7/8/10 Researchers at the Koch Institute, Whitehead Institute, and Children’s Hospital Boston have identified a protein, called Musashi 2 that is predictive of prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients.  High levels of the Musashi 2 protein are associated with increased cell proliferation, decreased cell maturation, and multiple cancer-related cellular pathways in human leukemias. The protein and the cellular functions it affects could potentially represent therapeutic targets in certain types of leukemia, according to the researchers’ article in Nature Medicine. Leukemia, a blood cancer characterized by an overgrowth of certain blood cells, is diagnosed in an estimated 48,000 new patients annually. In AML and CML, a cell type in the bone marrow becomes defective, dividing repeatedly and eventually crowding out normal red and white blood cells, leading to anemia and an inability to fight infections.     

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8/5/10   MIT chemical engineers have developed a tool to measure gene expression and how those genes affect cellular activity in thousands of cells at once. This could aid research into treatments for viruses such as HIV or tuberculosis and cancers.  The relationship between the expression of certain genes and the subsequent functional activities of a cell is a central question in cell biology. Traditional tests that study genetic and proteomic responses to applied external stimuli typically require more than 1000 cells for each analysis, but the resulting averages obscure variations that may exist among individual cells, which can lead to misinterpretations of the biology.   Now the lab of  MIT Professor Christopher Love has developed a simple, one-step process for detecting the expression of specific genes in thousands of single cells in parallel.   Love's method involves using a multiwell device to detect copies of mRNA transcripts from individual cells in a one-step, single-cell, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine which genes are expressed in that cell at different stages of development and under different conditions.

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8/16/10   Drugs encapsulated in new KI nanoparticles can hitch a ride to tumors on the surface of immune-system cells. Clinical trials using patients’ own immune cells to target tumors have yielded promising results.  However, this approach usually works only if the patients also receive large doses of drugs designed to help immune cells multiply rapidly, and those drugs have life-threatening side effects.  Now a team of MIT engineers has devised a way to deliver the necessary drugs by smuggling them on the backs of the cells sent in to fight the tumor. That way, the drugs reach only their intended targets, greatly reducing the risk to the patient.  The new approach could dramatically improve the success rate of immune-cell therapies, which hold promise for treating many types of cancer, says Darrell Irvine, senior author of a paper just out in Nature Medicine.  “What we’re looking for is the extra nudge that could take immune-cell therapy from working in a subset of people to working in nearly all patients, and to take us closer to cures of disease rather than slowing progression”.   The new method could also be used to deliver other types of cancer drugs or to promote blood-cell maturation in bone-marrow transplant recipients, according to the researchers. 

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8/23/10  Human pluripotent stem cells, which can become any other kind of body cell, hold great potential to treat a wide range of diseases. However, scientists who work with such cells have had trouble growing large enough quantities to perform experiments — in particular, to be used in human studies.  Furthermore, most materials now used to grow human stem cells include cells or proteins that come from mice embryos, which help stimulate stem-cell growth but would likely cause an immune reaction if injected into a human patient.  To overcome those issues, MIT chemical engineers, materials scientists and biologists have devised a synthetic surface that includes no foreign animal material and allows stem cells to stay alive and continue reproducing themselves for at least three months. It’s also the first synthetic material that allows single cells to form colonies of identical cells, which is necessary to identify cells with desired traits and has been difficult to achieve with existing materials.   

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9/15/10    KI is hosting the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) development leader workshop on September 15th at the Broad Auditorium at 11:00 AM. The sessions will review upcoming SBIR & STTR funding opportunities, the Bridge Award, and tips for applying.   All interested parties are invited to come and learn about how their work may be eligible to tap into the financial resources available from the NCI.  

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