Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells) are a promising immunotherapy approach to cancer treatment in which a patient's own immune cells attack tumors by targeting an identifying marker, or antigen, that is displayed at high levels on cancerous cells. However, CAR T cells that target a single antigen have had mixed results in clinical trials, which may be due to ongoing variability in the antigens that tumors display.
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Today, Madagascar is home to a mosaic of different habitats--a lush rainforest in the east and a dry deciduous forest in the west, separated by largely open highlands. But the island off the southeast coast of Africa hasn't always been like that--a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences announces that these two ecologically different portions of the island were once linked by a patchwork of forested areas. And to figure it out, the scientists analyzed the DNA of some of the cutest animals on earth--mouse lemurs.
Every now and then in Earth's history, a pair of continents draws close enough to form one. There comes a time, however, when they must inevitably part ways.
Now scientists at Australia's EarthByte research group, in collaboration with the German Research Centre for Geosciences, have revealed the underlying mechanics of a continental breakup when this time arrives in a supercontinent's life cycle.
Cambridge researchers have identified - and shown that it may be possible to control - the mechanism that leads to the rapid build-up of the disease-causing 'plaques' that are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- No one knows for sure how they got there. But the discovery that bacteria that normally live in the gut can be detected in the lungs of critically ill people and animals could mean a lot for intensive care patients.
Today, scientists are reporting that they found gut bacteria in the deepest reaches of failing lungs -- an environment where they normally aren't found and can't survive. The more severe the patients' critical illness, the more their usual lung bacteria were outnumbered by the misplaced gut bugs.
Most adolescent survivors of childhood cancer have no reported psychological symptoms, but an analysis led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital found that those who do often have multiple symptoms and distinct symptom profiles. The findings, which appear today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, highlight strategies to improve mental health screening and interventions.
An international team of researchers has identified a new rare genetic condition - a chromosome breakage syndrome associated with severe infections and lung disease in infants. The discovery provides an explanation for this deadly pulmonary disease, possibilities to diagnose it and opportunities for developing alternate ways to treat it. The results appear today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
HOUSTON - (July 18, 2016) - Females have two X chromosomes in each of their cells. Fully unfolded, each copy is two inches long. One of these two X chromosomes is inactive - its genes are turned off. This copy folds into a structure called the Barr body, a mysterious configuration that was discovered in 1949. Recently, scientists have shown that the Barr body contains massive superloops bringing DNA sequences at opposite ends of the chromosome together inside the nucleus of a cell.
On the surface, trees may look stationary, but underground their roots -- aided by their fungal allies -- are constantly on the hunt and using a surprising number of strategies to find food, according to an international team of researchers.
MADISON, Wis. -- In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a University of Wisconsin-Madison research team pinpoints how immune abnormalities beneath the retina result in macular degeneration, a common condition that often causes blindness.
Aparna Lakkaraju, an assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, focused on two protective mechanisms that are compromised during the gradual onset of macular degeneration, which degrades and can destroy the central vision needed to read and recognize faces.
For years, scientists and engineers have synthesized materials at the nanoscale level to take advantage of their mechanical, optical, and energy properties, but efforts to scale these materials to larger sizes have resulted in diminished performance and structural integrity.
A new exploratory analysis of data from the ASPIRE study has found that using a drug-infused vaginal ring most or all of the time reduced the risk of HIV infection in women by at least 56 percent. This finding is being reported today at a press briefing at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) in Durban, South Africa, and will be presented in more detail tomorrow in a lecture at the conference.
For HIV-infected mothers whose immune system is in good health, taking a three-drug antiretroviral regimen during breastfeeding essentially eliminates HIV transmission by breast milk to their infants, according to results from a large clinical trial conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and India.
Just as wrought-iron fences and ornaments connect straight and curved elements to form aesthetically pleasing 3-D shapes, a new computational design tool developed by Disney Research enables people to design 3-D objects whose surfaces are formed from interconnected circles, hearts and other shapes.
These ornamental objects, produced with a 3-D printer, look delicate, but the design tool helps users identify and strengthen weak areas so that the final product is structurally sound, said Bernhard Thomaszewski, research scientist at Disney Research.
Bremerhaven/Germany, 18. July 2016. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have overcome a seeming weakness of global climate models. They had previously not been able to simulate the extreme warm period of the Eocene. One aspect of this era that particularly draws interests to climatologists: It was the only phase in recent history when greenhouse gas concentration was as high as researchers predict it to be for the future.