T Cell News and Research

Latest T Cell News and Research

New technique to speed discovery of drug targets in chemical genetics

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have developed a new technique to speed discovery of drug targets in chemical genetics. Fox Chase researcher Jeffrey R. Peterson, Ph.D., and his colleagues describe a new way to swiftly find the proteins targeted by small molecule inhibitors during high-throughput screening (HTS) experiments. The new work offers a critical solution to a common stumbling block in this booming field of drug discovery.

26 Apr 2006

New Hybrid virus may aid treatment of cancer

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have created a new class of hybrid virus and demonstrated its ability to find, highlight, and deliver genes to tumors in mice.

26 Apr 2006

Caspase-12 antagonists could potentially be useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune disorders

According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body's "vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock" while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune disorders.

26 Apr 2006

Four subtypes of blood cancer identified

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborators have identified four distinct genetic subtypes of multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that have different prognoses and might be treated most effectively with drugs specifically targeted to those subtypes.

26 Apr 2006

Anthrax killed by protein that explodes cell walls

Not all biological weapons are created equal. They are separated into categories A through C, category A biological agents being the scariest: They are easy to spread, kill effectively and call for special actions by the pubic health system. One of these worrisome organisms is anthrax, which has already received its fair share of media attention. But work in Vince Fischetti's laboratory at Rockefeller University suggests that a newly discovered protein could be used to fight anthrax infections and even decontaminate areas in which anthrax spores have been released.

26 Apr 2006

Medical adhesive may be produced from the strongest glue found in nature

A bacterium that lives in rivers, streams and human aqueducts uses nature's strongest glue to stay in one place. The bacterium could be mass produced and used to coat surfaces for medical and engineering purposes.

26 Apr 2006

Human brain simultaneously communicates in both analog and digital modes

A new study shows that brain cells use a mix of analog and digital coding at the same time to communicate efficiently.

26 Apr 2006

Prefrontal cortex in the brain damaged by both alcoholism and chronic smoking

Alcoholism is commonly associated with chronic smoking, and both alcohol and nicotine are believed to act on the same brain region. Research builds upon previous research that identified four potential alcohol-sensitive genes in the prefrontal cortex, finding that smoking also influences the expression of these genes.

26 Apr 2006

Cause and treatment for aggressive head and neck cancer may have been found

Researchers report that they have found a potential molecular cause for the aggressive growth and spread of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a highly malignant form of cancer with a very high death rate.

26 Apr 2006

Cholesterol takes major role in the development of fingers and toes

Although cholesterol has a bad rap as the sticky, fatty substance responsible for clogging arteries, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers recently found that the attachment of cholesterol to an important developmental protein controls the development of fingers and toes in mice. Without cholesterol, mice developed extra digits, as well as digits in the wrong places.

26 Apr 2006

Blood cancers may be caused by inactivation of a "tumor suppressor" gene

The discovery of a gene, called PRDM1, as a tumor suppressor sheds new light on the cause - and possible treatment - of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs), a cancer of the blood's B-lymphocytes. DLBCLs comprise about 30 percent of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

25 Apr 2006

New method allows heart beat triggers to be viewed and better understood

Researchers have developed unique chemical dyes that have made it possible to see what the naked eye has never seen before: action potentials, or voltage changes, of cardiac cells - including those deep inside the heart, which trigger and determine the pace of heartbeats.

25 Apr 2006

Cancer found grow by switching off DNA - may lead to new generation treatments

Cancer researchers have formulated a new concept for how cancer cells can escape normal growth controls by turning off DNA. These findings may have far-reaching implications for the new generation of cancer therapies.

25 Apr 2006

Study shows drugs work differently in the brains of men and women

A Johns Hopkins discovery could lead to tailored treatments for drug abuse and neurological diseases after providing what is believed to be the first evidence in people that amphetamines have a greater effect on men's brains than women's.

24 Apr 2006

Non-Smokers with lung cancer respond better to treatment than smokers

Smoking history contributes to poor outcomes in the treatment of lung cancer, according to a new study. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lung cancer patients who have never smoked before in their life have better overall survival rates and respond better to chemotherapy than current or former smokers.

24 Apr 2006

Kidney treatments may be improved with new understanding of cell death mechanism

Finding how two proteins conspire to get kidney cells to self-destruct when oxygen supplies are low may one day improve dismal mortality rates for ischemic renal failure, researchers say.

23 Apr 2006

Yale researchers show how smell works within the brain

Yale scientists have systematically plotted the responses of the entire Drosophila (fruit fly) olfactory system, providing the first multi-dimensional map of the range of odorants sensed and the regions of the brain that are stimulated.

23 Apr 2006

Research into toxins points to development of better medicines

Researchers have combined magnetic resonance spectroscopy with special protein synthesis procedures to uncover how potassium channels and toxins combine and change in structure. This work could make it possible to develop medications for high blood pressure and many other diseases connected to potassium channel failure .

23 Apr 2006

Scientists clarify role of phosphatase and tensin homolog tumor suppressor gene

Jiwang Zhang, Ph.D., formerly a Senior Research Associate at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and Linheng Li, Ph.D., Associate Investigator, are credited as the first and last authors, respectively, on a paper highlighting several previously unknown functions of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), an important tumor suppressor gene.

23 Apr 2006

Study reveals findings on how insulin-producing beta cells grow and function

A new Joslin Diabetes Center-led study has shown conclusively that two receptors in the insulin-producing beta cell do not affect developmental growth, refuting a long-held hypothesis in diabetes research.

23 Apr 2006