iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

👇On Now 🧬 I09 Pharmacogenomics and Population Health: From Biobank to Bedside  📍Sequencing Square #eshg2026

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿☕️ Pat must have taken the last cuppa #eshg2026

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Prof Pat #eshg2026 unofficial social media #Postman recommendation: 🍪🇸🇪 Choklad Drömmar and a cuppa ☕️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 English breakfast tea #dessertsofeshg #drinksofeshg

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

🍪🇸🇪 Choklad Drömmar #dessertsofeshg Swedish Dream Cookie #eshg2026

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Fantastic #eshg2026 talk “Location Location Location” Thought we may hear from Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer, but great to be educated on all things #protein 👏 @emmalundberg.bsky.social, Stanford University MuSIC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... ProtiCelli www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

👋🧬 Welcoming address #eshg2026 @ahoischen.bsky.social @eshg.bsky.social 3,171 abstracts from 95 countries: 🇬🇧🇮🇹🇹🇷🇩🇪🇪🇸 et al 👥6,048 participants: 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️4,812 in person 💻 🖥️1,248 online ⛅️ Fascinating word cloud from all presentation titles 🇸🇪 It’s good to be in Gothenburg! #RareDisease #Genomics

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Day 3 at #MDC25 was fantastic 👏 F: 🩻 Vascular and Connective Tissue  G:🧠 Developmental Epileptic Disorders  H: 👥 Phenotyping and Cohort Studies 🧬💭🥘🎸🪩  On to Day 4! 🎬

📸 Photo of Prof Bert Callewaert presenting at the 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference during Oral Presentations F: Vascular and Connective Tissue.

🗣️ Title of this talk was: “An integrative machine learning approach to classify cutis laxa patients, supported by electron microscopy.”

🎆 The slide depicted shows a clinical diagnostic framework for cutis laxa, including a sequential classification algorithm and multiple electron microscopy panels illustrating characteristic ultrastructural findings across diagnostic subgroups. The slide also displays the EpiSign (epigenetic signature analysis) and GastaltMatcher (facial phenotype analysis) logos, informing the diagnostic classification workflow.

📸 Photo of Prof Meena Balasubramanian, Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Sheffield and Honorary Consultant Clinical Geneticist at Sheffield Clinical Genetics Service, presenting at the 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference during Oral Presentations F: Vascular and Connective Tissue.

🗣️ Title of this talk was: “Changing Landscape: Advancing Diagnostics in Rare CTDs”

🎆 The slide depicted shows the title slide of the talk over a bright blue background featuring zebrafish illustrations, alongside the logos of the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, and Bateson Centre for Disease Mechanisms. A link to Prof Balasubramanian’s University page is also presented, signposting audience to the laboratory website and research group.

📸 Photo of Dr Stefan Barakat presenting at the 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference during Oral Presentations G: Developmental Epileptic Disorders.

🗣️ Title of this talk was: “SETD1B variants drive neurodevelopmental disorders and epilepsy: delineation of the clinical phenotype of more than 120 patients and insights from 2D and 3D human models”

🎆 The slide depicted is titled “Goals of Barakat lab in a nutshell”:

1. Understanding unknown causes of disease and the role of non-coding genome in neurogenetic disorders

2. Building bridges behveen the clinic research and diagnostic, leading to patient benefit in the field of neurogenetics
 The slide includes other images including pathway schematics, Clinical Genetics and Erasmus MC logos.

📸 Photo of Dr Elizabeth VanSickle of Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and the International Center for Polyamine Disorders, presenting at the 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference during Oral Presentations G Developmental Epileptic Disorders session

🗣️ Title of this talk was: "All pediatric patients with Bachmann-Bupp syndrome treated with repurposed
Eflornithine demonstrate clinical and biochemical improvement”

🎆 The slide depicted highlights BABS/ODC1 patients 20 and counting and encourages clinicians to check patient logs, check databases, and ask colleagues to contact the specialist team as "THERE IS TREATMENT”.

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Day 2 at #MDC25 did NOT disappoint 👏 C:⚕️🧬 Epigenomics of Rare Diseases (EpiGenRare Symposium) rdrukhub.bsky.social D: 🔀➰ Non-coding, Regulatory and Genomic Disorders E: 🏥🩺 Metabolic and Endocrine Disorders 🥐☕️🤓🍲 On to Day 3! 🔭

📸👨‍⚕️ Photo of Prof Andrew Jackson from the University of Edinburgh taken at the 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference.

This was the first talk in oral presentations C on Day 2. The Session was title “Epigenomics of Rare Diseases (Symposium for Rare Disease Research UK EpiGenRare MRC Node)”

🗣️ Title of this talk was: “A novel segmental ageing syndrome demonstrates DNA methylation causes multiple age-related pathologies”

The photo depicts Prof Jackson delivering the conclusion of the talk, which states: “DNA hypermethylation causes age-related pathologies”. The slide includes a scatter plot with “DNA methylation age” on the Y axis and “chronological age” on the X axis, showing that CpG methylation changes strongly correlate with chronological ageing.

This conclusion followed the description of a novel segmental ageing syndrome caused by gain-of-function variants in DNMT3A, characterised by a phenotype that mimics aspects of ageing with associated DNA methylation changes.

📸👨‍⚕️Photo of Dr Adam Jackson presenting at 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference in “The Non-coding, Regulatory and Genomic Disorders” session.

📖🗣️ The opening slide featured a quote from Arthur Conan Doyle (1892): “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are indefinitely the most important”, setting the scene for the story that followed: the discovery of RNU2-2 and RNU5B-1 neurodevelopmental disorders, caused by pathogenic variants in two “small” major spliceosomal RNA genes, collectively termed RNUpathies.

🔗📄 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02209-y

📸👨‍⚕️Photo of Dr Alex Blakes presenting at 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference in “The Non-coding, Regulatory and Genomic Disorders” session.

🗣️ Title of this talk was: “Biallelic variants in the non-coding RNA gene RNU4-2 cause a recessive
neurodevelopmental syndrome with distinct white matter changes”

🎆 The slide depicts the conclusions of the talk:

1) An SGE (Saturation Genome Editing) assay highlights a novel autosomal recessive neurodevelopmental syndrome in RNU4-2
2) Cystic white matter changes are a key feature
3) The U4-2:U4-1 ratio is a potential diagnostic biomarker
4) Dominant and recessive disorders in RNU4-2 are genetically, clinically, and molecularly distinct

📰 👉 Preprint available at the following link:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.13.25333306v1

📸👨‍⚕️Photo of Dr Pamela Bowman Senior Clinical Lecturer and SpR in Clinical Genetics in Exeter, presenting at 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference in “Metabolic and Endocrine Disorders” session.

🗣️ Title of this talk was: “Early initiation of sulphonylurea therapy improves neurodevelopmental outcomes in individuals with KCNJ11-related iDEND syndrome (developmental delay, epilepsy and neonatal diabetes)”

🎆 The slide depicts three “Draw a man” tasks, each performed by individuals with KCNJ11-related iDEND syndrome that received sulphonylurea (SU) therapy at different ages (drawn aged 9, SU in utero; drawn aged 16, SU aged 4; drawn aged 22; SU aged 17) alongside the caption “NVIQ highest (70) in individual also treated with glibenclamide in utero”

📰 👉 Publication available at the following link:

https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/48/2/e10/157632

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Day 1 at #MDC25 delivered 👏 A: 🧩🪵 Lumping, Splitting and Allelic Disorders B: 🤰🏼🧠 Environment, Exposures and Imprinting ☕️💬 ☁️2️⃣3️⃣🥂 On to Day 2! 🧬🔬

Black and white drawing contrasting two scientific mindsets.

On the left, a large man labelled "Lumpers" hugs a bundle of small logs tied together as one group. On the right, a thin man labelled "Splitters" chops a single large log into many small pieces with an axe.

Victor A McKusick described these concepts in the paper "On lumpers and splitters, or the nosology of genetic disease" (Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 1969)

Photo of Dr Miguel del Campo giving a talk titled:

"The Fetal Fentanyl syndrome – delineation of the phenotype in 37 infants prenatally exposed to fentanyl

This was during Oral Presentation B session "Environment, Exposures, and Imprinting” at the 20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference.

Dr del Campo stands at the lectern with the presentation slide projected behind him, showing the 1973 Lancet paper describing fetal alcohol syndrome.

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

20th Manchester Dysmorphology and Developmental Disorders Conference opened with a warm welcome from @mft-imrare.bsky.social clinical director Prof Banka Celebrating the history of the conference, we were treated to a glimpse of the original 1984 programme curated by @ddysmo.bsky.social 👑🧬 #MDC25

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

📊 🧬 Great to be at the UK Biobank UoM Showcase event today @official-uom.bsky.social Fantastic keynote talk & overview @ukbiobank.bsky.social provided by Prof Martin Rutter 👏 🗣️ “UK Biobank is a prism for any scientist anywhere to explore health and disease in their unique way”

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Congratulations @JosephFirthUoM @fbmh-uom.bsky.social @official-uom.bsky.social and colleagues ntfabiano.bsky.social on this fantastic paper 📄”Promoting healthy digital device usage: recommendations for youth and parents" 💻📲🤳

Graphical abstract summarising recommendations for healthy digital device use for young people and parents from Firth and colleagues 2025 paper “Promoting healthy digital device usage: recommendations for youth and parents” published in World Psychiatry

Key actions:

1) *Out of Sight, Out of Mind*:
Establish tech-free zones and at least one hour of tech-free time before bed.

2) *Use Device Controls*:
Utilise features like 'Do Not Disturb' and avoid reliance on screen-time reminders.

3) *Replace, Rather than Restrict*:
Promote in-person activities and intentional, healthy online engagement (e.g., mindfulness, fitness).

Includes ABCs for Parents:

Agree on a plan
Be an example
Communicate openly

Paper available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wps.21261

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

25/ Wrapping it All Up 🎁🧵 This #Christmas, let’s remember #Santa is more than just a story: Santa is a… #Tradition #Legend #Face Maybe even a #Science⁉️🧬🤷‍♂️ Thanks for reading about our exploration of Santa’s Facial Phenotype! 👉🏻📝 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36548933 #SantaScience 🔬🎅🔚

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

23/ Study Participants🙌🎅  Our research wouldn’t be possible without the generous participation 👏 from individuals presenting on @googleimages.bsky.social as 🎅 #Santa 👨 #AdultMen 👴 #ElderlyBeardedMen 🕺 #ElvisPresley 🥸 #ElvisPresleyImpersonators 👇OpenFace composite facial averages  #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

22/ Santa in the BMJ!🎅🗞️ @bmj.com 🎄News covered our research; thanks Dr Shaun Griffin for spotlighting 🙌 #SantaClaus Face research establishes evidence 🎅= real & recognisable person!✨ (other explanations possible🥸🤷‍♂️) 🔗📰 www.bmj.com/content/379/...

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

21/ #StNic Facial Paradox👤🧩 🤖🖥️ #SVM analysis identified:  StNic Face = ElderlyBeardedMan! Walter Shields = AdultMan! (❌🎅) Could this reflect:  🤔Divergence in portrayal due to iterative promulgation & uniform depiction, shaped by culture & tradition⁉️🎅 #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

20/ Santa’s Face is Distinctive🎅 👇 #tSNE Face Vector 2D-Data Visualisation 🔵 AdultMan 🟤 ElderlyBeardedMan (EBM) 🟣 Santa 🔴 @facelabljmu.bsky.social StNic 💁🏼‍♂️ Santa mingles with EBM ✨ 2 discrete tSNE Santa clusters 🎩🎯 Our SVM identified #Santa with moderate-high specificity🔥 #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

19/ #Elvis Faces Visualised🎙️📊 🎭Stage Set 👨‍💻Facial Data Visualisation with #tSNE (128→2D using t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding) 🔵AdultMan 🟠 #ElvisPresley (EP) 🟢ElvisPresleyImpersonators (EPI) 🕺 EP faces cluster 🤩 Some EPI faces align with Elvis 💁🏼‍♂️ Many EPI mix with AdultMen

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

18/ Model Validation 👨‍💻🪩🎅 We validated our approach by demonstrating our #SVM could distinguish faces of #ElvisPresley vs #ElvisPresleyImpersonators🕺 Accuracy 0.81 | Precision 0.81 | Recall 0.87 📊AUC 0.94 (p< 0.001) #OpenFace #FacialRecognition #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

16/ Santa Faces Assessment🎅🖥️ #OpenFace Implementation for #SantaScience 🧬🎅 🤖Detect Face→Transform→Crop 🧠Deep neural network→128D Face Vector Enables 🔹Clustering 🔹Similarity 🔹Classification 👇OpenFace Workflow cmusatyalab.github.io/openface (👨‍🎨🖥️ @bdamos.bsky.social ©️ @carnegiemellon.bsky.social 👏)

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

14/ Recap: Santa’s Face🎅 ✅ Consistent Portrayal📚 ✅ Recognised by Toddlers🧑‍🎄 ✅ Spotted in Clouds☁️ ✅ Seen on Echo💖 ✅ 1st Phenotyped in 1823📜 ✅ StNic (OG🎅)extensive study💀 To our knowledge, the modern face of #SantaClaus has never been assessed— Until now!…🔬🎅 #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

13/ St Nicholas Face 2024 🔁👴 #StNic Face Revisited (Moraes et al, 2024) 💀➡️🎅also drawing on Prof Luigi Martino (Bari Uni🇮🇹) meticulous 1957 skeletal measurement & roentgenography data ( #Vatican request during crypt repair) 📰Covered @nypost.com @nypost.com.web.brid.gy 🔗 nypost.com/2024/12/04/w...

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

12/ St Nicholas Face🧑‍🎨👴 👇#StNic Face Reconstruction (2004🔁2014) by Prof Wilkinson @facelabljmu.bsky.social (Former Lead, Unit of Art in Medicine @official-uom.bsky.social) 📜Relics in Basilica di San Nicola🇮🇹  🖥️Modern anatomical standards 🇹🇷Tissue depth data 🤖CGI 📰BBCNews www.bbc.com/news/uk-engl...

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

11/ Santa Historical Phenotyping🎅 🗞️ 1823 report in🗽Troy Sentinel 🔍Earliest attempt to #phenotype Santa’s face? As an exemplar of data harmonisation (#CDM) we mapped 200-year-old facial descriptors of #Santa to The Human Phenotype Ontology ( #HPO) 🧬🤓 #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

10/ Is #Santa an #Owl?🎅🦉 Researcher Prof Randler @unituebingen.bsky.social found Santa behavioural #phenotype aligns w/ evening owl (night chronotype) Statistically sig. results (binomial test, p=0.013) 📄 doi.org/10.1080/0742... @tandfresearch.bsky.social 📸 =🎅+🦉Distinctive Face⁉️ #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

9/ Santa’s Heartfelt Presence🎅💝 @unispitalzuerich.bsky.social @escardio.bsky.social SwissCardio Prof Kobza et al reported Santa’s Face on #Echocardiogram post mitral regurg central double-orifice repair❣️ 📄 @americanheart.bsky.social 📖 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14691023/ 🎅Face=Distinctive? #MedSky

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

8/ Santa in the Clouds🎅☁️ #FatherChristmas ( #SantaClaus) was spotted in the clouds over Knocklayde Mountain! Tendency to see faces in patterns (e.g. clouds) is called “pareidolia” ✨Santa’s Face is so memorable, it’s written in the skies❕ 📷 Photo credit @annlizkelly.bsky.social 🙌

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

7/ Toddlers Authenticate Santa🎅 🧑‍🎄Children as young as 3 in an Australian study said they could authenticate #Santa 🗣️Based on appearance🎅✅ 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1350... 🤔Could this ability rely on Santa's instantly recognisable Face? #SantaScience

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

6/ Victorian Santa Xmas Card🎄💚 📩 Dated ~1870-95, #FatherChristmas wears green, chatting with a robin 💬 Pre-20th century Santa Wardrobe was eclectic 💚💛💙💜❤️🤍‼️ 📷 #YorkMuseumTrust  📖 More www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/blog/a-green... 🎅 Is Santa’s Face distinctive?

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

5/ Santa’s Colourful History🚦🎅 #Santa wasn’t always red‼️ Contrary to popular belief, the red suit predates @cocacolagb.bsky.social 1930s ads, but they helped embed that iconic look🎅 📖 More about this #BBC 🗞️ @timharford.bsky.social 👉 www.bbc.co.uk/news/busines... 🧐 Is Santa’s Face distinctive?

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

4/ Santa in the Media🎅📺 🎅Consistent portrayal: Jolly, round-bellied, white-bearded man, wearing a red suit with white trim, carrying a sack of gifts (or coal for the naughty list!) 🎁✨ ⬇️🎬 #StickMan #Santa 🗣️ @hughbon.bsky.social🫶🏻 📕✍️ #JuliaDonaldson & #AxelScheffler👌 🎭Currently on @thelowry.com👏

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

3/ Is Santa Walter Shields?🦌🎅 Research by Oliver Smith 2021 rejects #StNic Origin of Santa ⚠️Could Santa be Walter Shields, Alaskan reindeer fair organiser⁉️ 🪦1884-1918, RIP Flu Pandemic 📚Lived on ✨Iñupiat folklore 🗣️Traders 1920s 🇺🇸 📸 @amphilsociety.bsky.social 📄 works.hcommons.org/records/3dtd...

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

2/ Santa Origins🎅🗓️ Many trace #Santa back to #SaintNicholas Bishop of Myra Born 270 AD in Patara (Modern-day Antalya Province 🇹🇷) #StNic was a secret gift-giver e.g. coins in shoes overnight 👞✨ #FatherChristmas #Sinterklaas #SantaClaus 🎅 Emerged to shape our festive traditions🎄🎁

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Tom Wright @tomwrightuom.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

1/ #SantaScience 🎅🧵 🐥1st Bluesky Rodeo 🔄💬X cross-post A year ago today @theguardian.com featured our festive research 🔎We discovered Santa has a facial #phenotype distinct from elderly bearded men 💗Evidence #Santa is real 📰 www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...  📝 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36548933

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