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NEWS
Preventing Triple Negative Breast Cancer From Spreading
Protein could be key to providing a precision medicine treatment to prevent the spread of cancer in people diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, MU study finds A breast cancer cell is like a house with three locks on the front door. Keys, or receptors, allow drugs to unlock the door and kill the cell. However, in triple-negative breast cancer, these keys are absent, thereby resulting in few options for drug therapy, until now. A protein called p53 suppresses and kills cancer in people. However, a defective, mutant form of p53 helps cancer cells grow and multiply. Researchers at the University…
Nobel Laureate Smith to Address CVM Research Day
George P. Smith, Curators Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will deliver the keynote address during the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine 2019 Research Day. Research Day will take place May 10. Smith’s talk, entitled, “Chemical Evolution with Phage Display,” will be at 1 p.m. in the Veterinary Medicine Building Auditorium The purpose of Research Day is to promote scholarly activity within the College of Veterinary Medicine. Any graduate student, professional student, intern, resident or postdoctoral fellow within the veterinary college or with a mentor who has an appointment…
New Precision Medicine Procedure Fights Cancer, Advances Treatment for Pets and Humans
MU veterinary oncologists develop a vaccine treatment for osteosarcoma, a common type of bone cancer in dogs, avoiding chemotherapy and opening the door for human clinical trials In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists at the University of Missouri have helped advance a patient-specific, precision medicine treatment for bone cancer in dogs. By creating a vaccine from a dog’s own tumor, scientists worked with ELIAS Animal Health to target specific cancer cells and avoid the toxic side effects of chemotherapy, while also opening the door for future human clinical trials. Osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, is not common in humans, representing only about…
MU Drives Collaboration Developing New
Heart-Failure Drug
Your life depends on a muscle the size of a fist weighing 8 to 12 ounces. Your heart never sleeps. It beats about 100,000 times per day, feeding your tissues with crucial oxygen and nutrients, and then doing double duty as it takes out the trash — removing carbon dioxide and other wastes. Heart failure contributes to the death of about one in eight Americans. Despite improvements in the care of heart failure patients, the disease is currently associated with a 50 percent chance of death within five years of the onset of symptoms. According to the National Heart, Lung…
Buzz! Slap! Ow! Taking the Virus Out of a Mosquito’s Bite
MU researchers are getting a deeper understanding how mosquito-borne viruses infect the mosquito – an important step toward eliminating the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases They approach with the telltale sign – a high-pitched whine. It’s a warning that you are a mosquito’s next meal. But that mosquito might carry a virus, and now the virus is in you. Now, with the help of state-of-the-art technology, researchers at the University of Missouri can see how a virus moves within a mosquito’s body, which could lead to the prevention of mosquitoes transmitting diseases. “Previously, the common understanding was that when a mosquito…
CVM Researcher Uses Plasticity to Combat Neurodegenerative Diseases
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who predated Socrates, famously said, “Change is the only constant in life.” The truth of this paradox is found throughout the biological world. Organisms adapt to changes in their environment, or even differences between their various habitats. Plasticity is the modern byword for this quality of being readily molded or changeable. “Plasticity is when you’re exposed to something again and again, over time, you’re going to start to adapt to it; you’re going to develop plasticity,” says Nicole Nichols, PhD, a researcher and assistant professor in Biomedical Sciences at MU’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). “It’s…
MU CVM Researchers Develop Gene Therapy Vector in Quest to Conquer Childhood Disease
Monir Shababi, an assistant research professor in veterinary pathobiology, and Christian Lorson, College of Veterinary Medicine professor and associate dean for research and graduate studies, have invested countless hours during the past five years to solving a cruel medical mystery. A family who has endured the agonizing ordeal of having two children born with the same disease has invested funding for the research being conducted at MU’s Bond Life Sciences Center. The disease is called spinal muscle atrophy with respiratory distress, or SMARD. SMARD is a progressive motor neuron disease that has no treatment or cure. At least, not yet….
New Mizzou Company to Produce Promising Spinal Muscular Atrophy Drug
Shift Pharmaceuticals developed by team of MU researchers, Office of Technology Management and Industry Relations Approximately one out of every 40 individuals in the United States is a carrier of the gene responsible for spinal muscular atrophy, a neurodegenerative disease that causes nerves to die and muscles to weaken over time. In 2014, Chris Lorson, an investigator in the Bond Life Sciences Center and associate dean of research in the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, and his team developed a molecule that was found to be highly effective in animal models exhibiting SMA. Now, testing of that compound has…
BPA Can Induce Multigenerational Effects on Ability to Communicate
Findings could shed light on human health concerns and autism Past studies have shown that biparental care of offspring can be affected negatively when females and males are exposed to bisphenol A (BPA); however, previous studies have not characterized how long-term effects of BPA exposure in grandmothers and grandfathers might affect offspring communication ability. In a study published today in the journal PLOS One, researchers at the University of Missouri found that mice pups whose grandparents had been exposed to BPA, had different vocalization patterns. This, in turn, could also affect the amount of parental care they received. Scientists believe…
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