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New nanoparticles stimulate the immune system to attack ovarian tumors

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T argeted particles carrying the cytokine IL-12 can jump-start T cells, allowing them to clear tumors while avoiding side effects. Originally published by Anne Trafton | MIT News , on October 31, 2025 M IT chemical engineers have designed nanoparticles that can deliver an immune-stimulating molecule called IL-12 to ovarian cancer cells . IL-12 then recruits T cells to attack the tumors.  Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; background image National Cancer Institute Cancer immunotherapy , which uses drugs that stimulate the body’s immune cells to attack tumors , is a promising approach to treating many types of cancer. However, it doesn’t work well for some tumors , including  ovarian cance r. To elicit a better response, MIT researchers have designed new nanoparticles that can deliver an immune-stimulating molecule called IL-12 directly to ovarian tumors . When given along with immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors , IL-12 helps the immune syste...

Supercomputer decodes protein ‘language,’ offering new clues to fight cancer

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Tursa supercomputer led to the creation of the protein language model called PLM-Interact. O riginally published by  Mrigakshi Dixit  on  Oct 27, 2025  Representational image of protein interaction.  Getty Images    A supercomputer has helped to create an artificial intelligence model that deciphers the “language of proteins.” Scientists at the University of Glasgow used the Tursa supercomputer at the UK’s DiRAC High Performance Supercomputer facility . This advanced machine is typically reserved for cosmic research , but it was used for medical purposes in this study. Tursa led to the creation of the protein language model called PLM-Interact .  Interestingly, the model predicts protein interactions and even forecasts which mutations will disrupt the communication between these vital molecules . Read more 

Nobel Prize in medicine goes to trio for their work on immune tolerance

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Originally published By Patrick Pester in LiveScience on October 6, 2025 The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their work on how our immune system is prevented from attacking our organs. The 2025 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine winners, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi, pioneered the field of peripheral immune tolerance . (Image credit: © The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén) A trio of researchers has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how the immune system is prevented from attacking our own bodies . Mary E. Brunkow of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle , Fred Ramsdell of Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco , and Shimon Sakaguchi of Osaka University in Japan were awarded the prize " for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance ." The Nobel Assembly at Karol...

UBC enzyme technology clears first human test toward universal donor organs for transplantation

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University of British Columbia successfully  developed enzymes that  converted a kidney to universal type O for transplant, marking a major step toward faster, more compatible organ donations. Originally published in The University of British Columbia  site by Erik Rolfsen on October 3, 2025 The kidney, pre-transplant, in a perfusion device which is used to circulate a solution that contains the converting enzymes. Source: Nature Biomedical Engineering. The first successful human transplant of a kidney c onverted from blood type A to universal type O used special enzymes developed at the University of BritishColumbia to help prevent a mismatch and rejection of the organ. Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering , the achievement marks a major step toward helping thousands of patients get kidney transplants sooner . In a first-in-human experiment , the enzyme-converted kidney was transplanted into a brain-dead recipient with consent from the family, allowin...

Is Life a Form of Computation?

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  Alan Turing and John von Neumann saw it early: the logic of life and the logic of code may be one and the same. Image source: Miguel Romero, Adobe Stock Originally published in thereader.mitpress.mit.edu by Blaise Agüera y Arcas Image source: Miguel Romero, Adobe Stock   I n 1994, a strange, pixelated machine came to life on a computer screen . I t read a string of instructions, copied them, and built a clone of itself — just as the Hungarian-American Polymath John von Neumann had predicted half a century earlier . It was a striking demonstration of a profound idea: that life, at its core, might be computational. This article is adapted from Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s book “ What Is Intelligence? ” An open access edition of the book is available here . Although this is seldom fully appreciated, von Neumann was one of the first to establish a deep link between life and computation . Reproduction, like computation, he showed, could be carried out by machines following ...

She was the world’s oldest person, living to 117. What do her genes reveal about the secret of longevity?

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Originally published in edition.cnn.com b y Issy Ronald, on September 26, 2.025 Maria Branyas Morera lived to be 117 years old. Courtesy Manel Esteller) When a supercentenarian , someone who is older than 110 years old, is interviewed, they are inevitably asked to share their tips for longevity . But what if their secret could be studied scientifically? What could their genome tell us about ageing and why they avoid the diseases that claim so many other people? If any secrets were uncovered, might they, perhaps, help others to live as long, too? Questions like these are at the heart of a recent paper, published Wednesday in the journal Cell Reports Medicine , which investigated the genome of Maria Branyas Morera , a US-born Spanish woman who died in August 2024 at age 117 years and 168 days, shortly after becoming the world’s oldest living person. Read more  

Gut Immune Cells Travel to the Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease

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Immune changes occur in the gut of an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. A high fiber diet can alleviate these and other disease-related symptoms. Originally published by Laura Tran, PhD, in The Nutshell (The Scientist), on Aug 29, 2025 5 Immune cells can send signals between the gut-brain axis, but researchers found that these cells also migrate into the brain in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.  Image credit:©iStock, YURY PRONIN The gut is home to a richly diverse community of microbes and nearly 80 percent of the body’s immune cells . This menagerie of gut-derived cel ls send signals along a bidirectional cellular highway, known as the vagus nerve , influencing not only the immune system but also brain function and behavior . Due to this relationship, the gut-brain axis is emerging as a target in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) . However, the immunological features of this axis in AD are not fully understood . This motivated researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on ...