Category Archives: Immunology

Allergy/Immunology Associates – Allergy Doctor | Cleveland

Our Physicians are the top rated allergists and asthma specialists in Northeast Ohio

Allergy/Immunology Associates, Inc. physicians are on faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. They have admitting privileges at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Meridia Hillcrest Hospital.

Allergy/Immunology Associates, Inc. specializes in the area of allergic and immunologic disorders affecting both children and adults. Our doctors practice and treat the full spectrum of immunodeficiency and allergic disorders, including but not limited to asthma, allergic rhinitis, stinging insect sensitivity, drug reactions, eczema, hives, food and latex allergies. We offer an array of services including allergy skin testing and immunotherapy (allergy injections), asthma evaluations including spirometry and immunodeficiency infusions.

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Allergy/Immunology Associates - Allergy Doctor | Cleveland

Teams visit city high schools to give lessons on immunology – UCalgary News

Day of Immunology has become a globally recognized initiative celebrated worldwide eachApril 29since 2007. This day marks an occasion for scientists and immunologists to create awareness of public health, to bridge the gap between the scientific research, to advocate health and wellness, and to promote education toward the growing understanding of the immune system.

Faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases took this occasion as an opportunity to visit Bowness, Lord Beaverbrook, Centennial and Ernest Manning High Schools to engage students with science through the teaching of a variety of concepts around immunology.

Through interactive lectures, dynamic hands-on activities and real-life experiments, students were educated on the immune system, antibiotics, vaccinations, viruses, bacteria, and the future of immunology. This year also spearheaded an Ask a Scientist component, which allowed the Grade 11 biology students to ask their burning questions to real researchers about the potential of a career path in science.

This is a time in high school students lives where they will be deciding what types of courses they will take in their senior year of high school, and when they are starting to think about their future as they embark on post-secondary training, says Craig Jenne, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases (MIID). He initiated the event alongside Guido van Marle, and Bjern Petri, both from the Department of MIID. We wanted to open the doors to high school students who may not know that a career in science even exists.

Event is a 'chance to expose and inspire youth'

Teams started out with an icebreaker activity that taught students the concept of DNA replication, while seeing how quickly DNA can mutate. They also took part in a murder mystery where they learned about antibodies and comparing blood samples. They even got the chance to fill their own petri dishes with bacteria from around their school, which has now been taken back to UCalgary labs to grow.

We looked at Day of Immunology as a chance to expose and inspire youth into all of the possibilities of science and research, while also creating awareness of some key areas of health and wellness says van Marle. The enthusiasm and energy we felt from the classrooms and the interactions we all had while we visited was really quite refreshing.

When teams were asked why they wanted to take part in something like this, the answer from everyone was simple: If we can inspire one person with science on this day, then it was worth every minute.

UCalgaryparticipants in Day of Immunology

Participants included Craig Jenne, Guido van Marle, Bjern Petri, Kelsey McCarroll, Rachelle Davis, Michelle Love, Aubrey Michi, Arthur Lau, Khusraw Jamil, Rachel Kratofil, Ania Zuba, Alya Abbas Heirali, Courtney Schubert, Madison Turk and Elyse Granton, Maria Gallant, and Caitlyn MacDonald.

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Teams visit city high schools to give lessons on immunology - UCalgary News

Lab test could change immunology – Post-Bulletin

Imagine using a hand-drawn sketch to identify a person in a crowd.

Now imagine switching to a high-resolution photo to make a match.

That's the shift some researchers at Mayo Clinic and the England-based The Binding Site firm are hoping to make in diagnosing and tracking the progression of multiple myeloma cancer in patients.

"It's night and day difference in terms of the resolution," Dr. David Murray said of using a mass spectrometer versus the decades-old process of gel electrophoresis.

Murray and David Barnidge, Ph.D, have invented a new testing process that uses the mass spectrometer to look for the build up of monoclonal immunoglobulin or "M-Proteins," which can signal the development of the currently incurable cancer in a patient.

They created it in Mayo Clinic's labs in the Hilton Building. Mayo Clinic patented the process, and now it's working with its longtime collaborator The Binding Site to fine-tune the test and eventually work toward having it approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mayo Clinic has financial investment in the project. The collaboration uses patents owned by Mayo Clinic and The Binding Site, plus several patents jointly held by both organizations.

The collaboration has spurred The Binding Site to establish a research laboratory in northwest Rochester to focus on the project. In May, a 5,200-square-foot lab was built out in the first level of the Wideth Smith Nolting Building, formerly the Home Design Center, along West Circle Drive.

"It all just came together," said Barnidge, standing in blindingly white new laboratory space. Barnidge, who now works for The Binding Site as laboratory director, is outfitting the lab with the necessary equipment and hiring seven researchers to staff it.

Brian DuChateau, the vice president of development for The Binding Site, explains the progression of the collaboration as going through three phases.

"First, it was negotiating terms with Mayo. The next phase is to locate, build and establish the Rochester lab," DuChateau said. "The third phase is development and validation of the test. That's the fun part we're looking forward to getting to."

However, he cautions it probably will take years before the test is considered by the FDA for approval.

Meanwhile, Mayo Clinic is working on a parallel to gain approval to use the test just for its patients. Murray said that separate process could wrap up by the end of 2017.

"We're leading the charge. We want to eventually get this thing out in the hands of the other institutions," Murray said.

This approach stems from when a medical resident with an unusual background arrived at Mayo Clinic's Protein Immunology Lab and saw they were using the gel electrophoresis that dates back to the late 1950s.

Long before becoming a physician, Murray earned a doctorate in chemistry, and he worked as a research chemist for Eastman in Tennessee. After 10 years in that job, he "got the crazy idea to go to medical school." That led him to see how the immunology lab was doing its testing.

"As an industrial chemist, it was like, I knew there were much better ways to do this," he said.

He soon joined forces with Barnidge, as well as Mayo Clinic's Dr. John Mills and others. They soon started doing things with a mass spectrometer that had never been done before. By 2014, they had worked out a new test.

Overall, Barnidge and Murray say their patented test is more efficient, faster and less expensive than the ones in use now. Plus, there is detail that is just not possible with the gels.

"We're seeing details that we've never see before about the antibody repertoire. There are things that I think eventually will change how we think about immunology," said Murray.

DuChateau said this process could open the door for many new tests.

"It's the ultimate diagnostic. If you can ionize it, in theory, you can use this for a lot of different things. Ultimately, this is not just one single project for our Rochester lab," he said.

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Lab test could change immunology - Post-Bulletin

Ex-Merck R&D exec Robert Plenge jumps ship to Celgene – FierceBiotech

Robert Plenge is to take the plunge and leave his role at Merck as VP and head of translational medicine to take up a new position at Celgene to run its immunology R&D.

The news has not however come from an official PR from either Merck or Celgene, but rather from Bio-Twitter. Last night Bruce Booth, a partner at Atlas Venture, and David Shaywitz at Forbes, helped break the news.

Exciting (if buried) news from @rplenge hes heading to @Celgene, great get for them, and congratulations, Robert!, Shaywitz said, with Booth adding: The news is out! @rplenge is newest member of R&D leadership team CELG, running immunology research. Great for Robert and for CELG!

The news only came out when it was noticed under Plenges latest blog post that he added: [Disclaimer: I am an employee of Merck, although will soon transition to a new role at Celgene.] His Twitter bio, from which he re-tweeted Shaywitz and Booth this weekend, also now says: soon at Celgene, ex-Merck.

Despite the bulk of its sales coming from several cancer meds, and although it is currently only headed up in the market by its psoriasis drug Otezla (apremilast), immunology and inflammation is a core research area for Celgene.

On the horizon for this unit is ozanimod, which could yield blockbuster sales in multiple sclerosis if approved (filing is expected in that indication by years end at the FDA), with it also in testing for GI disorders including Crohns disease.

And back in January, Celgene spent $300 million upfront with $475 million in biobucks for Delinia, boosting its inflammation and immunology pipeline, as it nabbed the upstarts lead program DEL106, a new IL-2 mutein Fc fusion protein designed to preferentially upregulate regulatory T cells.

It also got its hands on related second generation programs, with its newly acquired early pipeline potentially targeting against a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.

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Ex-Merck R&D exec Robert Plenge jumps ship to Celgene - FierceBiotech

Runners gearing up for marathons to support Southampton Centre for Cancer Immunology campaign – Daily Echo

MORE than 200 people will be taking part in ABP Southampton marathon runs to support a campaign to build a 25million state-of-the-art centre for cancer immunology.

As previously reported by the Echo, the project was launched by the University of Southampton to offer the chance for Hampshire cancer patients to undergo trials using revolutionary new medicines.

Just 4.5million is needed to finish the build of the trailblazing facility at Southampton General Hospital.

Now, 223 runners are hoping to reduce that total by lacing up their shoes and taking part in the ABP Southampton Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k this Sunday.

Professor Tim Elliott, director for the Centre for Cancer Immunology, said: It is wonderful to see such support for the campaign from both staff and students all around the university.

The construction of the centre is well underway but we still need another 4.5m towards our fundraising target to make it a reality.

All contributions make a real difference and we are so grateful to all those running for the campaign.

At last years event, 30 runners collectively raised more than 9,500 towards the centre.

The four-storey building will be home to world-class research facilities, a clinical trials unit, and a suite of molecular biology laboratories, where genetic engineering will be used to develop new vaccine and antibody constructs.

It will also house a pre-clinical immunology lab investigating the complex interaction of cancer and the immune system

The state-of-the-art centre will be the first of its kind in the UK - and bring 50 new jobs to the city.

The flagship purpose-built centre will also bring together world-leading specialists who will use world-class research facilities and laboratories to work on a new cure the disease.

University bosses also hope it could transform the city into a hub for world leading biomedicine research and attract pharmaceutical manufacturers to the region.

The ABP Southampton Marathon, half marathon and 10k will be held this Sunday.

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Runners gearing up for marathons to support Southampton Centre for Cancer Immunology campaign - Daily Echo

Hundreds to take on marathon task of raising cancer centre funds – Daily Echo

MORE than 200 people will be taking part in ABP Southampton marathon runs to support a campaign to build a 25million state-of-the-art centre for cancer immunology.

As previously reported by the Echo, the project was launched by the University of Southampton to offer the chance for Hampshire cancer patients to undergo trials using revolutionary new medicines.

Just 4.5million is needed to finish the build of the trailblazing facility at Southampton General Hospital.

Now, 223 runners are hoping to reduce that total by lacing up their shoes and taking part in the ABP Southampton Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k this Sunday.

Professor Tim Elliott, director for the Centre for Cancer Immunology, said: It is wonderful to see such support for the campaign from both staff and students all around the university.

The construction of the centre is well underway but we still need another 4.5m towards our fundraising target to make it a reality.

All contributions make a real difference and we are so grateful to all those running for the campaign.

At last years event, 30 runners collectively raised more than 9,500 towards the centre.

The four-storey building will be home to world-class research facilities, a clinical trials unit, and a suite of molecular biology laboratories, where genetic engineering will be used to develop new vaccine and antibody constructs.

It will also house a pre-clinical immunology lab investigating the complex interaction of cancer and the immune system

The state-of-the-art centre will be the first of its kind in the UK - and bring 50 new jobs to the city.

The flagship purpose-built centre will also bring together world-leading specialists who will use world-class research facilities and laboratories to work on a new cure the disease.

University bosses also hope it could transform the city into a hub for world leading biomedicine research and attract pharmaceutical manufacturers to the region.

The ABP Southampton Marathon, half marathon and 10k will be held this Sunday.

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Hundreds to take on marathon task of raising cancer centre funds - Daily Echo

New report: Global infectious immunology market forecasts to 2022 – WhaTech

New report onInfectious Immunologymarket is segmented based on types of diseases into HIV, hepatitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria, inflammatory bowel diseases and autoimmune diseases.

HBV affected nearly1.4 million in the U.S. in 2011. The rising incidence of these infectious diseases creates a worldwide demand for immunological diagnostics and treatment.

The infectious immunology market is segmented based on the types of products used for treatment such as diagnostic kits, instruments and reagents. Diagnostic kits hold the dominant share due to their effectiveness.

Abbott Laboratories, Roche Diagnostics, Thermo Fisher Scientifics, Bio-Rad Laboratories and Dr. Reddys Laboratories are the key players in the infectious immunology market.

Get Free Sample Report Of Infectious Immunology Market @bit.ly/2nJW6Ly

Infection involves an attack of disease-causing agents such as bacteria and viruses on the host organisms body that causes disturbances in normal functioning. Immunology is the study of the human bodys resistance to these infections.

The combined study ofinfections and immunologywould help authorities to handle infectious disease conditions including HIV, hepatitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria, inflammatory bowel diseases and autoimmune diseases. The infectious immunology market comprises of the diagnosis and treatment of these infectious diseases with the help of antigen antibody reactions.

Key benefits

In-depth analysis of various regions would provide a clear understanding of current and future trends so that companies can make region specific plans Comprehensive analysis of the factors that drive and restrict the growth of the infectious immunology market is provided Key regulatory guidelines in various regions which impact the infectious immunology market are critically examined

Enquire Report Of Infectious Immunology Market @bit.ly/2p7Wtk5

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New report: Global infectious immunology market forecasts to 2022 - WhaTech

The Q&A: Tyler Curiel – Texas Tribune

With each issue, Trib+Health brings you an interview with experts on issues related to health care. Here is this weeks subject:

Dr. Tyler Curielis a professor in the Department of Medicine and Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. His areas of research focus on cancer immunotherapy and aging, among other things, and he was recently awarded a grant by the National Institute of Health to continue his cancer research.

Editors note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Trib+Health: Can you expand on your recent findings in cancer immunology?

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Tyler Curiel:After around 40 years of hard work from our group and other groups' parts, were seeing some real successes with immunotherapy for cancer. The big breakthrough came in understanding what the barriers were and overcoming those. One area where we have seen a rapid expansion of knowledge is in immune checkpoint blockade.

When you have a cancer or any type of insult on your body, it turns your immune system off. Cancers have figured out various off switches, and they give a signal to your immune response that the mission has been accomplished. We showed that you can make antibodies to block immune checkpoints your immune system has an off switch out there, and if we can prevent the off switch from doing what it's supposed to do, it can kill the cancer.

For the first time ever, we are starting to see patients with advanced-stage cancers responding to this checkpoint blockade kind of therapy.

Trib+Health:What are some problems you've encountered in the field?

Curiel: Although theres been really good success with this immune checkpoint strategy, the truth is that it only helps a minority of patients. The problem is most people dont respond, and the other thing is we are not good at predicting who will and wont respond.

The question is, how do these immune checkpoints work, and what are they really doing? If they work the way we think they will, then they should be working better, and we should be able to better predict who will and wont respond.

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We have now shown that these immune checkpoint molecules have a lot of extra functions nobody knew about. There are inner signals inside tumor cells that give the cell additional instructions, including things like, "grow faster," "resist therapy," "spread to different parts of the body," and "attract cells to help turn the immune response off," among other things.

Now that we know this, it helps our understanding of who can and can't respond to therapy. We've conducted clinical trials with mice to help overcome new barriers and make this work better.

Trib+Health:What does your work in cancer immunotherapy look like now?

Curiel:We're now talking to biotech and pharma companies to develop new strategies for clinical trials so we can go out there and ask if what we found with mice will work with humans, too. Can we help explain why some people respond really well, but most not at all? We've done all of this in our mice.

Now we have to ask if we can do this in humans, and it looks like we can. That's what another big award from the National Cancer Institute is designed to do, and we are guardedly optimistic this will work.

Trib+Health:What are additional advancements you've made in the aging field, another area of your research?

Curiel:Most people probably don't recognize that the No. 1 risk factor for cancer is age it's not smoking or what you eat. It's no secret the U.S. and world are aging, and there's going to be a big uptick in cancer, just based on that fact.

Many colleagues have shown that immunotherapies that work really well in young people fail in old people. That's not a surprise, but the big surprise is we've been looking at the immune system, and when your immune system ages, the thought was everything works the way it used to work, it just doesn't work as well.

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It turns out, that's not true. Some cells that didn't used to be there when you were young start appearing when you're old, and they do weird things we never knew about. And cells that were there when you were young, instead of doing less of what they used to do, do more of something that's bad for you.

Based on this, we developed the first therapy that's ever been described that will be effective as immunotherapy for cancer in aged mice but not young mice. We are able to understand what happens to the immune system when you age, and we developed therapies that are specific toward aged immune systems so that they will work when you are old and most at risk for cancer.

Trib+Health:Tell me about your presidential award you received in March.

Curiel:The presidential award is to recognize a lot of work from my lab over the last 10 years here at the Health Science Center that helped bring us to this particular point, but also other areas we are working on to improve cancer immunotherapy.

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The Q&A: Tyler Curiel - Texas Tribune

David Schneider appointed chair of microbiology and immunology – Stanford Medical Center Report

David Schneider, PhD, has been appointed chair of the School of Medicines Department of Microbiology and Immunology. His five-year term began April 1.

This world-class department has seeded a good deal more than its fair share of academic scientists studying microbial pathogenesis and immunology, said Schneider, professor of microbiology and immunology. I hope to nourish this culture and teach it to our students and postdocs so that we can sustain the innovation and leadership our pioneering faculty has demonstrated.

Schneiders current research focuses on quantitative analysis of sickness during infections and, in particular, on determining how we recover from infections. He has spent the last several years investigating the fundamental causes of resilience to infection and developing mathematical models to predict recovery and well-being after infection.

Dr. Schneider is a brilliant innovator and respected educator and mentor, said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. I am thrilled that he will bring his experience and perspective to this role.

Schneider replaces Peter Sarnow, PhD, who has chaired the department since 2010. Dr. Sarnow brought superb scientific and leadership acumen to the department, advancing cutting-edge research, supporting and developing faculty, and assisting postdoctoral scholars in finding success in academia and industry, Minor said.

Schneider received his BS in biochemistry from the University of Toronto in 1986 and earned a PhD in molecular biology at the University of California-Berkeley in 1992. He first came to Stanford as a postdoctoral scholar in 1996, between postdoctoral appointments at UCB and UCSF. Between 1997 and 2001, Schneider was a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachussetts. He returned to Stanford as an assistant professor in 2001, was promoted to associate professor in 2008 and became a full professor this year. He is a member of Stanford Bio-X and the Stanford Child Health Research Institute.

Founded nearly 100 years ago, the Department of Microbiology and Immunology numbers more than 25 faculty, 100 postdoctoral scholars and 50 graduate students in addition to about two dozen research, administrative and support staff.

I see our department, and Stanford in general, as a place where we arent pigeonholed as being certain sorts of scientists, said Schneider. When we come up with new ideas, our colleagues dont say, What do you know about that? Rather, they share your excitement and urge you on.

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David Schneider appointed chair of microbiology and immunology - Stanford Medical Center Report

10x Genomics Launches New Immunology Kit for VDJ Analysis as It Eyes Translational Medicine Market – GenomeWeb

SAN FRANCISCO (GenomeWeb) 10x Genomics has launched a single-cell analysis kit for immune repertoire profiling. The first kit will begin shipping in April and will enable the analysis of the VDJ regions from human T cells, while a second kit that will be launched later in the second quarter will enable VDJ analysis of human B cells.

Also, in the second half of the year, the firm plans to enable the analysis of single immune cells from mice.

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10x Genomics Launches New Immunology Kit for VDJ Analysis as It Eyes Translational Medicine Market - GenomeWeb