerative diseases, including sporadic TDP-43 proteinopathy (ALS and frontotemporal lobar degeneration). TDP-43 proteinopathy demonstrated no FIG4 immunoreactivity in neuronal inclusions. However, FIG4 immunoreactivity was present in Pick bodies in Pick’s disease, Lewy bodies in Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, neuronal nuclear inclusions in polyglutamine and intranuclear inclusion body diseases, and Marinesco and Hirano bodies in aged control subjects.

The empty vector was used to generate CAL-1-EV cells. Lentiviral particles were produced in 293T cells by calcium phosphate transfection. Spin transduction of CAL-1 cells with 8 μg/mL Polybrene was performed at 1800 MLN0128 manufacturer rpm for 90 min. GFP-positive CAL-1 cells were sorted under low-pressure conditions on the

FACSAria. For RNA interference, CAL-1 cells were transfected with 75 nM siRNA directed against NAB2 (siRNA ID: s9248; Ambion/Applied Biosystems) or the Silencer Selected Negative Control siRNA #1; Ambion/Applied Biosystems) together with 25 nM siGLO Transfection Indicator (Dharmacon) with transfection reagent DharmaFECT 4 (Dharmacon) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Transfection efficiency was determined by flow cytometry (Supporting Information Fig. 3A), and silencing was confirmed at protein levels by western

blot (Supporting Information Fig. 3B). A total of 105 primary human pDCs were stimulated with 12.5 μg/mL CpG A (Invivogen) or left untreated for 4 h or overnight in complete medium in a 96-well plate for RT-PCR and flow cytometry or western blot analysis, respectively. CAL-1 cells (7 × 105) were seeded overnight in a 24-well plate in 2 mL medium. A total of 1.1 mL medium was replaced with 100 μL FBS-free RPMI medium containing 12.5 μg/mL CpG B or Ctrl CpG B, 5 μg/mL Imiquimod (Invivogen), or 100–200 ng/mL IFN-β (PBL Medical Laboratories) to prevent FBS-mediated NAB2 induction selleck chemicals llc ([14], data not shown). A total of 50 μM SB203580, 2.5 μM BAY11–7082, 5 μM PI-103 (Tocris Bioscience), 200 mM Rapamycin (Calbiochem) or DMSO alone, or 0.1 μg/mL B18R (eBioscience) were added to cells 30 min prior to CpG stimulation. After stimulation, supernatant was harvested for cytokine analysis and cells were washed once with PBS before further analysis. pDC cell sorting was performed with anti-CD45RA-FITC (BD Biosciences) and anti-CD123-PE (Miltenyi Biotec). Cell surface staining was performed Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase with Anti-CD40-PE (Beckman Coulter) or isotype control

IgG1-PE (BD Biosciences), and anti-TRAIL (2E5; Enzo Life Sciences), or control mouse IgG1 (BD Biosciences), followed by anti-mouse IgG1-Biotin (Enzo Life Sciences) and Steptavidin-allophycocyanin (BD Pharmingen). Dead cell exclusion was performed with propidium iodide. Intracellular IRF-7 staining was performed by fixation and permeabilization with Cytofix/cytoperm Solution (BD Biosciences) and PBS containing 0.5% saponin and 2% FCS, followed by staining with IRF-7 (H-246; Santa Cruz Biotechnologies) or isotype control (Imgenex) and anti-rabbit IgG Alexa 568 (Invitrogen). Flow cytometry was performed with FACS Calibur or LSRII (BD Biosciences). Analysis was performed with FlowJo software (Tristar).

In particular,

we find a preference for acidic amino acids close to or at the C-terminal of the binding motif for three of the six molecules, and generally, the motifs seem rather promiscuous, with several residues allowed in the binding groove AZD2281 mouse of the MHC. In this report, we applied a state-of-the-art neural network-based method, NNAlign, to characterize the binding specificities of five HLA-DP and six HLA-DQ molecules. The allelic variants are among the most common human MHC class II molecules at the two HLA loci DP and DQ, covering a large percentage of the human population.8,9 For what concerns HLA-DP, there appears to be a common pattern in all the five variants under consideration, with primary anchor positions at P1 and P6 with preference for hydrophobic and aromatic residues. Some variants show an additional hydrophobic anchor at

P9 and other minor differences, but in general there appears to be a consistent overlap in the binding specificities of all five molecules. The same cannot be said for HLA-DQ, where most of the molecules have very different anchor positions, anchor spacing and amino acid preferences. Hence, there does not seem to be a supertypical mode of binding for DQ, and each variant appears to be characterized by a distinct binding specificity. The most striking observation for the DQ loci binding motifs is the preference for acidic amino selleck kinase inhibitor acids close to or at the C-terminal of the binding groove. Such an amino acid preference has Cell press not, to the best of our knowledge, previously been described for any HLA class I molecules, and has only sporadically been reported for HLA class II molecules. Binding predictions (including identification of the binding core) for any peptide sequence to all the alleles described in this report can be obtained at the NetMHCII server (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII). The binding motifs described in this work confirm most of the observations brought up by previous studies, but also highlight some interesting differences.

Importantly, the sequence logo representation provides a quantitative measure of the relevance of each position in the binding core, and the relative importance of each amino acid, in determining the specificities of a given molecule, a differentiation that was not obtained in previous studies. The study first and foremost demonstrates the power of the NNalign method to, in a fully automated manner, identify and characterize the receptor-binding motif from a set of peptide-binding data. Second, it underlines the importance of generating such peptide data sets to carry out receptor-binding motif characterizations, gain insights into the peptide-binding repertoire of MHC molecules and reveal details about which amino acids and amino acid positions are critical for binding and, potentially, for peptide immunity.

The meta-analysis may identify clinical subgroups that benefit the most from IVIg treatment. The inclusion criteria for this study were as follows: ≥ 4 confirmed early miscarriages, at least three consecutive after a birth and ≥ 3 miscarriages with present

partner. Following a positive pregnancy test, serum human chorionic gonadotrophin (s-HCG) was measured twice in 2 days. Treatment with either IVIg or placebo was initiated if s-HCG increased by at least 30%. IVIg treatment doses were simplified to either a high or low dose according to pre-pregnancy weight. Similar doses this website of 5% human albumin were used in the placebo group. Studies have shown that pregnant and non-pregnant RM patients may have elevated levels of NK cells [17, 18]. Furthermore, Selleckchem Anti-infection Compound Library there have been a number of studies showing that NK cells, such as CD56+, decline in RM patients treated with IVIg [17-22]. Heilmann et al. conducted a study that showed a correlation between the decline in NK cells and pregnancy

outcomes. The results of this study found that the number of NK cells (CD3−, CD56+ and CD16+) declined in women who gave birth after IVIg treatment [23]. In the future, identifying immune biomarkers that characterize RM patients who may benefit from IVIg therapy is worth investigating. There is evidence from placebo-controlled trials to suggest that IVIg improves pregnancy outcomes in secondary RM. However, large heterogeneity in patient populations and dosing regimens has been observed in previously conducted trials in RM. Therefore, our study will hopefully provide decisive data on the efficacy

of IVIg treatment in secondary RM. O. B. Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II C. thanks Dr Henriette S. Nielsen, Dr Elisabeth C. Larsen and Dr Pia Egerup for help in the conduction of the trial of IVIg and performing the meta-analysis. Further thanks go to Mrs Louise Lunoee, Mrs Lisbeth Egestad and Mrs Karen Kirchheiner for assisting in performing the trial. The Danish Council for Independent Research funded the trial. O. B. C. would also like to thank Meridian HealthComms Ltd for providing medical writing services. O. B. C. has no conflicts of interest to disclose. “
“Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics and Biology Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA We studied diverse antigen binding in hosts and the outcome of parasitism. We used captive-bred F1 descendants of feral rock pigeons (Columba livia) challenged with blood-feeding flies (Hippoboscidae) and a protozoan parasite (Haemoproteus). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and immunoblots were used to test (i) whether pre-infection IgY antigen binding predicts parasite fitness and (ii) whether antigen binding changes after infection.

The samples were then examined RAD001 by phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy for the level of phagocytosis.

To determine the numbers of colony-forming units of engulfed S. aureus, macrophages incubated with bacteria (macrophages : bacteria = 1 : 500) for 30 min were washed to remove unengulfed bacteria and further incubated for 30 min. The macrophages were lysed with water 0 and 30 min after washing, and the lysates at serial dilutions were seeded on agar-solidified mannitol salt medium or Luria–Bertani medium, the latter of which contained tetracycline and was used for bacteria transformed with the pHY300PLK-based plasmid. The plates were incubated overnight at 37°, and the number of colonies (only selleck chemicals llc those surrounded by yellow rings in the mannitol salt medium) was determined and presented relative to that obtained at time 0 after washing. For the determination of superoxide production, macrophages maintained on coverslips in serum-free RPMI-1640 medium were incubated with unlabelled bacteria (macrophages : bacteria = 1 : 1000) at 37°, and the amount of superoxide

released into the culture medium was determined by a chemiluminescence reaction using Diogenes, as described previously.10 To determine the activity of α-N-acetylglucosaminidase, whole-cell lysates of peritoneal macrophages were incubated in a reaction mixture containing 4-methylumbelliferyl N-acetyl-α-d-glucosaminide (Sigma-Aldrich), and the level of cleaved substrates

was measured with a fluorometer, as described previously.25 HEK293 cells were transfected by the calcium/phosphate method overnight with a mixture of plasmid DNA including pELAM26 (a gift from Dr Douglas Golenbock at the University of Massachusetts, Worcester, MA), a reporter gene vector expressing firefly luciferase under the control of a promoter activated by NF-κB; pRL-TK (Promega Corp.), a control reporter constitutively expressing luciferase from Renilla reniformis (Promega Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay System) used for the normalization of transfection efficiency; and mouse TLR2 cDNA in pDisplay (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) (a gift from Dr Yoshiyuki Adachi at Protein tyrosine phosphatase Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science, Tokyo, Japan).27 The cells were further cultured with fresh medium for 1 day and subsequently incubated with S. aureus for 2 hr, and the cell lysates were examined for the amounts of firefly luciferase and Renilla luciferase using the Dual Luciferase Assay kit. The ratio of firefly luciferase to Renilla luciferase was determined and considered to represent the level of NF-κB activation. Data are representative of at least three independent experiments (n = 2–3 in each experiment) that yielded similar results. Data from quantitative analyses are expressed as the mean ± standard deviations of the results from at least three independent experiments.

Among them, three cases showed atypical histology. Immunohistochemically, synaptophysin was robustly positive, but neuronal muclear antigen was positive in only half the cases (4/7cases). Isocitrate dehydrogenase enzyme isoform 1 (IDH1) (H09 immunostaining), α–internexin and p53 were negative in all cases. One case was positive for galectin-3. None of the cases showed IDH1 R132 and IDH2 R172 mutation by direct sequencing. One case showed high polysomy of the epidermal growth factor receptor

(EGFR) gene; however, O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation and 1p/19q co-deletion were not find more detected. Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) study was performed in two cases, revealing different profiles, buy AZD0530 with loss and gain of multiple chromosomal loci. Two children (18%) had tumor recurrence after initial surgery, and one of them showed worse histology at recurrence and EGFR high polysomy. One patient died from the disease at 18.5 months after surgery. From our study, we concluded that EVNs were characterized by the absence of p53 overexpression, α-internexin positivity, MGMT

promotor methylation and IDH1/IDH2 mutation. Oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 expression was seen in a scattered positive pattern but quite large numbers of tumor cells were negative. EVN is a WHO grade II tumor but some cases (2/7 cases in our series) can show late recurrence but mortality is low (1/7 cases in our series). CGH study suggested genetic heterogeneity of EVNs and unknown subclassification, which requires verification in more cases. “
“Meningiomas usually present as benign tumors corresponding to WHO grade I. The development of the intraparenchymal chordoid variant of meningiomas

with cyst formation in the CNS is extremely rare. We report a case of cystic chordoid meningioma in a middle-aged second man occurring in the brain parenchyma of the left temporal region. The tumor exhibited a marked peritumoral cyst, with contrast enhancement on MRI in accordance with type 2 of Zee’s classification of cystic meningioma. Histologically, the tumor displays a typical chordoid structure with trabeculae or cords of eosinophilic vaculoated cells in the abundant mucoid matrix. Tumor cells are diffusely positive for epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), vimentin and focally positive for D2-40, but lack immunoreactivity for cytokeratin (CK) and GFAP. MIB-1 labeling is low, focally accounting for 2% of the tumor. A diagnosis of primary intraparenchymal cystic chordoid meningioma (WHO grade II) was made. There was no evidence of tumor recurrence during the postoperative 6-month follow-up period. To our knowledge, there is no report describing the radiological and histological characteristics of cystic chordoid meningioma entirely presenting in the brain parenchyma. In addition, the biological behavior and histological differential diagnoses of this tumor are discussed.

37 RMA-S-Kd cells are H-2Kd-transfected TAP function-deficient lymphoma cells.38 RMA, RMA-S, and RMA-S-Kd cells proliferated in RPMI-1640/1 × medium for peptide–MHC class I binding experiments (Gibco Co. & Hyclone Co.). Transfected TAP-mutant cells are kind gifts from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. The RSV was multiplied in HEp-2 cells that were grown with minimum essential medium/1 × (Gibco Co. & Hyclone Co.). Virus was further titrated with plaque selleck inhibitor assay in HEp-2 cells. The RSV was obtained

from the American Type Culture Collection. As presented in the Supplementary material, Fig. S1, influenza A/WSN/33 virus39 was multiplied in MDCK cells cultivated

with Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s minimal essential medium/1 × (Gibco Co. & Hyclone Co.). The quantification of the H1N1 A/WSN/33 virus was performed with a plaque assay in MDCK cells. Influenza A/WSN/33 virus was provided by Professor Betty A. Wu-Hsieh, which was purchased from the Department of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, Chang Kung University. The virus was cultivated in the USA. Influenza A/WSN/33 selleck chemical virus originated from the UK.39 The TAP function-deficient cells can distinguish peptides with higher affinity to MHC class I molecules from those with lower affinity. To detect the binding to different MHC class I alleles by variant peptides (Table 1) that are derived either from RSV or from influenza A virus, RMA-S and RMA-S-Kd cells were incubated with 10 μm of synthetic peptides at 37° following inducible expression of H-2 molecules at lower temperature. Comparison of peptide–MHC class I binding affinity between distinct variant peptides and the original M2:82–90, RMA-S-Kd

BCKDHA cells were incubated with a serial dilution of M2:82–90 as well as with each variant peptide derived from M2:82–90 (Table 1) for measurement of the binding capacity of these peptides to H-2Kd molecules. The expression level of MHC class I molecules is presented as a shifted percentage of mean fluorescence intensity (MFI). The equation for calculation of the shifted percentage of MFI is as follows: Shifted percentage of MFI = [(MFIvariant– MFIcontrol)/(MFIoriginal– MFIcontrol) −1] × 100% where MFIoriginal is the MFI of the original epitope, MFIvariant is the MFI of variant epitopes and MFIcontrol is the MFI of the peptide without binding. BALB/c mice were infected with 105–106 plaque-forming units of RSV via the intranasal route. Two to three weeks following infection, spleen mononuclear cells from infected BALB/c mice were isolated to be re-stimulated in vitro with synthetic peptides derived from the RSV M2–1 protein sequence overnight for analysis of specific interferon-γ (IFN-γ) responses by the ELISPOT assay13 (BD Biosciences Co.). BALB/c mice were provided by the National Laboratory Animal Centre in Taiwan.

For example, a mouse model of asthma has demonstrated that the administration of MG-132 nmr the major allergen of ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), Amb a 1, linked to CpG ODN reverses airway hyperresponsiveness 36. Two common bacterial species identified in farm cowsheds have been shown to induce a Th1-polarizing program in DC that result in an impaired induction of allergic reactions in mice 37. Evidence also exists from human studies, which support the hypothesis that a balance of Th1/Th2 responses plays an important role in the development of allergy. For example, children with peanut allergy display predominant allergen-specific

Th2 responses, whereas children who outgrow their allergy and children without allergy, show a predominant allergen-specific Th1 phenotype 38. Several clinical trials have also shown that vaccination with Amb a 1 conjugated to CpG ODN inhibited Th2 responses in peripheral blood, eosinophil infiltration in the nasal mucosa and significantly reduce allergic rhinitis symptoms and the need

for medication 39, 40. Recently, selleck chemicals a new molecular mechanism that explains how DC polarize T-cell responses toward a Th2 or Th1 phenotype has been described 41. The Notch ligand Jagged-1 is constitutively expressed by immature DC and plays an important role in polarizing Th2 responses. Maturation of DC after TLR-triggering by microbial compounds leads to the downregulation of Jagged-1 and upregulation of Delta-4, another Notch ligand playing an important role in the polarization of Th1 immune responses. Over the past Fenbendazole 15 years, an extensive effort has been performed in the phenotypic and functional characterization of nTreg. Nowadays, it is well established that FOXP3 acts

as master switch transcription factor for nTreg development and function 42. In humans, the in vivo relevance of FOXP3 was recognized after the discovery of the X-linked immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy syndrome 43. Patients with X-linked immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy syndrome present a typical allergic and autoimmune phenotype due to mutations in FOXP3 leading to non-functional nTreg. Similarly, scurfy mice present a deletion in the forkhead domain of FOXP3, which results in an impaired capacity to develop thymus-derived nTreg 42, 45. These mice are characterized by a lymphoproliferative disease, hyper-IgE levels and eosinophilia without a Th2 skewing, with a life-span of approximately 3 weeks. Although there is no direct evidence that allergy is due to impaired function and defects of the FOXP3 pathway, a recent study has shown that single-nucleotide polymorphisms of FOXP3 are associated with allergy development in childhood 44; however, further studies are needed to firmly demonstrate this association.

Another report has shown that N-terminal fragment of gp96 is immunologically sufficient module of gp96 [19]. Our work also indicated that the fusion protein including N-terminal fragment of gp96 can be used in immunotherapy of tumours and vaccine development. It was indicated that prophylactic immunization with adjuvant-free fusion protein HSP65E7 protects mice against challenge with TC-1 cells and that

these tumour-free animals are also protected against re-challenge dose of TC-1 cells [45]. Regarding to the obtained results in this study, adjuvant-free vaccination with rE7-NT-gp96 protein could be efficient for delaying the tumour occurrence and growth in C57BL/6 tumour mice model. IFN-γ cytokine has been shown to function critically in conferring potent immunity and antitumour effect to TC-1 tumours. It has been demonstrated that IFN-γ inhibit tumour

growth in vivo by R788 in vitro up-regulation of MHC class I molecules, as well as inducing inflammation at tumour sites [47, 48]. Consistently, our study also demonstrated Temsirolimus that high level of IFN-γ could describe potent antitumour effects against TC-1 tumour challenge. Heat shock proteins-based vaccines are a novel approach with a promising role in cancer therapy. Recently, several studies in Phase I and II clinical trials, on different malignancies, including colorectal cancer, metastatic melanoma, pancreatic cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were carried out using autologous tumour-derived heat shock protein gp96-peptide complexes (HSPPC-96). This HSPs-based vaccine induced tumour-specific T cell responses in patients [38–41]. Tumour-derived HSP vaccine should be prepared individually for

each patient. To overcome this drawback, recombinant HSP-antigen protein vaccines have been developed in preclinical and clinical trials PIK3C2G [24, 45, 49–51]. Whole protein which is fused to HSP molecules by covalent linkage can be split into many different naturally processed short peptides in the MHC class I processing pathway. Therefore, recombinant HSP-antigen proteins are promising candidates for vaccines in populations with dissimilar MHC individuals [25]. Altogether, HSP-antigen fusion proteins have been successfully employed as vaccines to stimulate antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells without requiring exogenous adjuvants [52]. It has been shown that linkage between antigen and HSP leads to more significant adjuvant activity than co-administration of antigen and HSP which is due to the necessarily direct contact with the same APC [46, 53]. Fusion proteins comprising of the Mycobacteria-derived HSP linked to HPV16 E7 were applied for targeting antigens to APCs and thus improving APCs’ antigen uptake and presentation [45, 54]. More recently a fusion protein vaccine comprising of HPV16 E7 and M.

Size and luminance of all stimuli were also matched to ensure that high- and low-level stimulus differences could not influence this study (see Figure 1). Participants were seated on a chair in front of a 17” TFT Tobii T60 monitor. Images were presented on the monitor using Tobii Studio software (Tobii Technology AB; www.tobii.com). During stimulus presentation, the Tobii monitor recorded gaze location for both eyes based on the reflection

of near-infrared light from the cornea and pupil. Gaze information was sampled at a frequency of 60 Hz. Monitor specifications included an accuracy of 0.5 degrees of the visual angle and a tolerance of head movements within a range of 44 × 22 × 30 cm. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded continuously throughout the ERP task using a 128-channel HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net (HCGSN), which was referenced on-line to vertex (Cz). For a subset of participants, a

NetAmps Opaganib price 200 amplifier was used and the selleck compound library electrical signal was amplified with a .1- to 100-Hz band pass filter. For the remaining infants, a NetAmps 300 amplifier was used with no band pass filter (an analysis using amplifier type as a between-subjects factor is described in the ERP results section). All data were digitized at a 500 Hz sampling rate and stored on a computer disk for further processing and analysis. E-Prime software was used for stimulus presentation, and NetStation software was used for EEG data acquisition and postprocessing. The eye-tracking and ERP tasks took place over a 2-day

period for each infant. On Day 1, infants completed the initial portions of the eye-tracking task. Participants were seated in a chair in front of a Tobii T60 monitor in an electrically and sound-shielded testing room with dim lighting. The chair was positioned such that each participant’s eyes were approximately 60 cm from the monitor. Before beginning the eye-tracking experiment, participants completed a calibration procedure to ensure the eye-tracker was adequately tracking gaze. In this calibration Thymidylate synthase procedure, a red dot appeared at 5 locations: Each of the four corners of the monitor and the center of the screen. Following calibration, the Tobii Studio program reported whether the eye-tracker successfully picked up gaze at the five locations. If calibration was successful, the experimental procedure was begun. If calibration was unsuccessful, the monitor and chair were adjusted and the calibration procedure was rerun until it successfully picked up on all five locations of gaze. Following calibration, infants began the Day 1 portion of the visual paired comparison task (VPC). During all phases of the VPC, faces were presented side by side, each measuring 14 × 14.5 cm on the screen and separated by a distance of 3.5 cm. With infants positioned at 60 cm from the screen, this resulted in each face subtending a visual angle of 13 degrees.