Osteomyelitis is a debilitating bone infection that can result when MRSA invades bone tissue following surgery. Now a team of scientists at University of Missouri led by Elizabeth Loboa, Dean of UM’s College of Engineering, has created silver-coated scaffolds that are seeded with fat-derived stem cells that can be triggered to create bone. The silver ions stave off MRSA while generating new bone.
Take a look at the video describing this revolutionary study here. More about this exciting discovery can be found at the University of Missouri website here.
They’re not quite ready to call it a cure, according to Dr. Susan Goodin of the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium. But researchers are very excited about the number of seemingly complete and relatively long-lived remissions they’re seeing in certain kinds of cancers using this new immunotherapy. Used alone and sometimes in combination with other drugs or modalities, the drugs are forcing a certain percentage of melanomas and smoking-induced lung cancers to yield. Read more about how Johns Hopkins is moving ahead with anti-PD-1 research.
English: James Earl “Jimmy” Carter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is revolutionary thinking about a new way to tap into the astounding power of our own immune system to fight cancer. It doesn’t yet work consistently with all cancers or for all patients, according to Dr. Jeffrey Sosman of Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. A lot more research is needed on how to identify who can benefit and how to translate the principle into drugs for other types of cancers. But its effects can be near-miraculous for some – in one such instance, 91-year-old President Jimmy Carter’s brain tumors disappeared.
Here’s Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Center’s quick-and-dirty cartoon video about how the anti-PD-1 drug hooks up with the PD-L1 expression on the cancer cell (antigen).
Cost is said to be staggering for these new drugs. But according to Dr. Sosman, the cost has nothing to do with the science involved. It’s more a function of what the market will bear. And he said there are ways to get the drugs for patients who desperately need them but can’t afford them.
More dramatic progress in learning how to work with nature rather than against it.
They met last weekend in Indianapolis – twelve of the traditional Big Ten (actually 14) universities with active #cancer centers. The group calls itself Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium (BTCRC), and they are serious about combining their research data and working together to speed progress against cancer in all its guises.
Cancer cells fool the human immune system into not recognizing them as invaders. Dramatic research breakthroughs in immunotherapy are mapping out how to cut through that shield and let the immune system do its job. Congratulations, members of the BTCRC. We can’t wait to hear more about how your collaboration is changing the game for cancer patients around the world.
Follow Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium on Twitter
Looking at how bioscience news affects business, higher education, government – and you and me
