Metabolism

In order for cancer to grow and spread, it has to evade detection by our immune cells, particularly specialized “killer” T cells. Professor Susan Kaech, Postdoctoral Fellow and first author Shihao Xu and colleagues have found that the environment inside tumors (the tumor microenvironment) contains an abundance of oxidized fat molecules, which, when ingested by the killer T cells, suppresses their ability to kill cancer cells. The discovery suggests new pathways for safeguarding the immune system’s ability to fight cancer by reducing the oxidative lipid damage in killer T cells, such as blocking a cellular fat transporter called CD36.

Type 1 diabetes, which arises when the pancreas doesn’t create enough insulin to control levels of glucose in the blood, is a disease that currently has no cure and is difficult for most patients to manage. Now, research led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, and including co-first authors Postdoctoral Fellow Ronghui Li, Staff Researcher Hsin-Kai Liao and former Research Associate Haisong Liu, has led to a new way to create insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells from stem cells that is much more efficient than previous methods. When tested in a mouse model, these beta cells brought blood sugar levels under control within about two weeks and could someday lead to better treatments for people with type 1 diabetes.