Latest news with #leukemia
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Mother arrested at LA court alongside six-year-old son with cancer sues Ice
A Honduran woman who sought asylum in the US is suing the Trump administration after immigration agents arrested her and her children, including her six-year-old son who was diagnosed with leukemia, at a Los Angeles immigration court. The woman, identified as 'Ms Z' in the lawsuit, and her nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son have been in custody at a Texas detention facility for several weeks following their arrest. The government has placed them in expedited removal proceedings. Lawyers for the family say they were detained as part of the administration's 'nationwide campaign to summarily arrest law-abiding non-citizens when they attend their immigration court hearings'. Such arrests that are occurring at 'rates never before seen in the United States', according to the lawsuit filed this week. The lawsuit alleges the family is being detained in violation of their constitutional rights. The family applied to come to the US last year after fleeting their home country, where they faced 'imminent, menacing death threats'. They followed the 'lawful process', were paroled and went to live with the woman's mother, according to court documents provided by the Texas Civil Rights Project. The boy had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of three and underwent two years of successful treatment. While no more leukemia cells were found in his blood, his mother knew he would need regular monitoring and medical care and took him to multiple appointments once they settled in the US, according to the suit. After attending a court hearing in Los Angeles last month, where their case was suddenly dismissed, federal agents dressed as civilians arrested the family 'without any prior notice or warning' as they left the courtroom. They were not permitted to leave or make calls, the suit stated. The six-year-old, after seeing an agents gun, urinated on himself in fear and was left in the wet clothing for hours, according to the suit. The family has been held at a detention center in Dilley, Texas, since their arrest. The six-year-old missed a medical appointment related to his diagnosis earlier this month because of the family's incarceration. Detention has highly detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of children, potentially causing 'serious psychological trauma', and research has found that children at the Dilley facility suffer from 'inadequate medical care', according to the suit. The six-year-old has 'lost his appetite, experienced easy bruising and occasional bone pain, and looks pale, all of which are recognized as symptoms of leukemia,' the suit states, and his mother fears he is not receiving necessary medical care. Both children cry every night. DHS official Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the Guardian that the boy has received regular treatment while in custody. 'First of all, at no time during detention is a detained individual denied emergency care,' said McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary. 'Fortunately, the minor child in question has not undergone chemotherapy in over a year, and has been seen regularly by medical personnel since arriving at the Dilley facility.' 'The implication that Ice would deny a child the medical care they need is flatly FALSE, and it is an insult to the men and women of federal law enforcement. Ice ALWAYS prioritizes the health, safety, and wellbeing of all detainees in its care.' Lawyers are requesting the family's immediate release for medical treatment, and say that they are not a flight risk and have 'done everything the government asked of them'. 'The government is not detaining petitioners to serve its legitimate interests in protecting against danger or flight risk,' the court filing states. 'Instead, the government is detaining this family, along with countless others swept up in its courthouse arrests, for the illegitimate reason that they were easy to locate because they were where DHS told them to be to pursue humanitarian relief.' The family is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the Department of Justice (DoJ) as well as the warden of the detention center, Ice's acting director, the homeland security secretary, and the attorney general, among others. McLaughlin said the family 'had chosen to appeal their case – which had already been thrown out by an immigration judge – and will remain in Ice custody until it is resolved'.
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Mother arrested at LA court alongside six-year-old son with cancer sues Ice
A Honduran woman who sought asylum in the US is suing the Trump administration after immigration agents arrested her and her children, including her six-year-old son who was diagnosed with leukemia, at a Los Angeles immigration court. The woman, identified as 'Ms Z' in the lawsuit, and her nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son have been in custody at a Texas detention facility for several weeks following their arrest. The government has placed them in expedited removal proceedings. Lawyers for the family say they were detained as part of the administration's 'nationwide campaign to summarily arrest law-abiding non-citizens when they attend their immigration court hearings'. Such arrests that are occurring at 'rates never before seen in the United States', according to the lawsuit filed this week. The lawsuit alleges the family is being detained in violation of their constitutional rights. The family applied to come to the US last year after fleeting their home country, where they faced 'imminent, menacing death threats'. They followed the 'lawful process', were paroled and went to live with the woman's mother, according to court documents provided by the Texas Civil Rights Project. The boy had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of three and underwent two years of successful treatment. While no more leukemia cells were found in his blood, his mother knew he would need regular monitoring and medical care and took him to multiple appointments once they settled in the US, according to the suit. After attending a court hearing in Los Angeles last month, where their case was suddenly dismissed, federal agents dressed as civilians arrested the family 'without any prior notice or warning' as they left the courtroom. They were not permitted to leave or make calls, the suit stated. The six-year-old, after seeing an agents gun, urinated on himself in fear and was left in the wet clothing for hours, according to the suit. The family has been held at a detention center in Dilley, Texas, since their arrest. The six-year-old missed a medical appointment related to his diagnosis earlier this month because of the family's incarceration. Detention has highly detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of children, potentially causing 'serious psychological trauma', and research has found that children at the Dilley facility suffer from 'inadequate medical care', according to the suit. The six-year-old has 'lost his appetite, experienced easy bruising and occasional bone pain, and looks pale, all of which are recognized as symptoms of leukemia,' the suit states, and his mother fears he is not receiving necessary medical care. Both children cry every night. DHS official Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the Guardian that the boy has received regular treatment while in custody. 'First of all, at no time during detention is a detained individual denied emergency care,' said McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary. 'Fortunately, the minor child in question has not undergone chemotherapy in over a year, and has been seen regularly by medical personnel since arriving at the Dilley facility.' 'The implication that Ice would deny a child the medical care they need is flatly FALSE, and it is an insult to the men and women of federal law enforcement. Ice ALWAYS prioritizes the health, safety, and wellbeing of all detainees in its care.' Lawyers are requesting the family's immediate release for medical treatment, and say that they are not a flight risk and have 'done everything the government asked of them'. 'The government is not detaining petitioners to serve its legitimate interests in protecting against danger or flight risk,' the court filing states. 'Instead, the government is detaining this family, along with countless others swept up in its courthouse arrests, for the illegitimate reason that they were easy to locate because they were where DHS told them to be to pursue humanitarian relief.' The family is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the Department of Justice (DoJ) as well as the warden of the detention center, Ice's acting director, the homeland security secretary, and the attorney general, among others. McLaughlin said the family 'had chosen to appeal their case – which had already been thrown out by an immigration judge – and will remain in Ice custody until it is resolved'.
Forbes
19 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Prototype: King Tut's Curse Might Kill Leukemia
In this week's edition of The Prototype, we look at cancer-killing fungi, robots that perform surgery on your eyeballs, genetically modified bacteria that turn plastic into Tylenol and more. You can sign up to get The Prototype in your inbox here . Getty Images W hen I was a kid, I was obsessed with King Tut's tomb–and the legends of the curse put upon the team that discovered it. Of course, the stories were false and many of the tomb's discoverers lived long lives after finding it. But King Tut may have claimed at least one victim, Lord Carnarvon, thanks to a toxic fungus called aspergillus that had lain dormant for centuries. Now that 'curse' may be hitting a different target–leukemia. A new study published this week found that chemical compounds in aspergillus, when purified, show anti-cancer properties. And if a fatty molecule is added to the purified fungus the resulting compound demonstrates cancer-fighting activity similar to that of drugs currently used to treat leukemia. Next up, the scientists plan to take the most promising chemical candidates and test them on cancer in animals. If successful there, the chemicals could one day be used to treat human cancer patients. Forsight Robotics C ataract surgery is one of the world's most common medical procedures, with more than 4 million of them done each year in the United States alone, but there simply aren't enough doctors available to meet the demand for everyone who needs the surgery. An Israeli startup is betting that robots can someday easy that demand by doing the procedure better and cheaper than human doctors. ForSight Robotics on Tuesday said it had raised $125 million led by Eclipse Ventures to expand Oryom, its robotic surgery platform for cataracts and other eye diseases . The funding is the second-largest Series B investment in a surgical robotics startup, and brings ForSight's total investment to $195 million. The new money values the company at an estimated $500 million—a substantial increase since it last raised funds in 2022 at a $162 million valuation, according to VC database PitchBook. Additional investors include Fred Moll, the cofounder of Intuitive Surgical and pioneer of robotic surgery, who has joined the company's strategic advisory board. ForSight has been testing its robot on pig eyes, and plans to complete its first full robotic surgery on a human patient later this year. It's targeting the U.S. market and is in early conversations with the FDA. While ForSight's robots would be the first for cataracts, robotic surgery has become increasingly commonplace since $185 billion (market cap) Intuitive Surgical received FDA approval for its Da Vinci robots, which enable precision procedures, 25 years ago. 'At first people were intimidated by robotics' advancement,' Dr. Joseph Nathan, ForSight's cofounder, president and chief medical officer, told Forbes. 'Now they are seeing robotics as the thing that will get them the best outcomes.' Read the whole story at Forbes DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK: TURNING PLASTIC INTO PAINKILLERS Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have genetically engineered a bacteria that can take waste plastic and turn it into an ingredient used in acetaminophen (aka Tylenol). To make this work, they chemically broke down PET, a common plastic used in food packaging, into a simpler molecule and added it to a cell culture. The bacteria then produced special enzymes that interacted with the plastic molecule, transforming it into the painkiller ingredient. The researchers found that over 90% of the plastic was transformed into the drug, and the process used less energy than the conventional way to produce it from crude oil. The team's next step is to develop a way to scale the process to provide a more sustainable way to manufacture acetaminophen, with the backing of pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca. FINAL FRONTIER: FIRST PHOTOS FROM VERA RUBIN OBSERVATORY The Vera C. Rubin observatory, a giant telescope built in the mountains of Chile, released its first images of space this week. The observatory used a $168 million car-size digital camera tag of –paired with a unique three-mirror telescope to not only capture the unprecedentedly high-resolution images of a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo, but also monitor changes in that part of the sky thanks to its ability to record time-lapsed videos. WHAT ELSE I WROTE THIS WEEK In my other newsletter, InnovationRx, Amy Feldman and I looked at health insurance companies promising to improve the prior authorization process (again), how Bell Labs plans to commercialize its massive IP portfolio, American attitudes towards vaccinating kids, and more. SCIENCE AND TECH TIDBITS NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first planet outside the solar system. About the size of Saturn, the new world is circling a red dwarf star about 111 light-years away. Self-driving taxi company Waymo has begun operating in Atlanta, marking the fifth major U.S. city its services are available in. The Trump administration has terminated millions of dollars of government subscriptions to the Springer Nature group, which publishes major scientific journals such as Nature . After months of delays, SpaceX launched its fourth mission with Axiom Space, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station where they will conduct a wide variety of scientific experiments for Axiom's customers. PRO SCIENCE TIP: MAKE YOUR BUSINESS MORE PROFITABLE WITH AN IPO A new study of the brains of mice suggests that one of the best ways to learn a new task is to devote time to not learning it. The researchers found that mice learned more quickly when they were allowed to explore new environments without focusing on any particular task. Evidently areas of the brain developed during unstructured activities can help expedite the completion of specific tasks. If that holds true in humans, it may be a good idea to stay productive by making sure you take the time to be unproductive. WHAT'S ENTERTAINING ME THIS WEEK I recently finished the novel The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa. It's set in a dystopian future where censorship is the norm. The story follows the titular censor, who in his ambition to be good in his new job finds himself falling in love with reading. That leads him to a resistance movement, where he struggles to protect both books and his own daughter, who displays far more imagination than society will allow. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes Elon Musk Has Fired One Of His Top Tesla Lieutenants By Alan Ohnsman Forbes Why The U.S. Should Copy Canada To Fix Its Broken Air Traffic Control System By Jeremy Bogaisky Forbes The 36 Colleges Most At Risk From Pell Grant Cuts By Fiona Riley
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Fungus that may have caused 'King Tut's curse' shows promise in treating cancer
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A toxic fungus, once thought to have caused fatal lung infections in tomb explorers, may hold the key to powerful new cancer treatments, new research suggests. Within months of the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, the earl who had financed the excavation and visited the "wonderful" burial site died, leading many to believe the mummy had cursed those who entered the tomb. In the 1970s, 10 of the 12 archaeologists excavating the 15th-century crypt of King Casimir IV in Poland also met a similar fate. Analysis of Casimir's tomb revealed the presence of a fungus called Aspergillus flavus, the toxins of which are known to cause a deadly lung infection. Now, the same fungus has shown promise as a treatment for leukaemia, according to a new study published in Nature Chemical Biology. The researcher team identified and engineered a class of molecules within the fungus, called asperigimycins, that kill leukemia cells in a laboratory setting. "This is nature's irony at its finest," study senior author Sherry Gao, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "The same fungus once feared for bringing death may now help save lives." Aspergillus flavus produces spores that are able to lie dormant for centuries — including inside sealed tombs. When disturbed, the fungus can cause deadly respiratory infections, particularly in people with weakened immune systems. Related: College student discovers psychedelic fungus that eluded LSD inventor In their new study, the scientists examined the unique chemical compounds produced by the fungus and discovered a class of natural compounds called RiPPs (ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides). These molecules are difficult to isolate and rarely seen in fungi, but they hold therapeutic promise due to their complex structures and bioactivity. This means they have intricate, unique shapes that can interact with biological systems in powerful ways, such as killing cancer cells. "We found four novel asperigimycins with an unusual interlocking ring structure," lead author Qiuyue Nie, a researcher in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, said in the statement. "Two of them had strong anti-leukemia properties even without modification." To enhance the drugs' effectiveness, the researchers attached lipid molecules similar to those found in royal jelly, the nutrient-rich substance that sustains queen bees. This enabled the drugs to enter cancer cells more efficiently, because lipids help drugs cross cellular membranes, which are made largely of fats themselves. Further analysis revealed how a gene called SLC46A3 acts as a kind of molecular gateway, helping the drug escape cellular compartments and target leukemia cells directly. This discovery could aid in the delivery of other promising but hard-to-administer drugs in the future. RELATED STORIES —'The most critically harmful fungi to humans': How the rise of C. auris was inevitable —Mysterious artifacts from King Tut's tomb might have been used in 'awakening Osiris' ritual —Single gene may help explain the plague's persistence throughout human history Unlike broad-spectrum chemotherapy agents that can damage healthy cells, asperigimycins appear to specifically disrupt leukemia cell division without affecting healthy tissues. Early tests also suggest the compounds have minimal effects on breast, liver, and lung cancer cells. According to the researchers, this selectivity is important for minimizing unwanted side effects. In addition to asperigimycins, the team believe similar life-saving compounds may be hidden in other fungal species. The team are planning to test asperigimycins in animal models, with the eventual goal of launching human clinical trials. And by scanning fungal genomes and exploring more strains of Aspergillus, they hope to unlock new treatments. "The ancient world is still offering us tools for modern medicine," said Gao. "The tombs were feared for their curses, but they may become a wellspring of cures."
CBC
3 days ago
- Health
- CBC
#TheMoment a class brought grad celebrations to a hospital in another province
Lauchlan McCabe and his mother recount the moment his Grade 9 class travelled 230 kilometres from rural P.E.I. to a children's hospital in Halifax so he could celebrate the end of junior high while being treated for leukemia.
