Delighted to announce that my first ever review has been published in @FrontImmunol! We review how the TME can restrict CAR T-cells and discuss the novel strategies aiming to overcome the TME and reduce toxicity frontiersin.org/articles/10.… @ScienceVancity @UBCmedicine @BCCancer

A holy grail for our lab has been tracking myeloid cells in human tumors in the same way that we track T and B cells with TCR/BCR. @vincentzliu and @CalebLareau solved it! We developed Mitotrek using scATAC-seq mitochondrial DNA to do exactly this. Using Mitotrek, we find that new myeloid cells clones constantly infiltrate the tumor via circulating monocytes — and that their macrophage or dendritic cell fate is epigenetically programmed before tumor entry. @10xGenomics @parkerici @CancerResearch @TheMarkFdn cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltex…

Congratulations Dr Rempel!

Just read your final article - it's so hard to put into words the appreciation I have for your courage throughout your journey, and the dedication you have put towards advocacy. It was an absolute pleasure to have known you. Rest easy, friend.

Online Now: Engineered natural killer cells for cancer therapy dlvr.it/TNrrl8

BREAKING NEWS The 2025 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.”

Nature research paper: In vivo CRISPR screens identify modifiers of CAR T cell function in myeloma go.nature.com/4nLn9o5

🤯Three (!!!) new papers today in @ScienceMagazine on the application of generative AI for the de novo design of peptide/HLA binding molecules! Completely unique 3D structure and binding mode compared with natural TCRs and TCR mimics! Links to papers 👇

🧵1/🚨 New in Blood Advances: Nanobody-based BCMA CAR-T therapy (S103) shows high efficacy & manageable safety in relapsed/refractory plasma cell myeloma. 🧵2/🧬 Novel CAR-T Design S103 uses dual nanobody VHHs (dVHHs) instead of scFvs: 🔹 Enhanced affinity/specificity 🔹 Dual-epitope recognition 🔹 Lower immunogenicity 🔹 Better pharmacokinetics 💡 Small, stable, & precise #mmsm #MedEd #myeloma #MedTwitter #USMIRC @USMIRCNEWS @OncoAlert #سرطان_الدم #المايلوما #Oncology #CAR_T

5 papers all computational biologists should read 🧵 1. A Quick Guide to Organizing Computational Biology Projects journals.plos.org/ploscompbi…

🧵1/ Real-World Head-to-Head: Cilta-cel vs. Ide-cel in Myeloma 🧬 A prospective biomonitoring study (N=39) dives deep into the biologic and clinical differences between 2 BCMA CAR-Ts: cilta-cel and ide-cel. Results are eye-opening. #mmsm #MedEd #myeloma #MedTwitter #USMIRC @USMIRCNEWS @OncoAlert #سرطان_الدم #المايلوما

This week we publish in @NatureBiotech "High-precision cytosine base editors by evolving nucleic-acid-recognition hotspots in deaminase". In this work, we show that both nucleotide and context specificity of deaminases can be reprogrammed by hotspot-focused directed evolution 1/n

In-vivo CAR Ts for myeloma are going to come fast and furious. These products are engineering marvels. ESO-T01 (EsoBiotec) is an anti-BCMA in-vivo CAR T that: 1) Delivers the CAR transgene to endogenous T-cells, reprogramming them to CAR T cells in situ 2) Overexpress CD47 to reduce phagocytosis 3) MHC class I knocked out to reduce GVHD 4) Once transformed to CAR T, has anti-BCMA variable domain (nanobody derived), CD8 hinge and transmembrane domain, 4-1BB costim domain, and CD3-zeta activation domain. 5) No lymphodepletion needed off-the-shelf

1/ Working with big data in R? Your wrangling just got a massive upgrade. duckplyr is now in the tidyverse—and it’s fast. Really fast. 🧵

How to deal with task paralysis

YOUR ABBOTSFORD CANUCKS ARE THE 2025 CALDER CUP CHAMPIONS! 🏆

Just published @ScienceMagazine Engineering T cells within the body, a big step forward for treating cancer and autoimmune diseases, as demonstrated in animal models science.org/doi/10.1126/scie… science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…

1/ If you're in bioinformatics, you're staring at matrices all day. RNA-seq? Gene x sample. scRNA-seq? Gene x cell. Everything is a matrix. But I never learned how to think in matrices. And I regret it.

#mmsm @JCO_ASCO New definition of high risk multiple myeloma by IMWG ➡️ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO… Summary 👇

You can not do Bioinformatics with hard cutoffs and thresholds Let me tell you something real: Biology is more about p-values. It’s messier than that. 🧵

🧵 MIDAS Trial -(Minimal Residual Disease Adaptive Strategy) trial from @NEJM 1/ Phase 3 randomized study evaluating an MRD-adapted consolidation strategy in patients with newly diagnosed MM who are eligible for ASCT 🚨Important Question of the trial: What is the benefit of ASCT in patients who achieve MRD-negative status after induction therapy?? International guidelines often recommend tandem ASCT (two ASCTs within a short period) for patients with high-risk disease!!! ⚛️ The MIDAS trial was designed to prospectively evaluate an MRD-driven consolidation strategy to address these questions #MedEd #MedTwitter #myeloma #mmsm #USMIRC @USMIRCNEWS @OncoAlert @Larvol #سرطان_الدم #المايلوما