Publications related to A LIGHTning Strike to the Metastatic Niche

Elucidating and modulating regulatory pathways so as to reprogram the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment for therapeutic benefit

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent and highly malignant form of brain cancer. New therapeutic regimens are urgently needed as GBM patients present with a minimal response to currently-approved therapies. The goal of this project is to identify new the ...

EPFL2023

Medical and Personal Characteristics Can Predict the Risk of Lung Metastasis

Michele De Palma, Nahal Mansouri

Aims: Understanding the correlations between underlying medical and personal characteristics of a patient with cancer and the risk of lung metastasis may improve clinical management and outcomes. We used machine learning methodologies to predict the risk o ...

2023

Metabolic dependencies of metastasis-initiating cells in breast cancer

Candice Megan T Young

Metastasis is the process by which cancer cells from the primary tumor travel through the blood stream to generate a secondary tumor site in a distant organ. Although very few cells are able to make this journey, the resulting effects are dire since most c ...

EPFL2023

Modeling lightning strikes to tall towers

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

In this chapter, we present a review of recent progress in the modeling of lightning strikes to tall structures. Since some tall structures are struck by lightning several tens of times per year, they can be used as ground-truth to measure and calibrate th ...

IET2023

Tumor dormancy: EMT beyond invasion and metastasis

Cathrin Brisken, Patrik Aouad, Hazel Margaret Quinn

More than two-thirds of cancer-related deaths are attributable to metastases. In some tumor types metastasis can occur up to 20 years after diagnosis and successful treatment of the primary tumor, a phenomenon termed late recurrence. Metastases arise from ...

WILEY2023

Tower-foot grounding model for EMT programs based on transmission line theory and Marti's model

Rafael Silva Alipio

This paper proposes a tower-foot grounding system model compatible with EMT programs which might be useful for the simulation of lightning transients in overhead lines. The proposed model is based on the solution of the telegrapher's equations and the appl ...

Elsevier2023

Laser-guided lightning using kHz filamentation at 1030 nm

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga, Jonathan Leon Wolf

Controlling lightning is a long-time dream of mankind. Along with the rapid evolution of laser technologies, the idea to develop lightning protection based on filamentation of high-power ultrashort-pulse lasers emerged in the 1990s [1]. The goal of the Las ...

2023

Direct In Vivo Activation of T Cells with Nanosized Immunofilaments Inhibits Tumor Growth and Metastasis

Bart Deplancke, Jorieke Weiden, Guido Van Mierlo

Adoptive T cell therapyhas successfully been implementedfor thetreatment of cancer. Nevertheless, ex vivo expansion of T cells byartificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs) remains cumbersome andcan compromise T cell functionality, thereby limiting their t ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Laser-guided lightning

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Jean-Pierre Wolf, Pierre Walch, Clemens Herkommer, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Thomas Produit, Antonio Sunjerga, Victor Moreno

Lightning discharges between charged clouds and the Earth’s surface are responsible for considerable damages and casualties. It is therefore important to develop better protection methods in addition to the traditional Franklin rod. Here we present the fir ...

Nature Publishing Group2023

Regulation and function of a hemicleaved Activin-A processing intermediate in melanoma

Manon Bulliard

Activin-A is a Transforming Growth Factor-B (TGFB)-related cytokine that regulates various biological processes including cell proliferation and differentiation through autocrine, paracrine or endocrine signaling. Activin-A expression is upregulated in mul ...

EPFL2023

Lightning interaction with the ionosphere

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Dongshuai Li

Lightning discharges, including cloud-to-ground (CG) and intracloud (IC) lightning, are known to emit electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) in a wide frequency band ranging from few Hz up to hundreds MHz [1]. During the breakdown and ionization processes (mostly f ...

IET2023

Lightning Nowcasting Using Solely Lightning Data

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Amirhossein Mostajabi

Lightning is directly or indirectly responsible for significant human casualties and property damage worldwide. A timely prediction of its occurrence can enable authorities and the public to take necessary precautionary actions resulting in diminishing the ...

MDPI2023

Apelin-driven endothelial cell migration sustains intestinal progenitor cells and tumor growth

Mauro Delorenzi, Stefanie Siegert, Pascale Anderle Pedone, Nadine Fournier, Sina Nassiri, François Renevey, Michele De Palma, Mario Leonardo Squadrito, Simone Ragusa

Stem and progenitor cells residing in the intestinal crypts drive the majority of colorectal cancers (CRCs), yet vascular contribution to this niche remains largely unexplored. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) is a key driver of physiological a ...

Springernature2022

BCG hydrogel promotes CTSS-mediated antigen processing and presentation, thereby suppressing metastasis and prolonging survival in melanoma

Li Tang, Bing Feng, Thomas Gruber

Background The use of intralesional Mycobacterium bovis BCG (intralesional live BCG) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma resulted in regression of directly injected, and occasionally of distal lesions. However, intralesional-BCG is less effective in p ...

BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP2022

Immunosuppressive roles of Activin-A in melanoma and characterization of its precursor cleavage

Katarina Pinjusic

Activin-A, a transforming growth factor ê µ family member, is a pleiotropic cytokine with diverse functions in development, fertility, adult tissue homeostasis, and aging. Accordingly, deregulation of Activin-A signaling has been associated with many patho ...

EPFL2022

Comment on “Straight lightning as a signature of macroscopic dark matter”

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

In the discussed paper [N. Starkman, H. Winch, J. S. Sidhu, and G. Starkman, Straight lightning as a signature of macroscopic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 103, 063024 (2021)], the authors have made several assumptions and statements concerning the initiation ...

2022

Colon tumour cell death causes mTOR dependence by paracrine P2X4 stimulation

Andrea Ablasser

Solid cancers exhibit a dynamic balance between cell death and proliferation ensuring continuous tumour maintenance and growth(1,2). Increasing evidence links enhanced cancer cell apoptosis to paracrine activation of cells in the tumour microenvironment in ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2022

The Geometry and Charge of the Streamer Bursts Generated by Lightning Rods under the Influence of High Electric Fields

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

The streamer bursts generated during the initiation and propagation of leaders play an important role in the creation and maintenance of hot discharge channels in air. The most important parameters related to streamer bursts in this respect are the length ...

2022

Intraductal xenografts model estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer dormancy and reveal a critical role for epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in its establishment

Patrik Aouad

Compared to estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) breast cancer (BC), ER+ BC often manifests with a latent disease that recurs decades after initial diagnosis. The mechanisms governing dormancy and distant recurrence of ER+ tumors remain elusive due to the lack ...

EPFL2021

Standardized intraoperative 5-ALA photodynamic therapy for newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients: a preliminary analysis of the INDYGO clinical trial

Constantin Tuleasca

Purpose Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor. The unfavorable prognosis despite maximal therapy relates to high propensity for recurrence. Thus, overall survival (OS) is quite limited and local failure remains the fundame ...

2021