Conceptual illustration of a designer cell sensing a target cell Engineering an immune cell to recognize and kill a cancer cell is the key to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, but modified immune cells also have the potential to cause problems for patients. One such complication, cytokine release syndrome, is an overreaction of the immune...
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Risk of type 1 diabetes climbs when one population of T cells falls
BOSTON – (April 5, 2018) – In autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, some of the immune system’s T cells mistakenly attack the body’s own cells, while protective T regulatory cells try to defend against that attack. Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have shown in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes that animals...
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Efficient genetic modification of immune cells
A new method enables genes in living T-cells in mice to be modified quickly and efficiently. It makes use of plasmids, a tried-and-tested method of genetic engineering. Researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel reported these findings in the Journal of Immunology. Molecular biological methods such as CRISPR-Cas9...
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Newly created compound boosts anti-cancer immunity
Scientists might have found a way to activate the body’s “natural killer T cells” in the fight against cancer. The findings might lead to more effective treatments that stop cancer from spreading. Sometimes, our T cells (shown here attacking a cancer cell) can do with a little help. The new study — now published in the...
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Home Genetic Tests May Be Riddled With Errors, And Companies Aren’t Keeping Track
Before you sign up for a home DNA test, learn more from this couple’s story. COURTESY OF JULIE KENNERLY-SHAH AND SUMMIT SHAH. Julie Kennerly-Shah and Summit Shah. Julie Kennerly-Shah and Summit Shah were dating back in 2016 when they decided to buy kits from 23andMe, the popular consumer DNA health and ancestry company. Like many...
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Immunotherapy—cancer’s new frontier
Dr. Daruka Mahadevan (left) and Eric Weterings examine cancer cells in a petri dish. Mahadevan is director of the UA Cancer Center Early Phase Clinical Trials Program. Your immune system never sleeps. Every moment of the day, immune cells monitor your body for disease, calling for backup when they detect a threat. It’s a...
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Scientists develop novel cancer cell culture test kit for personalized, precise cancer therapy
A team of scientists led by Professor Lim Chwee Teck, Principal Investigator at the Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore (MBI) and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and NUS Ph.D. graduate Dr. Khoo Bee Luan, has developed a novel and robust cancer cell-based assay that could help clinicians to diagnose cancer,...
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It’s the PROTEIN plaster! Bandage made with fibronectin found in baby skin speeds up wound healing and doesn’t leave any scarring
The material contains fibronectin, the protein that helps assembly skin tissue in youth Harvard University study found mice healed on average three days faster Foetal skin is rich in fibronectin but it disappears soon after birth A plaster made with a protein found in the very young skin has been found to speed up wound...
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A medical-grade smartwatch is helping people live with epilepsy
The Embrace watch is an approved medical device and monitors subtle changes in sweat levels to detect when the wearer is having an epileptic seizure. Next? Predicting when they will happen By MATT REYNOLDS Friday 30 March 2018 For years, Patti Long worked as a surgical nurse, performing elective cosmetic operations for a clinic that served military veterans...
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New needle device to revolutionize biopsies and reduce scarring
With at least two in three Australians diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70, monitoring moles and skin is vital in detecting skin cancer early for a generation of people who spent much of their upbringing in the sun (often with little to no protection). To meet the massive unmet need in this...