News round-up for 24-28 October by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer
Over the last seven days we’ve seen discoveries that could lead to new treatments for Covid-19, pancreatic cancer and Epstein-Barr virus, as well as the launch of the UK’s largest health research programme and the innovative application of a Nobel prize-winning chemistry technique.
This week’s top stories:
Could mRNA become a ‘universal’ Covid-19 treatment?
New research suggests messenger RNA can be effectively used as a ‘universal’ therapy against different coronaviruses.
Radioactive implant ‘completely eliminated’ tumours
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated the most effective treatment for pancreatic cancer ever recorded in mouse models.
Millions invited to join UK’s largest health research programme
Over three million people have been invited to join Our Future Health, which is set to become the UK’s largest ever health research programme.
‘Click’ chemistry used to tag proteins made by cancer cells
A new method to study the proteins released by cells, which could lead to new biomarkers for diseases including cancer, has been developed by scientists at the Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College London.
Experimental monoclonal antibodies block EBV infection
A panel of investigational monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting different sites of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) have been shown to block infection when tested in human cells in a laboratory setting.