If you slip on a virtual reality headset to play the Allen Institute for Cell Science’s latest app, you’ll find yourself inside a simulated, circular room with targets on the walls all around you. Several 3D, watermelon-sized human cells fall from the sky and land at your feet, jostling gently to find their place on the ground. In the VR…
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center investigator Dr. Harmit Malikhas been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, an honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology. Malik, a member of the Hutch’s Basic Sciences Division and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, was one of 109 fellows elected this year. Annual fellow selection is a highly selective, peer-reviewed process that is…
According to a new study published recently in JAMA, many patients eschew using the safest antibiotic in the mistaken belief they are allergic to an entire class of antibiotics, including penicillins. Instead, they often rely on pricier drugs, which are associated with higher rates of complications and treatment failure. Or the patient is blasted with a broad-spectrum antibiotic which can increase the…
That is how ISB microbiome researcher Dr. Sean Gibbons kicked off a recent Facebook Live Q&A. Gibbons, who joined ISB as Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Investigator and assistant professor in June 2018 and who runs the Gibbons Lab, explained the nascent field of microbiome research. “We’ve only really come to appreciate (the human microbiome) in the last couple of decades,” Gibbons said. “My lab…
CRISPR gene editing could let us hack the immune system to give lasting protection against HIV and other infections. Experiments in mice suggest that the technique could be used to give people immunity from a range of viruses for which there are no effective vaccines. Justin Taylor, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues used the…
Our lab in the Department of Pathology at UW is interested in how cells deal with "genetic entropy", defined as the progressive accumulation of mutations. This can occur during aging or during prolonged expression of a "mutator phenotype". Mutator phenotypes commonly arise in cancers due to mutations that compromise the fidelity of DNA replication or DNA repair. While mutators initially enjoy a more rapid evolution, they run up against a progressive loss of fitness due to the accumulation of deleterious mutations....
Glyphosate, an herbicide that remains the world’s most ubiquitous weed killer, raises the cancer risk of those exposed to it by 41%, a new analysis says. Researchers from the University of Washington evaluated existing studies into the chemical — found in weed killers including Monsanto’s popular Roundup — and concluded that it significantly increases the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a cancer…
With less than two days to go before the US government runs out of money, lawmakers in Congress are scrambling to pass a budget deal that would give small increases to NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and many other science agencies. The Senate and the House of Representatives approved the legislationon 14 February — clearing…
A clinical trial testing two new therapeutic vaccines, one developed by IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute) and another by Archivel Farma, was given the green light to proceed at the inaugural meeting of the STriTuVad (In Silico Trial for Tuberculosis) consortium held recently in New Delhi, India. The consortium is focused on demonstrating how advanced computer modelling and simulation can…
Celiac disease is the most common food-induced enteropathy in humans, with a prevalence of approximately 1% worldwide. It is induced by digestion-resistant, proline- and glutamine-rich seed storage proteins, collectively referred to as “gluten,” found in wheat (Triticum aestivum). Related prolamins are present in barley (Hordeum vulgare) and rye (Secale cereale). The incidence of both celiac disease and a related condition…
