What’s New in Research
Vadim N. Gladyshev
A team led by Vadim N. Gladyshev, PhD, professor of Medicine at the BWH Department of Medicine, has sequenced the genome of the Damaraland mole rat (DMR) and improved the genome sequence of the naked mole rat (NMR). The DMR and NMR are subterranean African mammals that live in dark, unventilated environments. The genomes and transcriptomes of these animals then were compared to the transcriptomes (gene expression profiles) of related subterranean rodents.
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A Missing Partner in T Cell Tolerance
Richard S. Blumberg
T-cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain-3 (TIM-3) is increasingly considered to be an important target in cancer immunotherapy given its important role in immune tolerance and induction of T cell exhaustion in chronic viral infection and cancer. However, a challenge for the community has been that although TIM-3 inhibits T cell responses, it also sometimes activates, making targeting TIM-3 potentially challenging. A study led by Richard S. Blumberg, MD, BWH Department of Medicine, with the group of Vijay Kuchroo, DVM, PhD, of the Center for Neurologic Disease, has discovered that the ability of TIM-3 to mediate tolerance is dependent upon the protein carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1), another activation antigen on T cells that has inhibitory properties.
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