Biotech research news summary, 13 October

Today in brief

Targeted lipid nanoparticles delivered mRNA to natural killer cells in mice, generating CAR-expressing cells that acted in several disease models.1 An analysis of 52,236 cancer patients linked cachectic weight-loss episodes to disease progression and poorer survival.2 3 A separate team used spatial transcriptomics to map cell recruitment across tumors and mouse heart tissue.4

Nanoparticles engineer CAR natural killer cells in mice

Lead nanoparticles transfected up to about 80% of natural killer cells in mice, with few off-target effects.1 The resulting CAR cells eliminated targeted cells in blood and autoimmune disease models, and produced tumor regression in two humanized blood-cancer models.1

Routine records track cancer cachexia

Researchers analyzed records from 52,236 cancer patients and found that cachectic weight-loss episodes tended to occur near disease progression and were associated with worse survival.2 3 A study published October 12 described the same cohort, identified 30,938 episodes and evaluated its models in an independent cohort.3

SPACER maps cell recruitment

SPACER, an interpretable AI framework, was tested on 37 spatial transcriptomics datasets.4 Across several tasks, it recovered biologically meaningful cell-recruitment signals 4–21 times better than existing methods.4 Across the cancers studied, local antigen presentation was the strongest correlate of T-cell engagement.4

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