Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered SARS-CoV-2 proteins that suppress the body’s immune response, thereby enabling infection and transmission of the disease. The findings are paramount to understanding the biology of COVID-19 and to developing new vaccines against the disease. “The outcome of any infection is determined by pathogen amplification and immune response inside our body. In the case of COVID-19 patients, it is important to understand how SARS-CoV-2...

A new study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has discovered that mutations found in cancers do not accumulate randomly, but are found in distinct patterns that vary based on the three-dimensional organization of the genome in the cell as well as the underlying factors causing the mutations. Mutations caused by external factors, such as ultraviolet light or tobacco smoke, led to mutations in different regions than internal factors, such...

Rice University engineers will gain a better understanding of brain activity over time with the support of the National Institutes of Health. The agency has awarded a four-year grant of $4.15 million to Chong Xie of the Brown School of Engineering’s Neuroengineering Initiative to maximize the use of devices based on the flexible nanoelectronic thread (NET) he has developed. The information they gather could be critical to future treatment of neurological disease. The biocompatible probes have the unique ability to stably...

A new study by researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston suggests that people with substance use disorders may be particularly vulnerable to the adverse respiratory effects of COVID-19, especially those using drugs that impair the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, health care systems are working to identify patients at high risk of becoming infected with and suffering from complications of the disease. People with substance use disorder are likely to be at...

Results from a Phase II trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center suggest that a combination of ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4) plus nivolumab (anti-PD-1) can generate durable responses in a subset of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), an “immune-cold” cancer that does not typically respond well to immunotherapy. In a cohort of patients without previous chemotherapy treatment, the overall response rate (ORR) was 25% and median overall survival (OS) was 19 months. In a...

According to researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the implementation of social distancing policies corresponded with significant reductions in the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and reduced community mobility, both in the U.S. and globally, providing evidence that social distancing is a useful tool in preventing further spread of COVID-19. The study, published today in PLOS ONE, estimates that social distancing policies enacted nationally in 46 countries prevented an estimated 1.57...

An enhanced version of the ApolloBVM designed by Rice University engineers has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an emergency resuscitator for use during the COVID-19 pandemic. The device, as further developed by the Houston manufacturer Stewart & Stevenson Healthcare Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of Kirby Corporation, is designed to deliver air to the lungs of adult patients who require ventilation while they await the availability of a...

Biomolecular engineers at Rice University have found a C-worthy technique that dramatically enhances the accuracy of gene editing. The Rice lab of biomolecular engineer, Xue Sherry Gao, has introduced a set of tools that increase the accuracy of CRISPR-based edits in disease sequence models up to 6,000-fold compared with a current base editor, BE4max, that is considered state-of-the-art. Cytosine base editors are able to convert cytosines (C) to thymines (T) in the human genome, which...

With more widespread deployment of the Ebola vaccine to people living and working within hot zones, recently vaccinated people may encounter high-risk exposures to the virus before their body can develop the immunity needed to protect against infection. When a non-vaccinated person is exposed to Ebola virus, the most effective intervention currently available is an antibody treatment. But in someone who was recently vaccinated, experts have been concerned about the possibility of a harmful interaction...

In patients with metastatic bladder cancer, a novel combination of biomarkers from baseline tumor tissues was predictive of improved clinical responses and prolonged survival following treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study used multi-platform analyses of tumor samples to discover that ARID1A mutations in tumor cells and expression of the immune signaling protein CXCL13 in surrounding immune cells were enriched in patients who...