T Cell News and Research

Latest T Cell News and Research

Researchers gain new insight into cancer metastasis

Few things are as tiresome as house hunting and moving. Unfortunately, metastatic cancer cells have the relocation process down pat. Tripping nimbly from one abode to another, these migrating cancer cells often prove far more deadly than the original tumor.

5 Jan 2009

New insight into critical molecular mechanisms involved in aggressive childhood cancer

A new study reveals critical molecular mechanisms associated with the development and progression of human neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in young children.

5 Jan 2009

Old Digitalis-based drugs show promise as a treatment for cancer

Digitalis-based drugs like digoxin have been used for centuries to treat patients with irregular heart rhythms and heart failure and are still in use today.

5 Jan 2009

New methods for studying DNA repair and protein modification

This month's issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols features two articles detailing experimental methods for the analysis of molecular processes involved in DNA repair and post-translational modification of proteins.

5 Jan 2009

How loss or mutation of LMNA gene causes Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy

Mutations in the nuclear intermediate filament lamin A/C (LMNA) gene are associated with Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, but cause the disease by unknown mechanisms.

5 Jan 2009

Metadherin gene plays dual role in breast cancers with poor prognosis

A new study reveals that the metadherin gene (MTDH) plays a role in both cancer metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy.

5 Jan 2009

Cylene Pharmaceuticals starts CX-4945 trial - first-in class inhibitor of CK2

Cylene Pharmaceuticals announced today that it has initiated a Phase I clinical trial of its oral CK2 protein kinase inhibitor, CX-4945, in patients with advanced solid tumors, Castleman's disease, or multiple myeloma.

5 Jan 2009

Collagen VI protects brain cells against amyloid-beta proteins

Scientists from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND), UCSF, and Stanford have discovered that a certain type of collagen, collagen VI, protects brain cells against amyloid-beta proteins, which are widely thought to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD).

5 Jan 2009

Discovery of new tumor suppressor for lung cancer

Cancer and cell biology experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have identified a new tumor suppressor that may help scientists develop more targeted drug therapies to combat lung cancer.

5 Jan 2009

Researchers show mechanisms that regulate DNA damage control and replication

Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have demonstrated important new roles for the protein kinase complex Cdc7/Dbf4 or Cdc7/Drf1 (Ddk) in monitoring damage control during DNA replication and reinitiating replication following DNA repair.

5 Jan 2009

Discovery of 'on switch' for cell death signaling mechanism

Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have determined the structure of the interactions between proteins that form the heart of the death inducing signaling complex (DISC), which is responsible for triggering apoptosis (programmed cell death).

5 Jan 2009

Discovery of new syndrome associated with severe congenital neutropenia

A team of scientists has discovered a new syndrome associated with severe congenital neutropenia (SCN), a rare disorder in which children lack sufficient infection-fighting white cells, and identified the genetic cause of the syndrome: mutations in the gene Glucose-6-phosphatase, catalytic subunit 3 (G6PC3).

5 Jan 2009

A novel glioblastoma mouse model developed

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a versatile mouse model of glioblastoma-the most common and deadly brain cancer in humans-that closely resembles the development and progression of human brain tumors that arise naturally.

5 Jan 2009

New technique for fusing cells

MIT engineers have developed a new, highly efficient way to pair up cells so they can be fused together into a hybrid cell.

5 Jan 2009

Molecular imaging enables earlier, individualized treatment of thyroid cancer

In a study to determine the diagnostic value of molecular imaging in nodal staging of patients with thyroid cancer, researchers were able for the first time to accurately distinguish between cancerous cells in regional lymph nodes and normal residual thyroid tissue directly after surgery.

5 Jan 2009

Dormant cancer cells rely on cellular autophagy to survive

A single tumor-suppressing gene is a key to understanding, and perhaps killing, dormant ovarian cancer cells that persist after initial treatment only to reawaken years later, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the December Journal of Clinical Investigation.

5 Jan 2009

Pathogenesis of Campylobacter jejuni-related disease

Campylobacters are small Gram-negative spiral rods. Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni), a foodborne organism contracted from untreated water, milk and meat, especially chicken, is one of the most important causes of bacterial diarrhea worldwide. However, its mode of pathogenesis is not clear.

1 Jan 2009