Cells

A novel form of cancer immunotherapy has shown exceptional promise in a new clinical trial, with 93 percent responding positively. The treatment involves supercharging a patient’s immune cells to fight cancer then reintroducing them to the body.

Trans fats are known to be damaging to health, contributing to conditions like cardiovascular disease. Now we may know more about how they cause this damage, as scientists at Tohoku University have found that certain fatty acids speed up cell death.

Stanford scientists may have found a way to essentially return older cells to a more youthful state. The adult cells are treated with a mix of proteins from early embryonic development, which removes many of the molecular signs of aging.

Statin drugs are commonly taken to help manage cholesterol levels. But now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have found that they may also kill some cancer cells by starving them of nutrients, and uncovered the mechanism for how that can happen.

Small “persister” populations of bacteria are able to hide from antibiotics, seeding a new colony afterwards. Now scientists at the University of Surrey have identified genetic mutations that turn some bugs into persisters by making them “forgetful.”

One emerging treatment for diabetes involves converting stem cells into beta cells that secrete insulin. Now scientists have developed a more efficient method, and implanting these cells in diabetic mice functionally cured them of the disease.

Ideally fighting cancer would be as simple as a vaccine, and scientists are taking steps towards that. Now, researchers have developed a way to make vaccine molecules bigger, so they don’t disperse in the blood stream before reaching their target.

Organ transplants are invasive and donors hard to find. Treating kidney disease with stem cells is an option, and now researchers have isolated and studied kidney stem cells from urine samples, which could be a much easier way to collect them.

As promising as immunotherapy is against cancer, these therapies aren’t entirely without risk. But now scientists have developed an emergency brake drug that can switch off the treatment if it begins to spiral out of control.

Researchers have discovered a new component in blood that has never been detected there before. Mitochondria are normally found inside cells, but the team has now discovered them floating around on their own in the bloodstream.

Researchers have developed what they are calling “super-human red blood cells.” These are normal red blood cells loaded with synthetic drug molecules, creating a powerful hybrid cell designed to deliver drugs to targeted locations in the body.

The line between robots and living organisms is beginning to blur. Researchers at the University of Vermont and Tufts University have now essentially created new creatures from frog cells, complete with programmable behaviors.