A UVA Health scientist has developed a drug, Kamuvudine K-9, that reversed paralysis and vision loss in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, going beyond existing treatments that only prevent future attacks. Derived from HIV drugs, K-9 preserved nerve fibers and reduced nerve damage markers, offering promising evidence for future human clinical trials.
UVA researcher Dr. Melanie Rutkowski and her team discovered why ovarian cancer resists immune checkpoint therapy, finding that gut microbiome bacteria confuse the immune system’s ability to recognize tumors. Their lab findings reveal a way to block this signaling, potentially restoring treatment effectiveness and offering ovarian cancer patients more time.
UVA Health’s Taison Bell, MD, joined national experts to develop new sepsis care guidelines through the Infectious Diseases Society of America and seven other organizations. Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the recommendations cover rapid diagnostic testing, immediate antibiotics for septic shock, electronic surveillance, and infection prevention measures aimed at standardizing hospital care and reducing sepsis’s deadly annual toll.
UVA researchers Mark Conaway, PhD, and Gina Petroni, PhD, have received a four-year, $1.95 million NIH R01 grant to develop statistical methods for analyzing ELISpot assay data in early phase cancer trials. The research aims to help identify effective immunotherapies faster, discard ineffective ones earlier, and predict long-term clinical benefit from short-term immune response data.
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