SUMMARY Innovative therapeutic strategy leveraging commensal microbiota, specifically by oral administration of Bifidobacterium, to enhance anti-tumor immunity, potentially improving cancer treatment when combined with checkpoint inhibitors Unmet Need: Only 20-40% of patients respond to immunotherapy while a majority experience… Read More
SUMMARY Burn injuries are among the most devastating of all injuries and are the fourth most common type of trauma worldwide. In the United States, there are 1.1 million burn injuries which require medical attention each year. These injuries often result in significant scarring having a negative impact on the… Read More
SUMMARY Radiotherapy and immunotherapy are used to treat many cancer types, yet only 50% and 20% of patients respond, respectively. Resistance to therapy presents a large problem. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is commonly found in on RNA in eukaryotic cells. By binding to m6A sites, YTHDF2 (YTH N6-Methyladenosine RNA Binding Protein… Read More
SUMMARY Residual bubble clouds decrease the therapeutic efficacy of ablative ultrasound therapy. Ultrasound pulses can be used to destroy residual bubbles, however constructive interference limits simultaneous imaging and monitoring. The inventors developed a method to use plane wave B-mode imaging for the simultaneous generation of bubble deleting pulses and real… Read More
SUMMARY The Rad51 enzyme is over-expressed in many cancers and promotes chemotherapy and radiation resistance by facilitating the homologous recombination necessary for DNA lesion repair. Current therapies that target RAD51 are plagued by significant off-target effects and toxicity. Current RAD51 inhibitors block the enzyme’s role in oncogenic homologous recombination, but… Read More
SUMMARY Regulatory T cells (Tregs) modulate immune function by preventing autoreactive T cell responses, including those that would normally target cancer cells. Treg activity can significantly limit the efficacy of immunotherapies designed to stimulate CD8+ T cells, and therefore a strategy for reducing Treg activity as an aspect of immunotherapy… Read More
SUMMARY Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SART) is the precise delivery of concentrated radiation beams to a tumor from different angles. Due to the cross interaction between beams, SART is rarely able to be applied in the simultaneous treatment of multiple metastatic lesions, despite the potential benefit to patients who have… Read More
SUMMARY Vaccine efficacy is limited due to the inability to deliver in-tact antigens to antigen presenting (APC) dendritic cells (DCs) while simultaneously activating the cells in a non-toxic fashion. Adjuvants have been used in an attempt to overcome the issues of vaccine efficacy, however they are poorly soluble which results… Read More
SUMMARY Adjuvant radiation therapy post-surgery remains largely ineffective, with just 5% of patients showing a survival benefit. Small molecule JAK inhibitors have shown efficacy in the clinic at treating these patients, yet problematically this approach is plagued by off-target toxicities and eventual development of treatment resistance. The inventors used an… Read More
SUMMARY Current immunotherapy approaches often focus on targeting a single immune checkpoint or suppressive pathway, which can be insufficient given the redundancy and adaptability of tumor-mediated immune evasion. Tumors can compensate for the blockade of one pathway by upregulating alternative suppressive mechanisms, leading to limited efficacy and the persistence of… Read More
SUMMARY kV radiation dose for imaging tumors is useful for direct monitoring and real-time organ tracking without relying on high-risk surgical implants. However, the utility of this approach is limited by concerns of radiation overdose associated with exposing patients to an additional radiation source other than the MV treatment dose. Read More
SUMMARY Protein palmitoylation is a post translational modification of cystine protein residues, the dysregulation of which is implicated in diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancers, and Huntington’s. Despite the importance of palmitoylation, the regulation of the enzymes that control it is poorly understood. The inventors designed an enzyme substrate analogue probe… Read More