CD4 chimeric antigen receptor T cells in for the long journey.

In a recently published article, Melenhorst et al. performed a longitudinal analysis on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells isolated from patients over 10 years after therapy, revealing expansion of a long-lived CD4 CAR T-cell population with a cytotoxic phenotype.

Controlled Apoptosis of Stromal Cells to Engineer Human Microlivers.

Engineered tissue models comprise a variety of multiplexed ensembles in which combinations of epithelial, stromal, and immune cells give rise to physiologic function. Engineering spatiotemporal control of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions within these 3D multicellular tissues would represent a significant advance for tissue engineering. In this work, a new method, entitled CAMEO (Controlled Apoptosis in Multicellular tissues for Engineered Organogenesis) enables the non-invasive triggering of controlled apoptosis to eliminate genetically-engineered cells from a pre-established culture.

Transient Support from Fibroblasts is Sufficient to Drive Functional Vascularization in Engineered Tissues.

Formation of capillary blood vasculature is a critical requirement for native as well as engineered organs and can be induced in vitro by co-culturing endothelial cells with fibroblasts. However, whether these fibroblasts are required only in the initial morphogenesis of endothelial cells or needed throughout is unknown, and the ability to remove these stromal cells after assembly could be useful for clinical translation. In this study, we introduce a technique termed CAMEO (Controlled Apoptosis in Multicellular Tissues for Engineered Organogenesis), whereby fibroblasts are selectively ablated on demand, and utilize it to probe the dispensability of fibroblasts in vascular morphogenesis.

Machine learning guided association of adverse drug reactions with in vitro target-based pharmacology.

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in health care. Understanding which drug targets are linked to ADRs can lead to the development of safer medicines.

Methods: Here, we analyse in vitro secondary pharmacology of common (off) targets for 2134 marketed drugs.

In situ expansion of engineered human liver tissue in a mouse model of chronic liver disease.

Control of both tissue architecture and scale is a fundamental translational roadblock in tissue engineering. An experimental framework that enables investigation into how architecture and scaling may be coupled is needed. We fabricated a structurally organized engineered tissue unit that expanded in response to regenerative cues after implantation into mice with liver injury.

The Genome as an Evolutionary Timepiece.

The molecular clock is a valuable and widely used tool for estimating evolutionary rates and timescales in biological research. There has been considerable progress in the theory and practice of molecular clocks over the past five decades. Although the idea of a molecular clock was originally put forward in the context of protein evolution and advanced using various biochemical techniques, it is now primarily applied to analyses of DNA sequences.

Disruption of cell-cell contact-mediated notch signaling via hydrogel encapsulation reduces mesenchymal stem cell chondrogenic potential: winner of the Society for Biomaterials Student Award in the Undergraduate Category, Charlotte, NC, April 15 to 18, 2015.

Cell-cell contact-mediated Notch signaling is essential for mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) chondrogenesis during development. However, subsequent deactivation of Notch signaling is also required to allow for stem cell chondrogenic progression. Recent literature has shown that Notch signaling can also influence Wnt/β-catenin signaling, critical for MSC differentiation, through perturbations in cell-cell contacts.