Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s latest findings will be featured in about 50 presentations at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, “Driving Innovative Cancer Science to Patient Care,” to be held April 14-18 in Chicago. Here are several highlights:
In new research published in Nature, a team led by Subhamoy Dasgupta, PhD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center reports its identification of two key proteins involved in glucose metabolism that could be targeted to prevent breast cancer metastasis and recurrence.
The researchers will investigate how to design antibodies to deliver drugs to fight chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
UT Southwestern’s Dr. Deepak Nijhawan became a co-recipient of the 2018 Donald Seldin-Holly Smith Award for Pioneering Research. The award recognizes Dr. Nijhawan’s work identifying targets for cancer treatment.
Scientists searching for a therapy to stop the deadly and mostly untreatable lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), found a new molecular target that slows or stops the illness in preclinical laboratory tests. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report their data in the journal Cell Reports. Studying mice with IPF and donated human cells, they identified a gene called FOXF1 that inhibits the IPF disease.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a genetic screening tool that identified two key factors that allow the influenza virus to infect human lung cells. The technique uses new gene editing tools to create a library of modified cells, each missing a different gene, allowing scientists to see which changes impact their response to flu. This in turn could identify potential targets for antiviral drugs.
A rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder will soon be the focus of an international clinical research effort led by Houston Methodist and funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Research by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey investigators has identified novel functions of the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) enzyme providing support that it could serve as a therapeutic target in the most common type of lung cancer.
Matching unique genetic information from cancer patients’ tumors with treatment options – an emerging area of precision medicine efforts – often fails to identify all patients who may respond to certain therapies. Other molecular information from patients may reveal these so-called “hidden responders."
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame focused on an enzyme in gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen that causes pneumonia and sepsis.
A promising class of drugs known as CD40 monoclonal antibodies could be the spark needed to light the fire in the immune system of patients who don’t respond to the newer cancer immunotherapies. Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an internationally renowned cancer immunotherapy expert, makes the case for the drugs in a new perspective piece published this week in Cancer Cell, as part of a series in the issue focusing on the next phase of the evolving field of cancer immunotherapy.
Sanford Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) researchers recently discovered that that inactivation of a protein called p62 in fat cells fuels aggressive, metastatic prostate cancer in mice. The findings suggest that mTOR inhibitors currently used to treat a wide range of cancers may have the unintended consequence of shutting down fat tissue metabolism and fueling tumor growth.
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards, and the times and titles of their talks at ASBMB 2018 in San Diego in late April.
UCLA researchers have tweaked CRISPR technology, enabling them to monitor the outcome of tens of thousands of gene edits in the time it currently takes to analyze a few. The advance will improve scientists’ ability to identify the genetic changes most likely to harm cells and contribute to disease.
Sandia National Laboratories computer scientists Pat Finley and Drew Levin have been working to improve the U.S. biosurveillance system that alerts authorities to disease outbreaks by mimicking the human immune system.
Researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore have identified that RUNX3, a tumour suppressor gene absent in many cancer types, acts as a barrier against oxidative stress in cancer cells.
Most of us don’t think about our teeth and bones until one aches or breaks. A team of engineers at Washington University in St. Louis looked deep within collagen fibers to see how the body forms new bone and teeth, seeking insights into faster bone healing and new biomaterials.
University of Adelaide research has discovered that drugs used in the treatment of certain brain disorders, including epilepsy, also alter the signalling process in plants under stress.
We are the first to demonstrate that pTregs are important in autoimmune diabetes, and we hypothesize that microbes in the gut, where most of this pTreg cell population is switched on, may be responsible for generating these protective cells and thus protecting against the autoimmune attack on pancreatic beta cells that cause type 1 diabetes.
A family history of cancer is certainly a common, uncontrollable risk factor. But most cancers aren’t inherited.
Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) announced today that the work of its scientists is featured in 27 papers focused on the output of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The papers were published across the Cell Press family of journals.
In the April 5, 2018 issue of the journal Cell, researchers push for greater emphasis on the neglected viral-surface influenza protein neuraminidase. For decades, flu vaccines have concentrated on hemagglutinin. The authors maintain that a focus on neuraminidase could lower infection rates and lessen severity.
By combining data on pathology images of 13 types of cancer and correlating that with clinical and genomic data, researchers are able to identify tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), called TIL maps, which will enable specialists to generate tumor-immune information from pathology slides.
Cells acquire distinct fates and functions during development. A study from the IMBA reveals a new mechanism of cell fate specification involving the regulation of cell metabolism.
Rats who were dosed with nicotine during their adolescence grew up to drink alcohol more often than those who weren’t exposed to nicotine or were only exposed to it during adulthood. Exposure to nicotine at a young age changed the neuronal circuitry in the rat brain’s reward pathways
In a review article published April 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientist Andrew Feinberg, M.D., calls for more integration between two fields of DNA-based research: genetics and epigenetics.
Studying mice and cells from patients, vision researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that as immune cells called macrophages get older, they are more likely to contribute to inflammation and abnormal blood vessel growth in the back of the eye. This can damage vision in patients with age-related macular degeneration.
The 2018 ASBMB Annual Meeting in San Diego will feature talks by winners of the Journal of Biological Chemistry/Herbert Tabor Young Investigator Awards, on April 22.
Kyle Quinn, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Arkansas, has published a review highlighting recent advances in autofluorescence imaging and discussing its role in evaluating cell metabolism.
Researchers have developed a radically new approach to growing in the lab adult-like human heart muscle from human induced pluripotent stem cells in only four weeks. They compressed the development timeframe into a faster, more complete transition to cardiac maturity than any other team has done so far. They formed cardiac tissues from early-stage iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, soon after the initiation of spontaneous contractions, by subjecting the cells encapsulated in hydrogel to increasingly intense physical conditioning.
Researchers are now able to use induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to form a model of human adult-like cardiac muscle by introducing electric and mechanical stimulation at an early stage.
Hackensack Meridian Health Bayshore Medical Center is proud to announce that it has expanded services to offer transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, also known as transarterial chemoembolization, or TACE. TACE is an image-guided, non-surgical procedure used to treat malignant lesions in the liver. Performed in the Interventional Radiology department, an X-ray guided catheter delivers chemotherapy medication and embolization materials into the blood vessels in the liver that lead to the tumor.
Evan Y. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D., professor and founding director, Center for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) and professor at the University of California San Diego, has been elected to membership in the Association of American Physicians (AAP).
The findings could shed light on sickle cell diseases and other disorders where red blood cells are deformed.
Climate change could disrupt a critical fueling-up stage for migratory birds just as they’re preparing to depart on their autumn journeys to Central America, according to research published in the journal Ecology Letters.
By visualizing dopamine neurons in a tiny worm's brain, scientists have identified a novel pathway that sustains the health of these cells. The study shows that the normal actions of swip-10 to protect dopamine neurons are indirect, derived from the gene’s action in support cells called glia that lie adjacent to the dopamine neurons. Glial cells are recognized to play a critical role in shaping neuronal development, structure, and function, however, this research offers a clear demonstration that they also keep dopamine cells alive.
Bowhead whales are constantly changing their tune, unlike the only other whale species that sings, the humpback.
Belly fat affects the odds of women surviving kidney cancer but not men, according to a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that kidney cancer may develop and progress differently in women than men.
Mitochondria, known to most people as the “powerhouses of the cell”, have been recognized for decades as the cellular organelle where sugars and fats are oxidized to generate energy. Now, new research by UCLA scientists has found that not all mitochondria fit this definition.
Cutting-edge multidisciplinary research from across the life sciences will be presented at the Experimental Biology 2018 meeting (EB 2018), the premier annual meeting of five scientific societies to be held April 21–25 in San Diego.
Material left out of common processes for sequencing genetic material in cancer tumors may actually carry important information about why only some people respond to immunotherapy, possibly offering better insight than the type of material that is being sequenced, according to a study by Mount Sinai researchers published on April 3 in Cell Reports.
A new study suggests that resistance exercise may improve indicators of type 2 diabetes by increasing expression of a protein that regulates blood sugar (glucose) absorption in the body.
Researchers from Vanderbilt aim to unlock how irradiation -- part of radiation therapy in cancer treatment -- might alter the mechanical properties of the microenvironment. The team demonstrated that ionizing radiation can reduce the stiffness of both the extracellular matrix of an extracted tumor and an isolated matrix of collagen fibers. Appearing this week in APL Bioengineering, the results pave the way for irradiation to be used to create matrices with tailored properties.
Cancer therapies that target a specific protein have improved outcomes for patients. However, many patients eventually develop resistance to these targeted therapies and their cancer comes back. It is believed that differences among tumor cells, or heterogeneity, may contribute to this drug resistance. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are using a unique approach by combining typical cell culture studies with mathematical modeling to determine how heterogeneity within a tumor and the surrounding tumor environment affect responses to targeted drug therapies.
The Fred Hutch Tip Sheet includes story ideas about: New paths to malaria prevention; proteins involved in muscular dystrophy; pathogen-associated cancers; lung cancer in women who never smoked; financial impact of cancer care; more
Story tips: ORNL-led team cultivated a novel oral microbe in adults with periodontitis; ORNL partnered with FCA US and Nemak to develop a new cast aluminum alloy for engine cylinder heads, which could lead to better fuel efficiency; ORNL studies cast doubt on 40-year-old theory describing how plastic polymers behave during processing.
The vast majority of genetic mutations associated with cancer occur in non-coding regions of the genome, yet it’s unclear how they may influence tumor development or growth. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center identified nearly 200 mutations in non-coding DNA that play a role in cancer. Each mutation could represent a new cancer drug target.
A team led by scientists at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) and Cedars-Sinai have developed a straightforward, computational way to measure cellular age, a feat that may lead to better, simpler screening and monitoring methods for cancer and other diseases.
A team of computational biologists has developed an algorithm that can ‘align’ multiple sequencing datasets with single-cell resolution. The new method has implications for better understanding how different groups of cells change during disease progression, in response to drug treatment, or across evolution.
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