It is well known that mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) gene are causative of cystic fibrosis, a lethal autosomal recessive Mendelian disorder. Several studies have also pointed to an association between CFTR mutations and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Current therapies based on immune checkpoint blockade are effective and offer a valid option for treatment, but many patients develop either primary or acquired resistance to treatment. Previous research has shown that the deletion of protein tyrosine phosphatases PTPN2 and PTPN1 results in an increase in the sensitization of tumor cells and the promotion of antitumor immunity.
Evotec SE and Novo Nordisk A/S have announced the launch of Lab En2, a translational drug discovery accelerator that aims to advance early research from academic institutions into novel therapeutics.
Investigators have functionally linked the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk gene SORL1 to apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and clusterin, another apolipoprotein. The work, Tracy Young-Pearse told BioWorld, is part of an attempt to “try to understand different subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease.” It maps some of what Young-Pearse termed the “many molecular roads that lead to Alzheimer’s” – which, in turn, is the first step to setting up roadblocks. Young-Pearse is an associate professor in the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and co-leader of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute’s Nervous System Diseases Program. She is also the senior author of the paper describing the findings, which appeared online in Cell Reports on Aug. 22, 2023.
A team of scientists led by The Wistar Institute has been awarded a 5-year National Cancer Institute (NCI) Program Project Grant valued at more than $12 million to explore the role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in epithelial cancers. The project, which brings together scientists from The Wistar Institute and Harvard University, will focus entirely on the EBV-epithelial cancer link and look at metabolic and epigenetic vulnerabilities simultaneously.
The editing in human cells and in mice of the survival motor neuron 1 gene (SMN1) restored the levels of SMN protein that the mutation of the SMN2 gene produces in spinal muscular atrophy. Scientists from the Broad Institute in Boston and The Ohio State University reversed the mutation using the base editing technique.
The editing in human cells and in mice of the survival motor neuron 1 gene (SMN1) restored the levels of SMN protein that the mutation of the SMN2 gene produces in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Scientists from the Broad Institute in Boston and The Ohio State University reversed the mutation using the base editing technique. “This base editing approach to treating SMA should be applicable to all SMA patients, regardless of the specific mutation that caused their SMN1 loss,” the lead author David Liu, a professor and director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, told BioWorld.
