55 research outputs found
Retelling racialized violence, remaking white innocence: the politics of interlocking oppressions in transgender day of remembrance
No full textTransgender Day of Remembrance has become a significant political event among those resisting violence against gender-variant persons. Commemorated in more than 250 locations worldwide, this day honors individuals who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. However, by focusing on transphobia as the definitive cause of violence, this ritual potentially obscures the ways in which hierarchies of race, class, and sexuality constitute such acts. Taking the Transgender Day of Remembrance/Remembering Our Dead project as a case study for considering the politics of memorialization, as well as tracing the narrative history of the Fred F. C. Martinez murder case in Colorado, the author argues that deracialized accounts of violence produce seemingly innocent White witnesses who can consume these spectacles of domination without confronting their own complicity in such acts. The author suggests that remembrance practices require critical rethinking if we are to confront violence in more effective ways. Description from publisher's site: http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/srsp.2008.5.1.2
Unpalatable dissent and the political distribution of solidarity
No full textThis article questions the conditions in which solidarity is given or withheld in response to expressions of dissent. Drawing on the August 2011 riots in England as an example, the article reflects on why some forms of dissent attract support whereas others do not. The author argues that ‘unpalatable’ forms of dissent, particularly those enacted by groups already constructed as deviant or suspect, are often figured as least deserving of support, even though their actions may arise from the highest needs. The article then considers how these patterns can occur in response to more everyday articulations of dissent, such as those expressed by disenfranchised university students. The article suggests a rethinking of the politics of dissent and the distribution of solidarity in order to be more attentive to broader patterns of power and dispossession
When Less Is Good, Is None Better? The Prognostic and Therapeutic Significance of Peri-Transplant Minimal Residual Disease Assessment in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
No full textThe measurement of minimal residual disease (MRD) in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has become the most important prognostic tool of, and the backbone to, upfront risk stratification. While MRD assessment is the standard of care for assessing response and predicting outcomes for pediatric patients with ALL receiving chemotherapy, its use in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) has been less clearly defined. Herein, we discuss the importance of MRD assessment during the peri-HSCT period and its role in prognostication and management
Targeting the Immune Microenvironment in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Focus on T Cell Immunity
No full textImmunotherapies, such as chimeric antigen receptor T cells, bispecific antibodies, and immune checkpoint inhibitors, have emerged as promising modalities in multiple hematologic malignancies. Despite the excitement surrounding immunotherapy, it is currently not possible to predict which patients will respond. Within solid tumors, the status of the immune microenvironment provides valuable insight regarding potential responses to immune therapies. Much less is known about the immune microenvironment within hematologic malignancies but the characteristics of this environment are likely to serve a similar predictive role. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common hematologic malignancy in adults, and only 25% of patients are alive 5 years following their diagnosis. There is evidence that manipulation of the immune microenvironment by leukemia cells may play a role in promoting therapy resistance and disease relapse. In addition, it has long been documented that through modulation of the immune system following allogeneic bone marrow transplant, AML can be cured, even in patients with the highest risk disease. These concepts, along with the poor prognosis associated with this disease, have encouraged many groups to start exploring the utility of novel immune therapies in AML. While the implementation of these therapies into clinical trials for AML has been supported by preclinical rationale, many questions still exist surrounding their efficacy, tolerability, and the overall optimal approach. In this review, we discuss what is known about the immune microenvironment within AML with a specific focus on T cells and checkpoints, along with their implications for immune therapies
Targeting the Immune Microenvironment in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Focus on T Cell Immunity
No full text'Keeping the bastards honest': the promise and practice of freedom of information legislation
No full textIn the last decade the number of countries that have enacted Freedom of Information (FOI) laws have increased dramatically. In many respects FOI laws have become a democratic 'right of passage'. No FOI, no 'proper' democracy.
The promises of FOI regimes are far-reaching: access to personal information and increased transparency in the form of third-party independent access to government-held information will prevent corruption and maladministration and encourage the public to participate more fully in the political process. But are the promises borne out by the practice of FOI?
To answer this question this thesis will track a number of real-life FOI requests in five countries. Based on this and other data this project will lay the foundation for the first International Freedom of Information Index, ranking five countries on how their FOI regimes deliver on the promises made. Included in the ranking will also be an evaluation of the legal situation for media whistleblowers and shield laws for journalists.
The thesis will show that it is easier to promise information access than to implement it. It will demonstrate that for most of the countries of study FOI laws serve more as a PR tool projecting an illusion of an informed public, rather than granting real independent access to quality information
“Well, you go there to get off” Visiting Feminist Care Ethics through a Women’s Bathhouse
No full textThis paper examines normative feminist care scholarship through the lens of a sexual bathhouse. At first glance, a space dedicated to casual sexual pleasure seems at odds with care ethics. Drawing on Toronto Women’s Bathhouse (TWB) as a case study, this paper argues that bathhouse spaces can exemplify feminist care norms. At the same time, as a casual sexual space oriented towards personal autonomy, carefree conduct, and self-care, TWB also challenges certain feminist care assumptions. Drawing on these challenges, in the light of wider problems with normative care theorizing, particularly the sanitization and idealization of personal relationships, the paper seeks to revision care along non-normative lines
Presentation_1_Bryostatin Activates CAR T-Cell Antigen-Non-Specific Killing (CTAK), and CAR-T NK-Like Killing for Pre-B ALL, While Blocking Cytolysis of a Burkitt Lymphoma Cell Line.ppt
No full textThe advent of CAR-T cell therapy has changed the face of clinical care for relapsed and refractory pre-B-acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) and lymphoma. Although curative responses are reported, long-term cures remain below 50%. Different CAR T-cell leukemia targets appear to have different mechanisms of CAR-T escape. For CD22, therapeutic evasion is linked to down-modulation of the number CD22 proteins expressed on the extracellular aspect of the leukemia cell plasma membrane. Recently, pharmacologic agents known to induce cellular differentiation or epigenetic modification of leukemia have been shown to impact CD22 and CD19 expression levels on B-ALL, and thereby increase sensitivity to CAR-T mediated cytolysis. We explored the impact of epigenetic modifiers and differentiation agents on leukemia cell lines of B cell origin, as well as normal B cells. We confirmed the activity of bryostatin to increase CD22 expression on model cell lines. However, bryostatin does not change CD22 levels on normal B cells. Furthermore, bryostatin inhibited CAR-T mediated cytolysis of the Raji Burkitt lymphoma cell line. Bryostatin increased the cytolysis by CD22 CAR-T for B-ALL cell lines by at least three mechanisms: 1) the previously reported increase in CD22 target cell numbers on the cell surface, 2) the induction of NK ligands, and 3) the induction of ligands that sensitize leukemia cells to activated T cell antigen-non-specific killing. The opposite effect was seen for Burkitt lymphoma, which arises from a more mature B cell lineage. These findings should caution investigators against a universal application of agents shown to increase killing of leukemia target cells by CAR-T in a specific disease class, and highlights that activation of non-CAR-mediated killing by activated T cells may play a significant role in the control of disease. We have termed the killing of leukemia targets, by a set of cell-surface receptors that does not overlap with NK-like killing “CTAK,” CAR-T Cell antigen-non-specific killing.</p
Table_1_Bryostatin Activates CAR T-Cell Antigen-Non-Specific Killing (CTAK), and CAR-T NK-Like Killing for Pre-B ALL, While Blocking Cytolysis of a Burkitt Lymphoma Cell Line.xlsx
No full textThe advent of CAR-T cell therapy has changed the face of clinical care for relapsed and refractory pre-B-acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) and lymphoma. Although curative responses are reported, long-term cures remain below 50%. Different CAR T-cell leukemia targets appear to have different mechanisms of CAR-T escape. For CD22, therapeutic evasion is linked to down-modulation of the number CD22 proteins expressed on the extracellular aspect of the leukemia cell plasma membrane. Recently, pharmacologic agents known to induce cellular differentiation or epigenetic modification of leukemia have been shown to impact CD22 and CD19 expression levels on B-ALL, and thereby increase sensitivity to CAR-T mediated cytolysis. We explored the impact of epigenetic modifiers and differentiation agents on leukemia cell lines of B cell origin, as well as normal B cells. We confirmed the activity of bryostatin to increase CD22 expression on model cell lines. However, bryostatin does not change CD22 levels on normal B cells. Furthermore, bryostatin inhibited CAR-T mediated cytolysis of the Raji Burkitt lymphoma cell line. Bryostatin increased the cytolysis by CD22 CAR-T for B-ALL cell lines by at least three mechanisms: 1) the previously reported increase in CD22 target cell numbers on the cell surface, 2) the induction of NK ligands, and 3) the induction of ligands that sensitize leukemia cells to activated T cell antigen-non-specific killing. The opposite effect was seen for Burkitt lymphoma, which arises from a more mature B cell lineage. These findings should caution investigators against a universal application of agents shown to increase killing of leukemia target cells by CAR-T in a specific disease class, and highlights that activation of non-CAR-mediated killing by activated T cells may play a significant role in the control of disease. We have termed the killing of leukemia targets, by a set of cell-surface receptors that does not overlap with NK-like killing “CTAK,” CAR-T Cell antigen-non-specific killing.</p
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