The invention relates to an infectious arenavirus particle that is engineered to contain a genome with the ability to amplify and express its genetic information in infected cells but unable to produce further infectious progeny particles in normal, not genetically engineered cells. One or more of the four arenavirus open reading frames glycoprotein (GP), nucleoprotein (NP), matrix protein Z and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase L are removed or mutated to prevent replication in normal cells but still allowing gene expression in arenavirus vector-infected cells, and foreign genes coding for an antigen or other protein of interest or nucleic acids modulating host gene expression are expressed under control of the arenavirus promoters, internal ribosome entry sites or under control of regulatory elements that can be read by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, cellular RNA polymerase I, RNA polymerase II or RNA polymerase III. The modified arenaviruses are useful as vaccines and therapeutic agents for a variety of diseases.

This invention relates to the field of therapeutics. Most specifically invention provides methods of generating in vitro engineered immune cells conditionally expressing interleukin-12 (IL-12) and one or more immunomodulators under the control of a gene expression modulation system in the presence of activating ligand and uses for therapeutic purposes in animals.

Methods and composition of induction of pluripotent stem cells and other desired cell types are disclosed. For example, in certain aspects methods for generating essentially vector-free induced pluripotent stem cells are described. Furthermore, the invention provides induced pluripotent stem cells and desired cell types essentially free of exogenous vector elements with the episomal expression vectors to express differentiation programming factors.

Provided is a novel vector for immunostimulation and methods of using same in immunotherapy, in particular cancer immunotherapy. The novel vector comprises nucleic acid sequences encoding 4-1BB ligand (4-1BBL, CD137 ligand), single chain IL-12 (sc IL-12) and IL-2, wherein the vector provides for an increased expression of 4-1BBL as compared to the expression levels of sc IL-12 and IL-2. Specifically, the nucleic acid sequences encoding 4-1BBL, sc IL-12 and IL-2 are organized in the vector in 5 to 3 orientation in a sequential order 1, 2, 3, with the proviso that the gene encoding sc IL-12 is not at position 1. Embodiments of the present disclosure include virus particles comprising the novel vector as well as cancer or immune cells transduced or transfected with the novel vector.

The present invention provides assays for profiling two or more polypeptides in live cells. In some embodiments, the invention provides multicistronic reporter vectors, acceptor cells for receiving multicistronic reporter vectors, and multireporter cells. Methods of making multicistronic reporter vectors, acceptor cells for receiving multicistronic reporter vectors, and multireporter cells are provided. Libraries and kits comprising multicistronic reporter vectors, acceptor cells for receiving multicistronic reporter vectors, and multireporter cells are provided. Methods of profiling/assaying the multireporter cells and multireporter cell libraries are provided.

The invention relates to a bacterial cell comprising a Cas1 RT fusion protein, a Cas2 protein and a CRISPR direct repeat (DR) sequence, wherein an RNA polymerase promoter in addition to the leader sequence is associated with the DR sequence. The invention further relates to a composition comprising two bacterial cell populations, each comprising a Cas1 RT fusion protein and Cas2 protein. The two cell types contain different versions of a CRISPR direct repeat (DR) sequence. The invention further relates to methods for analysis of transcription recording events of bacteria having passed through a subject's intestine, to assign a probability to the subject having a condition, such as malnutrition or inflammation of the intestine.

The invention relates to an infectious arenavirus particle that is engineered to contain a genome with the ability to amplify and express its genetic information in infected cells but unable to produce further infectious progeny particles in normal, not genetically engineered cells. One or more of the four arenavirus open reading frames glycoprotein (GP), nucleoprotein (NP), matrix protein Z and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase L are removed or mutated to prevent replication in normal cells but still allowing gene expression in arenavirus vector-infected cells, and foreign genes coding for an antigen or other protein of interest or nucleic acids modulating host gene expression are expressed under control of the arenavirus promoters, internal ribosome entry sites or under control of regulatory elements that can be read by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, cellular RNA polymerase I, RNA polymerase II or RNA polymerase III. The modified arenaviruses are useful as vaccines and therapeutic agents for a variety of diseases.

The present disclosure relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising a nucleic acid molecule of an adjuvant, a metal complex stabilizing the nucleic acid molecule, and optionally an immunogen that may be a peptide or a protein, or a composition of stabilizing the nucleic acid molecule of the adjuvant comprising the metal complex. The metal complex interacts with the nucleic acid molecule of the adjuvant and/or the immunogen so as to stabilize such pharmaceutically active ingredients, and induces continuous effectiveness of the active ingredients without degradation.

The present invention relates to a novel biological in vivo manufacturing system and a process for generating nanostructure-ended double-stranded covalently-closed linear DNA molecules. These DNA molecules possess the ability to merge the information-storage and function-encoding attributes of nucleic acids with the structural properties and functional capabilities typically found in proteins, such as specific binding and catalysis, in a single nucleic acid-only molecular entity, making them useful for a wide variety of medical applications and industrial implementations.