Reading time: 4 minutes Jacqueline Mann In December 2020, less than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to prevent COVID-19. These vaccines work differently from traditional immunizations: they contain a specific sequence of messenger RNA (mRNA) that... Continue Reading →
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Payal Yokota One of the main differences between a rapidly dividing cancer cell and a normal cell is that the cancer cells rely on glycolysis followed by lactic acid fermentation, rather than oxidative phosphorylation. This effect is called the Warburg effect, one we have previously discussed in the context of... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Prathyusha Konda For the past decade, a growing area of cancer research has been focused on cancer immunotherapies. From the Nobel prize-winning checkpoint inhibitor therapy to cancer vaccines, the idea behind immunotherapies is to boost or activate the immune system. While the therapies being developed may be new, the idea behind... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Taylor B. Poston, Ph.D., M.P.H. Most tumors do not respond to T-cell based immunotherapies, but the explanation for this phenomenon has been unclear. Researchers have speculated that there could be insufficient priming of anti-tumor T cells, or if T cells are primed, they are unable to recognize and eradicate the tumor.... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Jason Tetro Imagine a world in which cancer is no longer a threat to the world. Naturally, the task sounds unachievable. But much like Ethan Hunt and his Impossible Missions Force team, the Australian government has accepted this mission in the hopes of eliminating cervical cancer from the country. Now, a... 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 Historians love to say that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. In science, failing to remember and understand our history means that we may need to make the same discoveries again and again. This appears to be the case for cancer immunotherapy, a new branch of research... Continue Reading →
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