Science

• CAR T cells target senescence marker, ameliorate cancer, fibrosis

  Gastrointestinal

  By targeting chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to a senescence marker, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have developed a CAR T cell that had beneficial effects in mouse models of both liver fibrosis and lung cancer.

• Centrifugation can be child’s play with fidget spinners

  Genitourinary/Sexual Function

  Fidget spinners are hand-held toys based on a roller bearing and three weighted lobes, which can spin freely, creating centrifugal force when activated manually.

• Germline ApoE variants affect melanoma trajectory

  Cancer

  Variants in the APOE gene are the strongest genetic risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Now, researchers at Rockefeller University have demonstrated that APOE variants also affected the risk of progression and metastasis as well as the response to immunotherapy, in melanoma.

• Phosphatases are yin to kinases’ yang

  Conferences

  The activity of many proteins is controlled through phosphorylation by kinases and dephosphorylation by phosphatases.

• In vitro study gives ‘blueprint’, drug leads for SARS-CoV-2

  A multi-institutional group led by the University of California at San Francisco’s Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) has identified more than 200 host proteins that interacted with SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins during infection, creating “a blueprint of how SARS-CoV-2 hijacks human cells.”

• Climate crisis is chronicle of a death foretold

  The climate crisis in the time of COVID-19 illustrates the difference between the important and the urgent. There is, of course, no alternative to focusing on the current pandemic. But at the same time, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has not changed the fact that the climate crisis is a coming wave whose health consequences will ultimately dwarf those of any single infectious agent.