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Loss of pancreatic β-cells or their proper function is characteristic of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, so restoring functional β-cell mass has been a major therapeutic goal in the field. A team led by Bridget Wagner at the ӳý's Center for the Science of Therapeutics, working with ӳý associate member Rohit Kulkarni’s lab at Joslin Diabetes Center, showed that this may be achievable in humans. They found that the kinase-inhibiting enzyme 5-IT, which is known to promote β-cell mass in rodents, can also spark β-cell proliferation in humans by inhibiting the protein DYRK1A. The research, published in , suggests a possible regenerative medicine approach to diabetes.

A team led by Matthew Meyerson (ӳý, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Ramaswamy Govindan (Washington University School of Medicine), and first author Joshua Campbell (ӳý, Dana-Farber) performed exome sequencing on hundreds of samples of two of the most common lung cancer types: lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma. Appearing in , the work revealed that the two share only a handful of mutated genes, so targeted therapies must be tailored for each type. The analysis also found that in both cancer types, around half of tumors had several “neoepitopes” — bits of protein discoverable by the immune system — suggesting that immunotherapy approaches could be successful in many lung tumors. Read more in the  and .