A therapeutic antibody developed by scientists at UCL has been shown to unblock and normalise blood vessels inside cancerous tumours, enabling the more effective delivery of targeted cancer treatments.

The findings in mice, published in the journal MED, are the first to demonstrate that inhibiting the activity of LRG1, a protein produced in many tumorous tissues, liberates disorganised angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) - a leading cause of morbidity in numerous diseases including cancer.

A study led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research has revealed a guide to developing COVID-19 vaccines that both prevent the coronavirus from infecting human cells and that are more resistant to evolving viral strains.

The team’s key criteria for antibodies generated by future vaccines are to target regions of the SARS-CoV-2 viral surface that are unlikely to mutate and share key features that the researchers found could block the virus from infecting human cells.

Scientists have discovered that a deadly parasite, known to cause ill health in pregnant women and immunocompromised patients, could potentially be used to treat various types of tumours.

The research, published today in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy Cancer, was carried out by experts from the University of Nottingham, Ningbo University and Shanxi Agricultural University in China.

Rice University researchers have introduced an online portal to help researchers screen COVID-19 drug candidates that might attack specific proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Lydia Kavraki, a computer scientist at the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and her colleagues at the University of Houston, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, have posted a "user-friendly" web server offering scientists the chance to screen their drug candidates virtually in relation to known protein binding pockets on the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

A needle-free COVID-19 vaccination could be possible, with University of Queensland scientists successfully protecting mice from the virus by administering a US-developed vaccine candidate with a ‘patch’.

The University of Texas Hexapro vaccine candidate - delivered via the UQ-developed and Vaxxas-commercialised high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) - provided protection against COVID-19 disease with a single, pain-free 'click' from a pocket-sized applicator.

Scientists from Queen's University Belfast have developed a computer-aided data tool that could improve treatment for a range of illnesses.

The computer modelling tool will predict novel sites of binding for potential drugs that are more selective, leading to more effective drug targeting, increasing therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects.

A study conducted by a consortium of Brazilian researchers has demonstrated that a hyperimmune serum consisting of purified antibody fragments produced in horses may be an efficient approach to combat COVID-19. Tests conducted in hamsters improved the animal clinical conditions. The neutralizing activity of the sera developed by the scientists has been proved to be high against the P.1 (Gamma) and P.2 variants.