Stressing the Bugs: New Treatment Targets for Multidrug Resistant Bacteria
Sarah Mansour and her colleagues in the Hancock lab discover that resistant abscesses can be treated by targeting the bacterial response to stress.
Drop the Knife!
Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) require surgery at least once in their life time. However, Bernard Lo, a PhD candidate in the research group led by CBR Principal Investigator Kelly McNagny, finds a therapeutic method to block fibrotic processes in IBD.
Researchers develop new weapon for hard-to-treat bacterial infections
Researcher Bob Hancock made an important discovery in the fight against superbugs, while his team was looking for a solution to abscesses, a condition where patients develop reoccurring fluid-filled pockets that don’t respond well to traditional antibiotic treatments.
Red Blood Cell masquerade: polymer-mediated immunocamouflage provides Rh D antigen-safe blood
Li Li, a postdoctoral fellow from Mark Scott’s lab at the CBR, along with her colleagues developed a technique to reduce the risk of acute immune response in blood transfusions from D+ donors to D- recipients.
The Pryzdial Lab Advances a Novel Clot-Dissolving Drug
After two decades of major clinical trials aimed at improving the safety of clot-dissolving drugs, the Pryzdial lab marks a new strategy to dissolve clots based on a novel biochemical pathway they discovered.
Minimizing Treatment Times for Beta-thalassemia Major: a Small Solution with Potential for Big Impact
Jasmine Hamilton from Kizhakkedathu group developed a scaffold for delivering an iron chelator treatment, reducing the number of injections beta-thalassemia major patients could require from 10 per day to 1 per week.
Cautiously Rethinking Pathogen Inactivation Technology – Selective Effects on Platelet
Christa Klein-Bosgoed, a PhD candidate in Dr. Dana Devine’s laboratory at the CBR, is soon to have a paper in Transfusion on how Pathogen Inactivation-treatment affects platelet units prepared for transfusion.
The Story of Beta-thalassemia: Blood, the Sea, and a Bluebird
Though blood transfusions, iron chelation therapy, folic acid supplementation, and stem cell transplantation can be used to treat thalassemia, gene-therapy sparks much attention to be a potential treatment option for beta-thalassemia major patients.
Christian Kastrup’s Team Leads the Way Towards a More Stable Blood Clot
Alternative mechanisms to increase clot adhesion are needed. PhD candidate Karen Chan from Dr. Kastrup’s lab found therapeutic use of using a synthetic polymer to stabilize a blood clot.
Host Defense Peptides
Dr. Hancock’s lab published a review in Nature Reviews establishing that host defense peptides, in addition to having direct antimicrobial effects, also play an important role in immune modulation, wound healing, and diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.