From eye color to whether cilantro tastes like soap, genetic variability influences many factors in a person’s life. These inherited differences can also determine a person’s risk of developing a particular type of cancer and possibly even the response to certain kinds of cancer therapies. For example, while immune checkpoint inhibitors represent a huge advance…
Smoke filled the air on the morning after the Tubbs Fire on October 9, 2017. Image credit:Jitesh vasadia Wildfires across the US are increasing in frequency and ferocity, and where there is fire, there is smoke. Wildfire smoke is dense, toxic, and carries harmful pollutants up to hundreds of miles away.1 “Wildfire smoke increasingly affects…
The southern corroboree frog is one of Australia’s iconic species, but Chytridiomycosis has decimated its wild populations. Image credit:Corey Doughty, University of Melbourne You might enjoy HBO’s The Last of Us, but for frogs, the fungi-triggered zombie apocalypse show hits far too close to home. Since the 1980s, a deadly fungal disease has been spreading…
Researchers at the University of Zürich found that two microbial metabolites increased with age and promoted vascular dysfunction, linking microbiome shifts to cardiovascular decline. Image credit:© Istock, Kriscole Over half of the human body is not even human. Everyone carries almost 40 trillion bacterial cells, forming their microbiome, which play various roles in different organs,…
Spatial biology is reshaping how researchers study cancer by revealing the architecture and complexity of tumors in extraordinary detail. Through techniques that combine protein- and gene-level mapping, scientists can analyze cellular behavior and decipher the intricacies of tumors and their surrounding microenvironments. The integration of AI and multiomics accelerates this progress, pushing the field toward…
Researchers investigated collagen IV’s thermal instability, finding that a cystine knot keeps collagen threads together and helps facilitate refolding. Image credit:© Istock, quantic69 As the foundation for connective tissues like tendons, bones, cartilage, and skin, collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body. It serves as the body’s scaffolding, supporting cells as they…
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become a prominent therapeutic modality due to their binding specificity and ability to engage a diverse range of targets. However, isolating mAbs remains a laborious process, traditionally requiring animal immunization or vast library screens of randomly generated variants. To address these limitations, a research team at the University of Washington, led…
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are immune cells that naturally recognize and penetrate tumors to kill cancer cells, making them a promising approach for treating solid tumors. This potential was recently validated by the FDA’s accelerated approval of the first TIL therapy, lifileucel, for advanced melanoma. Developing and manufacturing TILs for the clinic requires a robust workflow…
