Here is a series of three related papers published by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, led by legendary cancer researcher Bert Vogelstein. It is a significant body of work that is difficult to succinctly summarize, but the linked write-up is a start. Engineering the immune system to attack tumor cells (immunotherapy) is so effective that [...]
Social media is flooded with news about how important it is to maintain healthy gut bacteria (also known as the microbiome). Not surprisingly, most of this “news” is also aimed at consumers, with the goal of selling probiotics and prebiotics (some of which are quite expensive) to alleviate or cure a whole variety of maladies. [...]
Why do some people have asymptomatic Covid-19, while others suffer from severe or life-threatening disease? Many risk factors for severe Covid have been identified – age, obesity, sex, smoking status, etc. - but this does not fully account for the observed heterogeneity. One possibility is that lifetime exposure to other coronaviruses – which can cause [...]
We have fully scheduled our winter/spring and summer workshops on molecular medicine, and applications are now being accepted! Our workshops are designed for high-achieving high school and middle school students who are interesting in pursuing careers in medicine, biomedical research, pharmacy, or other careers within the health sciences. Our instructors are PhD-level scientists who are [...]
Biological systems are stunningly complex, and the complexity extends down to the single protein level. Proteins are made up of a string of amino acids, which then fold up into structures that determine their function. Many Nobel Prizes have been awarded for determining protein structures, most recently the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computer [...]
Antibodies are proteins produced by your immune system that fight viruses and other microbes. The cells that produce these antibodies can persist for years after an infection, and generating these cells is the basis for vaccination. It has been clear for some time that Covid-19 patients generated a strong antibody response – at least initially [...]
Congratulations to the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge finalists and winners! Hard work and passion are rewarded! 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge Winners
In perhaps the most consequential Nobel Prize in years, Jennifer Doudna (UC Berkeley) and Emmanuelle Charpentier (Max Planck Institute in Berlin) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a novel antiviral defense mechanism used by bacteria, which they ultimately repurposed into the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology. DNA editing with the CRISPR-Cas9 system has [...]
Our summer 2021 workshops are still in the process of being scheduled, but in the meantime, we wanted to update you on our upcoming Fall/Winter/Spring molecular medicine workshops and let you know that we are currently accepting applications. Fall/winter/spring workshops: We are pleased to announce our newest workshop - Covid-19: Biology, Immunity, Medicine - held [...]
The Ras proteins (coded by the NRAS, KRAS and HRAS genes) were discovered in 1982 and were subsequently found to be some of the most frequently mutated genes in all types of cancer. Mutant Ras proteins are oncogenes (genes that contribute to the initiation and/or progression of tumors) and are therefore obvious targets for the [...]