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New PrimeCAR protocol delivers improved CAR T cells in less time

CAR T cells are a powerful treatment option for certain cancers, but their use can be limited by long manufacturing times and severe toxicities. In order to overcome these hurdles, Yang and Li et al. developed a new CAR T cell manufacturing protocol...

A reciprocally masked anti-CD47/IL-2 fusion protein promotes antitumor immunity and limits systemic toxicity

To overcome the dose-limiting toxicity associated with both CD47-targeting antibodies and IL-2, Léchine, Cons, and Garnier et al. developed a reciprocally masked antibody-cytokine fusion (aCD47/IL-2c)...

The human gut microbiome primes fever after vaccination

Huus et al. studied the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine on the gut microbiome–immune axis in 171 healthy volunteers. Participants with temperatures ≥ 0.8ºC above personal baseline upon vaccinati...

Spatially tuned localization of interleukins and OX40 agonists enhances synergistic anti-tumor immunity

Klich et al. showed that hydrogel delivery of IL-2 and IL-12 intratumorally (IT) and CpG-adjuvanted agonistic anti-OX40 (agOX40) peritumorally (PT) increased cargo retention relative to IV delivery. H...

XIAP inhibition augments personalized neoantigen vaccine-driven antitumor immunity in orthotopic hepatocellular carcinoma

Zheng et al. showed that in human HCC, XIAP is markedly upregulated and inversely correlated with CD8+ T cell tumor infiltration and RFS. Treatment of orthotopic HCC mouse models with the SMAC mimetic...

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Previous Digests

Checkpoints for the win: neoadjuvant ICB outperforms targeted therapy in melanoma

October 14, 2026

Neoadjuvant treatment with immunotherapy and/or targeted agents has become standard of care for resectable stage IIIB-D melanoma. However, the optimal treatment regimen and the consequences for long-term survival remain largely unknown. Long et al. analyzed a large dataset of...

T-RAP – a new tool for predicting TCR-pMHC reactivity

October 7, 2026

Predicting TCR-pMHC reactivity is useful for a variety of immunotherapy research tasks, including identifying relevant neoantigens and developing vaccines. In work recently published in Immunity, Messemaker and Kwee et al. developed a TCR rapid assembly platform (T-RAP) and used...

CD4 takes the lead: IL‑21 synergizes with KRAS inhibition for durable PDAC control

September 30, 2026

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has proven to be a challenge for immunotherapy treatment. KRAS inhibitors have shown efficacy in PDAC, but acquired resistance is common. In a recent publication in Cell, Qiang, Hoffman, Chun, et al. investigated whether combinations...

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