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Read our latest stories on the people and scientific innovations making a difference in patients’ lives.
How Immuno-Oncology Taps Into the Body’s Own Immune System to Fight Cancer
Traditional approaches to fighting cancer such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy have saved countless lives over the years, but they are often accompanied by debilitating side effects because they also kill healthy cells in addition to attacking the malignant cells. One of the most important advances in cancer therapies is a field known as immuno-oncology, which uses methods that tap into a patient’s own immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells. Experts predict that immuno-oncology...
Advanced Culture: Making More ‘Life-Like’ Cellular Models
Cellular models, an essential part of developing new medicines, are becoming more realistic and relevant to patients. Long before a drug candidate enters clinical trials to be tested in humans, it goes through countless rounds of testing over several years in cellular models, also known as cell-based assays. From the earliest stage of identifying active molecules that can interact with a disease target to the later stages of testing toxicity and dosing, cells, particularly human cells, are...
Science Fact or Science Fiction? Avoiding Peanuts as an Infant Reduces Allergy Risk
The issue of peanut and tree nut allergies has emerged as a significant public health issue, with studies indicating the problem is growing. An estimated 0.4 percent of children in the U.S. were affected by a peanut allergy in 1999 but that rate quadrupled to about 2 percent about a decade later, according to a 2011 study in the journal Pediatrics. But the science behind the way certain food allergies develop has evolved, and that there are new guidelines in place to help navigate these new...
When Bacteria Outsmart Antibiotics, Surveillance Can Help Battle Resistance
The problem of so-called “superbugs” has emerged as a serious public health issue, with bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or carbapenem-resistant Enteriobacteriaceae (CRE) among the pathogens that cause infections resistant to multiple antibiotics. But what is antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and how do bacteria become resistant to antibiotics? How Microbes Can Outsmart Antibiotics The machinery inside of a bacterial cell makes the bacteria less susceptible to...
New Research Sheds Light on What Inputs Cells Need to Proliferate
The cells that comprise the human body are constantly growing, dividing, and developing. Skin and hair cells divide and replenish daily, stomach cells completely replace themselves in two to nine days and the red blood cells in a person’s body are turned over once every four months. In order for this replication to occur, cells must have an abundance of the building blocks necessary for survival and growth. Errors in signals for cell proliferation — the process by which cells grow and divide to...
Reducing the Pull of Memories to Fight Drug Addiction Relapse
Researchers are working to prevent drug relapse by reducing the powerful tug of drug-associated memories. While some may believe that beating addiction is just a matter of willpower, scientific evidence has established that drug addiction is a chronic illness that produces lasting changes to the brain’s chemistry and function. Some 40 to 60 percent of people treated for substance abuse disorders will eventually relapse, according to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association. ...
How Fragment-Based Drug Screening Is Like the ‘Tetris’ of Drug Design
An alternative approach to drug screening searches for small fragments that snugly fit into a protein drug target. For more than two decades, high throughput screening (HTS) has been the main technique used to begin the process of developing new drugs. Often described as the “needle in the haystack” approach, HTS involves screening about a million compounds against a disease target — usually proteins — that are found in the body. It’s like a matchmaking game: the goal is to find a drug...
Decoding Science: Cytokines
From the Greek “cyto” for cell and “kinos” for movement, these chemical messengers orchestrate the immune system’s activity, and may be the key to understanding and treating autoimmune disorders. Behind every complex organization, from great militaries to multinational corporations, is an equally sophisticated communications system. For the immune system, the body’s complex system for fighting off disease and infections, cytokines are the vital protein messengers that mediate activity. Produced...
Cryo-Electron Microscope Opens Resolution Revolution for Biological Imaging
The history of microscopes is one of ever higher magnification, enabling scientists to peer deeper and deeper into the minute details of nature invisible to the naked eye. The latest category of this powerful tool is what’s called a cryo-electron microscope, and its groundbreaking properties are revolutionizing the way scientists are imaging the smallest of structures — especially in the life sciences. The cryo-electron microscope, or cryo-EM, is allowing scientists to image structures as...
This Scientist's Life: Rosemary Orciari
Rosemary Orciari went to the doctor with severe abdominal pain, only to return without treatment after the doctors said that they couldn’t find anything wrong. Rosemary Orciari, a survivor of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as a child, is now a scientist in Pfizer's Groton, Connecticut research site. A few months later, they found what was wrong in an ultrasound: a mass about the size of a volleyball. Her diagnosis: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Rosemary was in the eighth grade. “They told my parents I...
Coffee Doesn’t Give You the Jitters, Alcohol Makes You Blush: Thank Your Genes
No two people respond to drugs and common chemicals the same way. That’s partly due to our genes. Are you one of those people who can’t stand the taste of cilantro sprinkled on your tacos or guacamole? You’re not alone. About 4 to 14 percent of the population has a genetic variation on an olfactory-receptor gene called OR6A2 that contributes to the detection of the leafy green herb’s soapy smell. Turns out, small variations in our DNA called single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced...
When Diversity Means Better Medicine
By tapping into more diverse genomes, researchers are gaining novel insights into disease and drug safety. For a variety of historical and logistical reasons, the vast majority of genomics research, to date, has been done in European populations. A 2016 analysis in the journal Nature found that 81 percent of participants in genetic research are of European ancestry. But in recent years scientists are pushing to expand research into more diverse groups to gain broader insights into the...
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