A New Strategy for Treating Autoimmune Disease While Maintaining Immune Function

The Chen Lab discovered a new therapeutic strategy that avoids immune deficiency while treating autoimmune disease. Specifically, they identified immune cells that express a key immune checkpoint receptor that drives type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The Chen Lab then created an immunotoxin that selectively depletes these cells. Continue reading → A New Strategy for Treating Autoimmune Disease While Maintaining Immune Function

MicroRNA Regulation of Inflammation and Immunity

MicroRNAs provide a crucial level of control for cell development and function through their post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Their importance is highlighted by their diverse functions in a range of cell types, including immune cells. Continue reading → MicroRNA Regulation of Inflammation and Immunity

Fast-acting Insulins from Cone Snails

Faster acting human insulins are needed to improve the efficacy of diabetic insulin pumps. Over the past few years, collaborating teams led by Olivera, Safavi-Hemami, Schlegel, Yandell, and Chou have made the remarkable discovery that fish-hunting cone snails use fast-acting insulins to inactivate their prey by inducing hypoglycemia. Continue reading → Fast-acting Insulins from Cone Snails

Assessing and Enhancing Blood Pressure Control Protocols

Adults at high risk for cardiovascular disease who receive intensive systolic blood pressure control have significantly lower rates of death and cardiovascular disease events than those who receive standard control. However, the lifetime health benefits and health care costs associated with intensive control are not known. Continue reading → Assessing and Enhancing Blood Pressure Control Protocols

Ovarian Cancer Subtyping to Understand Risk, Treatment, Survival, and Racial/Ethnic Disparities

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic cancer, with a five-year survival of only 47%. Doherty and colleagues have focused on deciphering heterogeneity in ovarian cancer tumors, as a guide to the understanding of risk, treatment, survival, and racial/ethnic disparities. Continue reading → Ovarian Cancer Subtyping to Understand Risk, Treatment, Survival, and Racial/Ethnic Disparities

Defining Essential Regions of the Human Genome

There is a longstanding interest in identifying the subset of our genome that is the most essential to life and normal development. Quinlan and colleagues studied genetic variation detected among >120,000 human exomes to reveal focal coding regions that lack variation in healthy individuals. Continue reading → Defining Essential Regions of the Human Genome