Tag Archives: professor

Researchers engineer ‘Cas9’ animal models to study disease, inform drug discovery

In recent years, genetic studies have found thousands of links between genes and various diseases. But in order to prove that a specific gene is playing a role in the development of the disease, researchers need a way to perturb it — that is, turn the gene off, turn it on, or otherwise alter it — and study the effects. The CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing system is one of the most convenient methods available for making these alterations in the genome. While the tool is already being used to test the effects of mutations in vitro — in cultured cell lines, for instance — it is now possible to use this tool to study gene functions using intact biological systems…

Immune system is key ally in cyberwar against cancer

“Recent research has found that cancer is already adept at using cyberwarfare against the immune system, and we studied the interplay between cancer and the immune system to see how we might turn the tables on cancer,” said Rice University’s Eshel Ben-Jacob, co-author of a new study this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ben-Jacob and colleagues at Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, developed a computer program that modeled a specific channel of cell-to-cell communication involving exosomes. Exosomes are tiny packets of proteins, messenger RNA and other information-coding segments that both cancer and immune cells make and use to send information to other cells…

New approach aims to silence cancer ‘survival genes’

The new method works by silencing cancer ‘survival genes’ and could potentially combat cancer through the selective killing of colorectal cancer cells without adverse effects on normal, non-cancer cells. Funded by York’s Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders (C2D2), the project led by Professor Jo Milner from York’s Department of Biology involved preliminary studies to establish the suitability of an ex vivo model for the future development of anti-cancer therapies for colorectal cancer using a technique called RNA interference. The new approach builds on ground-breaking research by Professor Milner and her team at York more than a decade ago. This early work, funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR), used the newly-developed technique of RNA interference to successfully kill human cervical cancer cells grown in culture without causing damage to healthy cells. …

Gene expression patterns in pancreatic circulating tumor cells revealed

“Our ability to combine a novel microfluidic CTC isolation device, developed here at MGH, with single-cell RNA sequencing has given us new biological insights into these cells and revealed novel avenues to try and block the spread of cancer,” says lead author David T. Ting, MD, MGH Cancer Center. Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly of tumors because it spreads rapidly via CTCs carried in the bloodstream. …

Directed evolution: Bioengineered decoy protein may stop cancer from spreading

This process, known as metastasis, can cause cancer to spread with deadly effect. “The majority of patients who succumb to cancer fall prey to metastatic forms of the disease,” said Jennifer Cochran, an associate professor of bioengineering who describes a new therapeutic approach in Nature Chemical Biology. Today doctors try to slow or stop metastasis with chemotherapy, but these treatments are unfortunately not very effective and have severe side effects…

Gene that increases incidence of acute myelogenous leukaemia discovered

Led by Associate Professor Chng Wee Joo, Deputy Director and Senior Principal Investigator at CSI Singapore and Director of the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, the scientists discovered that inhibition of Leo1 and Leo1 downstream signalling pathways provide an avenue for targeted treatment of AML. The findings were recently published in Cancer Research, the official journal of the American Association of Cancer Research. …

Curcumin, special peptides boost cancer-blocking PIAS3 to neutralize cancer-activating STAT3 in mesothelioma

Malignant mesothelioma has received widespread notoriety because it occurs frequently in the lung linings of people exposed to asbestos. However, asbestos does not always cause this particular cancer that kills 43,000 people worldwide each year. Many mesothelioma patients were never exposed to asbestos. “Mesothelioma is a disease that continues to have a significant burden worldwide, and the treatment option is really suboptimal. …