Cancer Immunotherapy may also treat certain Autoimmune diseases

Cancer
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers has found disrupting the interaction between cancer cells and certain immune cells is more effective at killing cancer cells than current immunotherapy treatments.

The findings, which include studies in cell lines and animal models, appeared in JCI Insight and focus on a protein called CD6 as a target for a new approach to immunotherapy.

Over the past two decades, new approaches to cancer treatment have been developed that block immune checkpoints, which are receptors on the surface of certain immune cells, like natural killer T cells. Cancer exploits these immune cells and render them dormant.

This treatment, called checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy, gives these immune cells a chance to fight back...

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Novel System Sequesters CO2 and Generates Electricity

(a) Schematic illustration of MF Mg-CO2 battery. (b) The XRD profile of the precipitated white solid after discharge process in CO2 sat’d condition and N2 sat’d condition.

A recent study, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a novel system, capable of producing hydrogen and electricity quickly and effectively while cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions significantly.

Published in the January 2021 issue of Nano Energy, this breakthrough has been carried out by Professor GunTae Kim and his research team in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST. In this study, the research team succeeded in developing a membrane-free aqueous metal-CO2 battery...

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Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Feeds on Smaller Storms

A flake of red peels away from Jupiter’s Great Red Spot during an encounter with a smaller anticyclone, as seen by the Juno spacecraft’s high resolution JunoCam on 12 February 2019. Although the collisions appear violent, planetary scientists believe they are mostly surface effects, like the crust on a crème brûlée.
Credit: AGU/Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets

The massive storm near the gas giant’s equator has been shrinking, but collisions with a series of anticyclones are likely only surface deep. The smaller storms cause chunks of red clouds to flake off, shrinking the larger storm in the process. But the new study found that these disruptions are “superficial.” They are visible to us, but they are only skin deep on the Red Spot, not affecting its full depth.

The ne...

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How to Prevent Short-circuiting in Next-Gen Lithium Batteries

metal electrode

New findings may help unleash the potential of high-powered, solid-electrolyte lithium batteries. A new approach could help solve the longstanding problem of dendrite formation, which has hampered the development of new solid-state lithium-ion batteries.

As researchers push the boundaries of battery design, seeking to pack ever greater amounts of power and energy into a given amount of space or weight, one of the more promising technologies being studied is lithium-ion batteries that use a solid electrolyte material between the two electrodes, rather than the typical liquid.

But such batteries have been plagued by a tendency for branch-like projections of metal called dendrites to form on one of the electrodes, eventually bridging the electrolyte and shorting out the battery cel...

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