Researchers led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute say they have identified unique genomic changes that may be integral to testicular cancer development and explain why the great majority are highly curable with chemotherapy – unlike most solid tumors.
Previous studies identified the Hippo pathway kinases LATS1/2 as a tumor suppressor, but new research led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine scientists reveals a surprising role for these enzymes in subduing cancer immunity. The findings could have a clinical role in improving efficiency of immunotherapy drugs.
Scientists from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna, Austria, have discovered how an embryo’s genomic integrity is safeguarded during the first 24 h after fertilization. Insights into this mechanism have implications for improving in vitro fertilization.
PHILADELPHIA—An existing drug known as a JAK inhibitor may help patients who don’t respond to the so-called checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy drugs overcome that resistance, suggests a new preclinical study published online in Cell today by Penn Medicine researchers. Importantly, the results demonstrate that shutting down the interferon pathway, shown here to be critical to a tumor’s resistance to immunotherapy, with a JAK inhibitor may improve checkpoint inhibitor drugs and even bypass the need for combinations of these drugs, which often come with serious side effects.
Mayo Clinic Monthly News Tips — November 2016
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded an $8,777,578 million grant to The Wistar Institute to create a preventative Zika therapy utilizing synthetic DNA monoclonal antibodies (dMAbs).
The study, “A Real-World Multicentre Retrospective Observational Study of Paclitaxel-Bevacizumab and Maintenance Therapy as First-Line Treatment for HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer,” was recently published in the Journal of Cell Physiology.
Scientists from the University of Utah and University of Washington have developed blueprints that instruct human cells to make a virus-like delivery system that shuttles custom cargo from one cell to another. As reported online in Nature on Nov. 30, the research is a step toward a nature-inspired means for bringing therapeutics directly to specific types of cells.
CRISPR/Cas9, a powerful genome editing tool, is showing promise for efficient correction of disease-causing mutations. For the first time, researchers have developed a dual gene therapy approach to deliver key components of a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting system to mice to treat hemophilia B.
Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center discovered a cell-surface receptor highly expressed by cancerous and brain cells that directly and tightly binds progranulin. Importantly, the researchers also showed that this binding activates a cellular program that makes cancer cells more aggressive.
Doctors, pilots, air traffic controllers and bus drivers have at least one thing in common — if they're exhausted at work, they could be putting lives at risk. But the development of a new urine test, reported in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry, could help monitor just how weary they are. The results could potentially reduce fatigue-related mistakes by allowing workers to recognize when they should take a break.
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic’s 3-D anatomic modeling program started with a realization that surgeons needed a new way to look at human anatomy that went beyond two-dimensional images.
A new bioinformatics platform called Empowering the Development of Genomics Expertise (EDGE) will help democratize the genomics revolution by allowing users with limited bioinformatics expertise to quickly analyze and interpret genomic sequence data.
Fluorescence is an incredibly useful tool for experimental biology and it just got easier to tap into, thanks to the work of a group of University of Chicago researchers.
Australian researchers have discovered remarkable evolutionary changes to insulin regulation in two of the nation's most iconic native animal species – the platypus and the echidna – which could pave the way for new treatments for type 2 diabetes in humans.
Phil Manning and his colleagues have used synchrotron light for nearly a decade to help interpret the chemical signatures locked within fossilized life. Bright X-rays have allowed them to study fossilized worm burrows, recreate pigment patterns in ancient bird feathers, see how Jurassic dinosaur bones heal and image the living chemistry of 50-million year old plant fossils.
The human eye often falls short in the hunt for faint genetic drivers that raise the risk of devastating neurological diseases such as autism and schizophrenia. But little eludes a microscope optic attached to a computer, and algorythms that can relate previously hidden phenotypes to subtle genetic mutations. The computational screening developed by Georgia Tech researchers has the potential to reveal webs of genetic dangers that produce disease risk by compounding tiny traits that, when take alone, may appear trivial and harmless.
It may be possible to safely prevent one of the most common – and costly to treat – infections contracted by hospitalized patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of blood cancers, according to a study from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers will present their findings at this week’s 58th Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting and Exposition in San Diego.
A new study finds that environment and genetics determine relative abundance of specific microbes in the gut. The findings represent an attempt to untangle the forces that shape the gut microbiome, which plays an important role in keeping us healthy.
Regenerative medicine company jCyte has completed enrollment in a phase I/IIa trial studying the safety of its stem cell therapy for retinitis pigmentosa. Early results are promising.
How does a cancer cell burn calories? New research from Thomas Jefferson University shows that breast cancer cells rely on a different process for turning fuel into energy than normal cells. The results were recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
A laboratory study of four animal species and their microbiota finds that each species hosts a unique community of microbes that can significantly improve its health and fitness.
Patients with the most lethal form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – based on genetic profiles of their cancers – typically survive for only four to six months after diagnosis, even with aggressive chemotherapy. But new research indicates that such patients, paradoxically, may live longer if they receive a milder chemotherapy drug.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and Carbone Cancer Center have better defined a pro-growth signaling pathway common to many cancers that, when blocked, kills cancer cells but leaves healthy cells comparatively unharmed. The study, published Nov. 21 in the journal Nature Cell Biology, could establish new avenues of therapeutic treatments for many types of solid tumors.
Columbia University has awarded the 2016 Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research to Peter Arner, MD, PhD, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute, whose studies on the turnover of fat tissue in the human body has revealed processes that contribute to obesity and diabetes.
Writing online this week (Nov. 23, 2016) in the journal Molecular Cell, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes new research helping tease out the mechanics of how the gut microbiome communicates with the cells of its host to switch genes on and off. The upshot of the study, another indictment of the so-called Western diet (high in saturated fats, sugar and red meat), reveals how the metabolites produced by the bacteria in the stomach chemically communicate with cells, including cells far beyond the colon, to dictate gene expression and health in its host.
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis isolated an enzyme that controls the levels of two plant hormones simultaneously, linking the molecular pathways for growth and defense. Similar to animals, plants have evolved small molecules called hormones to control key events such as growth, reproduction and responses to infections.
Biochemical “cross talk” in an important pathway can be altered so that immune system cells that have turned cancerous can be eliminated. The findings could have future implications for treating cancer with the help of microRNAs.
Sleepiness after a large meal is something we all experience, and new research with fruit flies suggests higher protein and salt content in our food, as well as the volume consumed, can lead to longer naps.
A Cornell-led team has devised a method for measuring the mechanical force cells exert on their surroundings, which can help scientists design better biomaterial scaffolds for tissue engineering.
Cedars-Sinai investigators have pinpointed a major cause of pulmonary fibrosis, a mysterious and deadly disease that scars the lungs and obstructs breathing. The disease, which has no known cure, appears to result from the failure of special lung stem cells that help airways recover from injury, the investigators reported in the journal Nature Medicine.
A team of neuroscience and biochemistry researchers at Stony Brook University have made a novel discovery that illustrates for the first time the difference between amyloid buildup in brain blood vessels and amyloid buildup around brain neurons.
A new study found that decreased levels of the gene p15 represents a way to determine if a nevus, or mole, is transitioning to a melanoma. The protein p15 functions to inhibit nevus cell proliferation.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a previously unknown mechanism that helps fortify the structure and tight junctions between epithelial cells — a basic cell type that lines various body cavities and organs throughout the body, forming a protective barrier against toxins, pathogens and inflammatory triggers. Breaches of this barrier can provoke organ dysfunction and development of tumors.
The same compounds that give plants and vegetables their vibrant colors might be able to bolster brain functioning in older adults, according to a recent study from the University of Georgia.
Cells synthesize millions of proteins every minute. Three pioneering protein quality control researchers will explain at ASCB 2016 how studying protein folding and misfolding is opening unexpected pathways for treating cancer and neurodegenerative diseases
Scientists report in Nature Medicine using human pluripotent stem cells to grow human intestinal tissues that have functioning nerves in a laboratory, and then using these to recreate and study a severe intestinal nerve disorder called Hirschsprung’s disease.
The World Stem Cell Summit & RegMed Capital Conference has invited five faculty members from the Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Cell Therapy Institute to present on their research related to advancing new approaches to cancer immunotherapy and regenerative medicine at the organization’s 12th annual meeting.
When HIV attacks a T cell, it attaches itself to the cell’s surface and launches a “harpoon” to create an opening to enter and infect the cells. To stop the invasion, researchers from the Penn Center for AIDS Research at the University of Pennsylvania and scientists from Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. have developed genetically engineered T cells armed with a so-called “fusion inhibitor” to disrupt this critical step and prevent a wide range of HIV viruses from entering and infecting the T cells. The findings were reported today online in a preclinical study in PLOS Pathogens.
An international team of 38 scientists, including Rutgers’ Sonia Tikoo, has shown how large asteroid impacts deform rocks and possibly create habitats for early life on Earth and elsewhere.
New research at the University of Arkansas shows that arginine – one of 20 common amino acids – does not change its positive charge when inserted into the lipid environment of the cell membrane.
Researchers leading the largest genomic tumor profiling effort of its kind say such studies are technically feasible in a broad population of adult and pediatric patients with many different types of cancer.
When microbes inside the digestive system don’t get the natural fiber that they rely on for food, they begin to munch on the natural layer of mucus that lines the gut, eroding it to the point where dangerous invading bacteria can infect the colon wall, new research in mice shows.
An international team of scientists led by the University of Michigan has discovered a new type of photoreceptor—only the third to be found in animals—that is about 50 times more efficient at capturing light than the rhodopsin in the human eye.
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have discovered that an ion channel, active within T cells (white blood cells), could be targeted to reduce the growth of head and neck cancers.
Muscular dystrophies, congenital heart muscle defects, and other muscle disorders often arise for reasons that scientists don’t fully understand. Now researchers from the UNC School of Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine have discovered that alternative splicing could play an important role in these disorders.
According to the World Health Organization, 422 million adults across the globe have diabetes. To help the growing patient population, researchers at the University of Michigan are going down to the molecular level. Here, they’re trying to determine what makes cells in the diabetic pancreas less efficient in generating insulin molecules.
A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) describes an unexpected role for proteins involved with our daily “circadian” clocks in influencing cancer growth.
Organisms are in a constant battle against viruses, or transposable elements, which invade their genomes. Among their most effective weapons are silencing pathways that use small RNAs to selectively target invading nucleic acids for their destruction. The molecular understanding of these defense systems has revolutionized modern molecular biology, as they are the basis for powerful genome editing and gene silencing methods such as CRISPR/Cas9 or RNA interference. Scientists from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Austria (IMBA) have now unravelled the precise mechanisms by which germline cells produce a class of small RNAs, called piRNAs, that control transposon silencing in animals.
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