In an unprecedented first, scientists at Seattle Children’s Research Institute have developed a genetically attenuated parasite (GAP) that arrests late in the liver stage of human malaria. Their findings published in JCI Insight pave the way for a novel, next generation vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes the deadliest form of malaria in humans. According to Dr. Debashree Goswami, a fellow in…
Scientists from Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington say the search for COVID-19 treatments should widen its focus from hospitalized patients to people who are just starting to experience symptoms. They’re calling for a shift in strategy in an article published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. “A golden opportunity to intervene early is being missed,” they…
The highlights of Leroy Hood’s scientific career are like peaks in a mountain range spanning diverse fields, from molecular immunology and engineering, to genomics, to systems medicine. But Hood doesn’t think his trailblazing approach should be unusual, emphasizing that “one of the really key things about science is every 10 or 15 years, you really make a dramatic break and…
Dr. Supriya Kumar “Shoop” Saha lived only 40 years. But in his time on earth, he made an outsized impact on the science of the rare and deadly liver cancer he studied, and on the lives of those who loved him. The physician-scientist beloved for his warm personality and well-known for his professional contributions died peacefully at home with family…
Certain inherited genetic mutations are well known to increase a person’s risk of developing cancer. But not every person who inherits a powerful cancer-predisposing mutation will get cancer, and among those who do, only a few cells turn into tumors. Why? In new work published June 8 in Cell Stem Cell, scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center discovered a previously unknown…
Every week, new and promising news comes out on treating and curing Alzheimer’s disease. New drug trials are starting. New therapies are being tested. And around the country, the National Institutes of Health funds 32 Alzheimer Disease Research Centers, including one at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The center, started in 1985, was just awarded $15 million over…
Fat gets a bad rap. Too much is linked to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and cancer, but the fat-rehabilitation movement has already started. Research is starting to accentuate its positives, and work by scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center suggests another possible upside: protection against stress. Published June 3 in Nature Communications, the work used single-celled yeast…
Karl Koehler, Ph.D., and his colleagues were in for a long wait. The research team had set up a system to grow human skin in the lab, starting with induced pluripotent stem cells, naïve adult human cells with the potential to give rise to many other kinds of tissues. With its complex layers and different types of cells, skin takes…
The JAVELIN Bladder 100 phase III clinical trial demonstrates that treatment with immunotherapy avelumab plus best supportive care (BSC) significantly prolongs overall survival compared to BSC alone, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. The randomized controlled study is the first to demonstrate efficacy of immunotherapy with avelumab for urothelial cancer, earning it FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation in April 2020. The…
Earl Davie, PhD, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Biochemistry, died on June 6, 2020. He is known as a giant in the field of biochemistry for his life-saving research around blood clotting and therapeutic proteins. He was one of the first researchers to explain how blood clots, which led to a range of treatments for patients…