LONDON – Researchers have discovered a T-cell receptor (TCR) that is both capable of targeting a range of solid tumors and independent of human leukocyte (HLA) type, opening up the prospect of developing a universal anticancer T-cell therapy.

An international collaborative study led by geneticists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer Medical Research Institute (QIMR) in Brisbane, Australia, has used a multivariate approach to develop a polygenic risk score (PRS) for glaucoma.

Two independent groups of researchers have achieved HIV latency reversal not just in T cells in the bloodstream, but also in tissues, in animal models of HIV infection. Latently infected cells, which have nonreplicating HIV integrated into their genomes, are a major barrier to curing HIV, and attempts to reactivate latently infected cells, which would sensitize the virus in them to antiretroviral treatment, are one major area of HIV cure research.

Remember how Ras is a frequently mutated oncogene in solid tumors? Well, it turns out Ras plays a role in those memories, too. In the Jan. 13, 2020, online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Juniper, Fla., reported on the discovery that Ras signals through Raf and then Rho kinase to control whether memory is short or long-term.

Scientists at the Whitehead Institute have discovered that the ability of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii to cause chronic infections depends on changes orchestrated by a single transcription factor, Bradyzoite-formation deficient 1 (BFD1).

It is equally fair to say that lung cancer treatment has come a long way, and that it has a long way to go. Speaking at a joint conference by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and the American Association for Cancer Research on lung cancer translational research, William Pao remembered the stark realities of being an oncology fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center just 20 years ago, when the main lung cancer “procedure” done by trainees was to get a DNR, or do-not-resuscitate order, from their patients.

SAN DIEGO – Allele-specific KRAS inhibitors are “the most exciting change coming down the pike for treating KRAS-mutant tumors in the near future,” Ferdinandos Skoulidis said at the sixth joint conference by the American Association for Cancer Research and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer meeting.

A University of California, San Diego-led team from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative has reported that in long-term imaging studies, objective subtle cognitive deficits (obj-SCD) preceded amyloid deposition in longitudinal imaging studies.

A reference genome from the Indian cobra compiled in an international collaborative study should lead to the development of new safer and more effective antivenoms, while the elucidated genome and predicted associated proteome may be a powerful platform for studies of venomous snakes.