For the well over 700 million people around the globe living with Type 1 diabetes, getting a host immune system to tolerate the presence of implanted insulin-secreting cells could be life-changing.   Rice University bioengineer Omid Veiseh and collaborators identified new biomaterial formulations that could help turn the page on Type 1 diabetes treatment, opening the door to a more sustainable, long-term, self-regulating way to handle the disease.   To do so, they developed a new screening technique that involves...

A novel approach to administering intrathecal (IT) immunotherapy (directly into the spinal fluid) and intravenous (IV) immunotherapy was safe and improved survival in a subset of patients with leptomeningeal disease (LMD) from metastatic melanoma, according to interim analyses of a Phase I/Ib trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.   The study represents the first-in-human trial of concurrent IT and IV nivolumab (anti-PD-1) in melanoma patients with LMD. Across...

Intratumoral delivery of an engineered oncolytic virus (DNX-2401) targeting glioblastoma (GBM) cells combined with subsequent immunotherapy was safe and improved survival outcomes in a subset of patients with recurrent GBM, according to results from a multi-institutional Phase I/II clinical trial co-led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Toronto.   The study met its primary safety endpoint and demonstrated the combination was well tolerated overall with no dose-limiting toxicities. The study did not meet...

The University of Texas Medical Branch welcomed some new staff members at the Angleton Danbury campus this week: two nearly life-sized robots programmed to support the human staff and free up nurses from certain tasks to allow them more time to spend with patients. Nurses are consummate multitaskers who are focused on patient care. But what about the important but non-patient-facing tasks that take nurses away from patient care for what studies have shown to...

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrated that adding metastasis-directed radiation therapy to intermittent hormone therapy improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with oligometastatic prostate cancer.   At a median follow-up of 22.1 months, the median PFS had not yet been reached in men who received the combination therapy, suggesting a significant improvement over the median PFS of 15.8 months in men who received only hormone therapy. The combination was well-tolerated and lengthened the period men could...

Missing crucial doses of medicines and vaccines could become a thing of the past thanks to Rice University bioengineers’ next-level technology for making time-released drugs. This is a huge problem in the treatment of chronic disease,” said Kevin McHugh, corresponding author of a study about the technology. “It’s estimated that 50% of people don’t take their medications correctly. With this, you’d give them one shot, and they’d be all set for the next couple of months.” When...

The GENCODE project showed that roughly 70% of the human genome is transcribed into RNA, including many long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), defined as RNA molecules longer than 200 nucleotides that lack protein-coding potential. However, recent evidence suggests some lncRNAs may produce “hidden” proteins whose potential role in cancer remains unknown. To investigate this, researchers led by Yiwen Chen, Ph.D., used an integrative genomic strategy combining CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screens with data from The Cancer Genome Atlas....

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, partly due to a tumor microenvironment that is highly resistant to immunotherapy. Data for nonmyelinating Schwann cells, which wrap around small neuronal axons to provide support and to promote new sprouting, suggests these cells may facilitate pancreatic tumor invasion into the nervous system. To further understand the role of these cells, researchers led by Liuqing Yang, Ph.D., and Chunru Lin, Ph.D., characterized the gene signature of tumor-associated nonmyelinating...

To determine the appropriate treatment approach for metastatic cancer, it is critical to identify a tumor’s primary site of origin. Specific biomarkers to assist with proper diagnosis could benefit clinicians and patients. PAX8 is commonly used to determine if a tumor is of gynecologic origin, but it also is highly expressed in other cancers such as thyroid and renal carcinomas, making it difficult to reliably diagnose tumors with ovarian and endometrial origin. To identify a...

According to Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Texas needs to establish a state research institute to tackle a growing brain health crisis – which will contribute to healthier and more productive communities. Brain diseases have profound impacts on public health, according to author Harris Eyre, fellow in brain health at the Baker Institute’s Center for Health and Biosciences. These diseases can cause tremendous pain and suffering for individuals of all ages and their...