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Immunology Highlights

2024

– Precision Medicine Online

AIRNA Raises $60M to Develop RNA-Editing Pipeline, Advance AATD Candidate Into Clinical Trials

The company's oversubscribed $60 million financing round brings its total Series A funding to $90 million.

– News Center

Bali Pulendran is new director of Institute for Immunology, Transplantation and Infection

The institute’s purpose is to understand the human immune system at multiple levels — molecular, genetic and cellular — and to harness this understanding to prevent and treat disease.

– Business Wire

Parker Institute Welcomes New Co-Directors for PICI Centers at Stanford, UCSF & Penn

The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) today announced the appointments of Ansu Satpathy, MD, PhD, Julia Carnevale, MD, and Saar Gill, M

– GlobeNewswire News Room

aTyr Pharma Announces Research Study with Stanford Medicine

aTyr Pharma announces research study with Stanford Medicine to explore role of anti-NRP2 antibodies in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), form of brain...

– News Center

Lars Steinmetz is new chair of Stanford Medicine Department of Genetics

Genomics and technology development expert Lars Steinmetz now leads Stanford Medicine’s genetics department.

– CGTlive™

Stanford Study Finds Low Risk of Secondary Blood Cancers After CAR-T

Of 724 patients treated at the center, the cumulative incidence of secondary hematologic malignancy at 3 years posttreatment was 6.5%.

– Emory University

Emory University announces recipients of the first Max Cooper Prize in Immunology

Three structural biologists, recognized for their groundbreaking research and new insights into the immune system, are the first recipients of the Max Cooper Prize in Immunology. The prize is named for the renowned immunologist at Emory.

– CGTlive™

Tr1X Doses First Patient in Trial Evaluating Allogeneic Treg Therapy TRX103 for GvHD Prevention

Tr1X reported that the first patient has cleared the trial’s safety period successfully, having experienced no serious adverse events.

– ScienceDaily

Trial of cell-based therapy for high-risk lymphoma leads to FDA breakthrough designation

CAR-T cell therapy helps some with intractable lymphoma, but those who relapse have few options. Modifying the therapy's molecular target improved response.

– Stanford Report

A new AI approach optimizes development of antibody drugs

A method that combines a large language model with data about a protein’s 3D shape could make it quicker and easier to develop medications.

– GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News

Bertozzi's TwoStep Therapeutics to Target Solid Tumors With Engineered Peptide Drug Delivery Vehicle

The company announced $6.5M in seed funding to develop a multi-targeted platform that exploits highly expressed markers on solid tumors.

– BioSpace

Curiox Biosystems Announces the Establishment of the Curiox Innovation Center for the Curiox C-FREE™ Pluto LT System at Stanford University's Human Immune Monitoring Center

Curiox Biosystems is pleased to announce the establishment of the Curiox Innovation Center for the Curiox C-FREE™ Pluto LT System at the Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC) at Stanford University.

– The ASCO Post

Risk of Secondary Cancer After CAR T-Cell Therapy

A single-center study found that second tumors had occurred in 25 of 724 patients during 15 months of follow-up after receipt of CAR T-cell therapy, including one fatal case of T-cell lymphoma.

– Drug Topics

CGM, Wearable Device Data to Improve Mortality, Establish Lifestyle Changes

In a session presented at the 2024 Heart in Diabetes Conference, researchers discussed the abilities of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to capture lifestyle data and improve mortality rates.

– News Center

Christopher Garcia is the 2024 Passano Award winner

Garcia was recognized for his research into the way molecules bind to one another and its implications for safer and more effective treatments.

– KTVU FOX 2

Stanford researchers make critical COVID-19 discovery

After 5 years with COVID-19, health experts say there is still much to learn about the virus that causes the disease. At the height of the pandemic, hospitals were overwhelmed with patients with severe cases of the respiratory virus including life-threatening complications. It was believed that a certain type of lung cell made some people more susceptible to severe infection but now that is no longer the case. KTVU's Heather Holmes speaks with Stanford scientists Catherine Blish and Mark Krasnow about their critical new research that found a different suspected source of vulnerability.

– News Center

Stanford Medicine study flags unexpected cells in lung as suspected source of severe COVID

A previously overlooked type of immune cell allows SARS-CoV-2 to proliferate, Stanford Medicine scientists have found. The discovery has important implications for preventing severe COVID-19.

– Pipelinereview

Tr1X Announces FDA Clearance of First Investigational New Drug Application for TRX103, an Allogeneic Regulatory T-Cell Therapy to Treat Autoimmune Diseases - Pipelinereview

SAN DIEGO, CA, USA I April 10, 2024 I Tr1X, Inc., an autoimmune and inflammatory disease cell therapy company focused on the development of novel

– Bitterroot Star

Collaborative research provides clues to immunity, longer life - Bitterroot Star

by Michael Howell Feeling old and especially vulnerable in the face of the many variations of Flu and RSVP viruses going around? There is good reason to be concerned. Recent […]

– Medscape

Multiple Sclerosis and Epstein-Barr Virus: What Do We Know?

Research suggested that EBV is the primary cause of MS. What are the clinical implications, and could this transform treatment and prevention of this neurodegenerative condition?

– News Center

Old immune systems revitalized in Stanford Medicine mouse study, improving vaccine response

Those with aging immune systems struggle to fight off novel viruses and respond weakly to vaccination. Stanford Medicine researchers were able to revitalize the immune system in mice.

– Ark Invest

The Power Of Fitness Wearables with Stanford’s Dr. Michael Snyder

On this episode of FYI, hosts Nemo Marjanovic and Charles Roberts speak with Professor Dr. Michael Snyder, a leading figure in genomics and personalized medicine.

– Healthier, Happy Lives Blog

Remission Holds Fast After Five Relapses for Young Woman With Leukemia

None of the treatments designed to fight Camille's acute lymphocytic leukemia worked, until an innovative stem cell transplant at Stanford.

– Earth.com

Your microbiome contains trillions of bacteria and is unique like your fingerprint

Trillions of bacteria inhabiting our bodies -- collectively known as the microbiome -- are as unique to an individual as their fingerprint.

– The Scientist Magazine®

The Resilience of Monoclonal Antibodies and their Makers

The road to developing monoclonal antibodies for effectively targeting cancer was paved with tenacity, passion, and strokes of luck.

– Nature

CD22 CAR T cells demonstrate high response rates and safety in pediatric and adult B-ALL: Phase 1b results - Leukemia

Leukemia - CD22 CAR T cells demonstrate high response rates and safety in pediatric and adult B-ALL: Phase 1b results

– Healthier, Happy Lives Blog

Remission Holds Fast After Five Relapses for Young Woman With Leukemia

None of the treatments designed to fight Camille's acute lymphocytic leukemia worked, until an innovative stem cell transplant at Stanford.

– Stanford News

This protein pic could help develop new cancer treatments

A molecular “snapshot” of a protein can be critical to understanding its function. Scientists at Stanford and NYU have published and investigated a new structure of the protein LAG-3 which could enable the development of new cancer treatments.

– Scope

Unconventional Paths: How she flipped traditional genomics analysis on its head

Statistics expert Julia Salzman returned to biology and has married her two areas of expertise to design a new form of genomics analysis.

– Scope

Going beyond B cells in the search for a more multi-targeted vaccine

The ultimate goal: a vaccine with coverage so broad it can protect against viruses never before encountered.

– Scope

Searching for vaccine variability in the land of the flu

The ultimate goal: a vaccine with coverage so broad it can protect against viruses never before encountered.

– Scope

The hunt for a vaccine that fends off not just a single viral strain, but a multitude

Stanford Medicine researchers are designing vaccines that might protect people from not merely individual viral strains but broad ranges of them. The ultimate goal: a vaccine with coverage so broad it can protect against viruses never before encountered.

– Nature

Discovery of sparse, reliable omic biomarkers with Stabl

Stabl selects sparse and reliable biomarker candidates from predictive models.

2023


2022

  • – News Center

    New blood test to identify infections could reduce global antibiotic overuse

    A diagnostic test developed by Stanford Medicine scientists can separate bacterial and viral infections with 90% accuracy, the first to meet standards set by the World Health Organization. The new test is described in a paper published Dec. 20 in Cell Reports Medicine. “Antimicrobial resistance is continuously rising, so there has been a lot of effort to reduce inappropriate antibiotic usage,” said Purvesh Khatri, PhD, associate professor of medicine and biomedical data science, and the senior author of the paper. “Accurately diagnosing whether a patient has a bacterial or viral infection is one of the biggest global health challenges.”

  • – News Center

    Researchers may have found a new path for halting cancer cell production

    After finding long, repetitive sequences in the genomes of seven kinds of cancer, researchers at Stanford Medicine and their colleagues developed a molecule that curbed their production. Although the scientists aren’t sure what role the repetitive sequences play in cancer, they were encouraged that they appeared to have found a way to inhibit the creation of more cancer cells. “The most dramatic result was that you could actually target them and stop cell proliferation,” said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and chair of the department of genetics.

  • – Human Performance Alliance

    Speeding up bone healing in menopausal females

    lder women heal bone fractures slower than men. Now a team has found that a single, localized delivery of estrogen to a fracture can speed up healing in postmenopausal mice. The findings could have implications for the way fractures in women are treated in the future. “The majority of stem cell research is done on male animals. There’s very little research that has actually been done on females,” said Wu Tsai Alliance member Charles Chan, PhD, an assistant professor of surgery at Stanford University and co-senior author of the paper published Oct. 30 in Nature Communications. “The research is long overdue, especially the question of why women heal differently from men.”

  • – Pharmacy Times

    Expert: Immune Reconstitution With Orca-T Reveals ‘New Realm of Engineered Donor Grafts’ for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies

    Pharmacy Times interviewed Everett Meyer, MD, PhD, medical and scientific director of the Cellular Therapy Facility, Stanford Health Care and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Stanford University, on the poster presentation titled “Rapid Immune Reconstitution and Elevated Regulatory T Cell Frequencies in Patients Treated with Orca-T” at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana.

  • – Helio

    Stanford researcher receives award for lifetime achievement in hematology

    Irving Weissman, MD, will receive the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology at this year’s ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition. Weissman, director of Stanford Medicine’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, has made several important contributions to hematology over the past 5 decades.


2021

  • – News Center

    Stanford pathologists awarded several NIH awards

    Efforts to design a hepatitis C vaccine, understand the genetic causes of rare diseases, map genetic regulatory elements in organ systems and understand coronavirus immune responses garner over $40 million. The researchers are associate professor of pathology Scott Boyd, MD, PhD; professor of pathology Steven Foung, MD; associate professor of pathology and of genetics Stephen Montgomery, PhD; and assistant professor of pathology Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD.

  • – News Center

    Stanford Medicine to enroll 900 in NIH-funded long-COVID study

    Data suggest that between 10% and 30% of those who have had an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection will experience the persistent pattern of symptoms known as long COVID. Principal investigators of the Stanford Medicine site are Upinder Singh, MD, professor of infectious diseases and geographical medicine and of microbiology and immunology; PJ Utz, MD, PhD, professor of immunology and rheumatology; Catherine Blish, MD, PhD, professor of infectious diseases; and Yvonne Maldonado, MD, professor of pediatric infectious disease and of epidemiology and population health, as well as the Taube Professor of Global Health and Infectious Diseases. Additional collaborators within Stanford Medicine include the departments of Emergency Medicine and of Pediatrics.

  • – Scope

    Why are smokers at an increased risk for severe COVID-19?

    Tobacco smoke blocks airway cells from making a protein that protects against infection by the virus that causes COVID-19. Now researchers at Stanford Medicine, including former instructor of allergy and immunology, Ivan Lee, MD, PhD, otolaryngologist Jayakar Nayak, MD, PhD, and microbiologist and immunologist Garry Nolan, PhD, have traced the path of infection from the time the virus latches onto cells in the nasal passages through its seemingly inexorable march to the lungs.

  • – News Center

    Synthetic immunotherapy seeks out and destroys tumors in mice with aggressive cancers, study finds

    Stanford researchers have developed a synthetic, tumor-targeting molecule that promotes immune activation and tumor regression in laboratory mice after it’s injected into their bloodstreams. “We essentially cured some animals with just a few injections,” said Jennifer Cochran, PhD, the Shriram Chair of the Department of Bioengineering. “It was pretty astonishing. When we looked within the tumors, we saw they went from a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment to one full of activated B and T cells — similar to what happens when the immune-stimulating molecule is injected directly into the tumor. So, we’re achieving intra-tumoral injection results but with an IV delivery.” A paper describing the study published online Nov. 12 in Cell Chemical Biology. Cochran shares senior authorship with Carolyn Bertozzi, PhD, the Baker Family Director of Stanford ChEM-H, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and professor of chemistry; and Ronald Levy, MD, the Robert K. and Helen K. Summy Professor in the School of Medicine. The lead authors are graduate student Caitlyn Miller and instructor of medicine Idit Sagiv-Barfi, PhD.

  • – the Guardian

    ‘This is such an important moment’: how stem cell research is transforming medicine

    A new documentary shines a light on the breakthroughs that are being made or are close to being made in finding cures to previously incurable diseases. In Experts such as Irving Weissman, the director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University, offer some academic context to the individual stories and attests to the heated cultural wars that have stilted scientific progress.


October 7, 2021 - The Edge
How can technology help you track real time data about your health and wellbeing? And why should you track anyway? In this episode, Michael Snyder, professor of genetics, talks about how tracking can help you gain deeper understanding of what is going on in your body at a physiological level. Often, illnesses begin developing in our bodies quietly, before any symptoms begin to show up. Snyder’s research shows that by tracking on a regular basis, we can pre-empt diseases. Health data collection using wearable tech can help us take a proactive approach toward prevention of disease. And like they say, prevention is better than cure.

  • – Scope

    What to do (and not do) when you win the Nobel Prize

    Three of Stanford Medicine's Nobel laureates, including Andrew Fire, George D. Smith Professor of Molecular and Genetic Medicine and Professor of Pathology and of Genetics, offer advice to future winners about hearing the news and what to expect next in their careers.

  • – The Scientist Magazine

    When the Immune Response Makes COVID-19 Worse

    If the immune system makes mistake--reacting late or getting the target wrong--it can amplify the damage wrought by SARS-CoV-2.

  • – News Center

    Statins may be effective treatment for patients with ulcerative colitis

    People with ulcerative colitis who are also taking statins have about a 50% decreased risk of colectomies and hospitalization, according to a Stanford Medicine study. Purvesh Khatri, PhD, associate professor of medicine and of biomedical data science, and his team tracked down a connection between a handful of drugs and decreased symptoms of ulcerative colitis.

  • – Business Insider

    Why Stanford is spending millions to incorporate Apple Watches and Fitbits into medical care

    Stanford is exploring consumer wearable devices, including Apple Watches and Fitbits, to monitor heart rates and predict COVID-19 symptoms. Michael Snyder, professor of genetics, leads many of the health systems' wearable projects and says it's up to health systems to quickly figure out whether the data's useful to doctors and how to efficiently extract it from the devices.

  • – Scope

    Blood test predicts chances of lymphoma relapse after therapy

    Stanford Medicine Scientists have devised a blood test to predict some cancer relapses after patients have already been treated.To understand whether ctDNA tracking might hint at relapse, Miklos, who heads Stanford Medicine's Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy division, Matthew Frank MD, PhD assistant professor of medicine, and their labs enrolled 72 patients with large B-cell lymphoma, who had received CAR-T cell therapy, which involves genetically engineering certain immune cells to find and eliminate specific cancer cells.


June 23, 2021 – NBC Bay Area

NBC Bay Area: COVID-19 and brain inflammation

Stanford researchers have found signs of inflammation, genetic changes and impaired circuitry in the brains of people killed by COVID-19, important clues to the mysterious “brain fog” and mental struggles reported by many patients. Tony Wyss-Coray, professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford Medicine provides comments.

  • – MarketWatch

    How COVID vaccine's mRNA technology could help cure other diseases

    Scientists and companies are trying to harness the mRNA technology to develop vaccines against cancer and other diseases. Bali Pulendran, Violetta L. Horton Professor And Professor Of Microbiology And Immunology and of Pathology, comments on the future on vaccines.

  • – News Center

    Stanford researchers find signs of inflammation in brains of people who died of COVID-19

    A detailed molecular analysis of tissue from the brains of individuals who died of COVID-19 reveals extensive signs of inflammation and neurodegeneration, but no sign of the virus that causes the disease. Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford, shares senior authorship with Andreas Keller, PhD, chair of clinical bioinformatics at Saarland University.

  • – News Center

    Climate change linked to longer allergy season in Bay Area, Stanford study finds

    Air levels of pollen and mold spores in the San Francisco Bay Area are elevated for about two more months per year than in past decades, and higher temperatures are to blame, a Stanford Medicine study has found, led by senior author, Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and of pediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine.

  • – Stanford Today

    Faculty Women’s Forum announces 2021 award winners

    The 2021 Faculty Women’s Forum Awards honor individuals for their outstanding work supporting women at Stanford through role modeling, allyship, leadership and sponsorship. Stanford Immunology faculty Dr. Joy Wu, an associate professor of medicine (endocrinology, gerontology and metabolism) in the School of Medicine is honored in the Allyship Award category.

  • – News Center

    Smartwatch data can predict blood test results, study reports

    Stanford researchers found that data from smartwatches can flag early signs of some health conditions and predict the results of simple blood tests. Scientists from the lab of Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and chair of genetics, tracked data from smartwatches, blood tests and other tests conducted in a doctor’s office in a small group of study participants.


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