International Research Chemistry Awards

  People with type 2 obesity-driven diabetes tend to have more aggressive breast cancers, but no one knows exactly why. A new study by researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and published in Springer Nature found that tiny particles in the blood, known as exosomes, which are altered by diabetes, can reprogram immune cells inside tumors making them weaker and allowing the cancer to grow and spread more easily. In the study, researchers used tumor samples from breast cancer patients to grow 3D tumor models in the lab. Known as patient-derived organoids , these models contain the immune cells originally found in the tumor. These mini tumors were treated with blood exosomes from people with and without diabetes but also without any cancer. Then researchers analyzed the organoids using single-cell RNA sequencing to see how the exosomes affected the immune cells and the tumor itself. The patient-derived organoid system developed by Denis and first ...

  Microbes inside cancerous tumors can influence the spread of disease and the effectiveness of treatment. Those roles make them appealing targets for new therapies and offer ways to better predict risk. Tumor microbiota-based tools could help identify high-risk patients and people most susceptible to metastases, and possibly be used to improve prognosis tools, reported a group of microbiologists at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. This week in Microbiology Spectrum, the researchers described a core group of 15 bacterial genera, found in 6 types of gastrointestinal (GI) tumors, that predicts prognosis. The genera were validated across all 6 types. Worldwide, GI cancers account for about a quarter of new diagnoses and a third of deaths every year, and incidence rates are rising among people younger than 50. Recent studies have shown that these tumors harbor rich microbial populations, and harnessing microbial signatures offers a way to improve response to therapy, said mycologis...

  A novel, multi-analyte test developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, its Ludwig Center and the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery can accurately identify brain cancers using small samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), offering a promising new tool to guide clinical decision-making. The findings, supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, were published Aug. 25 in Cancer Discovery and demonstrate that combining multiple biological markers, including tumor-derived DNA and immune cell signatures, is more effective for diagnosing central nervous system cancers than using any one marker alone. "This study highlights how much more information we can gain when we evaluate several analytes together," says senior study author Chetan Bettegowda, M.D., Ph.D., Harvey Cushing Professor and Director of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, director of the Reza Khatib Brain Tumor Research Cente...

  The herb rosemary has long been linked with memory: "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance," says Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. So it is fitting that researchers would study a compound found in rosemary and sage-carnosic acid -for its impact on Alzheimer's disease. In the disease, which is the leading cause of dementia and the sixth leading cause of death in the US, inflammation is one component that often leads to cognitive decline. Carnosic acid is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound that works by activating enzymes that make up the body's natural defense system. While pure carnosic acid is too unstable to be used as a drug, scientists at Scripps Research have now synthesized a stable form, diAcCA. This compound is fully converted to carnosic acid in the gut before being absorbed into the bloodstream. The research, published in Antioxidants on February 28, 2025, showed that when diAcCA was used to treat mouse models of Alzheimer's d...

  A preclinical evaluation of a new 'dual-mode' tracer agent shows promise in not only helping surgeons image and plan prostate cancer procedures, but also provide them with much more consistent and targeted guidance during surgery . The agent uses a single tracer molecule labeled with Fluorine-18-a common isotope used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans-for diagnostic imaging. It also provides a one-step, widely accessible solution that would enable combined fluorescence-guided and radio-guided surgery. "Precision medicine is increasingly being practiced and developed to address the sophisticated treatment methods for diseases like cancer," says Dr. David M Perrin, a University of British Columbia chemist and senior author on the paper, published in advance in the Journal of Medical Chemistry. "Our tracer provides high-resolution visual guidance, but would also allow a surgeon to use a hand-held Geiger counter probes to 'hear' areas of high radia...

  Natural killer (NK) cells became markedly better at killing cancer cells after scientists removed key gene targets identified through a new genome-wide CRISPR screening tool, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study, published today in Cancer Cell, opens new avenues for discovering approaches to enhance the antitumor activity of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK cell therapies against multiple cancer types via PreCiSE, a comprehensive CRISPR discovery platform optimized for primary human NK cells. The research was led by Rezvani together with co first-authors Alexander Biederstaedt, M.D., formerly a postdoc in the Rezvani laboratory and now with the Technical University of Munich and Rafet Basar, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Stem Cell Transplantation & Cellular Therapy. Using PreCiSE, which was developed by the research team, investigators uncovered multiple checkpoints and pathways that control NK cell activity when ...

  A new drug-releasing system, TAR-200, eliminated tumors in 82% of patients in a phase 2 clinical trial for individuals with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer whose cancer had previously resisted treatment. In the majority of cases, the cancer disappeared after only three months of treatment, and almost half the patients were cancer-free a year later. How the drug delivery system works TAR-200 is a miniature, pretzel-shaped drug-device duo containing a chemotherapy drug, gemcitabine, which is inserted into the bladder through a catheter. Once inside the bladder, the TAR-200 slowly and consistently releases the gemcitabine into the organ for three weeks per treatment cycle. Traditionally, gemcitabine has been delivered to the bladder as a liquid solution that only stays in the bladder for a few hours, which had limited effect destroying the cancer, said Daneshmand, who is also a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. "The theory behind this study was tha...

  Scientists at Tsinghua University have developed a method to grow kidney tumors in the lab using cells from real patients, offering a potential new tool in the fight against renal cancer . Their research, published in the journal Biofabrication, outlines how 3D bioprinting technology can be used to replicate the unique characteristics of each patient's tumor. The team combined tumor cells with other cell types, including blood vessel-like structures, to mimic the environment within the body. The lab-grown tumors, called organoids, are created from real patients' tumor cells , and exactly mimic their traits. This realistic model provides a more accurate platform for studying tumor development and testing how different therapies perform. The technology also reduces the need for labour-intensive manual processes, enabling faster and more scalable testing. The incidence rate of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is increasing annually, posing a serious threat to human health. One of the ...

  Researchers at City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center ranked among the nation's top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, today published a new study which found that some survivors of childhood cancer are more at risk for serious health issues as they grow older, including new cancers and chronic conditions like heart disease. While a cause for concern, the findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology also point to a silver lining: The ailments are potentially manageable if caught early and treated. The City of Hope-led study is the first to look at childhood cancer survivors who reached the age of 50, a population that is expected to grow as cancer treatments continue to improve and become more targeted and personalized. Nearly 15,000 children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or other types of cancer each ye...

  Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and despite advancements in diagnosis and treatment, it continues to impose a significant health burden globally. Researchers have now started exploring various innovative methods, such as engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) that can enable targeted drug delivery to cancer cells . While promising, the in vivo behavior of pH-responsive ENMs, which continuously interact with body fluids once administered, remains poorly understood. To address this research gap, a team of researchers led by Professor Yuta Nishina from the Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science, Okayama University, Japan, in collaboration with Assistant Professor Yajuan Zou from the same institution and Professor Alberto Bianco from CNRS, University of Strasbourg, France, aimed to investigate how pH-responsive ENMs convert their properties into dynamic interactions with proteins and cells in vivo. Their findings were published online in the journal Sm...

  In this review, the authors present recent findings that uncover a previously unappreciated nuclear signaling hub: the PIPn-p53 signalosome. This complex not only modulates AKT activation within the nucleus but also integrates two major oncogenic pathways-p53 dysregulation and PI3K-AKT amplification-into a unified mechanism driving cancer cell migration and invasion. Key points of the review include:Nuclear PIPn signaling expands beyond classical models: Phosphoinositides, long thought to be confined to plasma and endomembranes for cytoplasmic signaling, are now shown to form active signaling complexes in the nucleus , reshaping our understanding of lipid-mediated regulation. Wild-type and mutant p53 serve as nuclear scaffolds: Both forms of p53 anchor nuclear PIPns and facilitate the assembly of lipid-protein complexes (signalosomes), directly influencing gene expression, chromatin remodeling, and cytoskeletal dynamics. De novo AKT activation in the nucleus: Unlike canonical me...

  Tiny extracellular vesicles known as exosomes are emerging as key regulators of the tumor microenvironment (TME), influencing how cancer progresses, spreads, and responds to treatment. In a new review published in Med Research, researchers from Haikou Affiliated Hospital of Central South University Xiangya School of Medicine explore the dual nature of exosomes-highlighting their roles in both tumor promotion and immune modulation. The review focuses on tumor-derived exosomes (TDEs) and their diverse molecular cargo, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), which contribute to oncogenesis. These exosomes promote tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, metastasis, and drug resistance by activating key signaling pathways-including PI3K/AKT, MAPK/ERK, Wnt/β-catenin, and NF-κB. At the same time, TDEs also profoundly influence the immune landscape. They can suppress immune responses by delivering immunoinhibitory ligands like PD-L1 and C...

  A joint research team led by Professor Eijiro Miyako of the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), in collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. and University of Tsukuba, has developed a groundbreaking immune-independent bacterial cancer therapy using a novel microbial consortium called AUN. Cancer immunotherapy originated in 1868 when the German physician Busch reported a case of a cancer patient who was intentionally infected with bacteria and subsequently cured. Since then, in 1893, Dr. William Coley proposed the use of bacteria for cancer treatment, and immunotherapies have been evolving into modern treatments such as checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T cells for over 150 years. While powerful, these approaches fundamentally depend on immune cells—making them ineffective for many cancer patients with compromised immune systems due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The newly developed AUN therapy overturns this long-standing limitation. AUN is composed of two...