An immune checkpoint molecule, SA-4-1BB developed for cancer immunotherapy also protects against future development of multiple types of cancer when administered by itself, shows a new study.

The recombinant protein molecule SA-4-1BBL has been used to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of cancer vaccines with success in pre-clinical animal models. It accomplishes this by boosting the effectiveness of CD8+ T cells, adaptive immune cells trained to target the tumor for destruction. When the researchers treated normal healthy mice with SA-4-1BBL alone, the mice were protected when the researchers later exposed them to different types of tumor cells.

Patrolling the body instead of generating an immune response after the tumor is present

Cellular barcoding has been used to tag, track and pinpoint cells responsible for the spread of breast cancer from the main tumor into the blood and other organs, and also revealed how chemotherapy temporarily shrinks the number of harmful cells, rather than eliminating them, explaining how the cancer could eventually relapse.

Pinpointing the 'seeders' of disease

Most deaths from breast cancer are caused by the metastasis, or spread, of cancerous cells from the main tumor site into other organs. 

Exposure to glyphosate — at 45 years of age the world’s most widely used, broad-spectrum herbicide and the primary ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup — increases the risk of some cancers by more than 40 percent, according to a meta-analysis published in the online journal Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation Research, an imprint of publishing giant Elsevier.

Raw milk sold by Miller’s Biodiversity Farm in Quarryville, Pennsylvania and laced with Brucella strain RB51 has been linked to exposures in 19 states by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Raw milk, a recent trend by organic food lovers, lacks pasteurization, a process created by Louis Pasteur that has saved millions of lives by removing harmful bacteria like RB51. A cow that tested positive for RB51 has been removed from the milking herd and after one case of infection was confirmed in New York in November 2018, there are concerns that an unknown number of people may have been infected due to the milk from this farm. 

Perfect pitch may be more strongly under genetic control than previously thought, according to a new study.

Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven were able to precisely identify musical notes and there is certainly a genetic component to music like there is math or sprinting - while anyone can be functional with practice being truly great may take biology. Perfect (absolute) pitch is rare, even among expert musicians, and the relative contribution of genetics and experience to this ability remains debated.

A short few months after China became the third country with a moon mission (following the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), Israel will be the fourth.

On February 22nd, 2019, give or take weather events, the Beresheet Moon lander, once one of the candidates for the Google Lunar X-Prize, will make Israel the fourth country with a moon mission. And its $100 million for planning and execution has been made possible through cooperation of private individuals, corporate and government groups, and academia.