Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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Cancer is a highly varied disease, with genetic differences among different tumor types, individuals and ancestral populations. These genetic differences can impact disease aggressiveness, the type of disease, and the response to therapy. It is important that scientists have proper tools and model systems to study how these variations affect cancer development and devise effective therapies for patients of all genetic backgrounds. In a new paper published in Cancer Research, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, investigated this issue by creating an online tool that can be used by scientists to determine the genetic ancestral origin of more than 1300 different cell lines.

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Marie Kondo herself couldn’t do it any better. Now researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have uncovered a previously unknown structural feature of living cells that is critical to tidying up.

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Nationally renowned hematology experts will lead the Multiple Myeloma Program at NYU Langone’s Center for Blood Cancers.

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Scientists at the University of Notre Dame discovered microglia actually squeeze through the spinal boundary, crossing into the peripheral nervous system in response to injury.

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Scientists at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a method that exploits the multitargeted nature of a chemical inhibitor to pinpoint vulnerabilities within cancer cells.

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These strange bacteria conduct electricity through a structure never before seen in nature -- a structure scientists can co-opt to miniaturize electronics, create powerful-yet-tiny batteries, build pacemakers without wires and develop a host of other medical advances.

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Researchers at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have identified genetic mutations that accumulate in the adult liver that can promote regeneration in the context of chronic liver damage.

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Insulin triggers genome-wide changes in gene expression via an unexpected mechanism. The insulin receptor is transported from the cell surface to the cell nucleus, where it helps initiate the expression of thousands of genes. Targeted genes are involved in insulin-related functions and disease but surprisingly not carbohydrate metabolism. Findings outline a set of potential therapeutic targets for insulin-related diseases and establish a wide range of future avenues for the study of insulin signaling.

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The immune system is an important defender against cancer. Immune cells continuously search the body for disease and use their anti-tumor cell properties to target and destroy defective cells. However, most cancer patients have an impaired immune system that allows cancer cells to go undetected. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have discovered a mechanism by which one type of immune cell, CD8+ T cells, can become dysfunctional, impeding its ability to seek and kill cancer cells.

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Due to advances in treatment, an ever-increasing number of patients are living longer as metastatic cancer survivors. They and their doctors face a host of new challenges that require immediate attention.

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In a first on the quest to cure HIV, University of Pittsburgh scientists report that they’ve developed an all-in-one immunotherapy approach that not only kicks HIV out of hiding in the immune system, but also kills it. The key lies in immune cells designed to recognize an entirely different virus.

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Cancer immunotherapy shows surprising successes but also dramatic failures. An emerging activity sensor at Georgia Tech warns clinicians of immunotherapy failures so that they can adjust treatments on time. The sensor is injected intravenously and is read in a urine test.

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Announcement of Carl H. June, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine is this year's recipient of the Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine for advancing the clinical application of CAR T therapy for cancer treatment.

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Researchers learn what makes tendons fray in old age, knowledge that could help develop better treatments for tendinosis and regrow damaged tissue.

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In the search for more effective therapies for breast cancer, researchers from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Rutgers University are targeting opioid receptors to potentially reduce the development and spread of certain breast cancer subtypes.

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LOXO-195, a next-generation TRK inhibitor also known as BAY 2731954, has shown signs of clinical activity in individuals with NTRK gene fusion-positive solid tumors that have become resistant to first-generation TRK inhibitors. Results from a phase I clinical trial and a US Food and Drug Administration expanded access program were presented by David Hyman, MD, the Chief of the Early Drug Development Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2019. This research is featured in the meeting’s press program, and findings are being presented in the “Next Generation of Clinical Trials in Molecularly Driven Therapy” minisymposium.

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Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health treats the first patient treated for cancer with a human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell therapy called FT500. Dan Kaufman collaborated with Fate Therapeutics to bring the iPSC-derived natural killer cell cancer immunotherapy to patients.

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A new study finds that Medicare costs tend to be lower in counties with more forests and shrublands than in counties dominated by other types of land cover. The relationship persists even when accounting for economic, geographic or other factors that might independently influence health care costs, researchers report.

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A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center revealed the investigational drug umbralisib as an effective treatment for patients with relapsed marginal zone lymphoma (MZL). Findings from the Phase II trial were presented by study co-lead Nathan Fowler, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Lymphoma & Myeloma, at the AACR Annual Meeting 2019 in Atlanta.