Reading time: 4 minutes Hema Saranya Ilamathi Beep! Beep! There goes the metal scanner in the airport. Oops! I realized that I forgot to take out the key chain from my pocket. Similar to the metal detection system, our body has a highly vigilant surveillance system called immune cells that constantly scan for the presence... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Christina Niavi Our human body has amazing defense mechanisms. The organism defense is like the army, with a first line of defense against any kind of threat and, a second defense, more specialized to each threat. Specialized defense soldiers, called CD8 T cells, are equipped with killing machineries to eradicate tumors... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 7 minutes Felicites Rapon Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the causative agent of hepatitis C, an infectious disease of the liver causing inflammation and necrosis. HCV infection can be either acute (which can be cleared without any medicines) or chronic. The latter can be due to environmental factors such as alcohol usage but... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 3 minutes Hannah Young Cancer is generally thought to be a disease that develops from one cell that eventually divides and becomes a tumor within an individual; how this cell becomes cancerous differs depending on the initiating event. While some cancers are initiated through a series of mutations in tumor suppressors or oncogenes,... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Kate Secombe You may have read previously on OncoBites about immunotherapies, and the great promise they hold in treating a wide range of cancers. Commonly used immunotherapies include checkpoint inhibitors such as PD-1 or CTLA-4 inhibitors. Here I will be looking at an emerging subset of immunotherapies known as immune agonist... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 3 minutes Bhavuk Garg Bone marrow is soft trabecular tissue nourished by an intensive network of blood vessels. This tissue is found in axial and leg bones of the body. Bone marrow is primarily made up of two types: red bone marrow and yellow bone marrow. Red bone marrow contains stem cells and... Continue Reading →
Sohini Basu Roy Reading time: 3 minutes Every year 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections cases occur in the U.S. and more than 35,000 people die due to bacterial infection But one of the main challenges is a consequence resulting from the infection: weakened immune system. This leads to immunodeficiency and thus patients become more prone to... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Mahrukh Fatima Our bodies are quite spectacular and are well-equipped to protect us from most dangers we encounter, both internal and external. The tools our bodies use to protect us against microscopic threats are collectively known as the immune system, and just like tools in a toolbox, the different types of... Continue Reading →
Daniel Zhong Reading time: 3 minutes Roughly 37.7 million individuals on Earth by the end of 2020 have been living with HIV — human immunodeficiency virus — which targets and weakens the human body’s immune system when not properly controlled or treated. As a result, this impaired immune system can cause people to become immunodeficient,... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 7 minutes Aishat Motolani You have most likely heard of several branded FDA-approved drugs during TV commercials and sighed, “Ah! not again with this rhythmic list of symptoms.” Well, some of those symptoms may have included immune-related adverse events (IRAEs). iRAEs are composed of an array of side effects that are reminiscent of... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Kate Secombe The treatment for many blood cancers can be invasive and have a range of side effects. One such side-effect is known as Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD). While GvHD invokes a range of unwanted symptoms, we currently do not fully understand how and why it develops. New research by... Continue Reading →
Sara Musetti Estimated reading time: 5 minutes It seems talking about the immune system and how it can fight cancer is all the rage these days, especially here at OncoBites. But talking about it can be tricky, especially because most people seldom think about their immune system. It’s a part of your body, but… which... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 3 minutes Manisit Das It is a scary and anxious moment for many of us, and if you are on the internet, it is hard to miss updates about the latest coronavirus disease, COVID-19. The viral disease is characterized by flu-like symptoms and may cause respiratory infections in certain individuals, was declared a... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Varshit Dusad A cancer diagnosis is generally perceived to be a death sentence. With millions of people dying of cancer every year, this does not seem to be at all outrageous. However, researchers all over the world, in academia and industry alike, have been relentlessly pursuing novel therapies and drugs to... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 3 minutes Alex S. Woodell A warm breeze whips by as you notice a peculiar set of clouds forming in the distance. These cumulus clouds are tall with bumpy protrusions that flatten out near the top to form a silhouette of a giant anvil. As condensation builds in these behemoths, the bright sunlight... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Shaye Hagler For those of you whose lives have been impacted by cancer, you might have heard of the term “metastasis.” We call cancer metastatic when it breaks off from the initial tumor and travels to other organs. You might also have heard it being referred to before as “stage 4... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Sara Musetti Cancer immunotherapy has been a very hot topic here at OncoBites (because it’s a hot topic right now among cancer researchers too), but let me be super clear ⎯ it is COMPLICATED. Your immune system is balanced extremely delicately to avoid sending you into shock each time you are... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 3 minutes Bekah Schulz It is well accepted that exercise is beneficial for human health and boosts overall energy level. However, the questions remains: can exercise be used as a cancer therapy? Research is indicating that it can. Over the past 20 years, studies have demonstrated that exercise decreases the risk of recurrence... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Alex S. Woodell Marathon runners are an interesting breed. In order to complete the grueling 26.2 mile circuit, they must push their mental and physical boundaries to the limit. Seasoned runners possess great strength, focus, resilience, and determination. Each of these qualities is a testament to the intense training schedules they... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 6 minutes Payal Yokota Despite the advent and access to a variety of targeted immunotherapy approaches, the current paradigm for solid tumors still remains if you can cut it out – you do! Depending on the grade of tumor and degree of metastasis, there’s a substantial risk of tumor resurgence. In those cases,... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Manisit Das As humans, we are naturally programmed to recognize patterns. They help us detect cues in our surroundings and aid our decision making. We associate camouflage patterns with battle dress, assortments of red and green with the holidays; these recognition events help us to put things in boxes in our... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Varshit Dusad Bacteria are our unallied neighbors, which depending upon circumstances chooses to be our friend or foe. While bacteria such as E.coli have often been the workhorses for molecular biology studies, they have other uses as well. Surprisingly, they have enormous potential for cancer therapy. No, I am not talking... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Yitong Li One of the biggest hurdles that stall new developments in cancer therapy is how to effectively deliver the treatment to the tumor. Most commonly, pharmaceutical agents and immunotherapies make their way to the tumor via the bloodstream. Hence, the successful emigration of these agents out of the blood vessels... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Shaye Hagler The discovery of accelerators and brakes in our immune system in the early 1990s was fundamental to designing the cancer immunotherapy platforms we use today, which is why it won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. Now, immune checkpoint inhibitors like anti-PD-1 can work in tandem with... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Morgan McSweeney CRISPR-Cas9 is the molecular gene editing system that has inspired hopes for a solution to genetic disease. By studying how bacteria use the CRISPR-Cas system to defend themselves against bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria), scientists have developed methods to use those same molecular scissors to cut out human genes... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 mins Sara Musetti “I lit up like a Christmas tree, Hazel Grace.” This line, from John Green’s bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars, hits hard. A young teenage survivor of cancer has had a widespread relapse picked up in one of his many routine scans since going into remission years earlier.... Continue Reading →
Varshit Dusad Imagine a dystopian world. Here, some citizens of an otherwise well-functioning state have gone rogue and are running an anti-national agenda. They are always plundering the natural resources meant to be evenly distributed among the population. They are quite cunning as they start slowly by deviating from the laws of their natural order... Continue Reading →
Rachel Cherney Cancer is a complex set of diseases, characterized by uncontrolled growth and metastasis, destroying important organs and bodily systems. It can occur in almost any part of the body, and in most cases, it is impossible to determine how or when it will develop, certain genetically linked cancers perhaps being an exception. Because... Continue Reading →
Sara Musetti and Manisit Das Early October is an exciting time of the year when people all over the world turn their eyes to Stockholm to see the winners of the Nobel Prize. Yesterday, James Allison and Tasuku Honjo jointly won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for their work discovering the function... Continue Reading →
Jason Tetro If you’ve ever traveled internationally, you know you need a passport. This document is your access pass to the world. What you might not know is that this rather plain looking document is filled with a variety of different checkpoints to ensure authenticity. Some passports have biometric chips, others have incorporated images only... Continue Reading →
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