Archives: 2020-12-02

Penn Medicine Researchers Unlock the Door to Tumor Microenvironment for CAR T Cells

PAK4 inhibitor improved T cell infiltration and shrank solid tumors in mice The labyrinth of jumbled blood vessels in the tumor microenvironment remains one of the toughest blockades for cellular therapies to penetrate and treat solid tumors. Now, in a new study published online today in Nature Cancer, Penn Medicine researchers found that combining chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)

Read More


PEDSnet Report Details How COVID-19 Pandemic Has Affected Children

Analysis of 135,000+ medical records shows the novel coronavirus hits hardest among teens, children with diabetes or cancer, lower-income families, and Black, Latin and Asian groups. In the most comprehensive analysis to date of U.S. children tested and treated for COVID-19, an organization representing seven of the nation’s largest pediatric medical centers reports that some

Read More


Big Data Powers Design of ‘Smart’ Cell Therapies for Cancer

Combining Machine Learning with Cell Engineering, Scientists Can Design ‘Living Medicines’ that Precisely Target Tumors Finding medicines that can kill cancer cells while leaving normal tissue unscathed is a Holy Grail of oncology research. In two new papers, scientists at UC San Francisco and Princeton University present complementary strategies to crack this problem with “smart”

Read More


CAR T-Cell Research is surging accompanied by a diversification of development and manufacturing pathways.

Hundreds of trials are under way, 3 CAR T-cell therapies for hematologic malignancies are on the market, and 2 new products may receive FDA approval in the next several months, including a BCMA–directed therapy that is poised to help transform treatment of multiple myeloma Research on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies has exploded since

Read More


A Randomized Trial of Convalescent Plasma in Covid-19 Severe Pneumonia fails to shows significant clinical benefit as compared with placebo.

Convalescent plasma is frequently administered to patients with Covid-19 and has been reported, largely on the basis of observational data, to improve clinical outcomes. Minimal data are available from adequately powered randomized, controlled trials. In this paper researchers of the Clinical Pharmacology Section, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Juan D. Perón, Buenos Aires, Argentina as

Read More


Drug guides stem cells to desired location, improving their ability to heal

Discovery represents a major milestone for regenerative medicine that could help more people benefit from stem cell therapy. Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have created a drug that can lure stem cells to damaged tissue and improve treatment efficacy—a scientific first and a major advance for the field of regenerative medicine. The

Read More


Most Americans are still vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 virus. Seroprevalence over 4 collection periods ranged from less than 1% to 23%

As of September, the vast majority of Americans did not have coronavirus antibodies, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. These data matter as the coronavirus spreads rapidly throughout most of the country, most people remain vulnerable to it. Across the U.S., the portion of states’ populations with detectable antibodies ranged from less

Read More