T Southwestern Medical Center Professor Dr. Zhijian “James” Chen today became the recipient of the 2018 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences for his discovery of the cGAS enzyme, a sensor of innate immunity. The enzyme patrols the cell’s interior and sounds the alarm to trigger the immune system in response to DNA.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a new aspect of the flu virus and how it interacts with antibodies in the lungs.
One way to fight diseases including HIV infection and autoimmune disorders could involve changing how a naturally occurring enzyme called SAMHD1 works to influence the immune system, new research suggests.
Exposing infants to antacids or antibiotics in their first six months of life could increase their risk of developing allergies in childhood.
E. John Wherry, PhD, co-leader of the Abramson Cancer Center’s Immunobiology Program and director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a Phillip A. Sharp Innovation in Collaboration Award from Stand Up To Cancer.
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New strategies in antiretroviral therapy, however, are charting a course for reducing dosages with longer-acting medications that have fewer side effects.
.Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered a new combination of cancer immunotherapy treatment that could improve patients’ survival rates.
New research from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and MimiVax LLC, published in Clinical Cancer Research, shows that survivin — one of the most commonly occurring molecules in cancer cells — may be an attractive target for a broad range of immunotherapy approaches, including CAR T.
Cancer experts debate whether there's a glut of immunotherapy trials.
The availability of livestock as a food source for vampire bats influences their immune response and infection by bacterial pathogens, according to a new paper in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Because cattle ranching is common in areas where the bats live, the findings have implications for human as well as animal health.
A team led by LJI researchers reveals that bystander cell accumulation antagonizes rather than abets cell-killing by specific CTLs, curbing inflammation. This is noteworthy because that chief anti-inflammatory role has been traditionally ascribed to what are called regulatory T cells, or "Tregs", which dampen autoimmune responses. T
The most common gene mutation associated with Parkinson’s alters cells circulating outside the brain, not within, offering a new understanding of what causes the disease.
Immune cells called microglia can completely repopulate themselves in the retina after being nearly eliminated, according to a new study in mice from scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI). The cells also re-establish their normal organization and function.
Two-thirds of surveyed caregivers felt that their child’s food allergy affected their own daily lives very much or extremely, according to a report in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Two-thirds of caregivers also expressed significant fear that their child would have an allergic reaction to food. Despite this fear, the majority of caregivers were eager to enroll their child in a clinical trial for immunotherapy, which involves giving the child a gradually increasing dose of the food allergen under close supervision in order to train the immune system to not react to that food. Only 8 percent of caregivers responded that they would not enroll their child in this type of clinical trial.
New research from scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology shows how a diet high in fat and cholesterol depletes the ranks of artery-protecting immune cells, turning them into promoters of inflammation, which exacerbate atherosclerotic plaque buildup that occurs in cardiovascular disease. The team has also found that high density lipoproteins (HDL)—more commonly known as “good cholesterol”—counteract this process, helping the protective immune cells maintain their identity and keep arteries clear.
The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) is now certified to offer a groundbreaking treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in which a patient’s own immune cells are genetically engineered to recognize and attack the cancer.
A new study shows that pregnant women and new moms aware of the 2017 guidelines on early introduction of peanuts to prevent allergy are still hesitant to put them in place. And not everyone has heard about them.
Scientists don’t yet grasp the intricacies of the relationship between sepsis and dementia. Candice Brown, an assistant professor in West Virginia University’s School of Medicine and Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, is studying that relationship in order to bring about insights that help prevent or mitigate the neurological impact of sepsis.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is recruiting volunteers to participate in a national study of an investigational vaccine against the H7N9 influenza virus, also known as “bird flu.”
Iowa State University researchers found a way to gain new insight into the human immune system by studying material left over after blood donations. The results, published recently in a peer-reviewed journal, illuminate the process of how the human body fights off harmful bacteria.
The new Center for Immuno-Oncology will build on Yale Cancer Center's international leadership in immunobiology, cancer immunology, and development of novel cancer immunotherapies.
Yale Cancer Center (YCC) has launched the Yale Center for Immuno-Oncology (YCIO). The new center will build on YCC’s international leadership in immunobiology, cancer immunology, and development of novel cancer immunotherapies.
UCLA scientists have developed a new method that utilizes microscopic splinter-like structures called “nanospears” for the targeted delivery of biomolecules such as genes straight to patient cells. These magnetically guided nanostructures could enable gene therapies that are safer, faster and more cost-effective.
A Ludwig Cancer Research study shows that ovarian cancer, which has proved resistant to currently available immunotherapies, could be susceptible to personalized immunotherapy. Led by Ludwig Lausanne investigator Alexandre Harari and George Coukos, director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne, the study shows that ovarian tumors harbor highly reactive killer T cells—which kill infected and cancerous cells—and demonstrates how they can be identified and selectively grown for use in personalized, cell-based immunotherapies.
In a study conducted in rural India, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers working in collaboration with Bal Umang Drishya Sanstha (BUDS), a nonprofit Indian organization focused on child health, have found that mobile phone reminders linked with incentives such as free talk time minutes work better than phone alerts alone to improve childhood immunization rates in poor communities.
Nearly all school nurses participating in a national survey (96 percent) reported that staff at their school received training on handling severe allergic reactions to food. Over 80 percent asserted that their school had an emergency epinephrine auto-injector on hand to stop a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. The study findings, published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, also underscore the dire need for these policies, with over one-third of the school nurses reporting at least one severe allergic reaction to food at their school in the last academic year.
The American College of Rheumatology has published a new white paper, “The Science Behind Biosimilars — Entering a New Era of Biologic Therapy,” which shares the organization’s stance that it is reasonable for physicians to begin integrating the prescription of biosimilars as another option of medication in patient treatment, where appropriate. S. Louis Bridges Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, served as the lead author on the paper.
In a clinical trial at Washington University School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and two medical centers in France, researchers found that a drug that revs up the immune system holds promise in treating sepsis.
A new mouse study examines the fungus that causes cryptococcosis, which is a major source of illness in people with HIV and AIDS.
UCLA researchers engineered mice to produce more TREM2, a gene tied to Alzheimer’s disease
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Berkeley Lights, Inc. today announced the launch of Optera Therapeutics Corp, a biopharmaceutical company developing cell therapies with scalable manufacturing solutions for cancer.
A study of mouse healing after severe heart attacks focused on the heart and spleen, measuring types and numbers of immune cells; types and amounts of lipid signaling compounds; expression of enzymes that produce those signaling compounds; and which enzymes are key to resolution of inflammation.
Neurons that carry nerve signals to and from the lungs suppress immune response during fatal lung infections with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Animal experiments show that disabling these neurons can boost immune response and promote bacterial clearance to aid recovery. Targeting neuro-immune signaling in the lungs can pave the way to nonantibiotic therapies for bacterial pneumonia.
"The same mechanisms that viruses use to cause cancer may be key in combating tumors with immune-based therapies or in keeping cancer from developing in the first place," says Sharon Kuss-Duerkop, PhD.
Johns Hopkins researchers have invented a new class of cancer immunotherapy drugs that are more effective at harnessing the power of the immune system to fight cancer. This new approach, which was reported in Nature Communications, results in a significant decrease of tumor growth, even against cancers that do not respond to existing immunotherapy.
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) will hold its annual State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium (SOTA) in Chicago, IL, on April 13-15, which features groundbreaking rheumatology research and roundtable discussions.
This year’s flu season has been one of the worst in recent memory causing thousands of people to be hospitalized. The virus can be particularly dangerous for young men who can experience nerve damage caused by the body’s response to the flu.
New research suggests that parasitic worms could someday help prevent or treat pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Science continues to peel away layers of the skin microbiome to reveal its protective properties. In a study published in Science Advances on February 28, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers report a potential new role for some bacteria on the skin: protecting against cancer.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and their collaborators report they modified immune cells to hunt brain tumors displaying a new molecular target, which they determined is highly prevalent on brain cancer cells. Their preclinical studies of immune cells engineered to recognize the target showed promise for controlling tumor growth in mouse and cell models for glioblastoma.
A study in the Journal of Neuroscience reveals that activation of a pregnant mother’s immune system can affect her baby’s brain development. Researchers at CHLA, found that short- and long-term brain functioning can be influenced by immune system activity during the third trimester of gestation.
The February Fred Hutch tip sheet includes story ideas ranging from cancer immunotherapy to cloud computing, flu prevention for cancer patients, cystine-dense peptides found in many deadly venoms, gene therapies, serendipitous findings and more.
Still’s disease is a serious orphan disease manifested by high fevers, skin and joint involvement, including paralysis, as well as damage to other organs such as the liver or spleen.
A special receptor on cells that line the sinuses, throat and lungs evolved to protect mammals from developing a range of allergies and asthma, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The finding “opens up a whole new research area to look at neuroinflammation in the context of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,” the lead researcher says. “But the clinical impact will be in many, many different areas.”
New research published in the Feb. 23 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry identifies an enzyme that turns off transglutaminase 2, potentially paving the way for new treatments for celiac disease.
We know that germs can make you sick, but if you seem to constantly be under the weather with cold symptoms, could it be something other than germs that are getting you down?
In this issue, find research on gun storage, LARCs and abortion, flu vaccine disparities, air pollution disparities, Brazil birthrate after Zika and more
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