Because most people are vaccinated against tetanus as children, delivering benign bacteria carrying a tetanus antigen into pancreatic tumors makes them visible to memory cells in the immune system, researchers report.
The Scientist spoke to Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory’s Jim Strickland about the institute’s new MDI Bioscience initiative to perform more drug testing and development in nonmammalian models.
A first-of-its-kind gene therapy dramatically reduced misfolded protein levels in some clinical trial participants for up to six months and reduced levels in all participants for up to a year.
First, the genetically engineered cells became CD8+ killer T cells that wiped out his leukemia. Then they transformed into a stable population of CD4+ helper T cells that continue to circulate in his body.
The cardiologist was briefly the FDA Commissioner in the Obama Administration, and now has a second chance to act on plans he tried to implement during his first tenure.
Researchers say they hope to launch a clinical trial to test bumetanide, a diuretic approved in 2002, but how it might improve neural functioning is unclear.
Scientists uncover the promise of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), also known as medicinal signaling cells, to modulate the immune system and regenerate tissue.
The FDA pauses the research program on a lentivirus-based treatment for a rare neurological condition after a patient developed a bone marrow disorder that could presage leukemia.
With multiple microbiota therapeutics in the pipeline for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection, clinicians foresee a shift in treatment options for the condition.
After receiving an intraocular injection of the gene for a light-sensitive protein, a 58-year-old man diagnosed with the neurodegenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa was able to locate objects on a table using engineered goggles.
Four dozen children with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) who received a corrective gene carried by a virus have working immune systems two to three years later, according to three independent clinical trials.
Many major biopharmaceutical companies are developing or acquiring drugs that target the NLRP3 inflammasome, a large intracellular complex that researchers say can spark inflammation and stoke diseases of lifestyle and aging.
