SUMMARY There have been significant research efforts to develop effective vaccines that elicit a strong and durable T cell response against intracellular pathogens and cancer. A popular strategy has been to enhance vaccination efficacy by targeting dendritic cells (DCs). For DCs, functional heterogeneity is critical in the complex process of… Read More
SUMMARY There have been significant research efforts to develop various COVID-19 treatments. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus i.e. SARS-CoV-2, which has spread rapidly throughout the world and was declared a global pandemic by WHO in March 2020. Nsp15 is… Read More
SUMMARY Embryonic and fetal hemoglobin have a higher affinity for oxygen than their adult counterpart, and as such, gene editing techniques to revert red blood cells to produce infant or fetal hemoglobin are being explored for the treatment of sickle cell anemia. Problematically, these techniques require the use of toxic… Read More
SUMMARY Post-CPR cardiogenic shock is associated with hemodynamic instability and poor neurological outcomes. The pathophysiology is unknown and current treatment approaches merely restore basal cardiac function and do not protect against longer term damage. The inventors demonstrated that the main mechanism leading to post-CPR cardiogenic shock is myocardial stunning, which… 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 Airway remodeling induced by asthma and fibrosis promotes reduced responsiveness to currently available therapies. As such, there is an urgent need for the development of novel treatments that target the underlying molecular mechanisms of tissue remodeling in asthma and fibrosis. The inventors discovered a novel class of organic molecule… Read More
SUMMARY The KEAP1-NRF2 pathway is implicated in a wide range of diseases and as such, is a highly sought-after drug target. Problematically, past therapeutic approaches failed due to safety and toxicity of electrophilic NRF2 activators. The inventors developed a novel strategy to indirectly activate NRF2 using a non-covalent metabolism modulating… Read More