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Finding Answers When Your Child Is Struggling: Introducing Ask Kai 

Every day, parents reach out to the Child Mind Institute with questions that keep them up at night: Why does my daughter have such strong emotions? Why can’t my son sit still in class? Is this normal anxiety or something more?.

These questions are urgent, but finding answers isn’t easy. The wait time to see a children’s mental health professional can be months or even years. Many families don’t know where to start, what’s normal for their child’s age, or whether their concerns warrant professional help. And with nearly 1 in 5 children experiencing a mental health challenge within the U.S. alone, too many families are navigating this uncertainty on their own.

That’s why we built Ask Kai — a free, evidence-based symptom checker designed specifically for children’s mental health, available in both English and Spanish.

Meet Ask Kai

Ask Kai is a conversational symptom checker that helps parents and caregivers understand their child’s behavior and points them to appropriate resources. Through a streamlined series of questions and prompts, Ask Kai gathers information about your child’s challenges and provides personalized recommendations in minutes.

Ask Kai doesn’t diagnose your child. Instead, it helps you:

  • Understand whether your concerns align with common mental health challenges
  • Learn what to look for and what questions to ask
  • Find evidence-based resources specific to your child’s needs
  • Know how to find additional support if needed

Think of Ask Kai as a knowledgeable guide who helps you make sense of what you’re seeing and points you toward your next best step.

How Ask Kai works

If you’ve ever used a symptom checker for physical health, you know the challenge: enter “headache,” and you might walk away convinced you have everything from a sinus infection to a brain tumor. Mental health symptom checkers face even greater challenges. Because every child is different, what looks like defiance in one child could look like anxiety in another, and a behavior that’s appropriate at age five might be cause for concern at age ten. On top of that, mental health conditions often overlap.

So how did we build a tool that captures this complexity without overwhelming families? We focused on expertise and evidence:

  • Clinicians and data lead the way: Ask Kai was built using thousands of child mental health evaluations — open datasets spanning different ages, backgrounds, and conditions — and developed in close collaboration with child psychologists and psychiatrists.
  • Evidence-based question selection: Rather than asking hundreds of questions, we used machine learning to identify which combinations of questions provide the most meaningful information without burdening families.
  • Comprehensive resource library: Every recommendation Ask Kai makes is matched to our extensive collection of guides, articles, expert perspectives, and pathways to professional help.

Here’s what happens when you use Ask Kai

Step 1: Initial Screening

You’ll answer a brief set of questions about your child’s behavior, emotions, and how these challenges affect daily life. You’ll also have the chance to describe in your own words what brought you to Ask Kai. These questions cover the areas where we see the most common concerns.

Step 2: Personalized Deep Dive

Based on your responses, Ask Kai selects targeted follow-up questions that dig deeper into the areas you flagged, whether that’s attention and focus, social anxiety, learning, or other behavioral challenges.

Step 3: Matching You to Resources

Ask Kai analyzes your complete response pattern, including the severity and impact of the behaviors you described, and provides a report with recommendations relevant to your child’s age, challenges, and needs.

What Ask Kai can assess

We designed Ask Kai to explore the areas where we can provide the most help to the most families. Ask Kai offers comprehensive screening and resources for:

ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by difficulties with attention, organization, and impulsive behaviors. Symptoms are usually divided into inattentive behaviors or hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. Inattentive symptoms may include making careless mistakes, being easily distracted, difficulty listening to instructions, trouble with organization, and forgetfulness. Hyperactive/impulsive symptoms may include fidgeting or squirming, trouble playing quietly, extreme impatience, as well as constant talking and interrupting.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in utero, but children may not get diagnosed until they’re in preschool or even older, when symptoms become more apparent. The disorder is characterized by deficits in social communication skills as well as restrictive or repetitive behaviors. Symptoms include a wide range of impaired cognitive abilities, language skills, and behaviors. These symptoms have been thought of as a set of disorders but are now being considered one disorder that presents along a spectrum.

Depression

Depression is a mood disorder that can cause children and teenagers to feel very sad and hopeless. Kids with depression have trouble enjoying things they used to love. They may also seem listless and easily annoyed.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by excessive, persistent, and unreasonable worries about everyday things, like doing well in school or sports. In general, kids with this disorder worry a lot about being perfect.

Oppositional Defiance Disorder

Oppositional defiance disorder is a disruptive behavior disorder characterized by ongoing persistent, age-inappropriate disobedience and resistance to authority. To be diagnosed with this disorder, children would have had to display extreme behavior issues for at least six months. Diagnosis occurs around early elementary school ages and stops around adolescence.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder is a type of anxiety characterized by such intense self-consciousness and fear of embarrassment in social situations that the individual avoids social events; also known as social phobia. While some kids with this disorder are specifically afraid of performance engagements like public speaking or sporting events, others are scared of general social situations.

Specific Phobia

Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by an excessive and irrational fear of an object, situation, or place. Common specific phobias include dogs, clowns, bugs, the dark, and loud noises.

Elimination Disorders (Enuresis & Encopresis)

For young children, bathroom troubles are often a normal part of growing up. But once kids pass potty-training age, peeing or pooping in places other than the toilet might be a sign of an underlying issue. If it involves urine, it’s called “enuresis.” If it involves feces, it’s called “encopresis.”

Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NVLD)

Nonverbal learning disorder (NVLD) is a condition characterized by difficulty processing visual-spatial information — which involves the brain’s ability to interpret and respond to visual input, including where things are in space. These skills are used to do things like putting together a puzzle or reading a diagram.

Specific Learning Disorder (Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, & Dysgraphia)

Specific  learning disorder is a condition that causes children to have difficulty with reading, writing, and/or math. If they have trouble with reading, the disorder is called dyslexia. If they have trouble with writing, it’s called dysgraphia. If they have trouble with math, it’s called dyscalculia. Symptoms are typically first noticed when the child is in preschool or early elementary school.

These ten areas represent some of the most common mental health concerns in childhood. They’re also areas where we have robust data, validated assessments, and comprehensive resources.

What if your concerns aren’t on this list?

Ask Kai can still help. When you describe your situation in your own words, Ask Kai analyzes your response to identify additional concerns and match you to appropriate resources. Your child’s challenges don’t need to fit neatly into one of these categories for Ask Kai to provide value.

However, we will only make recommendations when we’re confident in the evidence behind them. If a particular concern isn’t well represented in our data, we won’t try to provide guidance in that area. Regardless of the results, everyone receives a core set of resources that we believe are helpful for all families navigating children’s mental health.

Your privacy matters

We take data privacy seriously:

  • Your responses are confidential and secure
  • Free-text responses are analyzed using secure AI systems
  • We don’t share your individual information with third parties
  • In addition to providing you with resources, your data will only be used to improve Ask Kai

Try Ask Kai Today

If you’re wondering whether your child’s behavior is typical or cause for concern, Ask Kai can help. In just 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll get personalized insights and resources to guide your next steps.

Start Your Assessment

You don’t have to figure this out alone. We’re here to help.

If your child is in crisis, expressing thoughts of self-harm, experiencing severe symptoms, or in immediate danger, please seek emergency help right away. Call 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), text “HELLO” to 741741 (Crisis Text Line), or go to your nearest emergency room.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take?

Most families complete Ask Kai in 10–15 minutes.

Who should use this tool?

Parents, caregivers, and professionals working with children ages 4–18.

Will I get a diagnosis?

No. Ask Kai provides screening information and resources, but only a qualified clinician can provide a diagnosis.

What if I need immediate help?

If your child is in crisis, please call 988, text “HELLO” to 741741, or visit your nearest emergency room.

What makes this different from other symptom checkers?

Ask Kai was built specifically for children’s mental health, uses evidence-based assessments, provides personalized follow-up questions, and was developed in close collaboration with child mental health professionals.

The post Finding Answers When Your Child Is Struggling: Introducing Ask Kai  appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

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10x Genomics, Harvard Target Element’s Multiomics Platform in Patent Lawsuit

10x Genomics and Harvard University have sued Element Biosciences, alleging that Element’s AVITI24™ multiomics platform, Teton chemistry, and related services infringe on four university-owned patents exclusively licensed by the genomics and sequencing tools giant—while Element has denied wrongdoing and promises to fight the lawsuit.

At issue are four patents—three of which cover technologies related to methods of analyzing the nucleic acids of a cell, awarded between 2021 and 2023, and all titled, “Compositions and methods for analyte detection”: U.S. Patent Nos. 11,021,737 (‘737), 11,566,276 (‘276), 11,566,277 (‘277).

The fourth patent in question, U.S. Patent No. 12,264,358 (‘358), covers methods of selectively sequencing amplicons in a biological sample, and was awarded in April 2025 under the title, “Method of selectively sequencing amplicons in a biological sample.”

“Element’s employees, customers, collaborators, and partners have practiced and continue to practice (with Element’s knowledge) one or more claims of the Harvard patents by using the AVITI24 platform and Teton workflow,” 10x and Harvard alleged in a court complaint filed May 7 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. “Through the development and subsequent making, using, selling, offering for sale, and/or importing of the Accused Instrumentalities, Element has and continues to infringe the Harvard Patents.”

At the deadline, the case, 1:26-cv-00538-UNA, had not been assigned to a U.S. District Judge.

10x and Harvard have asked the court to find that Element infringed the four patents in question, declare that Element’s infringement “has been willful and deliberate;” declare each Harvard-owned patent to be “valid and enforceable;” issue a permanent injunction barring Element from using technologies based on the patents—otherwise pay 10x and Harvard “an award of post-judgment royalty to compensate for future infringement;” as well as require Element to pay 10x’s and Harvard’s attorneys’ fees and “such other and further relief as the Court may deem just, reasonable, and proper.”

Element responds

Element responded to the complaint a day later with a statement denying wrongdoing and promising to fight the lawsuit.

“Element strongly disagrees with the allegations made by 10x Genomics and believes the claims are without merit,” the firm stated. “Element will vigorously defend its technology and remains focused on delivering differentiated solutions that expand scientific discovery and customer choice. Element was founded to expand innovation and competition in the life sciences industry. We remain confident in our technology, our intellectual property, and the differentiated value our products provide to customers,” the company added. “We will continue to focus on supporting our customers and advancing the next generation of scientific innovation.”

AVITI24, launched in 2024 as a top-tier successor to its AVITI™ benchtop DNA sequencer and introduced two years earlier as a next-gen sequencing (NGS) platform, aims to enable simultaneous analysis of multiple biological signals—DNA, RNA, proteins, phosphoproteins, and cell structure within single cells—through a 5D multiomics system designed to deliver both spatial, single cell multiomics as well as high-quality, affordable sequencing.

Earlier this year, Element announced plans to begin offering Direct In Sample Sequencing to tissue—both FFPE and fresh frozen—during the second half of this year through AVITI24. “By contrast, 10x’s Xenium product included fresh frozen and FFPE tissue capabilities at the time it was introduced in 2022,” 10x countered in the complaint.

Element has applied AVITI24 to offer customers a combined in situ multiomics and next generation sequencing service through its AVITI24 Technology Access Program.

“Element practices the Harvard patents by using the AVITI24 platform on behalf of its own scientists and researchers and for its AVITI24 TAP customers,” 10x and Harvard alleged in their complaint, adding: “Through the AVITI24 TAP, customers submit samples to Element. Element practices the Harvard Patents by analyzing the samples using the Teton workflow on the AVITI24 platform.”

Stifling or protecting?

In its statement, Element also repeated an argument made by several other companies sued by 10x in recent years: “We believe this lawsuit yet again reflects a broader pattern of using the same patent portfolio to stifle innovations across the industry.”

Countered Michael Schnall-Levin, 10x’s chief technology officer, chief strategy officer, and founding scientist: “We strongly disagree with that characterization. 10x welcomes competition and innovation. “Over the past decade, we’ve invested more than $2 billion in R&D that has transformed how biology is studied. Protecting that work is part of our responsibility as innovators and is what enables us to continue investing in the next generation of technologies.”

Element is the latest of 10x’s rivals to find itself the target of a patent infringement lawsuit filed by 10x. Last year, 10x settled separate lawsuits with Vizgen and Bruker—the latter acquiring NanoString in 2024 from U.S. Bankruptcy Court after the company sought protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, blaming a $31 million jury award assessed against it in 2023 in a patent infringement case filed by 10x.

In October, 10x joined with two licensor partners, Prognosys Biosciences and Roche Sequencing Solutions, to file a pair of federal lawsuits accusing sequencing and multiomics giant Illumina of infringing on nine patents related to spatial biology and single-cell sequencing. Earlier last year, Illumina sued Element, accusing its smaller rival of infringing on five of its patents covering flow cell and imaging technologies used in automated genetic sequencing.

Schnall-Levin said 10x’s latest wave of litigation, starting last year, was not a response to competitive pressures the company has discussed publicly, such as academic customers slowing down spending due to federal budget cuts: “Our litigation is driven by the merits of each case based on clear evidence of others infringing our patents.”

“We consistently act when others infringe our single cell and spatial patents,” Schnall-Levin added.

Speaking with GEN last year, Serge Saxonov, PhD, co-founder and CEO of 10x Genomics, defended the company’s approach to protecting its intellectual property: “If others end up infringing and copying our inventions, then we have to protect them. It is incumbent on us, both as a means of serving our mission and as a means of being fair to all our stakeholders.”

Patents detailed

In their lawsuit, 10x and Harvard allege that the ‘358 amplicon sequencing patent’s claims cover “concrete, unconventional” methods for sequencing RNA molecules in cell or tissue samples by generating circularized RNA molecules by crosslinking or copolymerizing circular DNA, amplifying the circular DNA to produce amplicons, then using selective sequencing primers to sequence different subsets of the amplicons at a time: “These additional unconventional combinations include sequencing by synthesis (Claim 15) and using at least sixteen different selective sequencing primers (Claim 18).”

The other three patents, which cover analyte detection, include claims directed to “concrete, unconventional methods that cover:

  • ‘276: multiplex detection of analytes in biological samples by contacting the biological sample with ‘detection reagents.’
  • ‘277: multiplex detection of analytes in cell and tissue samples by binding ‘detection reagents’ to the cell or tissue sample.
  • ‘737: Multiplex detection of analytes in cell and tissue samples by contacting the cell or tissue sample with ‘detection reagents.’”

10x says the methods of all three patents are practiced by its two spatial biology platforms—the Xenium In Situ single-cell spatial imaging platform, launched in December 2022, and the Atera spatial platform, unveiled last month during the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference.

Atera, which is designed to enable whole-transcriptome spatial biology at scale, offers more plex, throughput, and sensitivity than Xenium, thus enabling whole-transcriptome at scale. Atera includes an all-in-one instrument for sample imaging, liquid handling, hardware stabilization, and onboard analysis.

According to 10x, Atera enables 800 whole transcriptome samples per year, a 500 mm2 imageable area per slide, and four slides per instrument run. Users can choose from Atera WTA, which allows for analysis of 18,000 genes, or Atera Select 1,000 custom gene panels with optional stacking of up to two 1,000-gene panels. Compared to Xenium, Atera has four times the throughput, six times higher plex capacity for targeted assays, 3.6x higher plex, and 2–3x sensitivity for whole transcriptome assays.

10x has said it plans to make Atera available in the second half of this year, though it has begun taking orders for the Atera, which is list-priced at $495,000 and measures roughly 53” x 36” x 64” or (4.42 ft × 3 ft × 5.33 ft).

Acquired for $350M

Xenium In Situ was developed by 10x using technology from ReadCoor, a company that 10x acquired in 2020 for $350 million. In 2016, Harvard licensed patents covering the technology exclusively to ReadCoor, a company founded by George M. Church, PhD, of Harvard Medical School.

Church and Je Hyuk Lee, MD, PhD, founder of Terrain Life Science and an investigator who developed Fluorescent In Situ Sequencing while a research fellow in Church’s lab more than a decade ago, are listed as first and second investors on all four patents.

The analyte detection patents (‘737, ‘276, and ‘277) also list two other Church lab alumni: Daniel Levner, PhD, co-founder and CTO of Emulate; and Michael Super, PhD, senior director, translational R&D with the Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, as co-inventors.

The amplicon sequencing patent (‘358) lists as co-inventors two other Church lab alumni: Richard C. Terry, who became ReadCoor’s CEO before his current post as CEO, CTO, and founder of cell therapy manufacturer Harton, and Evan R. Daugharthy, PhD, Harton’s president, CSO, and founder.

The post 10x Genomics, Harvard Target Element’s Multiomics Platform in Patent Lawsuit appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Orforglipron for maintenance of body weight reduction: the double-blind, randomized phase 3b ATTAIN-MAINTAIN trial

Nature Medicine, Published online: 13 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04386-7

As presented at the European Congress on Obesity, this randomized, placebo-controlled trial demonstrates that oral orforglipron, a nonpeptide GLP-1 receptor agonist, preserves weight loss and cardiometabolic benefits achieved with injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist therapies, making it a viable oral maintenance strategy.

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Pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila MucT for weight loss maintenance in people with overweight and obesity: a controlled randomized trial

Nature Medicine, Published online: 13 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04394-7

In a randomized trial, pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila improved weight loss maintenance and metabolic health after a low-energy diet, especially in individuals with initially lower Akkermansia levels. The work suggests leveraging gut A. muciniphila as a potential target for weight management.

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STAT+: Why Marty Makary was the worst FDA commissioner in 25 years

I have covered the FDA for the past 25 years, and so I don’t say this lightly: Marty Makary was the worst commissioner in that time.

Makary, who resigned under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, brought to the job a fundamental lack of understanding of the nature of the role, of the functions of his agency, and of the needs of the employees who worked for him. He allowed too much of the senior leadership of the agency to leave or be removed, weakened its standards, and ignored staffers who understood both the science and the political art of regulation. Toward the end of his tenure, he seemed isolated and obsessed with notching “wins” that often amounted to very little.

That is not to say he did no good at all: Makary’s efforts to foster the use of artificial intelligence in drug development, to speed the drug review process by reducing dead time as companies wait for responses from reviewers, and to accelerate clinical trials were all strong ideas.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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AAVs in Focus: Practical Approaches to Capsid Analytics and Plasmid DNA Control

REGISTER NOW

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) continue to be a foundational platform for gene therapies, with rapid advances in vector design, analytics, and manufacturing practices. This three-part USP webinar series on AAV guides participants through a progressive learning journey starting with the current AAV landscape, then advancing to focused, practical discussions on capsid characterization, and ending with specialized session focused plasmid DNA starting materials.

Throughout this series, experts from USP and industry will share first-hand experiences, case studies, and practical insights on how AAV analytics and material controls are evolving. This series will identify common AAV challenges and explore effective solutions across different stages of development.

Why Attend the AAV Webinar Series?

  • Broaden attendees’ understanding of the current AAV landscape by learning from experts about key scientific, analytical, and manufacturing considerations

  • Learn how developers approach capsid characterization, full/empty analysis, and data comparability, and how production and analytical teams work together to optimize AAV manufacturing

  • Discover more about the critical role of plasmid DNA as a starting material, and how expectations change from early development to later stages

  • Engage directly with subject matter experts during live Q&A sessions

May 19, 2026

June 16, 2026

July 8, 2026

AAV Manufacturing: Best Practices in Quality Control and the Role of USP Standards

Practical Strategies for AAV Capsid Characterization

Characterizing Plasmid DNA to Improve AAV Manufacturing 

A live Q&A session will follow the presentation, offering you a chance to pose questions to our expert panelists. 

Produced with support from:

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The post AAVs in Focus: Practical Approaches to Capsid Analytics and Plasmid DNA Control appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Brain Histamine Map Links Genetic Factors to Mental Health and Psychiatric Disorders

A study headed by researchers at King’s College London and the University of Porto has mapped the histamine system in the brain. Histamine, a molecule more commonly associated with allergies, plays a separate but poorly understood role in brain function. The new study addresses this gap, building the first multiscale map of the histamine system which spans from genetics to behavior and related mental health conditions.

The findings provide a new framework for understanding how this often-overlooked chemical system contributes to brain function and could point towards new treatment strategies for histamine-related conditions such as depression, ADHD, and schizophrenia. The study was funded by the National institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre.

Daniel Martins, MD, PhD, visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) King’s College London, said, “This work provides a crucial foundation for future research. By integrating molecular biology, brain imaging, and computational analysis, it offers a new perspective on how neurotransmitter systems are organized across the human brain. As neuroscience moves toward more integrated and personalized models of mental health, understanding systems like histamine may prove essential for unlocking new approaches to diagnosis and treatment.”

Martins is first and corresponding author of the team’s published paper in Nature Mental Health, which is titled “Mapping histamine pathway networks in the human brain across cognition and psychiatric disorders.” In their paper the team concluded, “This study provides an integrated characterization of the histaminergic system in the human brain, leveraging transcriptomic, neuroimaging, and functional datasets to delineate its molecular organization and relevance to brain function underlying cognition and psychiatric disorders.”

Histamine is a neurotransmitter, a molecule crucial for neurons to communicate with one another, the authors explained. “Neuronal histamine plays a crucial role in the regulation of brain function, serving as a neuromodulator with widespread influence across multiple neurotransmitter systems.” However, neuroscience research has classically focused on understanding other neurotransmitter systems such as dopamine and serotonin.

As the investigators noted, the organization of histamine in the human brain remains incompletely characterized. However, they explained, dysregulation of the histaminergic system has been implicated in a number of neuropsychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases. “Therefore, targeting the brain histamine system has garnered significant attention as a potential new therapeutic strategy for treating these disorders, with pharmacological interventions aimed at modulating histamine receptor activity showing promise in preclinical models.”

Histamine acts through four known histamine receptors, which are responsible for how the signal will influence receiver neurons. Each of these histamine receptors, (histamine receptor H1 (encoded by HRH1), H2 (HRH2), H3  (HRH3) and H4 (HRH4)), mediates distinct functions. For their newly reported study, Martins and colleagues carried out what they described as multimodal analysis, integrating transcriptomic, neuroimaging, developmental and functional datasets to map the architecture of the histaminergic system.

To build a comprehensive map of how histamine acts in the brain, researchers first combined genetic and molecular data with physical maps of the brain.

This revealed which brain regions receive more input from the brain’s histamine system, and which parts show greater capacity to respond to histamine. These molecular data were then linked with positron emission tomography imaging of histamine receptors in living individuals, as well as functional neuroimaging databases that map brain regions to specific cognitive processes and mental health conditions. This type of scan shows how different parts of the brain are working by tracking a tiny amount of radioactive tracer in real time.

Their results found that different histamine receptors were found on brain cells that either turn activity up (excitation) or turn it down (inhibition). “The findings reveal that histaminergic genes exhibit distinct cellular and regional expression profiles, closely aligning with known histaminergic neuroanatomy and function,” they wrote. “At the single-cell level, histamine receptor H1 and histamine receptor H2 were enriched in excitatory neurons, whereas histamine receptor H3 showed preferential expression in inhibitory populations.” This suggests histamine may be important in maintaining the balance between excitation and inhibition, a fundamental property of healthy brain function.

Brain regions with higher histamine-related gene expression were consistently associated with processes such as emotional regulation, stress and fear responses, decision-making, impulsivity, reward, sleep, and memory.

The parts of the brain where histamine-related genes were most active also overlapped significantly with brain regions known to be affected in several psychiatric conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and anorexia nervosa. This is in keeping with previous hypotheses linking histamine to these disorders. “By linking histaminergic gene expression to brain-cell types, neurotransmitter systems, cognitive domains and psychiatric disorders, these correlational findings generate several hypotheses concerning histamine’s critical role in brain organization, neurodevelopment and mental health, which further experimental mechanistic work should prioritize and build onto investigate causal relationships,” the investigators concluded.

Martins said, “Current psychiatric treatments largely target neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, yet histamine interacts closely with these systems and influences their activity. By providing a detailed map of histamine-related pathways, this work suggests new opportunities for developing treatments that target this system more directly, particularly for symptoms such as cognitive dysfunction, fatigue, and impaired motivation.

While these findings do not establish a direct causal role, they suggest that histamine signalling may contribute to regional vulnerability in these disorders. This aligns with a growing view in psychiatry that mental health conditions arise from disruptions across interacting brain systems rather than a single chemical imbalance.”

This new map paints a neural picture of a previously lesser-studied molecule. It opens up future avenues of research into exactly what histamine is doing in various cell types and parts of the brain.

“We want to emphasise that these findings are hypothesis-generating and based on large-scale datasets that capture patterns rather than direct mechanisms,” commented senior author Steve Williams, PhD, professor of neuroimaging at IoPPN King’s College London. Future studies will focus on testing how histamine signaling changes in living individuals, for example through pharmacological interventions or longitudinal imaging approaches.

Co-author Daniel Van Wamelen, PhD, clinical senior lecturer in neuroscience at IoPPN, King’s College London and one of the authors on the paper said: “This kind of work is already taking place at King’s College London, for example in the iMarkHD project. In this project we use Positron Emission Tomography scans to study a specific histamine receptor (called H3) in people with Huntington’s disease, an inherited condition that affects the brain. The goal is to see how histamine activity changes in different parts of the brain over time, and how these changes relate to symptoms such as apathy, depression, and anxiety.”

The post Brain Histamine Map Links Genetic Factors to Mental Health and Psychiatric Disorders appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Males who discuss suicide seek help less often than females, report finds

Death by suicide is a male emergency. Although three times as many women as men report suicidal ideation and attempts, the vast majority of deaths by suicide in the U.S. — up to 80% — are among men. The reasons: higher impulsivity, lower reported fear of death, and, crucially, easy access to guns. 

The most recent report from Crisis Text Line — a nonprofit working with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to provide free and confidential text-based mental health support —  sheds light on another explanation: Men reach out for help a lot less than women. 

Read the rest…

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Acute Myeloid Leukemia Therapy Improved by CRISPR Stem Cell Transplant

For highly aggressive types of blood cancer, stem cell transplantation is often the only potentially curative therapy. Yet, these cancers can often return even after a transplant. Notably, CAR T cell therapy has not been effective against all blood cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

A recent Phase I/II multicenter clinical trial, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, shows that a stem cell transplant, that removes CD33 from donor cells using CRISPR, can help prevent cancer recurrence.

The work was published in Nature Medicine and titled, “CRISPR−Cas9 CD33-deleted allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation with gemtuzumab ozogamicin maintenance in AML: a Phase I/II trial.” The study was conducted at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine, and 14 other sites in the U.S. and Canada. 30 adult patients with AML or MDS at high risk of relapse received the stem cell transplant.

Myeloid cancers, such as AML and MDS, are difficult to treat with CAR T cells because the same proteins targets are present on both cancer cells and healthy myeloid cells, leading to toxicity risks.

“We are encouraged by the results of this study showing that a CD33-deleted stem cell transplant looks very similar to the outcomes of standard stem cell transplantation,” said John DiPersio, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at WashU Medicine and corresponding author of the study. “In the future, we are hopeful we will be able to combine this with CD33-targeted immunotherapies, such as CAR T cells, and improve treatment options for patients with these very aggressive blood cancers.”

As proof of concept, patients also received a maintenance therapy that targets CD33, after completion of the stem cell transplant. While not a CD33-targeted CAR T cell, the maintenance therapy, called gemtuzumab ozogamicin, is an engineered antibody that targets CD33 and carries an anti-cancer drug. Gemtuzumab ozogamicin is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat CD33-positive AML and is in clinical trials for CD33-positive MDS. While it helps prevent relapse, the drug’s use is limited because it can cause liver toxicity and damage to blood cells, including dangerously low counts of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

All patients from the trial achieved engraftment of their transplanted stem cells by day 28. Some patients met this goal sooner with platelet production returning by day 16 on average. These timeframes are comparable to those of standard transplanted stem cells.

Average survival was just over 14 months. Nineteen patients received at least one cycle of the antibody maintenance therapy as part of a dose-escalation protocol. The authors found that patients maintained blood cell counts across all doses, suggesting that the gene-edited stem cell transplant protected patients from low blood cell counts typically seen following a standard stem cell transplant.

DiPersio and colleagues published a single case study detailing a patient with high-risk AML who received a CD33-deleted stem cell transplant. Upon relapse after the transplant, the patient received a CD33-targeted CAR T cell therapy, which used T cells from the same donor who provided the stem cell transplant.

The treatment resulted in complete remission and the patient remains cancer free over one year after receiving the CAR T cell therapy. Normal blood cell production returned with all blood cells lacking CD33, providing evidence that the genetically engineered donor cells had established themselves in the bone marrow.

DiPersio said the results of the study lay the groundwork for developing paired CD33-deleted stem cell transplant and CD33-targeted immunotherapy interventions that avoid destruction of healthy donor cells in the course of cancer treatment.

The post Acute Myeloid Leukemia Therapy Improved by CRISPR Stem Cell Transplant appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.