Potential new cancer treatment a step closer

QIMR Berghofer researchers have discovered a potential new cancer immunotherapy target that involves switching off a regulatory cell to stop tumors growing and spreading. The study findings have been published today in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Senior researcher and head of QIMR Berghofer’s Cancer Immunoregulation and Immunotherapy Laboratory, Associate Professor Michele Teng, said […]

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Researchers aiming to cure spina bifida get a step closer to their goal

Researchers on the path to finding a cure for spina bifida have identified specific elements in stem cell secretions as key to protecting neurons and ultimately reducing the lower-limb paralysis associated with the birth defect. Those elements are exosomes—vesicles that transfer molecules from cell to cell—and a small carbohydrate-binding protein known as galectin 1. The team will use the results […]

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Characterizing ‘keyhole’ is first step to fighting obesity at cellular level

An international team has uncovered the potential to beat obesity at the cellular level, characterizing for the first time a complex, little-understood receptor type that, when activated, shuts off hunger. Jens Meiler, professor of chemistry and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University, said pharmaceutical companies long have attempted to develop a small-molecule drug that could do just that. But until now, nobody […]

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