MIT’s albumin-based cancer vaccine shows promise in clinical trials, yielding robust immune responses, raising hope for effective cancer treatment.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,299
Global project to drive lifesaving agreement on appropriate antimicrobial drug use
University of Melbourne researchers are leading a new push to address the growing harm of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as more humans and animals become seriously ill or die from infections that medicine once treated easily.
Over-use and misuse of microbe-killing drugs – including antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals – is the main driver accelerating the evolution of resistance to these drugs in bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites around the world.
The World Health Organisation calls AMR a top global public health threat that was directly responsible for 1.27 million deaths and contributed to 4.95 million deaths in 2019.
Host Cell Protein and Impurity Risk Mitigation in Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutic Manufacturing
Biopharmaceutical impurities such as host cell proteins can delay biologics development and production. These elements can have immunogenic effects in patients, forcing scientists to restart process development. Thus, detecting and removing biopharmaceutical impurities is necessary for maintaining drug efficacy and ensuring patient safety.
In this webinar brought to you by Cytiva, Andrew Hamilton and Joe Hirano will discuss how to identify, detect, and measure impurities in biologics manufacturing.
Startup Clones Three Piglets Gene-Hacked to Have Organs Transplanted Into Humans
Japanese startup PorMedTec says it’s have cloned three piglets with the express purpose of having their organs be viable for transplantation to humans, without being rejected by the immune system.
The company imported gene-edited cells from a US biotech startup called eGenesis and used them to create genetically modified embryos, the Japan Times reports, which were then implanted into the uterus of a pig.
“The realization of xenotransplantation has been long awaited in Japan for several years, but it remained in the basic research stage because pigs that could withstand clinical application were still under development,” the company said in a statement.
Mushroom sprouting from frog’s leg leaves scientists concerned
Sounds like the video game/movie “The Last of Us” though there was a somewhat similar X Files episode as well before that. Though I doubt it’ll be a zombie plague, it could be like another pandemic someday or an issue such as a deadly fungal outbreak they had in Portland, Oregon before if I recall.
Scientists have been left concerned after making the surprise discovery of a frog with a small mushroom sprouting from its leg.
The amphibian was discovered in the foothills of India’s Western Ghats and researchers stated that it’s the first time a mushroom has been found growing on live animal tissue.
Researchers affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund released findings on the species, known as Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog (Hylarana intermedia), in a new study published in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians.
Ancient viruses emerge as unexpected heroes in vertebrate brain evolution
Scentists have uncovered a fascinating link between ancient viruses and the development of myelination, the biological process crucial for the advanced functioning of the nervous system in vertebrates, including humans.
Scientists discovered a gene, ‘RetroMyelin,’ from ancient viruses, essential for myelination in vertebrates, suggesting viral sequences in early vertebrate genomes were pivotal for developing complex brains. This breakthrough in Cell unravels how myelination evolved, highlighting its significance in vertebrate diversity.
Scientists stole a mutation from cancer and used it to kill tumors
“We’ve used the mutations that give cancer cells their staying power to engineer what we call a ‘Judo T-cell therapy’ that can survive and thrive in the harsh conditions that tumors create,” said co-author Kole Roybal.
CAR-T cells: CAR-T cell therapy starts with doctors extracting T cells — a type of white blood cell — from a cancer patient’s blood. They then engineer the T cells to display proteins called “chimeric antigen receptors” (CARs) that bind to cancer cells.
New research helps create new antibiotic that evades bacterial resistance
Scientists at the University of Illinois Chicago and Harvard University have developed an antibiotic that could give medicine a new weapon to fight drug-resistant bacteria and the diseases they cause.
The antibiotic, cresomycin, described in Science, effectively suppresses pathogenic bacteria that have become resistant to many commonly prescribed antimicrobial drugs.
The promising novel antibiotic is the latest finding for a longtime research partnership between the group of Yury Polikanov, associate professor of biological sciences at UIC, and colleagues at Harvard. The UIC scientists provide critical insights into cellular mechanisms and structure that help the researchers at Harvard design and synthesize new drugs.
Chemical cocktail could restore sight by regenerating optic nerves
The optic nerve has been partly regenerated in mice, raising hopes for treating blindness caused by conditions such as glaucoma.