The invention relates to materials, methods and devices useful for sampling biological molecules, including biomarkers and/or metabolites. In particular, the invention relates to surface functionalised xerogels and surface functionalised poly(dimethyl) siloxane (PDMS), devices comprising those materials, and methods of using the materials and devices for sampling, analysing or detecting biological molecules.

The present disclosure is directed to novel biomarkers useful for staging EHV-1 infections and immunity status of horses. This disclosure is further directed to methods of determining EHV-1 infection stage and immunity status of horses using the novel biomarkers.

Provided are a method for diagnosing cancer, a diagnosis kit and compositions useful for measurement of NK cell activity. The incidence of cancer may be diagnosed by monitoring changes in the in vivo immune system through measurement of NK cell activity in blood. Thus, the incidence of cancer may be readily predicted as described herein using a blood sample from a subject.

The present invention relates to a method for quickly determining the immune status of an individual. The method comprises the following steps: taking a volume of a whole blood sample from the individual; stimulating the whole blood sample by incubating the latter with a quantity of phytohemagglutinin (PHA) at a temperature between 35 C. and 39 C. for a minimum of 3 to 3.5 hours; evaluating the level of interferon-gamma production induced by this incubation/stimulation, the evaluated level subsequently providing an indication of the individual's immune status.

Systems, methods, compositions, and kits for measuring secreted factors from cells are disclosed herein, including those capable of determining single cell secretion activity and protein expression and/or gene expression simultaneously. Disclosed herein include solid supports comprising a plurality of capture probes capable of specifically binding to at least one of the plurality of secreted factors secreted by a single cell. Also disclosed herein include secreted factor-binding reagents capable of specifically binding to a secreted factor bound by a capture probe. A secreted factor-binding reagent can comprise a secreted factor-binding reagent specific oligonucleotide comprising a unique factor identifier sequence for the secreted factor-binding reagent.

Phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting biomolecules and related methods for impacting the function of memory T cells are provided. In the present methods, PS-binding biomolecules are delivered to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) or whole blood of a subject in the presence of antigens specific to one or more diseases, wherein the PBMCs or whole blood comprise memory T cells that are exhausted or non-responsive to the antigens specific to the one or more diseases. Delivery of the PS-binding biomolecules to the PBMCs or whole blood restores effector function in the antigen non-responsive memory T cells. The administration of PS-binding biomolecules to PBMCs or blood with T cell antigens specific to pathogens can also be used to develop ultrasensitive diagnostics for latent infections or memory T cells response induced by natural infection or vaccination.

The present invention relates to a method of preparing and expanding a population of immune cells, a potency assay for tumor recognition, a biological vaccine preparation to provide anti-tumor response or an antiviral response for cancer therapy and epitopes targets for antibodies which are useful for the construction of chimeric antigen receptors.

The present invention is based on the fact that private or commonly shared tumor-associated antigens or private target antigens can be recognized by clinically relevant immune cells. Such target antigens could be used to prepare a biological vaccine preparation to provide anti-tumor response or an antiviral response by expanding a certain set of T-cells or B-cells and boosting the immune response in cancer therapy.

The present invention guides the selection of viable target antigens in designing an anti-tumor vaccine to remove potentially harmful autoimmune responses or pro-tumorigenic immune responses and aids to select the biologically and clinically most relevant set of immune cells specifically directed against cancer cells harvested from tumor infiltrating lymphocytes or from different anatomical sites for the active cellular therapy of patients with cancer.

The disclosure provides for methods and compositions that can be used for modulating an immune response. Described are methods comprising administering an effective amount of (a) an adjuvant; and (b) one or more of bafetinib (INNO-406), LY3009120, MK-8353 (SCH900353), amodiaquine, zanubrutinib (BOB-3111), Ku55933, Tucidinostat, PD318088, WNK463, and TRx0237 (LMTX) mesylate to a subject. The methods may he for the vaccination of subjects, or for the treatment or prevention of cancer, graft rejection, graft versus host disease, a bacterial infection, or a viral infection in a subject. The method may be for modulating an immune response in vivo, in vitro, or ex vivo. The methods also include immune activation of a population of immune cells in vitro or ex vivo. Also described is a method for identifying the efficacy of an adjuvant.

The instant disclosure relates to methods of treating sepsis by administering emapalumab. Also provided are diagnostic biomarkers for sepsis.

The present invention relates to means and methods for determining whether a patient is in need of a PD-L1 inhibitor cotherapy. A patient is determined to be in need of the PD-L1 inhibitor cotherapy if a low or absent ER expression level and an expression level of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) that is increased in comparison to a control is measured in vitro in a sample from the patient. The patient is undergoing therapy comprising a modulator of the HER2/neu (ErbB2) signaling pathway (like Trastuzumab) and a chemotherapeutic agent (like dodetaxel) or such a therapy is contemplated for the patient. Also provided herein are means and methods for treating a cancer in a cancer patient for whom therapy comprising a modulator of the HER2/neu (ErbB2) signaling pathway (like Trastuzumab) and a chemotherapeutic agent (like dodetaxel) is contemplated, wherein the patient is to receive PD-L1 inhibitor cotherapy.