Feature Channels: Immunology

• share
• favorite_border

AAI announces its annual Career Awards recipients.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from Japan have reported the use of an advanced DNA sequencing technique, whole-exome sequencing (WES), to determine why a young child died after a relatively mild infection.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists studying the stubborn and dangerous rare yeast pathogen behind two outbreaks in a neonatal intensive care unit in Delhi, India, have found that while infected patients can be treated with antifungal medications, the yeast is remarkably resistant to the strong disinfectant bleach commonly used to sanitize hospital rooms.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers believe they have determined that the immune system whittles away neurons to properly shape the brain and accounts for differences in sizes of regions in male and female rats. These changes later affect behavior of the rats in their personal preferences.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

In a new investigation, scientists from La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have shown how antibodies, collected from a clinical study volunteer, bind to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein to neutralize the virus.

• share
• favorite_border

Viruses like influenza A and Ebola invade human cells in a number of steps. In an interdisciplinary approach, research teams from Heidelberg University and Heidelberg University Hospital investigated the final stages of viral penetration using electron tomography and computer simulations.

• share
• favorite_border

Little is known about how radiation therapy to kill cancer cells affects immune cells and other components of patient tumors. But a study out of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is shedding light on that process, providing information that could be key for planning treatment regimens that combine immunotherapy and radiation therapy. The authors outline their findings in a new study in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

UC San Diego researchers describe a key player in the defense mechanism that safeguards against excessive insulin in the body, which can be as harmful as too little.

• share
• favorite_border

Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated in a preclinical study a potential new therapeutic approach to treating the most common form of lung cancer. The strategy involves inhibiting the immune-system molecule TREM2 while enhancing natural killer cells (the so-called protectors of the immune system). It was described in the April 20 online issue of Nature Immunology.

• share
• favorite_border

UC Davis Health researchers have dosed the second participant in their clinical trial looking to identify a potential cure for HIV utilizing CART-cell therapy.

• share
• favorite_border

The Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will host its annual World Malaria Day Symposium Tuesday, April 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. EDT. The theme is the blood stage of malaria, which is the most devastating phase of the disease. The event will take place in person in Baltimore with thirteen panelists. A remote option is available to journalists.

• share
• favorite_border

A recent Houston Methodist study may offer some guidance on when certain populations should get their next booster. A research team of computational medicine and data scientists from the Houston Methodist Research Institute predicted the immune response to COVID-19 vaccines with a math model they developed, and also found that current CDC dosing intervals may require customization to protect all individuals alike.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study from Huntsman Cancer Institute shows HPV-related cancers are more common in young adults who previously had cancer. This data shows the importance of educating patients about the HPV vaccine – a safe and effective way to prevent cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

The immuno-oncology (IO) clinical trial landscape is shifting in new directions. While the number of total clinical trials is down, there are healthy signs of innovation.

• share
• favorite_border

The dreaded tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus infects different types of brain cells in different parts of the brain, depending on whether the affected person's immune system is activated or not. This is shown in a new study at Umeå University, Sweden.

• share
• favorite_border

Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center served as the lead site for a promising first-in-human clinical trial for patients with relapsed multiple myeloma. Patients treated with higher doses of the immunotherapy called REGN5459 resulted in a 90.5 percent overall response rate.

• share
• favorite_border

La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Instructor Estefania Quesada Masachs, M.D., Ph.D., has won the 2023 Young Investigator of the Year Award from the Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD). This prestigious award recognizes Quesada Masachs' groundbreaking research in type 1 diabetes.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A regimen of pre-surgical immunotherapy and chemotherapy followed by post-surgical immunotherapy significantly improved event-free survival (EFS) and pathologic complete response (pCR) rates compared to chemotherapy alone for patients with operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to Phase III trial results presented today by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists from the University of California, Irvine, the University of Michigan and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have made a significant contribution to the field of pancreatic cancer research. Their new study presents several crucial themes in the biology of pancreatic cancer that can serve as hallmarks for pancreatic cancer therapy.

• share
• favorite_border

Houston Methodist nanomedicine researchers have found a way to tame pancreatic cancer - one of the most aggressive and difficult to treat cancers - by delivering immunotherapy directly into the tumor with a device that is smaller than a grain of rice.

• share
• favorite_border

The key to understanding allergies may lie in genetic and environmental triggers as well as a person’s lifestyle. A Penn State Health physician discusses what causes seasonal allergies and how to alleviate the symptoms.

• share
• favorite_border

Below are some of the latest headlines in the new Avian Flu channel on Newswise.

• share
• favorite_border

New smart-drug treatment options for pancreatic cancer, immuno-oncology treatments and real-time immune-monitoring strategies are among the research topics to be presented by investigators at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting held April 14-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

• share
• favorite_border

James P. Allison, PhD, is the recipient of the 25th Herbert and Maxine Block Memorial Lectureship Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer. A 2018 Nobel Prize co-recipient in physiology/medicine, Allison serves as the chair of immunology and executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. This special edition features presentations by MD Anderson researchers at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

Testing the efficacy of a vaccine candidate is typically a long process, with the immune response of an animal model taking around two months. A multi-institution team is developing a method that is more than an order of magnitude faster.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed a new testing platform that encapsulates B cells — some of the most important components of the immune system — into miniature “organoids” to make vaccine screening quicker and greatly reduce the number of animals needed for testing.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from RUSH University reveals pathways to reducing organ injury caused by severe COVID-19 infection. What began as a study of how the common cold affected patients with certain types of kidney disease evolved to mitigating myocarditis, liver injury and severe kidney injury from COVID-19.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a creative way to make a vaccine for norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne infections, by piggybacking on rotavirus, an unrelated virus for which there are already several highly effective vaccines.

• share
• favorite_border

Cell secretions like proteins, antibodies, and neurotransmitters play an essential role in immune response, metabolism, and communication between cells.

• share
• favorite_border

Four distinguished researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will receive 2023 Scientific Achievement Awards from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), during the AACR Annual Meeting 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and Nagoya University, Japan, in their collaboration to develop an immunotherapy method for curing cancer, reported on the progress of CAR T-cell immunotherapy innovation for treating cancer in leukemia and B-cell lymphoma patients, which can increase survival rates and reduce cancer recurrence.

• share
• favorite_border

Beyond vaccines, mRNA offers immense potential to fight disease, but targeting the genetic material to specific diseased cells is challenging—requiring a new method. To meet this need, researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, with a Global Research Fellowship award from Moderna Inc., are developing a process that essentially uses bubbles to overcome the problem.

• share
• favorite_border

May is Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. Experts from the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology caution that pollen season is starting earlier and lasting longer than in past decades.

• share
• favorite_border

South Carolina residents were more hesitant than Americans as a whole to receive the COVID-19 vaccine during the fall of 2020, report researchers in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in the Journal of Psychiatry Research.

• share
• favorite_border

Research led by scientists at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that responses to a type of immunotherapy called PD-1 checkpoint blockade in patients with advanced melanoma depended on whether or not they had previously received another immunotherapy – CTLA-4 blockade – as well as other factors.