Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC are receiving up to $6.8 million for a two-year research project to develop new computational models and support tools that could accelerate access to cell and gene therapies for children with rare diseases. The team will develop a new framework that combines detailed data about the biological features of each therapy and how patients respond to them. By using artificial intelligence (AI) to study these connections, the project aims to better understand how specific features of a therapy relate to patient outcomes. The research is funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) UNIfying Cell Therapy Outcome prediction and Regulatory Navigation (UNICORN) project, led by ARPA-H Program Manager Daria Fedyukina, Ph.D. UNICORN combines advanced cell analysis technology developed by the team with machine learning tools to identify biological patterns and therapy product features linked to treatment response. This approach aims to enable the development of a regulatory decision-support tool that guides interpretation of product-related evidence when limited data makes conventional measures difficult to establish, enabling patients and families to access new treatments sooner.

Therapeutic solutions available for neurological disorders are limited.  A new review highlights the emerging role of regulatory B cells in immune regulation, focusing on their potential neuroprotective roles and therapeutic implications in these disorders. The review suggests that interleukin 10 secreted by the B cells play an important role in suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Regulatory B cells can become promising therapeutic targets for future neuroprotective strategies.

New research from the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) research group and Flinders University in South Australia has revealed only a very small proportion of all the elder abuse cases estimated to be being perpetrated are being officially recorded during hospital visits, exposing a potential reporting gap in the nation’s health system.

The study, recently published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) and led by Associate Professor Stephanie Harrison and ROSA’s Consumer and Community Advisory Committee, analysed data from nearly one million older Australians who accessed aged care services between 2010 and 2019.