Anatomy

"Grey’s Anatomy" star Jake Borelli on the show’s 18th season – Out In Jersey

Jake Borelli stars as Dr. Levi Schmitt on ABCs Greys Anatomy

Jake Borelli is well known since starring as Dr. Levi Schmitt on ABCs Greys Anatomy and subsequently Wolfgang on Nickelodeons The Thundermans. In a brave move on November 2018, during Season 15: Episode 6 of Greys Anatomy, Borelli publicly came out as gay at the same time his character, Dr. Levi Schmitt, came out. Jake Borelli sat down with me before filming to discuss the new season and gives us an inside view into who he really is off-screen.

September 30th marks the premiere of the 18th season of Greys Anatomy. How was the filming process?

Jake Borelli: We arent entirely done with filming! We usually dont even begin filming a new season until six to eight weeks before the premiere of episode one.

Season 17 had a very realistic storyline that closely paralleled the pandemic. What can we expect from this season?

JB: We are all in this new world together trying to figure out how to navigate life and move on. This season is going to be a Shonda Rhimes rollercoaster! I would feel awful to spoil it, so youll have to tune in!

Since May there have been whispers that there will be a spinoff of some kind. Is anything in the works?

JB: OohI have no idea. Private Practice was the first spinoff. I do love the second spinoff we currently have airing, Station 19, so I wouldnt be opposed to more.

How does the character you play, Dr. Levi Schmitt, relate to your own personality?

JB: Levi and I are very similar, to be honest. We have many overlapping traits. A lot of Levis clumsy behavior stems from my own. For example, in Season 14 when I first came on the show there was an episode where I was running because I was late. I tripped and fellthey kept it inand my natural klutz behavior sort of gave birth to Levis klutz behavior. We are both neurotic. Levi has been working hard to elevate himself within the medical field similarly to how I have been working hard to elevate myself within acting.

How do the two of you differ?

JB: I will say that Levi is more vulnerable and open in speaking his mind. I admire these qualities which I have been trying to emulate in my own life. However, Levi is probably more socially awkward than me. I like to think that I am better at my social game than him. I also enjoy Levis obliviousness and inability to see social hierarchy.

Alex Landi plays Dr. Nico Kim, your colleague, and boyfriend on the show. Your relationship is the first gay relationship featured on the longtime series. Is he a good kisser?

JB: (Laughs) Yes, I think Levi would say he is! Alex and I have fun. We love Schmico and really enjoy acting together.

Schmico has gone viral on social media. Thoughts on your popular gay showmance?

JB: Oh my God! I love Schmico. I love all the content that I see. I love the artwork too. Ive seen some incredible pieces of art online.

Over the past ten years, there have been more gay television series, gay main characters, and gay subject matter given attention within the mainstream media. Do you feel gay has become more socially acceptable or do we still have a long way to go?

JB: We still have a long way to go but I feel queerness, in general, has become more mainstream. I feel this has a lot to do with new generations who are much more comfortable talking about queer topics as well as being queer. They are causing a much larger supply and demand for these stories to be shown. I feel business is witnessing this, understanding how these queer stories can be marketed and ultimately advantageous for them.

I am only 30 years old. Growing up, we did not have much in terms of queer storylines. In the past, it was either small characters or tiny story arcs focused on fear and shame. Today we are getting much more well-rounded storylines. I am so proud that the people who run Greys Anatomy decided to put a queer character as a lead on a show this huge. It is massive to me just as an audience member. I am very grateful to them.

How would you describe your dream man in real life?

JB: They must be curious, because curiosity is a very big quality for me. They need to be driven because ambition is a quality I really admire. Overall, I like a family man. I would love to have a family in the future. I also love men who are into the outdoors and enjoy traveling.

You have been extremely busy the past four years. Have you had downtime to enjoy activities and hobbies?

JB: During the pandemic, I felt like all I had was downtime! This summer I visited my family, and we literally did nothing. Yet it was a glorious time. During the height of the pandemic, I went camping often because going out into nature away from people felt like the safest thing you could do. I also picked up embroidery this summer. If readers follow me on Instagram, they can see my embroidery in my stories. By day I am hiking, by night I am watching trashy tv embroidering.

What are some of your favorite guilty pleasure television shows?

JB: I think I have watched every single competition reality show that exists over the last two years. It started with Survivor, which is still my all-time favorite, and moved onto RuPauls Drag Race. Now, this is where it gets so much trashier, my newest obsessions are The Circle and Too Hot to Handle on Netflix. They are all just so addicting that I cant get over it. I will say at least I havent gotten into the Real Housewives franchise or Jersey Shore. The only show remotely like those two that I watch is Selling Sunset on Netflix.

I enjoy the competition element of reality television because it is much more realistic. Case in point: Project Runway and The Great Pottery Throw Down. Going from Greys Anatomy, one of the most respected TV dramas, everything just feels trashy (laughs).

Of all hobbies to pick up how did embroidering happen?

JB: I am very crafty. I was always an artist. Actually, prior to acting I almost went to college to become a fine artist. I always had the artistic bone and knitted since I was prepubescent. During the pandemic, we all had so much time on our hands, and I just started doing macram, embroidery and it grew from there.

You are highly creative. What is your zodiac sign?

JB: I am a Taurus. I am not too familiar with the correlation between creativity, but I am definitely stubborn, so there is validity to what they say about Taurus.

Where do you hope to take your acting career long-term?

JB: I would love to do more theatre. Before I booked Greys Anatomy, I had moved to New York to pursue theatre. However, I was there for only six weeks before I booked Greys Anatomy and had to move back to Los Angeles. At some point, I would like to dip my feet back into theatre. Another huge goal of mine is to work on a network sitcom. Growing up as a kid I adored sitcoms and would love to work on something of that nature.

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"Grey's Anatomy" star Jake Borelli on the show's 18th season - Out In Jersey

Anatomy

Anatomy of the Tories week from hell – Evening Standard

T

here is one statistic so extraordinary about Armistice Day I struggle still to compute it. We are all taught at school how the guns fell silent on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

But it was only a couple of years ago I learned that the death toll for the morning of 11 November 1918 when the commanders knew the fighting would cease at 11am was greater than both sides would go on to suffer in Normandy on D Day, 1944. As the journalist and historian Adam Hochschild puts it, The war ended as senselessly as it had begun.

Of course, politicians never made unbelievably harmful or stupid decisions ever again... Speaking of which, the truly incredible element of the Tory-sleaze-news-cycle-that-will-never-end is how easily it could have been avoided if Boris Johnson had simply accepted the judgement of the Committee on Standards.

Indeed, as Newsnights Lewis Goodall points out, one way to measure time is that onEarth 2, Owen Paterson is now roughly a quarter of the way through his suspension.

Now for the health of our parliamentary democracy, it is perhaps a good thing the Prime Minister erred in the way that he did. Sunlight really is the best disinfectant. But it is unclear when this story will run out of fuel. There are a lot of MPs with a lot of second jobs...

The secret to Matildas success? She doesnt take any s***

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Anatomy of the Tories week from hell - Evening Standard

Immunology

Symposium explores health lessons learned from the pandemic – HSPH News

November 3, 2021 What lessons have scientific researchers learned from the COVID-19 pandemic? And how can they better apply them to the next major outbreak of disease? More than 200 participants gathered virtually to discuss those questions at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Healths 24th annual John B. Little Symposium, held on October 29, 2021.

The event honors the late John B. Little, who was the James Stevens Simmons Professor of Radiobiology Emeritus in Harvard Chan Schools Department of Molecular Metabolism. Little passed away in May 2020.

I vividly remember Jack always sat in the front row with undivided attention, said Zhi-Min Yuan, Morningside Professor of Radiobiology and director of the John B. Little Center for Radiation Sciences, who moderated the symposium. Jacks ongoing legacy stays with us, as we continue this highly received annual event.

In her opening remarks, Dean Michelle Williams introduced the theme of this years conference, COVID-19: Transformative Discoveries and Emerging Research Frontiers. Said Williams, Just as our personal lives have been upended for the past 20 months, so have been the professional lives of researchers. This disruption required really remarkable, profound adaptations that gave rise to new ideas. The diverse group of speakers for the symposium, she noted, shared a wide range of perspectives, including from molecular biology, epidemiological studies, and translational studies.

Among them was Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and adjunct professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard Chan School, who spoke on the difficulties of generating accurate data for treatment of COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. While as a clinician, Rubin said, he could understand the desire for clinicians to try some kind of therapy to address patients suffering, they often drew the wrong conclusions from incomplete early studies. He noted that hydroxychloroquine was widely used before it was shown to do nothing, remdesivir was widely used despite a very mild effect if any, and dexamethasone was virtually ignored. And that is one that worked! he said.

Very few of the millions of patients suffering from COVID-19 were involved in clinical studies, Rubin added, and many of the studies conducted during the pandemic were done on small groups of patients without coordination with one another. In the future, Rubin said, researchers must get better at leveraging existing infrastructure for clinical trials to coordinate studies much more rapidly. Its really important, even in the midst of an epidemic, to figure out whether or not what you are going to do is going to answer the question you care about, he said.

Other speakers at the symposium included the National Institutes of Healths Michele Evans, who spoke on health disparities during the pandemic; University of Iowa microbiology and immunology professor Stanley Perlman, who discussed breakthroughs on animal models for COVID-19; and University of Texas at Austin molecular biosciences professor Jason McLellan, who detailed techniques for identifying the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that allowed for rapid development of vaccines.

Michael Blanding

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Symposium explores health lessons learned from the pandemic - HSPH News

Immunology

MEDIA ALERT: Codex DNA Customer to Highlight Advantages of Automated BioXp System in Precision Cancer Immunotherapy Applications at 13th Annual PEGS…

Dr. Stephen Schoenberger of La Jolla Institute for Immunology to present data validating a novel, synthetic biology-based neoantigen platform and ability to identify immunogenic cancer mutations and TCRs

San Diego, CA, Nov. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Codex DNA, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNAY), a pioneer in automated benchtop synthetic biology systems, today announced that one of its customers will be presenting data at the upcoming PEGS Europe Protein and Antibody Engineering Summit. During the conference, Codex DNA will be showcasing its award-winning BioXp system and a complete line of synthetic biology products at booth #506.

Biologics-based discovery of novel therapeutics is one of the most important areas of research for improving medical advances through the engineering of antibodies or other proteins for cancer treatment, infectious diseases, and inflammatory or autoimmune disorders. However, the process for developing effective monoclonal antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, single-domain antibody variants, chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR Ts), and T cell receptors (TCRs) can be challenging. This is further compounded by the long lead times associated with sourcing synthetic DNA products that are necessary for screening, identification, and optimization of these novel protein or antibody candidates. The Codex DNA BioXp system is the only push-button, fully automated platform for on-demand synthesis of custom DNA libraries, gene fragments, clones, and mRNA. The system enables researchers to eliminate several manual processes from the traditional workflow and accelerate the identification and generation of validated lead candidates.

WHO: Stephen Schoenberger, Ph.D.Professor, Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Dr. Schoenberger is a translational immunologist who guides an integrated research consortium involving research scientists, physicians, and bioinformaticians working to identify neoantigens through a novel functional strategy based on validation rather than prediction. He is a recipient of Scholar Awards from both The American Cancer Society and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Dr. Schoenberger received his PhD in microbiology and molecular genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed postdoctoral training in immunohematology and tumor immunology at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands.

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WHAT: Leveraging the Power of Synthetic Biology in NeoAg Identification

Dr. Schoenberger will present his novel neoantigen identification approach that is being used to identify immunogenic cancer mutations and the TCRs that recognize them. The IPV (Identify-Prioritize-Validate) platform combines HLA-agnostic bioinformatic filtering of matched tumor/normal sequence data with functional analysis of autologous lymphocytes to enable functional validation of neoantigens (NeoAg) and specific TCRs with significantly higher efficiency than previous, purely predictive approaches using routinely available clinical samples.

WHEN: Wednesday, November 3, 2021, at 9:30 am CEST

WHERE: Hotel Arts Barcelona Ritz Carlton, Barcelona, Spain

Scientists involved in biologics discovery and antibody and protein engineering often need to custom-build libraries or synthesize numerous clones to screen new variants, but traditional methods are costly and have extremely long lead times, said Todd R. Nelson, PhD, CEO of Codex DNA. With the ability to generate up to 32 libraries, gene fragments, or clones in less than 24 hours, our benchtop BioXp system streamlines the antibody production process, allowing researchers to significantly increase the quantity and quality of suitable candidates to advance into downstream applications in their own laboratory.

Both Dr. Schoenberger and Dr. Nelson are available for media interviews during the conference. Please contact EMAIL if you are interested in scheduling a private briefing.

About Codex DNA

Codex DNA is empowering scientists with the ability to create novel, synthetic biology-enabled solutions for many of humanitys greatest challenges. As inventors of the industry-standard Gibson Assembly method and the first commercial automated benchtop DNA and mRNA synthesis system, Codex DNA is enabling rapid, accurate, and reproducible writing of DNA and mRNA for numerous downstream markets. The companys award-winning BioXp system consolidates, automates, and optimizes the entire synthesis, cloning, and amplification workflow. As a result, it delivers a virtually error-free synthesis of DNA/RNA at scale within days and hours instead of weeks or months. Scientists around the world are using the technology in their own laboratories to accelerate the design-build-test paradigm for a novel, high-value products for precision medicine, biologics drug discovery, vaccine and therapeutic development, genome editing, and cell and gene therapy. Codex DNA is a public company based in San Diego. For more information, visit codexdna.com.

Codex DNA, the Codex DNA logo, Gibson Assembly, and BioXp are trademarks of Codex DNA Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such forward-looking statements are based on Codex DNAs beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to it on the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Codex DNAs actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks are described more fully in Codex DNAs filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other documents that Codex DNA subsequently files with the SEC from time to time. Except to the extent required by law, Codex DNA undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

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Immunology

The tricks of lymphomas – EurekAlert

image:Immune cells can migrate into the lymph nodes via particularly large blood vessels (red and green in the picture) and destroy existing tumor cells (white). These vessels are gradually remodeled in aggressive non-Hodgkins lymphomas. This is probably why cell-based immunotherapies have so far not been effective against this type of tumor. view more

Credit: Rehm Lab, MDC

Cellular immunotherapies have so far not been very effective against non-Hodgkins lymphoma.A team led by Armin Rehm of the MDC has discovered a possible reason. As the they describe in Cell Reports, this cancer induces changes in the large blood vessels through which immune cells normally migrate to the lymph nodes.

Immunotherapies have become an indispensable part of modern cancer treatment. They are particularly effective against cancers like Hodgkins disease, a type of blood cancer that attacks the lymphatic system. When it comes to aggressive non-Hodgkins lymphomas, however, comparable approaches that employ various strategies to incite the immune system to attack the tumor cells typically end in failure.

Lymph node architecture is disrupted

The probable reason for this failure has now been uncovered by a team led by Dr.Armin Rehm, head of the Translational Tumor Immunology Lab at the Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) in Berlin. In experiments with mice and human tumor tissue, we were able to show that the cancer cells disrupt the delicate architecture of the lymph nodes, explains Dr.Lutz Menzel, first author of the Cell Reportspaper and a researcher in Rehms lab.

This ultimately leads to a group of large blood vessels the high endothelial venules losing one of their most important functions. Without these intact vessels, immune cells cannot migrate into the lymph nodes on their patrols to track down tumor cells, explains Menzel. Several research groups at the MDC were involved in the German Cancer Aid-funded study, including the Microenvironmental Regulation in Autoimmunity and Cancer Lab led by Dr.Uta Hpken.

Identical findings in mice and humans

We knew from a previous study that aggressive lymphomas, such as diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma, stimulate the growth of small capillary-like vessels in the lymph nodes, says Rehm. In this way the tumor cells ensure that they are optimally supplied with nutrients during their rapid growth. At the same time, microscopic examinations showed us that there were very few blood vessels with larger diameters in the affected lymph nodes, reports Rehm, adding that the findings in mice were identical to those in humans with aggressive lymphomas.

In the current study, the researchers first used mice to investigate how the loss ofhigh endothelial venulesoccurs, a situation that allows lymphomas to evade attack by the cellular immune system. We discovered a complex cascade of changes which include the scaffold structures in the lymph nodes being disrupted, says Menzel. Such disruption causes changes in the pressure and volume ratios, both of which influence gene expression.

This, he says, eventually leads to high endothelial venules being transformed into completely normal blood vessels, thus cutting off the immune cells access to the cancer cells. The team was then able to confirm these observations in human cancer tissue. They examined nearly 80tissue samples from patients with aggressive non-Hodgkins lymphoma to validate the results.

Cancer cells create protective niches for themselves

Many types of tumors employ strategies to evade an attack by the immune system, says Rehm. For example, cancer cells develop special surface molecules or produce signaling molecules that shut down immune cells. Little research had been done previously on how lymphomas protect themselves from the bodys defenses as they grow. Our study now provides deeper insights into the methods tumor cells use to create protective niches in lymph nodes, notes Rehm.

It is crucial to know what is happening in the tumor microenvironment, especially when it comes to cancer immunotherapy, adds Menzel. Only in this way can we devise strategies that enable therapeutic Tcells to reach the tumor site, where they can fight the tumor directly.

Easing immune cell immigration

The team plans to use the new findings to develop targeted strategies to halt or even reverse the process responsible for the disappearance of high endothelial venules. One thing we are trying to do is specifically alter the vessels in the lymph nodes with the help of various drugs, says Rehm. The goal here, he says, is to ease immune cell immigration and prevent tumor cells from shielding themselves against attack in their niches. In this way the researchers hope that immunotherapeutic approaches like CAR T-cell therapy may also become more effective against aggressive non-Hodgkins lymphomas.

Further information

Translational Tumor Immunology Lab

A potent weapon against lymphomas

Lymphomas different route revealed

Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC)

The Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) is one of the worlds leading biomedical research institutions. Max Delbrck, a Berlin native, was a Nobel laureate and one of the founders of molecular biology. At the MDCs locations in Berlin-Buch and Mitte, researchers from some 60 countries analyze the human system investigating the biological foundations of life from its most elementary building blocks to systems-wide mechanisms. By understanding what regulates or disrupts the dynamic equilibrium in a cell, an organ, or the entire body, we can prevent diseases, diagnose them earlier, and stop their progression with tailored therapies. Patients should benefit as soon as possible from basic research discoveries. The MDC therefore supports spin-off creation and participates in collaborative networks. It works in close partnership with Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin in the jointly run Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charit, and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK). Founded in 1992, the MDC today employs 1,600 people and is funded 90 percent by the German federal government and 10 percent by the State of Berlin.www.mdc-berlin.de

Experimental study

Lymphocyte access to lymphoma is impaired by high endothelial venule regression

26-Oct-2021

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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The tricks of lymphomas - EurekAlert

Immunology

Prokarium Promotes Livija Deban to Chief Scientific Officer to Drive Pipeline Expansion in Cancer Immunotherapy – Business Wire

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Prokarium, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the oncology field of microbial immunotherapy, today announced the appointment of Livija Deban, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer.

Since joining Prokarium, Livija has been central to the strategic and operational development of the companys immuno-oncology portfolio, including our next-generation Salmonella platform, said Kristen Albright, PharmD, Chief Executive Officer of Prokarium. I look forward to closely working with her and the team to establish Prokarium as a recognized leader in microbial immunotherapy.

At Prokarium, we are leveraging cutting edge science at the intersection of immunology and synthetic biology to develop innovative therapies for the treatment of solid tumors, said Dr. Deban. Our approach builds on the long history of microbial immunotherapy and holds the promise of providing solutions to many clinical needs that cannot be addressed by current cancer therapeutics. I am honored to be appointed as CSO and am excited to work with the leadership team and the board to accelerate our pipeline.

Dr. Deban previously served as Prokariums Vice President of Research. Prior to joining Prokarium, she led the immuno-oncology R&D at Oxford BioTherapeutics, where she focused on the target discovery and the development of antibodies for cancer treatment. Previously, Dr. Deban conducted her postdoctoral academic research at Cancer Research UK and Kings College London. She received her masters degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Bologna and holds a PhD in Basic and Applied Immunology from University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Italy.

About Prokarium

Prokarium is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the field of microbial immunotherapy. Our pipeline is designed to unlock the next level of immuno-oncology by building on the most recent advances in cancer immunology. Prokariums lead program is focused on transforming the treatment paradigm in bladder cancer by orchestrating immune-driven, long-lasting antitumor effects. Prokarium is based London, UK. For further information, visit https://www.prokarium.com.

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Prokarium Promotes Livija Deban to Chief Scientific Officer to Drive Pipeline Expansion in Cancer Immunotherapy - Business Wire

Immunology

Merck and Synthekine Strike $525 Million Cytokine Therapy Deal – BioSpace

Merckis widening its reach into the treatment of autoimmune diseases by investing inSynthekine, a bioresearch company that develops engineered cytokine therapeutics.

Under a worldwidecollaboration and research agreement, Merck can exclusively take advantage of Synthekine's surrogate cytokine agonist platform to discover, develop, and sell new cytokine-based treatments for up to two cytokine targets. The companies will first look into potential therapies for autoimmune illnesses but can later go into immunology, oncology, and other indications.

Cytokines are small proteins that are essential to immune homeostasis, but developing them to create therapies can be tricky due to their pleiotropic nature. Trying to harness them for treatment often leads to "wild-type" products that have either dose limiting toxicities or low efficacy. However, using Synthekine's technology, cytokine agonists can dimerize or multimerize cytokine receptors properly, resulting in a wide range of biased and selective signaling potential.

"At Synthekine, we are focused on advancing cytokine science through three protein engineering platforms to create optimized therapeutics in this important space. Our surrogate cytokine agonist platform produces a new class of cytokine therapeutics that are designed to deliver selective immunotherapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer," said Debanjan Ray, chief executive officer of Synthekine, in a statement.

Merck will pay Synthekine upfront, plus another one-time payment if a second target is identified. Synthekine stands to receive as much as $525 million in milestones and royalties from net sales for every target achieved. Funding for research will also come from Merck.

"Emerging insights from immunology and oncology are providing new and different ways to think about treating diseases. We look forward to collaborating with Synthekine to evaluate new approaches to harness the therapeutic potential of cytokines," added Dr. Dean Y. Li, the president of Merck Research Laboratories.

Just a few days ago, Synthekine announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationapproved its investigational new drug (IND) application forSTK-012, an IL2 partial agonist that has the potential for use as monotherapy or in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat advanced solid tumors. STK-012 has the ability to stimulate antigen-activated T cells, which are linked with anti-tumor activity while avoiding the stimulation of toxicity-causing killer cells.

IL-2 is a cytokine with proven benefit as an anti-cancer therapy. However, the indiscriminate activity of IL-2 can cause severe toxicities, limiting its clinical application. We have designed STK-012 to uncouple the efficacy and toxicity of IL-2, and we look forward to now investigating its potential in our first clinical development program," noted Naiyer Rizvi, M.D., the chief medical officer of Synthekine, in a separate press release.

Synthekine is expected to begin its clinical investigation for SK-012 soon.

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Merck and Synthekine Strike $525 Million Cytokine Therapy Deal - BioSpace

Immunology

Inflammatory Mediator Could Be Targeted To Treat Pneumonia – Technology Networks

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report that a recently discovered inflammatory mediator, interleukin-26, appears to have an important role in pneumonia and contribute to the killing of bacteria. The study is published in the scientific journalFrontiers in Immunology - Microbial Immunology.Bacterial lung infection affects both children and adults worldwide and pneumonia remains a common cause of premature death in many parts of the world, with millions of people dying from it every year. To facilitate the development of more effective therapies, researchers at Karolinska Institutet are trying to characterise the immunological mechanisms involved in pneumonia.

The new study demonstrates that an inflammatory mediator called interleukin-26 (IL-26) is critically involved in bacterial pneumonia in humans. During the last decade, IL-26 has emerged as an important player in the so-called innate immune response, our first line of defence against pathogens. It is abundant in the airways of healthy humans, and bacterial exposure stimulates an increased release of IL-26 by lung cells and white blood cells.

Studying human lung tissue and airway samples from patients with bacterial pneumonia, the researchers were able to show that IL-26 exerts complex modulatory effects on the immune system and that the protein directly kills bacteria known to cause pneumonia.

Antibiotics are not sufficient to treat pneumonia and antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem, highlighting the need for biological treatments of this global killer disease. Our findings position IL-26 as a new potential target for biological treatment and emphasise that its role in pneumonia deserves to be further evaluated, says lead author Karlhans Che, a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet.

The research was financed by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, The Swedish Research Council, Region Stockholm (ALF funding), and The Swedish Society for Medical Research. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Reference:Che KF, Paulsson M, Piersiala K, et al. Complex involvement of interleukin-26 in bacterial lung Infection. Front. Immunol. 2021;12:4531. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.761317

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Immunology

Pfizer bows out of the Tyk2 race – Vantage

2021 had once looked like the year of the Tyk2 inhibitors, but some shine is coming off this member of the Jak family. Pfizer today disclosed plans to offload two projects with activity against Tyk2, not long after the lead proponent of this approach, Bristol Myers Squibb, reported disappointing data with deucravacitinib in ulcerative colitis. Pfizer did not give a reason for its Tyk2 exit, which will see brepocitinib and PF-06826647 licensed to a new company that Pfizer is forming in partnership with an unnamed autoimmune player; the pharma giant will have a 25% stake in this venture and retain certain ex-US rights. Perhaps the decision was spurred by toxicity concerns with the Jak inhibitors, which solidified in September into a class warning; however, Pfizer is keeping hold of its Jak1 abrocitinib which is still awaiting an FDA decision in atopic dermatitis and the Jak3/Tec inhibitor ritlecitinib. Still, other mechanisms now look like a priority: Pfizer highlighted several immunology projects in its third-quarter presentation, including a high potency topical PDE4 inhibitor, PF-07038124, for atopic dermatitis and psoriasis; PF-06480605, a TL1A inhibitor for ulcerative colitis; and the interferon-beta Inhibitor PF-06823859 in dermatomyositis.

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Pfizer bows out of the Tyk2 race - Vantage