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A research team searches for every gene that helps tumors evade immunotherapy

Broad Institute

The drugs work by blocking a protein, PD-1 — which helps keep immune responses in check — and stimulating the immune system to attack tumors. The team found that deleting the gene Ptpn2 made tumors sensitive to PD-1 therapy, and they published their findings in Nature in 2017.

Research 137
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Cancer immunotherapy candidate provokes powerful dual response in cancer and immune cells

Broad Institute

AbbVie and Calico discovered the molecule, called ABBV-CLS-484 , after TIDE researchers at Broad identified the PTPN2 gene as a promising cancer immunotherapy target in 2017. It still sort of stuns me that we went from discovering a target in 2017 to testing drugs in patients starting in 2020,” Yates said.

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Is Recent Gene Therapy Setback for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Déjà vu All Over Again?

PLOS: DNA Science

Can they deliver healing genes without triggering an overactive immune response? The details are disturbingly reminiscent of the famous case of Jesse Gelsinger , who died from a ferocious immune response to experimental gene therapy in September 1999. An immune response is two-tiered.

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Transforming cancer treatment for greatest impact

Drug Target Review

The preclinical results demonstrated significant immune responses and tumour regression. Could you elaborate on the mechanisms by which these responses are initiated within cancer cells? The concept of the ‘abscopal effect’ in the 4T1 tumour model is intriguing.

Treatment 105
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AI in gene delivery vector discovery and design

Drug Target Review

Alipogene tiparvovec and voretigene neparvovec-rzyl, two recombinant AAV-based gene therapy products, were approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency in 2012 2 and by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat inherited retinal dystrophy in 2017, respectively. Wang D, Tai PW, Gao G.

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#WhyIScience Q&A: A microbiologist and immunologist finds links between our own microbes and disease mechanisms

Broad Institute

After completing his PhD in 2017, Brown joined Xavier’s lab as a postdoctoral researcher and has been at the Broad ever since, now as a staff scientist. The Xavier Lab looks at interactions between microbes in your gut and your immune system, and diseases such as arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Disease 125
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Antibody-drug conjugates payloads: then, now and next

Drug Target Review

More recently, researchers have begun to look at conjugating immunomodulatory agents to antibodies to directly activate an immune response against the tumour. This approach – immune-stimulating antibody conjugates (ISACs) – uses a payload that stimulates the innate and adaptive immune responses, recruiting tumour-fighting T cells.