A Korean research team has developed a new viral vector technology that significantly improves the production efficiency of next-generation cell and gene therapies known as CAR immune cell therapies, which are designed to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Dr. Chi Hoon Park and his research team at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) discovered a novel envelope protein derived from Simian Retrovirus Type 2 (SRV2). The newly identified SRV2 envelope protein demonstrated superior performance compared with the widely used RD114 envelope protein derived from feline endogenous retrovirus, highlighting its potential for future large-scale manufacturing of CAR immune cell therapies.

Researchers led by Kaoru Sugimura from the University of Tokyo have identified the mechanism that ensures average cell size is constant across samples of developing Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) wings. They have found that rather than every cell behaving in the same way, several distinct groups of cells that differ in when and how many times they divide work together to reproduce the average cell size with remarkable precision. This new framework for understanding how developing animal tissues control cell size could widen avenues for research into conditions associated with abnormal cell size, such as cardiac hypertrophy and cancer. The findings were published in the journal Development.

A novel study has found that obesity is associated with a distinct molecular program driving the transition from early-stage, premalignant breast lesions to invasive breast cancer. Rather than simply showing increased activation of classical invasive pathways, tumors from obese patients exhibited a distinct stress-adaptive phenotype. The findings from the study in The American Journal of Pathology, published by Elsevier, suggest that metabolic health could be an important factor in future risk stratification and treatment decision-making.