Not since the middle of the 20th century, amid the polio epidemic, have vaccines or drug treatment been so widely anticipated as those for COVID-19. In 1955 when the polio vaccine was licensed, the health outlook for millions of children improved and normal life resumed. Still, not all pandemics have found such resolution.

B Cells Gone Bad Could be the Culprit in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Biomolecular researcher Navin Varadarajan recently published in Arthritis & Rheumatology journal a first-of-its-kind study -  a comprehensive profile of B cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). B cells are lymphocytes, or white blood cells, that make protein antibodies that attack a patient’s healthy proteins in patients with RA.

A Cullen College of Engineering professor, who is working to improve treatments for battling cancer, received a grant from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the organization that funds groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs in the state.

For UH chemical engineer Navin Varadarajan, it isn’t enough to conduct laboratory research, publish papers, earn grants and win awards for his work in immunotherapy, which utilizes the body’s own immune cells to attack tumors.

The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, SITC, selected Gabrielle Romain, post-doctoral research fellow in the UH Cullen College of Engineering, to present her research on cancer immunotherapy at its 30th anniversary annual meeting. With an approximate $750 travel grant, she plans to attend the conference in National Harbor, Maryland, in November.

Researchers have created a new method for screening cells used in immunotherapy cancer treatments, allowing high-performing immune system cells to be studied in isolation and potentially expanding  the number of patients for whom the breakthrough treatment proves successful.

Almost 19,000 new cases of acute myeloid leukemia and 10,500 deaths from the blood and bone marrow cancer could strike Americans this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Chemotherapy, when used as primary treatment, is successful in about 65 percent of patients with the cancer, and remission rates vary depending on patients’ individual characteristics, according to the organization.

Navin Varadarajan, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is known for his research on modifying human immune cells to fight against cancer.

A researcher with the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has won a grant to develop new treatments for the most deadly form of pediatric brain cancer.