Image by freepik The composition of gut bacteria can predict which melanoma patients will experience cancer recurrence after surgical resection and immunotherapy, but only when matched to patients with similar microbial profiles, according to research published April 17 in Cell. The findings from a 674-patient international clinical trial offer a novel approach to stratifying recurrence risk in high-risk melanoma patients undergoing adjuvant immune checkpoint blockade. Researchers from NYU...

First author Yuhua Tian, front, and senior author Jie Zheng in the Zheng lab on the UC Davis campus. Photo courtesy Regents of the University of California Body temperature may determine whether a single overactive ion channel causes a localized skin disorder or even a potentially lethal arrhythmia, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In a mechanistic study of TRPM4 gain‑of‑function mutations, investigators at the University of...

Photo by OpenStax College via Wikimedia Commons Researchers at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine have identified previously unrecognized immune surveillance structures within hair follicles that may fundamentally change the concept of cutaneous barrier defence. The murine study, published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, reveals M cell-like sentinel cells in hair follicle epithelium that appear to monitor environmental microbial exposure and mount...