Diagram of the neoantigen vaccine. Credit: 2018 BrightPath Biotherapeutics Co., Ltd.

The University of Tokyo entered an agreement for developing a personalized cancer vaccine using a novel method involving the body's immune response. The collaborative research agreement was concluded with the Kanagawa Cancer Center in Yokohama and BrightPath Biotherapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based in Tokyo. Recent progress in cancer immunotherapy has led to remarkable advances in the development of treatments for cancer patients. They include such treatments as immune checkpoint inhibitors, making use of the body's immune response to recognize and attack cancer cells, and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, employing the body's own immune cells that have been genetically altered to better target tumor cells. To realize more effective therapies, researchers are now focusing on personalized medicine, which offers optimal treatment based on individual patients' pathology and immune responses. Rapid progress in genome sequencing and analysis technologies in recent years is making it possible to comprehensively analyze cancer-specific genetic mutations that are unique to each patient.

Il Tesoro di Antichità.

Winckelmann e il Museo Capitolino nella Roma del Settecento

7 Dicembre 2017 - 22 Aprile 2018

Una mostra per celebrare gli anniversari della nascita e della morte del fondatore dell’archeologia moderna, Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) “Vivo come un artista e come tale sono accolto nei luoghi dove ai giovani è permesso di studiare, come nel Campidoglio. Qui è il Tesoro delle antichità di Roma e qui ci si può trattenere in tutta libertà dalla mattina alla sera”. È il 7 dicembre del 1755 ed è con queste parole che Johann Joachim Winckelmann, giunto a Roma da appena tre settimane grazie a una borsa di studio conferita dal principe Elettore di Sassonia, descrive a un amico la sua prima visita al Museo Capitolino, il primo museo pubblico d’Europa, luogo in cui il vitale rapporto con l’Antico può essere coltivato in assoluta libertà, “von Morgen bis in den Abend” (dalla mattina alla sera). Nei tredici anni successivi, fino alla tragica morte avvenuta a Trieste l’8 giugno del 1768, Winckelmann, nato a Stendal il 9 dicembre del 1717 in una famiglia molto modesta, definisce i contenuti fondamentali del Neoclassicismo tardo-settecentesco e getta le basi teoriche dell’archeologia moderna, dando vita a un raffinato sistema di valutazione cronologica e stilistica delle opere antiche fondato sull’osservazione diretta dei manufatti e l’attenta lettura delle fonti letterarie. “Novello Colombo”, “scopritore di una terra a lungo presagita, menzionata e discussa, e lo si può ben dire, un tempo conosciuta e poi nuovamente perduta”. Così Johann Wolfgang Goethe esprime l’impatto rivoluzionario dell’opera di Winckelmann, e in particolare della Storia dell’Arte nell’Antichità pubblicata a Dresda nel 1764. La mostra “Il Tesoro di Antichità. Winckelmann e il Museo Capitolino nella Roma del Settecento”, ai Musei Capitolini dal 7 dicembre 2017 al 22 aprile 2018, intende celebrare gli importanti anniversari winckelmanniani del 2017 (300 anni dalla nascita) e del 2018 (250 anni dalla morte) e si inserisce nel contesto delle manifestazioni europee coordinate dalla Winckelmann Gesellschaft di Stendal, dall’Istituto Archeologico Germanico di Roma e dai Musei Vaticani.

A study led by the University of Granada, in which the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) and researchers from the University of Jaen have taken part, reveals that 64% of pregnant women suffer from insomnia in the third trimester of pregnancy. This figure is ten times higher than that for women suffering from insomnia prior to pregnancy (6%). The research study was recently published in the prestigious European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. 486 healthy pregnant women from Granada, Jaen, Huelva and Seville who had attended the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) before the 14th week of pregnancy (first trimester) participated in the study. The effects of pregnancy on these women were monitored throughout all three trimesters. The results reveal that 44% of pregnant women suffer from insomnia in the first trimester of pregnancy, which increases to 46% in the second trimester and 64% in the third trimester. These are very high figures which, according to the authors of the research, justify the need for a “systematic approach to this problem.”

Il gruppo di ricerca Quantum Lab della Sapienza, in collaborazione con le Università di Natal e Rio de Janeiro (Brasile), ha dimostrato come gli effetti della meccanica quantistica siano talmente radicati nella Natura da incidere sui modelli basilari della fisica classica, come le relazioni causa-effetto. Lo studio è pubblicato sulla rivista Nature Physics
“Perché alcune cose succedono e altre no?”, “Cosa determina gli eventi che osserviamo in Natura?”. Queste sono da sempre tra le più ricorrenti e affascinanti domande che si sono posti scienziati e filosofi. Tentare di dare una risposta definitiva resta tutt’oggi una sfida.

Un nuovo studio, condotto dal gruppo di ricerca Quantum Lab della Sapienza in collaborazione con le Università di Natal e Rio de Janeiro in Brasile e pubblicato su Nature Physics, ha dimostrato dal punto di vista teorico e verificato sperimentalmente che, quando entra in gioco, la fisica quantistica può offrire una predizione alternativa alla fisica classica degli schemi causa-effetto.

Endogenous viral elements are viral sequences integrated into the nuclear genome of their host. They are veritable molecular fossils that prove infections that may have happened millions of years ago, and studying them can serve to understand how viruses evolve over time. As part of an international collaboration, researchers from CIRAD and INRA looked into the endogenous elements of viruses of the family Caulimoviridae, which cause numerous infections in plants. They studied the genome of plants to assess the diversity of those viruses and their host spectrum.

Endogenous viral elements in vascular plants, from lycopods to flowering plants

The scientists used the most advanced genomics and bioinformatics tools to analyse the genome of 72 plants representative of the different phylogenetic groups characterized to date - from green algae to flowering plants -, to look for all or part of the sequences that code for a viral protein of the family Caulimoviridae that is both specific and highly conserved, retrotranscriptase. While the presence of such sequences was known in the genome of flowering plants, they also found some in most vascular plants, including the most primitive plants - ferns, conifers and lycopods -, a result that illustrates the capacity of Caulimoviridae to infect a wide, previously underestimated range of hosts. Of the 62 flowering plant species studied, it appeared that the number of endogenous Caulimoviridae was correlated with the size of the genomes, with thousands of sequences at the heart of the giant genomes of gymnosperms, and notable exceptions: the maize (Zea mays ) genome did not have any despite its size. On the other hand, the density was remarkably high in castor (Ricinus communis ) and orange (Citrus sinensis ). Endogenous viral elements associated with new genera of the family Caulimoviridae
An in-depth analysis of the endogenous viral elements identified in the plants studied revealed that most of the endogenous Caulimoviridae came from the genera Florendovirus and Petuvirus. It also led to the discovery of previously unknown evolutionary branches of Caulimoviridae : four new genera of the family Caulimoviridae were detected in conifers (Gymnendovirus 1 to 4), two in ferns (Fernendovirus 1 and 2) and five in flowering plants (eg Xendovirus or Yendovirus).

Endogenous viral elements dating back to the Devonian period

Based on an analysis of the distribution of different viral genera of the family Caulimoviridae in the plant species studied, the scientists were able to propose an evolutionary scenario in which this virus family apparently emerged in an ancestor shared by flowering plants and gymnosperms during the Devonian period (- 320 million years). There were apparently subsequent exchanges between hosts belonging to different divisions. It is worth noting that the large host spectrum of viruses in the family Caulimoviridae may be due to the presence in these viruses of a movement protein that facilitates the transport and circulation of viral particles between the cells via specific channels, or plasmodesmata, whose structure is characteristic of vascular plants. These results prove the substantial adaptability of viruses of the family Caulimoviridae and their influence on the evolution of vascular plants. They call for a more detailed study of the role and consequences of the presence of these viruses in the genome of plants.

http://www.cirad.fr/en/news/all-news-items/press-releases/2018/vascular-plant-genome-and-virus-evolution

3D image of the maxillary of Homo sapiens found in Misliya Cave (Israel)/ Israel Hershkovitz et al.

Today, the journal Science publishes the description and dating of human fossil remains found in Misliya Cave (Israel), which suggest that the first departure by our species from the African continent took place at least 60,000 years earlier than had previously been documented. This is work that was carried out by an international team in which scientists from three institutions in Burgos participated: the CENIEH, the MEH and the UBU Today, the journal Science publishes the description and dating of human fossil remains found in Misliya Cave (Israel), which suggest that the first departure by our species from the African continent took place at least 60,000 years earlier than had previously been documented. This is work that was carried out by an international team in which scientists from three institutions in Burgos participated: the CENIEH, the MEH and the UBU Spanish scientists form part of the international team which has just published a study in the journal Science of the oldest fossil remains of modern humans encountered outside Africa. This relates to a left maxillary fragment which preserves the dentition, discovered in Misliya Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel), whose age range, between 177,000 and 194,000 years, suggests that the earliest migration by our species out of the African continent took place at least 60,000 years earlier than had hitherto been documented.