A deeper understanding of mitochondrial function could create new opportunities for treating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer. The complex relationship between mitochondrial dynamics, energy metabolism and cancer-cell survival is revealing potential targets that could support more personalized treatment strategies.

A new review published in Genes & Diseases highlights the expanding potential of DNA-based vaccines as a flexible platform for preventing infectious diseases, treating cancer and strengthening preparedness for future disease outbreaks. The article charts the evolution of DNA vaccination from early concepts in the 1990s to increasingly sophisticated technologies with applications across infectious disease, oncology and precision medicine.

Long-term tracking of nearly 160,000 people from across the United States suggests that brain cancer risk rises as exposure to radon increases.

For patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer, resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs)—most often driven by MET amplification—remains a major clinical obstacle. Researchers have now developed a structure-guided rational design method that converts existing monoclonal antibodies into common-light-chain bispecific antibodies, without large-scale library screening. Applying this framework, the team generated ALK101, an EGFR×c-MET bispecific antibody with binding affinity and biological activity comparable to the approved benchmark amivantamab. ALK101 showed robust antitumor efficacy across multiple tumor models, including tumors resistant to first-, second-, and third-generation TKIs, together with favorable pharmacokinetic and safety profiles in non-human primates. The study establishes a generalizable route to accelerate bispecific antibody development and nominates ALK101 as a promising clinical candidate.

Johns Hopkins University engineers have created robots the size of a pencil tip intended to travel through the body to deliver medicine to infections inside a beating heart.

The bots, designed to replace risky open-heart surgery and ineffective IV-drug therapy to treat life-threatening heart infections, could also be used to less invasively and more precisely treat other hard-to-reach diseases including cancer.

Aggressive tumors often contain large amounts of exchromosomal DNA. Removing this DNA from the nuclei of cancer cells could improve patient outcomes, an international team led by Anton Henssen of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center reports in “Nature Genetics.”