Metastasis – the process by which cancer cells leave their tumor-of-origin, enter the blood stream and colonize distant tissues – is responsible for 90% of cancer deaths. The first step in this complex process is invasion into surrounding tissue and blood vessels, which requires the degradation of connective tissue (extracellular matrix) that compartmentalizes these sub-regions. [...]
Congratulations to James Allison and Tasuko Honjo for winning the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine. Specifically, they discovered the CTLA-4 and PD-1 proteins, and found that inhibiting these proteins allowed the immune system to attack tumors. These discoveries were instrumental in launching the cancer immunotherapy revolution. 2018 Nobel Prize
How does Zika virus cause birth defects? This study demonstrates that the birth defects associated with Zika virus infection arise due to the detrimental effects of type 1 interferon, which (paradoxically) is produced by your immune system to protect you from viral infections. This is a story that is interesting in its own right, but [...]
Ketamine is used clinically as a sedative, but also abused recreationally due to its hallucinogenic properties. Here, researchers describe the amazing ability of ketamine to rapidly reduce suicidal thoughts. What is the molecular mechanism? And how can we use that information to prevent these thoughts from appearing in the first place? Ketamine Reduces Suicidal Thoughts
The process of developing and evaluating new drugs is time-consuming, expensive, logistically challenging and potentially dangerous to patients involved in the studies. It would therefore be refreshing to find a new way to advance a drug through this difficult process. Repurposing existing FDA-approved drugs for new uses is one way this can be accomplished. Here, [...]
Hey everyone! Summer 2018 science workshops on Molecular Biology of Cancer, Molecular Neuroscience, Molecular Immunology and our newest camp Molecular Biology of Development and Aging are now set at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. Workshops held at UC Berkeley are 6/3-6/16 and 6/17-6/30. Workshops held at UCSD are 7/8-7/21. Our Biomedical Research camp is [...]
Winter/Spring Break Medical and Translational Bioinformatics workshops are now scheduled. This is a great way to learn how to do research from home, and learn how to create professional projects. Dates/locations are as follows: 1. 12/26-12/29 in Berkeley, CA 2. 3/12-3/15 at TCU in Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX 3. 4/2-4/5 in Berkeley, CA Please email info@rosettainstitute.org [...]
Famous for being a potent tumor-suppressor protein, p53 was originally identified as an oncogene (or, a gene that promotes tumor development). What explains this dichotomy? When p53 was initially identified, the researchers were actually studying a mutant form of p53 which had not only lost its tumor-suppressor properties but had also acquired the properties of [...]
“Mutation” is a word that often has a negative connotation, but by definition a mutation is neither good nor bad. Here is a wonderful article on heart disease from the New York Times that illustrates this point. NYT - Heart Disease
Congratulations to all of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2017 Grand Award Winners! Intel ISEF 2017