SCIENCE NEWS Scientists Identify Maternal and Fetal Genes that Increase Preterm Birth Risk “A substantial body of scientific evidence indicates that inflammatory hormones may play a significant role in the labor process,” said Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., acting director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “The current findings add evidence that individual genetic variation in that response may account for why preterm labor occurs in some pregnancies and not in others.” [Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News] How ‘Lipid Rafts’ Help Us Mount an Immune Response Scientists have described the role of lipid rafts within the cascade of sub-microscopic events that help T cells survive and thrive. [Press release from Garvan Institute discussing online prepublication in Immunity] B Cells Promote Solid Tumor Formation – Another Use for Rituximab? Using a mouse model of squamous carcinogenesis, researchers showed a functional role for B cells in defining a pro tumor microenvironment in premalignant tissue. [Press release from Gerson Lehrman Group discussing online prepublication in Cancer Cell]
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CURRENT PUBLICATIONS Chromogranin A is an Autoantigen in Type 1 Diabetes In the nonobese diabetic mouse model of type 1 diabetes, researchers have identified the peptide WE14 from chromogranin A as the antigen for highly diabetogenic CD4+ T cell clones. [Nat Immunol] FcR(Gamma) Activation Regulates Inflammation-Associated Squamous Carcinogenesis Using the K14-HPV16 mouse model of squamous carcinogenesis, researchers report that B cells and humoral immunity foster cancer development by activating Fc receptors on resident and recruited myeloid cells. [Cancer Cell] Dependence of T Cell Antigen Recognition on T Cell Receptor-Peptide Major Histocompatibility Complex Confinement Time Here, researchers analyze which binding properties of the T cell receptor-peptide-major histocompatibility (pMHC) complex interaction are responsible for this variation in pMHC activation potency. [Immunity] T Cell Receptor-Dependent Regulation of Lipid Rafts Controls Naive CD8+ T Cell Homeostasis T cell receptor contact with self ligands keeps T cells alive and is shown here to cause naive CD8+, but not CD4+, T cells to be hypersensitive to certain (gamma)c cytokines, notably interleukin (IL)-2, IL-15, and IL-7. [Immunity] Foxp3+ T Cells Induce Perforin-Dependent Dendritic Cell Death in Tumor-Draining Lymph Nodes Researchers showed the rejection of established ovalbumin (OVA)-expressing MCA101 tumors required both the adoptive transfer of OVA-specific CD8+ T cell receptor transgenic T cells and the neutralization of Foxp3+ T cells. [Immunity] IL-7 and IL-15 Independently Program the Differentiation of Intestinal CD3-NKp46+ Cell Subsets from Id2-Dependent Precursors Researchers investigated the developmental relationships between intestinal CD3-NKp46+ cellular subsets. [J Exp Med] Implication of the CD47 Pathway in Autoimmune Diabetes Using a T cell receptor transgenic mouse model at the brink of autoimmune disease, researchers demonstrate that CD47-deficiency is sufficient to break the immune tolerance and provoke the onset of autoimmune diabetes. [J Autoimmun] Foxp3 Induction in Human and Murine Thymus Precedes the CD4+CD8+ Stage but Requires Early T Cell Receptor Expression By analyzing a large collection of 21 human thymuses, researchers show that Foxp3 can be consistently detected in CD4 immature single positive thymocytes that precede the CD4+CD8+ (double positive) stage. [Immunol Cell Biol] Naturally Occurring Tumor-Specific CD8+ T Cell Precursors in Individuals With and Without Cancer This study was scheduled to determine possible differences in the frequency and the function of naturally occurring cytolytic CD8+ T cell precursors against multiple peptides derived from the cancer-testis antigens MAGE-A1 and MAGE-A3, and the overexpressed antigen hTERT, in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients as compared with aged-matched healthy individuals. [ Immunol Cell Biol] Potent Anti-Tumor Responses to Immunization with Dendritic Cells Loaded with Tumor Tissue and an Natural Killer-Like T Cell Ligand To enhance anti-tumor CD8+ T cell responses induced by immunization with antigen-loaded dendritic cells, researchers explored the impact of eliciting a potent source of T cell help from activated invariant natural killer-like T cells using the specific glycolipid ligand ??-galactosylceramide. [Immunol Cell Biol] Influenza Viruses Differ in Ability to Infect Macrophages and to Induce a Local Inflammatory Response Following Intraperitoneal Injection of Mice Given the central role of murine macrophages in initiating and regulating inflammatory responses, researchers hypothesized that virus strains that infect murine macrophages poorly may also be poor at initiating inflammatory responses. [Immunol Cell Biol]
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INDUSTRY NEWS TenX Biopharma Licenses Zanolimumab from Genmab TenX Biopharma, Inc. announced that it has signed a licensing agreement to acquire exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize zanolimumab (HuMax-CD4®) from Genmab A/S. [TenX Biopharma, Inc. Press Release] MedNet Solutions Deploys Global Peripheral T Cell Lymphoma Registry for Allos Therapeutics MedNet Solutions has announced that Allos Therapeutics’ new international disease-specific registry for patients with peripheral T cell lymphoma has enrolled its first study participant. [PR Newswire] Micromet Highlights Clinical Plans and Regulatory Strategy for Lead Product Candidate Blinatumomab at its Annual R&D Day At its annual investor R&D day, Micromet, Inc. outlined the design of a registration study for the Company’s lead product candidate blinatumomab in acute lymphocytic leukemia, highlighted clinical data demonstrating the breadth of blinatumomab’s activity in B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and announced plans to expand clinical development of blinatumomab in the U.S. [Micromet Press Release] Exploratory Data Presented for Active Biotech’s ANYARA Project Active Biotech has presented results from exploratory preclinical studies at the Keystone Symposia “Molecular and Cellular Biology of Immune Escape in Cancer” held in Keystone, Colorado, USA, February 7-12. [Active Biotech Press Release] Inovio Biomedical Cervical Cancer Therapeutic Vaccine Generates Dose-Related Immune Response in Clinical Trial Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced additional interim safety and immunogenicity data from its therapeutic cervical cancer vaccine (VGX-3100) trial. [Inovio Biomedical Corporation Press Release]
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POLICY NEWS Parsing National Institutes of Health’s 2011 Budget: Is Big Science Up, Small Science Down? Is National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins planning to steer his ocean liner of an institute toward “big biology” at the expense of single-investigator grants? [National Institutes of Health, United States] Medvedev Talks Science in Moscow Russian science has been getting some bad press recently, what with a recent report on its declining productivity in scientific papers and a letter from expatriate scientists to the Russian president and prime minister warning of the parlous state of basic research. [Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia] Impersonation of MHRA Staff [Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, United Kingdom] Waivers for Conflicts of Interest for the February 22, 2010 Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting [Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, United States] Recovery Act Limited Competition: Program to Enhance National Institutes of Health-Supported Global Health Research Involving Human Subjects (S07) (RFA-OD-10-006) [National Institutes of Health, United States] Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award (U54) (RFA-RM-10-001) [National Institutes of Health, United States] IACUC 101 Workshop and PRIM&R 2010 IACUC Conference: March 21-23, 2010 in Baltimore, MD (NOT-OD-10-059) [National Institutes of Health, United States] Delays in Grant Application Submission Due to Blizzard (NOT-OD-10-060) [National Institutes of Health, United States] Notice of Intent to Establish a New National Institutes of Health Common Fund Program: Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) (NOT-RM-10-002) [National Institutes of Health, United States] Notice of Availability of Administrative Supplements for R25 Science Education Grants (NOT-DA-10-007) [National Institutes of Health, United States] Investigator Initiated Multi-Site Clinical Trials (Collaborative R01) (PAR-10-096) [National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, United States]
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EVENTS
Keystone Symposia: Tolerance and Autoimmunity (B7) February 21-26, 2010 Taos, United States American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) February 26-March 2, 2010 New Orleans, United States Keystone Symposia: Lymphocyte Activation and Gene Expression (B8) February 27-March 4, 2010 Breckenridge, United States World Immune Regulation Meeting (WIRM) – IV March 29-April 01, 2010 Davos, Switzerland American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101st Annual Meeting 2010 April 17-21, 2010 Washington, DC, United States 23rd Annual Canadian Society for Immunology (CSI) Conference April 23-26, 2010 Niagara Falls, Canada 97th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Immunologists May 7-11, 2010 Baltimore, United States 29th Congress of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) June 5-9, 2010 London, United Kingdom Keystone Symposia: Innate Immunity: Mechanisms Linking with Adaptive Immunity (D3) June 7-12, 2010 Dublin, Ireland Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) 2010 June 24-27, 2010 Boston, United States Frontiers in Immunology Research (FIRN) 2010 International Conference July 22-26, 2010 Athens, Greece 14th International Congress of Immunology August 22-27, 2010 Kobe, Japan Visit our events page to stay up to date with the latest events in the cell, gene and immunotherapy community.
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