01/14/25Salk Institute Bile acids exacerbate liver cancer, dietary supplement may offer relief LA JOLLA—Immunotherapy is a modern approach to cancer treatment that uses a patient’s own immune system to help fight tumors. It has made an incredible impact on treating cancers in many different organ systems, including the lung, kidney, and bladder—but for other cancers, such as liver cancer, the therapy has been much less effective. This discrepancy is especially concerning as liver cancer rates have nearly tripled in the last 40 years. Read more

01/14/25Salk Institute Putting a lid on excess cholesterol to halt bladder cancer cell growth LA JOLLA—Like all cancers, bladder cancer develops when abnormal cells start to multiply out of control. But what if we could put a lid on their growth? Read more

01/08/25Salk Institute Plant cells gain immune capabilities when it’s time to fight disease LA JOLLA—Human bodies defend themselves using a diverse population of immune cells that circulate from one organ to another, responding to everything from cuts to colds to cancer. But plants don’t have this luxury. Because plant cells are immobile, each individual cell is forced to manage its own immunity in addition to its many other responsibilities, like turning sunlight into energy or using that energy to grow. How these multitasking cells accomplish it all—detecting threats, communicating those threats, and responding effectively—has remained unclear. Read more

12/12/24Salk Institute Your immune cells are what they eat LA JOLLA—The decision between scrambled eggs or an apple for breakfast probably won’t make or break your day. However, for your cells, a decision between similar microscopic nutrients could determine their entire identity. If and how nutrient preference impacts cell identity has been a longstanding mystery for scientists—until a team of Salk Institute immunologists revealed a novel framework for the complicated relationship between nutrition and cell identity. Read more

09/30/24Salk Institute New brain-mapping tool may be the “START” of next-generation therapeutics LA JOLLA—Scientists at the Salk Institute are unveiling a new brain-mapping neurotechnology called Single Transcriptome Assisted Rabies Tracing (START). The cutting-edge tool combines two advanced technologies—monosynaptic rabies virus tracing and single-cell transcriptomics—to map the brain’s intricate neuronal connections with unparalleled precision. Read more