New adoptive T cell therapies - in which T cells, the immune system's natural hunters patrolling the body for foreign adversaries, are retrieved from cancer-riddled patients, super-charged and amplified outside the body, and then infused back into the same patient - are changing the prospects of cancer patients.

Researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG), and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) have investigated in detail how BPTA syndrome, an extremely rare hereditary condition, arises. A change in the charge of a protein disrupts cellular self-organization, resulting in a developmental disorder.

The viruses Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) have been linked to several cancers. For the first time, UNC School of Medicine scientists have discovered that these viruses use a human protein called barrier-to-autointegration factor 1, or BAF, to evade our innate immune response, allowing the viruses to spread and cause disease.

A new way to significantly increase the potency of almost any vaccine has been developed by researchers from the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) at Northwestern University. The scientists used chemistry and nanotechnology to change the structural location of adjuvants and antigens on and within a nanoscale vaccine, greatly increasing vaccine performance.

New research has found some antidepressants may be effective in treating certain chronic pain conditions, but others lack convincing evidence on their effectiveness.

Many people are unaware that some antidepressants (medications used to treat people living with depression) are also being prescribed to treat certain chronic pain conditions.

A new study that analyzed the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic cancer revealed the cause of tumor cell resistance to immunotherapy and resulted in new treatment strategies.

This study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, is the latest from an ongoing platform trial formed in 2015 to study immunotherapy treatments before surgery (neoadjuvant) and after surgery (adjuvant) in patients with pancreatic cancer.

The evolutionary secrets that enable the medicinal herb known as barbed skullcap to produce cancer fighting compounds have been unlocked by a collaboration of UK and Chinese researchers.

The CEPAMS collaboration used DNA sequencing technology to assemble the genomic sequence of skullcap (Scutellaria barbata) known in China as banzhilian.