Creating a New Hero from an Old Story

For decades, immunotherapy seemed a tantalizing—yet maddeningly elusive—alternative to toxic treatments for cancer consisting mainly of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Manipulating the immune system proved to work on certain allergies and microbes, but immunotherapeutic cancer vaccines historically overpromised and underdelivered.

It wasn’t until 2010 when the FDA approved Provenge for prostate cancer that immunotherapy gained status as a true contender for treating cancer. More recently, the realization that tumors require both immune evasion and active immune suppression to proliferate has fueled two successes so tremendous that certain pharmaceutical companies have entirely rebranded themselves as centered on immuno-oncology.

The first triumph involves a class of so-called “checkpoint inhibitor” drugs, including Yervoy and Nivolimumab. These checkpoint inhibitor drugs essentially take the brakes off the antitumor immune response and have generated dramatic clinical results in certain patients with advanced cancer. Cleveland kitchen pros cook up foodie gifts for the holidays. The second triumph involves a class of drugs that overcomes the evasive nature of tumors through engineering of patient-specific killer T cells, the body’s innate enemy of cancer. Known as “chimeric antigen receptor” or CAR therapies, these drugs have yielded unprecedented clinical efficacy in a small group of patients with certain blood-borne cancers. Both types of drugs underscore how the human immune system—and specifically killer T cells—are fully capable of recognizing and destroying even very large masses if they are educated and delivered against a tumor with compromised defenses.

As the synergy between immunotherapy drugs builds, vaccines that direct cytotoxic T cells to target cancer are the first order of business. In this area, a protein known as gp96, sometimes referred to as the immune system’s “Swiss Army Knife,”1 holds much promise. More than any other known natural immune stimulant, gp96 appears to have evolved specifically to educate killer T cells about cancer cells.

Gp96 is the carrier molecule for tumor-specific antigens that play a critical role in awakening killer T cells. The utility of gp96 as an immune stimulator stems from its unique ability to identify the full molecular fingerprint of cancer, flag tumor targets for the immune system with extraordinary efficiency, and deliver them exclusively to killer T cells. Normally ensnared within cells, gp96 can be untethered though a process that transforms it from observer to combatant. The result is a molecular warning system that heralds the presence of malevolent cells. Once injected into the body, secreted gp96 provides critical intelligence to killer T cells, teaching them how to seek and destroy cancer. In contrast, most prior and many current approaches are limited to a small array of tumor targets, require enormous doses to achieve immune stimulation, and inappropriately target the immune response that evolved to defeat bacteria—not cancer.

Cleveland kitchen pros cook up foodie gifts for the holidays

Okay, Melissa Khoury hasn't gotten to the partridge part yet. But as the young chef wrestles half of a locally grown Berkshire hog across a tabletop at Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen in Midtown, she already has maple spicy bacon and smoky Tasso ham dancing in her head. She promises the exotic poultry will come later.

The kitchen, in Cleveland's Midtown, is that kind of place – where food dreams can come true. Forget Santa's elves and the wooden toy workshop. Chefs like Khoury are cooking up local food gifts and delights for holiday entertaining on the eve of what they hope will be new careers.

"I'm trying to talk my farmer into raising them," said Khoury. This strong-shouldered young woman with bright brown eyes recently quit her job as executive chef at Washington Place Bistro in Little Italy to pursue her goal of opening a specialty butcher shop.

She craves the one-on-one with customers and other chefs, remembering Mason's Meats in Medina where the butcher knew her mom by name and she got a smokie sausage as a treat.

Through her studies at Johnson and Wales University's culinary school, through stints in top restaurants in Florida, Georgia and back in Cleveland at AMP 150 with acclaimed chef Ellis Cooley, she always moved toward the knife. Exacting fish filleting, breaking down meat into fine cuts without waste – each gave her satisfaction.

Especially pork, with its rich flavors.

"The pig is a magical animal," she said, moving her little yellow ceramic knife along the chine bones.

With a Lebanese name like Khoury, you don't expect someone to have an "I Heart Swine" tattoo. Khoury admits she's addicted to vegetable-based food at Nate's Deli near West Side Market. But her family's other side migrated from the South, bringing pork-love with them.

She'd like to go in a million directions, but she's staying small, working local farmers markets under the company name Saucisson (French, usually referring to a dried sausage). The dried and cured meats will come later. In fact, the shop will come later. Right now, she's out of the starting gate, renting time at the kitchen, getting a hand lifting a 150-pound side of pork with help from another food producer at the kitchen, Clark Pope, and drawing a crowd of fellow cooks with her confident style. She just debuted her products at two local farmers markets.

What: Saucisson's changing menu of bacons, hams, terrines, etc. We tried a spicy maple bacon made with richly flavored Berkshire hog meat and a tasso, Louisiana-styled ham made from pork tenderloin. The ham had an elegant smoke and silky tenderness. She likes it in a sandwich with a mustard-based cheese she gets at The Cheese Shop at West Side Market, and serves on a brioche. We chopped up a few pieces for a bayou rice and beans salad and it elevated the entire dish with its veil of smoke and classy pork flavor.

The needs of all pupils are being met

 
  The specialist science college has about 950 pupils, aged 11 to 16.Mr Bains, who is also governor at the school, said: "We did have one incident recently that I considered to be very serious and it went through due process."The needs of all pupils are being met."He added that the school did "its utmost to ensure the safety of all pupils and staff". Valerine Williams has a child who attends Shivers Middle School.What came as a complete surprise was to learn a weapons investigation is underway at the school."Where can you move to feel safe while your children are at school (and) while you're working and while you're doing things? Are they really safe?"District Conservator Mac Curlee declined to discuss the details of this incident, but he does say they will follow policy on it.He would not discuss whether or not an eleven-year-old child showed a knife during a physical education class Thursday morning.Curlee does say he first heard about it late Thursday.Curlee goes on to say a violation of the district's weapons policy is considered a serious, major infraction.
 
  While officials pursue this investigation, Aberdeen Mayor Cecil Belle is quick to remind parents to remain calm."They don't need to be calling in. What they actually need to do is give the school administration an opportunity to find out the facts."Williams is anxious to find out more, but has faith in the district's leadership."I support the schools and I know some of the people there are great teachers and concerned about the kids and their safety."A courageous police officer was forced to grapple with a knife-wielding thug – after his attempts to disarm the man without a fight were unwittingly foiled by his colleagues.A large man carrying a 14-inch kitchen knife was threatening motorists in Caversham Road, Kentish Town, when Sgt Lee Stapleton arrived on the scene in April.The officer approached from behind and saw that the knife was in the man's back pocket, but just as he snuck up to grab it, his police radio started blaring.Speaking at the police commendations, Ch Insp Penny Mills said it was "the sort of thing you see in the movies".
 

What to Know About The Air Knife

  The basic parts behind an air knife are the following-motor, filter, and the blower. The motor starter generates power, of which electricity if often the source. It draws in air from outside that passes through the filter before finally blown through the blades. Some air knives nowadays employ the tear-drop design to enhance velocity at a much lower energy output. Other than the blow-type, there are also compressed air knives commonly seen in large factories. The air knife had been around as early as 1950s, but back then, it was referred to as air doctor, air jet, or air blade. Its primary beneficiaries were industries that produced large volumes of textile and print papers, mainly for the purpose of eliminating contaminants and mass drying. Air doctors became an important step in the assembly line, because they ensured proper quality control, as well as contributed to the general maintenance of huge machineries that were involved in the production. With the advances in information technology, especially at the turn of the century, air knife manufacturing is invigorated once again. Mushrooming worldwide are producers of computer mother boards, silicon micro chips, and other similar hardware.
 
 They require high precision-even customized-blower blades that can penetrate the smallest nook and cranny of IT products that are especially prone to gathering dust during production. Moving small parts to the next phase of production is also another application of air knives. That it has replaced solvent-based cleaning chemicals is perhaps the greatest benefit of the air knife. No longer is CFC chemical used in factories as cleaning agents, reducing harmful effects on the environment. Cleaning and drying of assembly line products by hand are also substantially minimized, if not eliminated altogether, with the use of air blades. People are kept safe from such hazards and their energies are channelled to the more important aspects of monitoring operations and quality. Its second greatest benefit is a natural byproduct-cost and energy savings.