Category Health/Medical

The T cell receptor on T cells might recognize antigens derived from mutated proteins in cancer cells. Once a foreign “non-self” antigen is detected, the T cell will kill the cancer cell. Credit: Matthias Leisegang.

T cell therapies with less side effects. An international team has successfully modified immune cells to recognize and specifically target tumor cells in mice. Cancer treatments based on the findings would likely have fewer side effects than standard therapies. Although T cells migrate into tumors and recognize antigens, the defense mechanism seems to fail during the formation of tumors. T cells in the tumors are usually inactive and therapeutically almost useless...

U of T Engineering professor Warren Chan has spent the last decade figuring out how to deliver chemotherapy drugs into tumours — and nowhere else. Now his lab has designed a set of nanoparticles attached to strands of DNA that can change shape to gain access to diseased tissue. Credit: NSERC

Modular nanoparticles attached to strands of DNA can change shape to gain access to diseased tissue. Many cancer drugs target fast-growing cells ie tumours, but unfortunately also hair follicles, GI lining, and skin. U of T Engineering Prof. Warren Chan has spent the last decade figuring out how to deliver chemotherapy drugs into tumours – and nowhere else.

One thing we know about cancer: no 2 tumours are identical...

This is a graphical representation of work investigating the mechanism of Suv39h1 using designer chromatin. Credit: Image provided by the Muir lab

Essential DNA packing enzyme relies on 2-step activation to ensure correct genetic organization. For any particular cell, eg skin or brain cell, much of this genetic information is extraneous and must be packed away to allow sufficient space and resources for more important genes. Failure to properly pack DNA jeopardizes the stability of chromosomes and can result in severe diseases. Suv39h1 is one of the main enzymes that chemically mark the irrelevant regions of DNA to be compacted by cellular machinery, but little is known about how it installs its tag.

Scientists at Princeton have used ‘designer chromatin’ templates – highly customized repli...