Lifeboat Foundation

Year 2017 PD-1 can eventually be used throughout the body to be used on all cancers which also naturally occurs in the body the common cancer drug Keytruda uses this type of targeting to destroy cancer cells.

Several cancers are highly refractory to conventional chemotherapy. The survival of tumors in several cases is assisted by checkpoint immunomodulation to maintain the imbalance between immune surveillance and cancer cell proliferation. Check point antibody inhibitors, such as anti-PD-1/PD-L1, are a novel class of inhibitors that function as a tumor suppressing factor via modulation of immune cell-tumor cell interaction. These checkpoint blockers are rapidly becoming a highly promising cancer therapeutic approach that yields remarkable antitumor responses with limited side effects. In recent times, more than four check point antibody inhibitors have been commercialized for targeting PD-1, PDL-1, and CTLA-4. Despite the huge success and efficacy of the anti-PD therapy response, it is limited to specific types of cancers, which attributes to the insufficient and heterogeneous expression of PD-1 in the tumor microenvironment. Herein, we review the current landscape of the PD-1/PD-L1 mechanistic role in tumor immune evasion and therapeutic outcome for cancer treatment. We also review the current progress in clinical trials, combination of drug therapy with immunotherapy, safety, and future of check point inhibitors for multiple types of cancer.

Immunotherapy is an exciting approach, and tremendous strides have recently been made in our perception of the role of the host immune response in affecting tumor growth and response to various therapies (Pardoll, 2012). Through these advances, novel immune check point inhibitors have been identified and cleared for use in the clinic (Figure 1). The evolution of immune checkpoint inhibitors as anticancer treatment options represents one of the most successful approach in cancer drug discovery in the past few years (Couzin-Frankel, 2013). Indeed, immune checkpoint inhibitors have emerged as a frontline treatment for multiple cancers, such as metastatic melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), renal cell carcinoma (RCCs), and bladder or urothelial cancer. They are presently being assessed in numerous other cancer types, including breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and some advanced solid and hematological malignancies.

The theory of evolution, worked out in the nineteenth century by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, with many tweaks since, is one of the most well-supported theories in science.

Evidence from a wide range of disciplines backs up the basics of the theory. Or, as paleontologist and historian of science Stephen Jay Gould put it in an essay in the May 1981 print issue of this magazine, the theory of evolution is “one of the best documented, most compelling and exciting concepts in all of science.”

For the rest of us, one interesting and sometimes confusing aspect of evolution is the difference between convergent and divergent evolution. Here’s a quick explanation.

They are known as ultra-fast outflows (UFOs), powerful space winds emitted by the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) – aka. “quasars.” These winds (with a fun name!) move close to the speed of light (relativistic speeds) and regulate the behavior of SMBHs during their active phase.

These gas emissions are believed to fuel the process of star formation in galaxies but are not yet well understood. Astronomers are interested in learning more about them to improve our understanding of what governs galactic evolution.

This is the purpose of the SUper massive Black hole Winds in the x-rAYS (SUBWAYS) project, an international research effort dedicated to studying quasars using the ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope.

Given this new information humans could modify their genetic code to rapidly accelerate their evolution aswell leading to a biological singularity of evolution.

Codfish have been telling a story of rapid fish evolution, reshaped by human activity more swiftly than previously assumed, reveals a cutting-edge study led by Rutgers University.

This evolutionary tale, illuminated during the latter half of the twentieth century, signifies the impact of human-driven overfishing. The findings suggest that evolutionary changes, once thought to span millions of years, can be catalyzed within mere decades.

Continue reading “Fish evolution takes place in decades — not millions of years” »

Researchers from Zhejiang University, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Northwest University, and Yunnan University, Aarhus University, and BGI-Research have jointly led a series of significant new studies are published in a special issue of the journal Science, and in papers in Nature Ecology & Evolution and Science Advances.

Co-led by Guojie Zhang from Centre for Evolutionary & Organismal Biology at Zhejiang University, Dong-Dong Wu at Kunming Institute of Zoology, Xiao-Guang Qi at Northwest University, Li Yu at Yunnan University, Mikkel Heide Schierup at Aarhus University, and Yang Zhou at BGI-Research, the Primate Genome Consortium reported a series of publications from its first phase program. The program includes high quality reference genomes from 50 primate species, of which 27 were sequenced for the first time. These studies provide new insights on the speciation process, genomic diversity, social evolution, sex chromosomes, and the evolution of the brain and other biological traits.

The comparative analysis of primate genomes within a phylogenetic context is crucial for understanding the evolution of the human genetic architecture and the inter-species genomic differences associated with primate diversification. Previous studies of primate genomes have focused mainly on primate species closely related to humans and were constrained by the lack of broader phylogenetic coverage.

Geneticists have unearthed a major event in the ancient history of sturgeons and paddlefish that has significant implications for the way we understand evolution. They have pinpointed a previously hidden “whole genome duplication” (WGD) in the common ancestor of these species, which seemingly opened the door to genetic variations that may have conferred an advantage around the time of a major mass extinction some 200 million years ago.

The big-picture finding suggests that there may be many more overlooked, shared WGDs in other species before periods of extreme environmental upheaval throughout Earth’s tumultuous history.

The research, led by Professor Aoife McLysaght and Dr. Anthony Redmond from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Genetics and Microbiology, has just been published in Nature Communications.

Researchers discover Chimno, the gene responsible for the juvenile stage in insects. This gene is present in mammals and could play a key role in cancerous processes.

The study, which was published in the journal eLife and led by the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE, CSIC-UPF) and the IRB Barcelona, has revealed that the Chinmo gene is responsible for establishing the juvenile stage in insects. It also confirms that the Br-C and E93 genes play a regulatory role in insect maturity. These genes, which are also present in humans, act as a promoter and as a suppressor, respectively, of cancerous processes.

The results of the research, which was carried out with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the cockroach Blatella germanica, reveal that these genes have been conserved throughout the evolution of insects. Therefore, it is believed that they could play a key role in the evolution of metamorphosis.

What happened before the Big Bang? In two of our previous films we examined cyclic cosmologies and time travel universe models. Specially, the Gott and Li Model https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79LciHWV4Qs) and Penrose’s Conformal Cyclic Cosmology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVDJJVoTx7s). Recently Beth Gould and Niayesh Afshordi of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics have fused these two models together to create a startling new vision of the universe. In this film they explain their new proposal, known as Periodic Time Cosmology.

0:00 Introduction.
0:45 NIayesh’s story.
1:15 Beth’s story.
2:25 relativity.
3:26 Gott & Li model.
6:23 origins of the PTC model.
8:17 PTC periodic time cosmology.
10:55 Penrose cyclic model.
13:01 Sir Roger Penrose.
14:19 CCC and PTC
15:45 conformal rescaling and the CMB
17:28 assumptions.
18:41 why a time loop?
20:11 empirical test.
23:96 predcitions.
26:19 inflation vs PTC
30:22 gravitational waves.
31:40 cycles and the 2nd law.
32:54 paradoxes.
34:08 causality.
35:17 immortality in a cyclic universe.
38:02 eternal return.
39:21 quantum gravity.
39:57 conclusion.

Continue reading “Before the Big Bang 11: Is the Universe a Time Machine?” »

How we’re linking together genetic material from thousands of people — modern and ancient — to trace our ancestors and the history of our evolution.