Lifeboat Foundation

Updated analysis from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center presented at ASCO 2024.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have established a new framework for understanding how classic antidepressants work in treating major depressive disorder (MDD), reemphasizing their importance and aiming to reframe clinical conversation around their role in treatment.

In what researchers have called an “unprecedented” response, a new drug that treats locally advanced rectal cancer has shown to have completely eradicated tumors in all 42 patients who took part in the Phase II trial.

The drug, Jemperli (dostarlimab-gxly), had earlier shown great potential for eliminating mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) cancers, which make up 5–10% of colorectal cancers. Following the Phase II trial, the first 24 patients assessed showed a “sustained complete clinical response” – no cancer evident – after an average of 26.3 months.

“These findings demonstrate the potential of dostarlimab-gxly as a novel approach to treating locally advanced dMMR rectal cancer that leads to durable complete tumor regression without the need for life-altering treatment,” said Dr Andrea Cercek, researcher and oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). “As a clinician, I’ve seen firsthand the debilitating impact of standard treatment of dMMR rectal cancer and am thrilled about the potential of dostarlimab-gxly in these patients.”

Making Humanity A Multi-Planetary Species — Dr. Eliah Overbey, Ph.D. — Assistant Professor, Bioastronautics, University of Austin; CSO, BioAstra.

Dr. Eliah Overbey, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Bioastronautics at The University of Austin (UATX — https://www.uaustin.org/people/eliah–…) where she is involved in pioneering research in the field of astronaut health, specializing in spaceflight-induced genomic changes. Her work focuses on mapping changes in the human body during spaceflight and developing Earth-independent laboratories to make humans a multi-planetary species (https://www.eliahoverbey.com/).

Continue reading “Dr. Eliah Overbey, Ph.D. — Assistant Prof., Bioastronautics, UATX — Making Humanity Multi-Planetary” »

GCC19CART has previously been evaluated in an investigator-initiated clinical trial (ChiCTR2000040645) in China for the treatment of relapsed/refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (r/r mCRC).² Data from that trial showing improvements over standard of care (SOC) third-line therapies were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023, held April 14–19, 2023, in Orlando, Florida. Among the 21 patients included in the efficacy analysis, superior results were observed in patients (n=8) who received the higher dose level (2×10⁶ CAR-T cells/kg; DL2) than in patients (n=13) who received the lower dose level (1×10⁶ CAR-T cells/kg; DL1). The objective response rate was 50% (n=4) for DL2, 15% (n=2) for DL1, and 29% (n=6) for all patients.

“The new AE specific to this product is diarrhea because the target is guanylate cyclase 2C (GCC), which plays a role in intestinal homeostasis… So, that’s expected, theoretically,” Victor Lu, PhD, the chief technology officer of Innovative Cellular Therapeutics, who presented the data, said during his presentation.2 “Most patients treated with this product experienced diarrhea, but it can be controlled and because of the diarrhea management most of the patients actually recovered very quickly.”

GCC19CART targets both GCC and CD19.¹ It was designed using ICT’s CoupledCAR platform, which combines 2 CAR T cells engineered to release cytokines that are thought to promote proliferation and infiltration.³ The platform was designed following observations that CD19-directed CAR T cells also stimulated the immune system, which could lead to increase proliferation for other CAR T cells, specifically those directed toward solid tumor antigens, like GCC.

The Elemind headband is a soft, lightweight, and flexible wearable designed to be worn throughout the night, regardless of one’s sleeping position. It can collect information using brainwaves and pairs with a smartphone, where users can find details about their sleep patterns.

Where the headband is effective is its ability to use neuromodulation to impact the brainwaves, directing them from wakeful patterns to those of deeper sleep. “Elemind works like noise-cancellation for the brain. You can switch off the world, switch off the stress, and go to sleep faster,” explained Meredith Perry, the CEO and co-founder of Elemind.

Nick Lane discusses the emergence of consciousness as a result of mitochondrial action. Might consciousness arise from magnetic fields?Watch the full talk at…

Editor’s note: This article is part of a collection of expert commentaries. You can read the rest of the series here.

It is true that the next pandemic is a matter of “when,” not “if.” The statistical certainty of a future pandemic has led to increasing research into potential pandemic pathogens so that we may create lifesaving countermeasures. Such research, unfortunately, also carries a risk of bringing about exactly what it seeks to prevent. Human error or even deliberate action is as likely to be the cause of the next pandemic as natural origin. Such concerns have intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic, which a significant percentage of the US population, at least, believes began with a research accident, one of the two main pandemic origin theories, with the other being the jump of a virus from animals to people. The question then for governments and the research community is how to build confidence in the valuable work that scientists do through appropriate regulation.

While research with favorable risk-benefit profiles must be facilitated, high-risk research of either limited benefits or benefits for only a limited few must be seen through a different regulatory lens.

A new model, vetted by experiments on lung cancer cells, may help to explain how cancer and other diseases accumulate drug-resistance mutations that can compromise the effectiveness of treatments.

During the past 50 years, researchers have accumulated a massive arsenal in our war on cancer. Well over 500 drugs have been approved to treat tumors, but cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States. The problem is partly due to drug resistance—the emergence of treatment-resistant mutants of the original disease. Now a study led by Jeff Maltas of Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University, both in Ohio, puts forward a model explaining why drug resistance is so common, vetting the model with experiments on lung cancer cells [1]. This model indicates that treatment-resistant mutants can be present in larger-than-expected numbers before treatment begins. The conclusion implies that we cannot understand cancer evolution by looking at individual mutations in isolation; instead, we should consider each tumor as an interacting ecosystem.