How the body creates reliable antibodies out of biological chaos. This is really cool. I bet a lot of people don't think about how the body produces antibodies that bind to antigens that we get exposed to. The immunoglobulin gene has a high mutation rate in the hypervariable region, and produces a huge variety of antibodies, hoping that at least one will be the desired antibody that binds to the target antigen. If one is a tight fit, the B-cell will internalize the antigen, digest it, and present a piece of it on the surface for a T-cell to have a look. Costimulatory molecules stimulate the T-cell to secrete cytokines that cause the B-cell to proliferate and the lymph node follicle to expand. Well that's what these scientists got to observe first-hand. Amazing to see it all play out, just as it's supposed to.
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A drug called GRWD5769 is a member of a new class of drug, called ERAP1 (endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 1) inhibitors. By inhibiting ERAP1, immunotherapy drugs like cemiplimab were made effective again. This is great because when immunotherapy stops working, there isn't much that can be done to halt progression of head and neck cancers. But this might be effective in other areas where there is squamous cell carcinomas.
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I've posted about new myeloma treatments before, but what this article highlights is that advances in the treatment of myeloma are starting to be developed outside the United States. It seems that the advances are coming from China now. China is becoming the leader of cell-based therapeutics. The graph in the article stops in 2020. Wonder what it looks like now.
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Anxiety Is Making You Dumber. I used to think that being anxious was the price you pay for being vigilant. But after a while, your brain forgets how to step back and put danger into perspective. Then you lose the ability to assess things critically as they should be. An anxious mind always fears the worst, and forgets that much is still controllable.
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Asian vs Asian. I recently posted an article about how the engineers at Meta are, to a large extent, Chinese. They stick together, socialize together and according to the article, exclude Whites. Well now a Chinese professor at Southern Methodist University School of Business is suing that he is being excluded from tenure and promotion by an Indian department chair. I've seen that happen where I worked. I suspect it's going on in governments positions in Portland and Oregon, and not about race, per se, but other characteristics. People hire those that they feel they can get along with, and are not threatening.
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I knew it! Scientists have long said we can’t multitask. A new study says we can. I can walk and chew gum.
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What is the relationship between cannabis use and testosterone levels in men? The data suggest that right after use, testosterone levels are higher, but with long-term use, levels decline. But there are many variables, and it's not clear that there is a close relationship. Today's cannabis is different from cannabis from years back, I'm sure. Legalization has encouraged the development of more potent strains.
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Sad. OHSU shelves long-promised expansion of newborn ICU. Things seem to be contracting up on the Hill.
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Seattle's US Bank center is selling at huge loss. A 54% loss from when it was purchased. Blackstone is taking the hit and is getting out. Good for them. Katie Wilson says Bye!
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Portland General Electric announced Wednesday it plans to increase rates by 29% for large load users like data centers. Meanwhile, the utility’s residential and commercial customers will see a slight decrease in their rates. Yeah, I don't mind paying for AI datacenters (if they don't suck up needed local resources), but I don't support datacenters for crypto mining.
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Man, Oregon is always the worst in any survey, it seems. Now, Sharp rise in Oregon State Hospital’s seclusion of patients pushed state to worst-in-nation status.
In 2024, Oregon held psychiatric patients in seclusion across public and private hospitals at the highest rate in the country.
Can Oregon, you know, just not suck at something for a change?