 | A Means to an End
The Love and Shalek labs devised a high throughput single-cell RNA sequencing method for identifying T cells that share a particular target. Conventional RNA sequencing reads only one end of an RNA molecule. Yet, the variable sequences encoding for T cell receptors (TCR), which bind to receptors on target cells, reside on the other end. The new method, published in Nature Immunology and partly supported by the Bridge Project, complements the conventional approach by amplifying TCR-encoding RNA molecules labeled for their T cells of origin, then pulls and sequences them. The study identified T cells that produce inflammation in peanut allergies, but the technique can be applied to a variety of T cell responses, including patient responses to cancer immunotherapies. |
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A Farewell to ARMS?
Fusion-positive alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) is a rare, deadly, and poorly understood skeletal muscle cancer. Thanks, however, to a high-risk, high-reward grant from the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, this pediatric cancer faces a new adversary in KI member Angela Koehler. As part of a multi-institutional team, Koehler will use her signature microarray technology to screen for potential compounds that target the so-called “undruggable” fusion oncoproteins responsible for ARMS. The work is expected to open up new therapeutic opportunities for patients and inform drug development strategies for other challenging “orphan diseases.” |
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Here Be Dragonfly
Dragonfly, co-founded by KI director Tyler Jacks, launched its first clinical trial, a study of multiple solid tumor types, with a drug candidate called DF1001; the drug is the first from its TriNKET™ platform of NK cell-based immunotherapies to move into humans. The company also entered a partnership with AbbVie to help commercialize other candidates in its pipeline. |
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Drop Some Knowledge
KI faculty member and Nobel Laureate Phil Sharp makes biological “supercomplexes” a little less complex in the first installment of the GLiMPSE podcast’s “Living Droplets” series. Droplet technology is the focus of a new research partnership between KI startup Dewpoint Therapeutics and Bayer. |
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Join us on December 10
On Tuesday, join members of the Yaffe Lab and their clinical and biotech collaborators as they illuminate the science behind an ongoing clinical trial at SOLUTIONS with/in/sight: Catalytic Combinations for Prostate Cancer and Beyond. Discover how a synergistic drug combination discovered at the Koch Institute revived an all but forgotten drug class and shows great promise for combating resistant tumors.
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KI Gets Two Therapeutic Thumbs Up
New startup Immunitas Therapeutics combines immunology and genetic targeting to stop tumors with a platform incorporating Bridge Project research by Aviv Regev, Mario Suvà, Dane Wittrup, and Kai Wucherpfennig.
Sunflower Therapeutics will develop the Love lab’s nimble technology to dramatically reduce the time and cost to develop and manufacture biologics for patients around the world, from orphan diseases to areas without healthcare infrastructure. |
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Best in Shaw
Jacks lab alum and former Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Clinical Investigator Alice Shaw was profiled by Endpoints News as one of 20 extraordinary women in biopharma R&D. A pioneer of targeted treatments for lung cancer, Shaw will apply her experience as an MGH physician and Harvard Medical School professor in her new role as chief of translational clinical oncology at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. |
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