Recent Publications

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In β-thalassaemia, anaemia results from ineffective erythropoiesis characterized by inhibition of late-stage erythroid differentiation. We earlier used luspatercept and RAP-536 protein traps for certain Smad2/3-pathway ligands to implicate Smad2/3-pathway overactivation in dysregulated erythroid differentiation associated with murine β-thalassaemia and myelodysplasia. Importantly, luspatercept alleviates anaemia and has been shown to reduce transfusion burden in patients with β-thalassaemia or...

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is an essential regulator of gut immunity and a promising therapeutic target for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Current AHR agonists are inadequate for clinical translation due to low activity, inadequate pharmacokinetics, or toxicity. We synthesized a structurally diverse library and used integrated computational and experimental studies to discover mechanisms governing ligand-receptor interaction and to design potent drug leads PY109 and PY108, which display...

Impaired wound healing in the diabetic foot is a major problem often leading to amputation. Mast cells have been shown to regulate wound healing in diabetes. We developed an indole-carboxamide type mast cell stabilizer, MCS-01, which proved to be an effective mast cell degranulation inhibitor in vitro and can be delivered topically for prolonged periods through controlled release by specifically designed alginate bandages. In diabetic mice, both pre- and post-wounding, topical MCS-01 application...

Cancer therapy is a double-edged sword, as surgery and chemotherapy can induce an inflammatory/immunosuppressive injury response that promotes dormancy escape and tumor recurrence. We hypothesized that these events could be altered by early blockade of the inflammatory cascade and/or by accelerating the resolution of inflammation. Preoperative, but not postoperative, administration of the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug ketorolac and/or resolvins, a family of specialized proresolving autacoid...

Although targeted therapies have proven effective and even curative in human leukaemia, resistance often ensues. IDH enzymes are mutated in ~20% of human AML, with targeted therapies under clinical evaluation. We here characterize leukaemia evolution from mutant IDH2 (mIDH2)-dependence to independence identifying key targetable vulnerabilities of mIDH2 leukaemia that are retained during evolution and progression from early to late stages. Mechanistically, we find that mIDH2 leukaemia are...