Inspired by advances in cancer therapy, a team at the Buck Institute has engineered immune cells equipped with specialized targeting devices called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that can distinguish and respond to tau tangles and various forms of toxic amyloid plaques, both of which are implicated in Alzheimer’s disease pathology. The proof-of-concept study, now online at the Journal of Translational Medicine, holds the promise of being able to precisely deliver therapeutic drugs directly to affected areas of the  brain with fewer side effects.

A new study published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology used a novel modeling method to link electronic health records containing data on in-home environmental exposures to housing and neighborhood location data for children with asthma living in low-income households. It found that children living in homes with greater chances of having cockroaches and rodents had worse lung function. As the majority of the children in the study were Black and lived in historically segregated neighborhoods, these findings highlight the consequences of longstanding racial inequities in housing characteristics and quality, borne by structural racism.