Lifeboat Foundation

After being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 5 and relapsing twice, Emily appeared to be out of treatment options.

Learn how research advances gave Emily her health back.

Learn how advances in cancer treatment and care have improved patients’ quality of life.

Continue reading “Offering Hope through Better Treatments and Care” »

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) presents as an unmet clinical challenge for drug delivery due to its unique hypoxic biology. Vinblastine-N-Oxide (CPD100) is a hypoxia-activated prodrug (HAP) that selectively converts to its parent compound, vinblastine, a potent cytotoxic agent, under oxygen gradient. The study evaluates the efficacy of microfluidics formulated liposomal CPD100 (CPD100Li) in PDAC. CPD100Li were formulated with a size of 95 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.2. CPD100Li was stable for a period of 18 months when freeze-dried at a concentration of 3.55 mg/mL. CPD100 and CPD100Li confirmed selective activation at low oxygen levels in pancreatic cancer cell lines. Moreover, in 3D spheroids, CPD100Li displayed higher penetration and disruption compared to CPD100.

In a recent study published in Science Advances, researchers from the California Institute of Technology, led by Dr. Wei Gao, have developed a machine learning (ML)–powered 3D-printed epifluidic electronic skin for multimodal health surveillance. This wearable platform enables real-time physical and chemical monitoring of health status.

Wearable health devices have the potential to revolutionize the medical world, offering real-time tracking, personalized treatments, and early diagnosis of diseases.

However, one of the main challenges with these devices is that they don’t track data at the molecular level, and their fabrication is challenging. Dr. Gao explained why this served as a motivation for their team.

Lewy body disease ranks as the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, following Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that attacks the brain, causing a decline in mental ability that worsens over time. It is the most common form of dementia and accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. There is no current cure for Alzheimer’s disease, but there are medications that can help ease the symptoms.

Scientists have successfully used nanotechnology to develop a 3D scaffold that supports the growth of healthy retinal cells, a breakthrough that could revolutionize the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Utilizing electrospinning technology, researchers created a scaffold that, when treated with the steroid fluocinolone acetonide, enhances the resilience and growth of retinal pigment epithelial cells, potentially aiding in the development of ocular tissue for transplantation.

Scientists have discovered a way to use nanotechnology to create a 3D ‘scaffold’ to grow cells from the retina. This breakthrough could lead to innovative approaches for treating a common source of blindness.

Researchers, led by Professor Barbara Pierscionek from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), have been working on a way to successfully grow retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells that stay healthy and viable for up to 150 days. RPE cells sit just outside the neural part of the retina and, when damaged, can cause vision to deteriorate.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Don’t worry about your hips or knees as you age. Arthritis in those joints isn’t inevitable. Keep doing the activities you enjoy. Those hopeful words come from Rafael Sierra, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic specializing in hip and knee reconstruction. Dr. Sierra says there is no need to curtail your activities out of fear that you’ll wear out those joints as you age and need joint replacement.

However, certain conditions, such as birth defects and anatomical issues, may predispose a person to have hip or knee problems. Untreated, hip dysplasia and hip impingement are leading causes of hip replacement in people under 50. Having bowlegs, knock knees — or other structural issues — can hasten the need for knee replacement.

“But it’s not like the rest of us have to be worried and say, ‘OK, at age 50, maybe I should have my hips or knees examined by a doctor,’” Dr. Sierra says. “In general, your body — your musculoskeletal system — will let you know when you have issues.”

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered that radiation therapy combined with two types of immunotherapy—one that boosts T cells, and another that boosts dendritic cells—can control tumors in preclinical models of triple negative breast cancer, a cancer type that’s typically resistant to immunotherapy alone. Immunotherapy activates the body’s own immune system to fight cancer but isn’t effective for difficult-to-treat “cold” tumors, like this.

The findings were published Aug. 24 in Nature Communications. Though radiation therapy has previously been combined with T-cell boosting immunotherapy, it rarely succeeds in eliminating cold tumors. The new, preclinical study found that activating another type of immune cell called a dendritic cell, in addition to the other two approaches, produced a synergistic effect that elicited tumor regression.

“I think this is quite exciting,” said principal investigator Dr. Sandra Demaria, professor of radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and pathologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who conducted the research under the auspices of the Department of Radiation Oncology. “There is so much room for improvement to provide more effective therapeutic options, especially for patients with cold tumors.”

Using their new scaffold with cryo-EM, the UCLA-led team saw the atomic structure of KRAS when it was connected to a drug being studied for lung cancer treatment. This showed that their method can help understand how drugs interact with proteins like KRAS, potentially leading to better medicines.

Castells-Graells said, “The potential applications for the new advance don’t stop with cancer drugs. ” Our modular scaffold can be assembled in any configuration to capture and hold all small protein molecules.”

The UCLA-led team’s essential improvement to cryo-EM technology represents a significant milestone in structural biology and scientific imaging. Their achievement in visualizing small therapeutic protein targets at 3 Å resolution is a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration in pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery. This breakthrough promises to revolutionize drug development and our understanding of complex biological systems, further solidifying Cryo-EM’s place as an invaluable tool in modern research.

Early detection of illnesses such as prostate cancer is key to treatment and a possible cure. Find out what you need to know and why you shouldn’t wait.