A recent study describes a new Dual CAR T cell immunotherapy that can help fight HIV infection.

A new study has revealed that tumors can evade the immune system by telling immune cells to produce immunosuppressive steroids. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, and MRC Cancer Unit, discovered that immune T cells from mouse skin and breast tumors secrete steroids, and that preventing this steroid production reduced growth of tumors in mice.

Genetic evidence points to individuals from South America having possibly floated on a raft to Polynesian islands about 500 years before Europeans navigated there.

New technologies capable of sequencing single molecules in fine detail will help scientists better understand the mechanisms of rare nucleotides thought to play an important role in the progression of some diseases.

In a genome-wide association study, variants in both the ABO blood group locus and a cluster of genes on human chromosome 3 are more common among COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure than in the general population.

Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women, with incidence rates highest in North America and Europe, and rates increasing globally. Because only 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are due to high risk inherited mutations, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, scientists say a better understanding of how environmental factors contribute to the disease is needed to prevent future breast cancers and lower incidence rates.

Analyses from single-cell sequencing datasets support the idea that COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disease but an illness that can affect multiple organs.

A new type of blood test for breast cancer could help avoid thousands of unnecessary surgeries and otherwise precisely monitor disease progression, according to a study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Michigan State University researchers, in collaboration with the Van Andel Institute, have identified a combination of two gene mutations that is linked to endometrial cancer.

Cancers with the same genetic weaknesses respond differently to targeted drugs depending on the tumour type of the patient, new research reveals.

MSK researchers identified a new strategy for inhibiting RNA-binding proteins, which play a role in many cancers.

Genome sequencing is set to revolutionise the diagnosis of rare childhood conditions, according to researchers in Cambridge.

Patches of healthy tissue can contain groups of cells with genetic mutations, researchers reported June 6 in Science. In the study, they analyzed 29 different tissue types taken from 488 people.

In the first large-scale analysis of cancer gene fusions, which result from the merging of two previously separate genes, researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, EMBL-EBI, Open Targets, GSK and their collaborators have used CRISPR to uncover which gene fusions are critical for the growth of cancer cells.

Investigators at the University of British Columbia (UBC)/Centre for Molecular Medicine & Therapeutics (CMMT) and BC Children’s Hospital have examined more than 25 years of data to reveal new insights into predicting the age of onset for Huntington disease.

A study of prostate cancer finds “aneuploid” tumors are more likely to be lethal than tumors with normal chromosome numbers.

New findings published in Science Signaling suggest that targeting mechanical signals between cells may become a fresh approach to fighting cancer. The concept flows from discovering a network of proteins that appear to interact with a protein called Merlin when people have the rare disease neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2).

Scientists have developed a method to boost the efficiency of CRISPR gene editing in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), according to a study that could have implications for optimizing gene therapies for other diseases.

MYC is a proto-oncogene, meaning it can contribute to the development of cancer when it carries mutations. It’s a transcription factor, so it controls the expression of genes, and it can bind freely to DNA to activate genes that are related to growth.

A study suggests that the direct transfer of DNA methylation marks from one generation to the next is much less common than scientists previously thought.

Cancer genes in mucosal melanoma, a rare and poorly understood subtype of melanoma, have been compared in humans, dogs and horses for the first time. Researchers sequenced the genomes of the same cancer across different species to pinpoint key cancer genes.

Researchers find that it’s not just high-risk genes, but how children’s bodies respond to their own intestinal microbiota that relates to future diagnoses of type 1 diabetes

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are generally most effective against tumors with more genetic mutations, according to a new study, although the relationship isn’t true for all cancers.

As 2019 looms before us, it is fair to say that significant—and perhaps surprising—advances will be made in the precision medicine and omics arenas.

A major justification is that public genome projects will enhance healthcare quality and reduce costs. In Finland one aim is to use genomic information to predict the future risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

• Using state of the art technologies for biomarker development
• Validating PD-L1 as a biomarker of response
• Linking tumor mutation burden to response rate
• Leveraging the tumor microenvironment to direct therapeutic development

Science, industry and regulatory oncology highlights