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3D rendered medical illustration of T cells trying to subdue cancer cells.
How Tumors Tire Out T Cells
Researchers investigated how cancer antigenicity drives unique forms of T cell exhaustion and hypofunctionality.
How Tumors Tire Out T Cells
How Tumors Tire Out T Cells

Researchers investigated how cancer antigenicity drives unique forms of T cell exhaustion and hypofunctionality.

Researchers investigated how cancer antigenicity drives unique forms of T cell exhaustion and hypofunctionality.

Research Briefs

Research Briefs
Joanna Lyford | Dec 14, 2003 | 4 min read
Stem cells weave a web of hope Courtesy of Duncan Stewart University of Toronto investigators showed that injecting endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) into the pulmonary circulation of rats results in microvasculature regeneration, a process they say might translate into therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Current treatment of PAH, a rare but deadly disease of largely unknown origin, is merely palliative. Team leader Duncan Stewart says that research to date has missed the point b
Research Briefs
Jeffrey Perkel | Dec 1, 2003 | 4 min read
Research Briefs Cancer Cook-Off; Faculty of 1000 | Interdisciplinary Research; Sir2, In Flagrante Delicto Cancer Cook-Off © 2003 National Academy of Sciences, USA In a departure from traditional Texas barbecue, researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, both in Houston, recently showed that they could literally cook cancer cells to death, using nanotechnology. Rice bioengineer Jennifer West and colleagues demonstrated that an injection of so
Research Briefs
Philip Hunter | Nov 16, 2003 | 4 min read
Risky Trials Could Herald Cure for Prion Disease Patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease generally face inevitable neurological decline and death. But, researchers are following closely the case of UK teenager Jonathan Simms, whose symptoms have been halted after he received 12 intracerebral injections of pentosan polysulfate (PPS) that started in January 2003. "By rights we would have expected him to have died eight months ago," says Stephen Dealler, a consultant microbiologist at East Lanc
Research Briefs
Maria Anderson | Nov 2, 2003 | 4 min read
A Sperm Finds Its Egg Courtesy of Richard Mooi For sea urchins, sex is an out-of-body experience. And in external fertilization, species-specific gamete receptors serve as one way to prevent cross-fertilization. The discovery of an egg protein responsible for this specificity ended a 25-year quest for Charles Glabe, molecular biologist at University of California, Irvine. Glabe and postdoc Noriko Kamei identified the glycoprotein on sea urchin eggs, called egg bindin receptor 1 (EBR1), whic
Research Briefs
Maria Anderson | Oct 19, 2003 | 4 min read
Research Briefs New Genes: The Ears Have 'Em; The Worker, The Soldier, The Candlestick Maker; For Genomes Without Borders, Biobanks Unite New genes: The ears have 'em While scouring a new cDNA library, researchers in the Netherlands discovered 80 novel expressed-sequence tags, including 25 preferentially expressed in human fetal cochlea.1 The researchers from the University Medical Center in Nijmegen (UMCN) found that 155 ESTs map to loci for nonsyndromic deafness, which is not associated
The Spice Ain't Always So Nice; Three Methyls and You're Out; Interdisciplinary Research
Ricki Lewis | Oct 5, 2003 | 4 min read
The Spice Ain't Always So Nice Anne Macnamara Capsaicin, the fiery alkaloid of chili pepper fame, sets tongue and skin afire, a sensation that some find irresistible. But, researchers recently associated it and its chemical cousins with chest pain.1 Isolated more than a century ago, capsaicin's structure was revealed in 1919, and its target, the vanilloid receptor 1 (VR1), was cloned in 1997. "VR1 functions as a molecular integrator of painful chemical and physical stimuli, including heat an
Hydrocephalus and the Accidental Transgene; Redox RNA; To Be a Bee, but He or She?
Paula Park | Sep 21, 2003 | 4 min read
Briefs Hydrocephalus and the Accidental Transgene; Redox RNA; To Be a Bee, but He or She? Hydrocephalus and the Accidental Transgene Courtesy of Perry Blackshear, NIEHS A chat in an elevator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences led to the discovery of a protein possibly linked to early brain development. Darryl C. Zeldin mentioned to an NIEHS colleague that a line of transgenic mice created by researchers studying the role of the CYP2J2 enzyme in heart function had de
Eating for Two, or an Entire Lineage; Serine at the Start of Life; Interdisciplinary Research
Mignon Fogarty | Sep 7, 2003 | 4 min read
Research Briefs Eating for Two, or an Entire Lineage; Serine at the Start of Life; Interdisciplinary Research Eating for Two, or an Entire Lineage Courtesy of Randy Jirtle Duke University researchers give a new twist to the old adage, "You are what you eat." By feeding female agouti (Avy) mice methyl-rich supplements such as folic acid and vitamin B12, Randy Jirtle and Robert Waterland reduced agouti gene expression in their offspring. This change, caused by direct methylation of a transp
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