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System Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10, 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i7-4771 CPU @ 3.50 Ghz
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Geforce GTX 770 4GB
• Storage: 3 GB available space

©2021 Implausible Industries. Published by Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.

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RESEARCH and DESTROY

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RESEARCH and DESTROY is a TURN-BASED ACTION GAME with local co-op.

Take control of three brilliant scientists as you RESEARCH and develop strange new weapons and gadgets to DESTROY the Supernatural hordes that have all but crushed humanity! RESEARCH - Gain fresh insight into the Supernatural threat via battlefield vivisections, then develop radical upgrades for each weird weapon and fascinating gadget! DESTROY - Plan ahead, then run-and-gun in a combination of turn-based strategy and real-time shooting--every second counts! CO-OP - Tailor your scientists’ appearance, then drop in or out of local co-op with friends at any time! CAMPAIGN - Adapt your guerilla science tactics to manage the campaign map and seek the Supernatural source--no two playthroughs are the same!

Software description provided by the publisher.

ESRB rating

Supported play modes, product information, release date, no. of players, game file size, supported languages.

Play online, access classic NES™ and Super NES™ games, and more with a Nintendo Switch Online membership.

This game supports: Online Play Save Data Cloud

Downloadable content (DLC)

RESEARCH and DESTROY - AI: The Somnium Files Costume Pack

RESEARCH and DESTROY - STEINS;GATE Costume Pack

RESEARCH and DESTROY - Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Costume Pack

RESEARCH and DESTROY - Danganronpa 2 Costume Pack

WARNING: If you have epilepsy or have had seizures or other unusual reactions to flashing lights or patterns, consult a doctor before playing video games. All users should read the Health and Safety Information available in the system settings before using this software.

Nintendo Switch Online membership (sold separately) and Nintendo Account required for online play. Not available in all countries. Internet access required for online features. Terms apply.  nintendo.com/switch-online

©2022 Implausible Industries. Published by Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.

RESEARCH and DESTROY

+Offers in-app purchases.

Online multiplayer on console requires Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Xbox Game Pass Core (sold separately).

Description

RESEARCH and DESTROY is a TURN-BASED ACTION GAME with simultaneous local or online co-op. Take control of three brilliant scientists as you RESEARCH and develop strange new weapons and gadgets to DESTROY the Supernatural hordes that have all but crushed humanity! RESEARCH - Gain fresh insight into the Supernatural threat via battlefield vivisections, then develop radical upgrades for each weird weapon and fascinating gadget! DESTROY - Plan ahead, then run-and-gun in a combination of turn-based strategy and real-time shooting--every second counts! CAMPAIGN - Adapt your guerilla science tactics to manage the campaign map and seek the Supernatural source--no two playthroughs are the same!

Published by

Developed by, release date, playable on.

• Xbox Series X|S

Capabilities

• Xbox local co-op (2-2)
• Online co-op (2-2)
• 4K Ultra HD
• Single player
• Shared/split screen
• Xbox cross-platform co-op
• Xbox Live Cross-Gen Multiplayer
• Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
• Smart Delivery
• PC Game Pad
• Xbox achievements
• Xbox cloud saves
• Xbox Play Anywhere

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• Category: Games

Research and Destroy: The Power of Science Compels You!

• Research and Destroy is a turn-based action game with local or online co-op.
• Take control of three brilliant super scientists as you research and develop strange new weapons and gadgets to destroy the supernatural hordes that have crushed humanity.
• Research and Destroy is now available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Windows 10/11 PC, and with Xbox Game Pass and from the cloud with Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Our very first original game Research and Destroy is now available!

Research and Destroy is a turn-based action game playable in single player and co-op. What’s turn-based action, you ask? Like in a traditional turn-based strategy game, opposing teams take turns moving and attacking with their characters. But instead of merely instructing units to move and fire (or research), you take direct control of them yourself like you do in an action game.

In Research and Destroy , you’ll step into the shoes of three brilliant super scientists as you research and develop strange new weapons and gadgets to destroy the supernatural hordes that have crushed humanity. With the elimination of mankind, the supernaturals have created peace in their time – but that’s all about to change. Those poor ghouls don’t stand a chance against the power of science!

You’ll gain fresh insights into the science of the spooky as you perform battlefield vivisections in your search for the source of the supernatural horde. Along the way you’ll visit plenty of creepy castles, deadly deserts and vile villages filled with ghosts, zombies, vampires, trolls and who-knows-what-else. Your trusty (?) RadVan will keep you on your rightful (?) path of destruction – when he’s not preoccupied with one of his many hobbies, that is.

Campaign play involves liberating spooky strongholds from the clutches of these supernatural slimebags, gradually taking back control of the world. Your strategic choices here will send you on action-packed tactical missions, making each playthrough unique. Earn and collect $cience on missions and then spend it on universities, defenses, and more. Customize your play style by researching and developing radical upgrades for each strange weapon and fascinating gadget.

Research and Destroy was created with co-op at its core. After completing a few introductory missions, you can play the game cooperatively in a host of different ways: via couch co-op, or online with any other player on the Xbox ecosystem (including on the cloud). Any part of the game can be played in single player or in co-op and players can drop in and out of a friend’s open game at any point in the campaign. Having trouble with one particular mission? Ask a friend to join you for a few minutes and bust some ghosts. Just be super careful where you point your Laserizer when there’s an extra team of scientists on the battlefield – those things can hurt!

We’re a micro studio releasing our very first original game, so you can imagine our excitement to bring it to Xbox. We’ve had great fun developing a game that has something to say but isn’t too serious about how it says it. We hope you’ll join the fun!

RESEARCH and DESTROY

Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.

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RESEARCH and DESTROY

• PS Plus required for online play
• Supports up to 2 online players with PS Plus
• Online play optional
• 1 - 2 players

RESEARCH and DESTROY Demo

Global player ratings

Take control of three brilliant scientists as you RESEARCH and develop strange new weapons and gadgets to DESTROY the Supernatural hordes that have all but crushed humanity! RESEARCH - Gain fresh insight into the Supernatural threat via battlefield vivisections, then develop radical upgrades for each weird weapon and fascinating gadget! DESTROY - Plan ahead, then run-and-gun in a combination of turn-based strategy and real-time shooting--every second counts! CO-OP - Tailor your scientists’ appearance, then drop in or out of local co-op with friends at any time! CAMPAIGN - Adapt your guerilla science tactics to manage the campaign map and seek the Supernatural source--no two playthroughs are the same!

RESEARCH and DESTROY

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Research and Destroy is a turn-based action game with simultaneous local or online co-op. Take control of three brilliant scientists as you research and develop strange new weapons and gadgets to destroy the Supernatural hordes that have all but crushed humanity!

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RESEARCH and DESTROY Achievements

• RESEARCH and DESTROY News
• Walkthrough

RESEARCH and DESTROY

• 6 want to boost

Full list of all 45 RESEARCH and DESTROY achievements worth 1,000 gamerscore. It takes around 25-30 hours to unlock all of the achievements on Xbox One.

• Achievement View View Image view List view Sort by TrueAchievement desc TrueAchievement asc Achievement name desc Achievement name asc GamerScore desc GamerScore asc TA Ratio desc TA Ratio asc Gamers desc Gamers asc Xbox.com order Date won desc Date won asc
• 45 Online/Offline
• 45 Single Player
• 44 Cooperative
• 6 Host Only
• 1 Main Storyline
• 1 Story Completed
• 11 Cumulative +
• What are achievement flags? Click to find out Apply

Keep playing...

You fully upgraded 3 weapons and 3 gadgets.

You developed all available gadgets.

You fully upgraded a University and all its defenses.

You completed Advanced Research on all Supernatural forces.

You played with each weapon and gadget with all possible upgrades.

You busted 100 Ghosts.

You harvested the DNA of 50 fallen Scientists.

You completed 1000 Scientist Turns.

You destroyed 5 Supernaturals with a single Portal Plug detonation.

You revived 2 Scientists in a single turn.

You violated enemy territory with 5 Aggressive Probes.

You completed the first Research and Destroy map we liked enough to keep.

You defeated a Troll while defending a University.

You sent the Twiggerman on an exo-dimensional journey into the unknown.

You named your Scientists after us. That's not creepy at all.

You banished a Relic with a Kinetic Bubble.

You Solo Boosted 13 Ghosts.

You supercharged a field of Bosons.

You healed Scientists with 1000 Quantum units.

You blocked 25 attacks with the Kinetic Bubble Shield.

You got 100 headshots with the Laserizer.

You defeated 5 different Supernatural types using the Hard Light Projector.

You destroyed 10 Supernaturals with Tesserocket Mines.

You flew for 2 minutes using the Plasmathrower.

You teleported 3 Scientists through a single Rift from the Riftinator.

You discovered how to launch while in mid-air.

You made even the Boogeyman dance.

You completed 5 missions wearing the E.E.Golander.

You swapped with a Scientist and a Supernatural in a single turn using the Transpositron.

You used a Scientist for 20 seconds in a single turn with the help of the Time Bomb.

You got a headshot kill while riding the Max Plank.

You completed a mission with a team of possibly 4 Scientists.

You bounced 5 Supernaturals in a single turn with the Propellor.

You trapped 4 or more unique Supernaturals in a single turn with the Gravity Distorter.

Let him that hath understanding count the number of beasts, but make it at least 666, ok?

• How many achievements are there in RESEARCH and DESTROY? There are 45 achievements in RESEARCH and DESTROY, worth a total of 1,000 Gamerscore. You can view the full list of RESEARCH and DESTROY achievements here .
• Is RESEARCH and DESTROY on Game Pass? No, RESEARCH and DESTROY is not currently available on either Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass.
• When did RESEARCH and DESTROY release on Xbox? RESEARCH and DESTROY was released on April 25th, 2022.
• How long does it take to complete all the achievements in RESEARCH and DESTROY? It takes between 25 and 30 hours to complete the achievements in RESEARCH and DESTROY.

Research And Destroy: Every Weapon, Ranked

From Plasma to Hard Light to Smithereens, here are the guns you'll want to be using in Research and Destroy.

In the world of Research and Destroy, the weapon you choose can be the difference between life or death. With nine weird and wonderful guns to choose from, ensuring to pick the right one and even the right combination across your three superscientists can be hard. It’s part of the charm and strategy that makes Research and Destroy such a fun alternative to XCOM 2 .

RELATED: The Best Indie Tactics Games

However, with each gun having a bizarre name - what even is a Hard Light Projector? - and a convoluted description, it can be a disorientating experience trying to pick which one is best for you. Fortunately, we’re here to explain the difference between a Tesserocket Launcher and a Higgs Boson Field Generator and determine which Research and Destroy weapon reigns supreme.

9 Rocket Booster Launcher

By far the worst gun in the game is the Rocket Booster Launcher. Now, you may be wondering how a gun with such a cool name - and honestly so much potential - could be the worst one. Well, despite sounding incredibly effective at blowing up monsters, the Rocket Booster Launcher does more harm than good.

Due to the time pressure and constraints for each superscientist, the Rocket Booster Launcher quickly becomes a game of luck. Will you aim at the enemy, or at your feet? Will you blow up a far away target, or yourself? Chances are, it’ll be the latter in both cases, especially if you use the Triple Threat mode. Sure, in a pinch it can be helpful at hitting multiple enemies at once, but it’s not worth the pain. Trust us on this one.

8 Hard Light Projector

If there’s one thing a game about scientists trying to stop monsters from taking over the world needs, it is a shotgun . Research and Destroy’s answer to one of the most popular weapons in gaming history is the Hard Light Projector. This fancy weapon blasts scattered blocks of light at the enemy inflicting a serious amount of damage.

Unfortunately, the Hard Light Projector simply doesn’t live up to the expectations of a shotgun. While it can do effective damage at close range, it never does enough to totally kill some of the stronger monsters. This means that the risk of getting up close and personal with a vampire - make sure you’ve had a tasty slice of garlic bread first - isn’t really worth it.

7 Riftinator

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to open up rifts in space and time, pull out objects from those rifts, and throw them at zombies? No? Just us? That’s okay because Research and Destroy caters to our bizarre thoughts. Enter the aptly named Riftinator, a gun that feels like Matthew McConaughey is on the other side in a space suit trying to send us a message in morse code.

While the Riftinator is a very creative gun and certainly reminds us why Research and Destroy is one of the best turn-based RPGs on the PS4, it just isn’t very fun to use. It’s clunky, often ineffective, and too initially confusing to warrant bringing back in a later mission. When there are so many other stronger and simpler guns to use, why would you bother with the Riftinator?

6 Plasma Thrower

Research and Destroy has guns that open rifts in space and time, launch explosive test tubes, and even fire little nukes. So, it would only make sense that it would have a flamethrower because as everyone knows burning a werewolf alive is the best method of killing it. Forget silver bullets and stakes to the heart, sweet sweet fire is where it’s at.

RELATED: The Best Turn-Based Co-Op RPG Experiences Ever Made

Of course, the flamethrower - sorry, Plasma Thrower - in Research and Destroy is mediocre at best. Its one useful function is leaving a trail of fire or ice for enemies to run through and get a little hurt from. Unfortunately, even this doesn’t do all that much damage, nor does it affect a big enough area to hurt the enemy. Sure, if you love setting fire to zombies, then the Plasma Thrower can be fun. But realistically, it’s not worth your time.

5 Laserizer

Research and Destroy can get a little zany and wacky with its choice of guns and gadgets. However, for those who prefer a more traditional shooter, you’re in luck as the Laserizer is your standard rifle. Its base firing mode shoots lasers at your enemy in quick succession, while its second mode turns it into a sniper rifle.

Honestly, while the Laserizer is an effective weapon, and definitely a good choice to start off with, it’s just a little boring. With so many creative weapons available in the game, why would you want to pick a gun as simple as the Laserizer? We can’t really rank it lower as it is good at its job. But honestly, you’ll have a lot more fun with practically any of the other guns.

4 Test Tube Launcher

Much like the Laserizer, the Test Tube Launcher feels like a fairly standard weapon. Based on a grenade launcher , the Test Tube Launcher fires an explosive round that then splits off into three more additional explosions. Its second firing option also creates a very handy shield that can block projectiles.

What makes the Test Tube Launcher stand out - aside from, you know, all of those big and bright explosions - is just how fun it is to use. Lining up shots so that they hit not one, but four targets is immensely satisfying. Each explosion is likely to launch an enemy into the air as well, so it’s incredibly useful for slowing down approaching foes. Overall, it’s an extremely useful gun and a welcome addition to any superscientist’s arsenal.

3 Tesserocket Launcher

While all the previous weapons listed are useful to some extent, realistically the following three guns are what you should have in your loadouts. The Tesserocket Launcher takes everything great about the other launchers and creates one of the most devastating guns in the game.

RELATED: The Best Open World Games With Turn-Based Combat

With the ability to choose how large the explosion will be and how far away it will happen, this gun offers you a level of strategy and freedom that no other launcher really does. It is this level of accuracy - so long as you’re careful and don’t blow up your own allies - that makes it such a tremendously fun gun to use.

2 Higgs Boson Field Generator

If you want a gun that’ll hit multiple enemies at once and is effective at both close and long-range, then pick the brilliant Higgs Boson Field Generator. This wonderful weapon shoots out an enormous ball of energy that damages anything caught within it. While enemies caught in the outer rim of the ball will take minor damage, anything hit by its center will be blown to smithereens - and smithereens is such a fun word.

Its secondary firing mode is a little risky but ridiculously overpowered. It shoots out a large ball of energy that flies between enemies for a limited amount of time, damaging each one of them. It’s fantastic for crowd control, capable of taking out large groups of weaker enemies with one or two shots. Frankly, if you don’t have the Higgs Boson Field Generator equipped, then you’re playing Research and Destroy all wrong.

1 The Quantum Modifier

The Quantum Modifier is by far the best gun in Research and Destroy and for good reason. Its primary firing mode sees you dealing huge amounts of damage to not just one, but multiple enemies all at once. If that isn’t good enough for you, then use its secondary firing mode that can heal any of your other superscientists at rapid speeds.

You can also heal your co-op partner with it too, if you feel like being a good friend of course. It just adds that additional layer of interactability with other players and makes Research and Destroy truly one of the best co-op games on Xbox Game Pass . Overall, with the ability to deal massive amounts of damage to multiple enemies and to heal your allies extremely quickly, it seems like a no-brainer to have this gun equipped.

NEXT: The Best 2D Games With Turn-Based Combat

RESEARCH and DESTROY

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Top Critic Average

Critics Recommend

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RESEARCH and DESTROY: Announcement Trailer

Critic Reviews for RESEARCH and DESTROY

Generación xbox.

Research and Destroy, is a comedy strategy game reminiscent of titles like Worms or Xcom.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

Pure Nintendo

Research and Destroy does enough to be a fun turn-based strategy game. The unique gameplay elements truly make you strategize completely before acting on the battlefield. There's also the great drop-in and drop-out multiplayer, creating a new level of chaotic fun. It does lack replayability, as you're shown everything on your first runthrough. That said, if you're a fan of turn-based strategies, this is one game you should check out.

Read full review

Hardcore Gamer

While Research and Destroy has a few flaws and comes across as way better when playing in co-op, it can't be denied that it's still a great blend of action and strategy, one that embraces classic science fiction and crafts spectacular moments of action out of it, eight seconds at a time.

Despite those flaws, anyone looking for an entertaining mix of turn-based action will have a fun time with it. Just like the Saturday morning cartoons that inspired this game that you all enjoyed as a kid; they might not be the best TV shows, but they did the job of providing happy entertainment. Sometimes that can be enough to be satisfied for the day, and Implausible Industries has created something similar to that emotion with their game Research and Destroy.

Niche Gamer

In totality, Implausible Industries has put together a solid debut title in this game. Research and Destroy has fun aesthetics and the variety it possesses makes for many hours engrossing gameplay. As long as the player is willing to change their style, this game has a lot of replay value where no one battle is the same.

RESEARCH and DESTROY is unintentionally comical, and this made the experience incredibly enjoyable. Fun gameplay and fun dialogue meant that my wife and I couldn't put down the game, and anxiously waited for our next round.

Underneath the humorous and colourful, comic-book like exterior of RESEARCH and DESTROY, lies a challenging, but at the very same time super-approachable turn-based strategy game, which also features a unique turn-based system, where everything you do spends actual, real-time seconds, forcing you to be quick on your wits, as well as your hands. Fun as it is, it suffers from repetition, with the constantly respawning monsters adding to that problem even more, marring the tactical aspect of it all.

ThisGenGaming

RESEARCH and DESTROY is a quirky and fun turn-based strategy game but one that needs a bit more work fleshing out its ideas to be great. I really liked the cartoon horror vibe of it and planning out my moves but it just grew a bit too repetitive for me over time and having respawning enemies was a poor choice in my opinion. It’s perfectly playable solo but if you can this is one of those games best experienced in co-op.

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Write down your thoughts and shred them to relieve anger, researchers say

Writing negative reactions on paper and shredding it or scrunching and throwing in the bin eliminates angry feelings, study finds

Since time immemorial humans have tried to devise anger management techniques.

In ancient Rome, the Stoic philosopher Seneca believed “my anger is likely to do me more harm than your wrong” and offered avoidance tips in his AD45 work De Ira (On Anger).

More modern methods include a workout on the gym punchbag or exercise bike. But the humble paper shredder may be a more effective – and accessible – way to decompress, according to research.

A study in Japan has found that writing down your reaction to a negative incident on a piece of paper and then shredding it, or scrunching it into a ball and throwing it in the bin, gets rid of anger.

“We expected that our method would suppress anger to some extent,” said Nobuyuki Kawai, lead researcher of the study at Nagoya University. “However, we were amazed that anger was eliminated almost entirely.”

The study, published in Scientific Reports on Nature , builds on research on the association between the written word and anger reduction as well as studies showing how interactions with physical objects can control a person’s mood. For instance, those wanting revenge on an ex-partner may burn letters or destroy gifts.

Researchers believe the shredder results may be related to the phenomenon of “backward magical contagion”, which is the belief that actions taken on an object associated with a person can affect the individuals themselves. In this case, getting rid of the negative physical entity, the piece of paper, causes the original emotion to also disappear.

This is a reversal of “magical contagion” or “celebrity contagion” – the belief that the “essence” of an individual can be transferred through their physical possessions.

Fifty student participants were asked to write brief opinions about an important social problem, such as whether smoking in public should be outlawed. Evaluators then deliberately scored the papers low on intelligence, interest, friendliness, logic, and rationality. For good measure, evaluators added insulting comments such as: “I cannot believe an educated person would think like this. I hope this person learns something while at the university.”

The wound-up participants then wrote down their angry thoughts on the negative feedback on a piece of paper. One group was told to either roll up the paper and throw it in a bin or keep it in a file on their desk. A second group was told to shred the paper, or put it in a plastic box.

Anger levels of the individuals who discarded their paper in the bin or shredded it returned to their initial state, while those who retained a hard copy of the paper experienced only a small decrease in their overall anger.

Researchers concluded that “the meaning (interpretation) of disposal plays a critical role” in reducing anger.

“This technique could be applied in the moment by writing down the source of anger as if taking a memo and then throwing it away,” said Kawai.

Along with its practical benefits, this discovery may shed light on the origins of the Japanese cultural tradition known as hakidashisara ( hakidashi sara refers to a dish or plate) at the Hiyoshi shrine in Kiyosu, just outside Nagoya. Hakidashisara is an annual festival where people smash small discs representing things that make them angry. The study’s findings may explain the feeling of relief that participants report after leaving the festival, the paper concluded.

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Most viewed.

Researchers develop a new way to safely boost immune cells to fight cancer

Cancer is the monster of our society. Last year alone, more than 600,000 people in the United States died from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The relentless pursuit of understanding this complex disease has shaped medical progress on developing treatment procedures that are less invasive while still highly effective.

Immunotherapy is on the rise as a possible solution. Immunotherapy involves harnessing the power of the body's immune system to fight against cancer cells. Researchers in the College of Engineering have found a way to revamp a treatment procedure into a groundbreaking practice.

Rong Tong, associate professor in chemical engineering, has teamed up with Wenjun "Rebecca" Cai, associate professor in materials science and engineering, to explore a cancer immunotherapy treatment that has long been of interest to researchers. In their newly published article in the journal Science Advances, Tong and Cai detailed their approach, which involves activating the immune cells in the body and reprogramming them to attack and destroy the cancer cells. This therapeutic method is frequently implemented with the protein cytokine. Cytokines are small protein molecules that act as intercellular biochemical messengers and are released by the body's immune cells to coordinate their response.

"Cytokines are potent and highly effective at stimulating the immune cells to eliminate cancer cells," Tong said. "The problem is they're so potent that if they roam freely throughout the body, they'll activate every immune cell they encounter, which can cause an overactive immune response and potentially fatal side effects."

Tong and Cai, in collaboration with chemical engineering and materials science and engineering graduate students, have developed an innovative approach to employ cytokine proteins as a potential immunotherapy treatment. Unlike previous methods, their technique ensures that the immune cell stimulating cytokines effectively localize within the tumors for weeks while preserving the cytokine's structure and reactivity levels.

Combining forces to take down cancer cells

Current cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, cannot distinguish between healthy cells and cancer cells. When someone with cancer is treated with chemotherapy, the treatment attacks all of the cells in their body, which can lead to side effects such as hair loss and fatigue. Stimulating the body's immune system to attack tumors is a promising alternative to treat cancer. The delivery of cytokines can jump-start immune cells in the tumor, but overstimulating healthy cells can cause severe side effects.

"Scientists determined a while ago that cytokines can be used to activate and fight against tumors, but they didn't know how to localize them inside the tumor while not exposing toxicity to the rest of the body," said Tong. "Chemical engineers can look at this from an engineering approach and use their knowledge to help refine and elevate the effectiveness of the cytokines so they can work inside the body effectively."

The research team's goal is to find a balance between killing cancer cells in the body while sparing healthy cells.

To accomplish this goal, Tong and his students used their expertise to create specialized particles with distinctive sizes that help determine where the drug is going. These microparticles are designed to stay within the tumor environment after being injected into the body. Cai and her students worked on measuring these particles' surface properties.

"In the field of materials science and engineering, we study the surface chemistry and mechanical behavior of materials, such as the specialized particle created for this project," Cai said. "Surface engineering and characterization, along with particle size, play important roles in controlled drug delivery, ensuring prolonged drug presence and sustained therapeutic effectiveness."

To ensure successful drug delivery, Tong and his chemical engineering students designed a novel strategy that:

• Anchors cytokines to these new microparticles, limiting the harm of cytokines to healthy cells
• Allows the newly particle-anchored cytokines to jump-start immune systems and recruit immune cells to attack cancer cells

"Our strategy not only minimizes cytokine-induced harm to healthy cells, but also prolongs cytokine retention within the tumor," Tong said. "This helps facilitate the recruitment of immune cells for targeted tumor attack."

The next step in the process involves combining the new, localized cytokine therapy method with commercially available, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved checkpoint blockade antibodies, which reactivate the tumor immune cells that have been silenced so they can fight back the cancer cells.

"When there is a tumor inside the body, the body's immune cells are being deactivated by the cancer cells," Tong explained. "The FDA-approved checkpoint blocking antibody helps "take off the brakes" that tumors put on immune cells, while the cytokine molecules "step on the gas" to jump-start the immune system and get an immune cell army to fight cancer cells. These two approaches work together to activate immune cells."

Combining the checkpoint antibodies with the particle-anchored cytokine proved to successfully eliminate many tumors in their study.

Engineering an impact on cancer treatment

Team members hope their impact on immunotherapy treatment is part of a greater movement toward cancer treatment approaches that are harmless to healthy cells. The new approach of attaching cytokines to particles also could be used in the future to deliver other types of immunostimulatory drugs, according to the team.

"Researchers are still looking for safer and more effective cancer treatments," said Tong. "This motivation is what drives us to develop new technologies in the field. The whole class of drugs that are employed to jump-start the immune system to fight cancer cells has largely not yet succeeded. Our goal is to create novel solutions that allow researchers to test these drugs with existing FDA-approved therapeutics, ensuring both safety and enhanced efficacy."

Cai said the nature of cancer treatment research requires expertise across engineering disciplines.

"I view this project as a perfect marriage between chemical engineering and materials science," Cai said. "The former focuses on the synthesis and drug delivery part, the latter on applying advanced materials characterization. This collaboration not only accelerates immunotherapy research, but also has the ability to transform cancer treatment."

• Immune System
• Brain Tumor
• Lung Cancer
• Prostate Cancer
• Colon Cancer
• Skin Cancer
• Immune system
• Chemotherapy
• Monoclonal antibody therapy
• Natural killer cell
• White blood cell
• Prostate cancer
• Endocrine system

Story Source:

Materials provided by Virginia Tech . Original written by Hailey Wade. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Liqian Niu, Eungyo Jang, Ai Lin Chin, Ziyu Huo, Wenbo Wang, Wenjun Cai, Rong Tong. Noncovalently particle-anchored cytokines with prolonged tumor retention safely elicit potent antitumor immunity . Science Advances , 2024; 10 (16) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk7695

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RESEARCH and DESTROY DLC

Spike Chunsoft 2022-04-26T00:35:06-07:00 April 26th, 2022 | Categories: Other |

RESEARCH and DESTROY gives you the option to fully customize your team of Super Scientists. When playing online this helps you avoid that awkward feeling of turning up at a party in the same outfit as someone else. More importantly, it lets you show that you’ve got this fashion thing down to a science.

If you’re seeking to expand your Scientists’ wardrobe beyond the ready-available selection of stylish-yet-functional lab coats and hazmat suits you will be thrilled to learn that Larry, Gary and Marie are known to occasionally indulge in cosplaying as other video game characters from the following titles:

Multiplayer

Spike Chunsoft 2021-09-08T04:26:40-07:00 September 8th, 2021 | Categories: Other |

Co-op multiplayer allows some secret interactions that are easier to pull off with two players and enemies are brawnier to balance your superior brainpower. Of course, your tactics mean nothing if you can’t coordinate a plan of attack! You can use your […]

RESEARCH and DESTROY ENVIRONMENTS

Spike Chunsoft 2021-08-25T02:57:58-07:00 August 25th, 2021 | Categories: Other |

RESEARCH and DESTROY is set in a continent that resembles Europe and Northern Africa, or rather, what’s left of it in the Supernatural Post-Apocalypse. The classic home of Vampires, Trolls, Werewolves and such, they’ve reclaimed their birthplace after ridding it of pesky humans. Some might consider your missions to be home invasions, but we think of them as scientific field trips.

The RADvan chauffeurs you around twelve territories, and each territory has up to three missions in different areas. For example, on the Foggy Isles you may be tasked with gathering data from a […]

UNIVERSITY DEFENSE

Spike Chunsoft 2021-08-11T01:41:04-07:00 August 11th, 2021 | Categories: Other |

What’s the point of building all of those lovely, shiny, productive Universities in conquered newly-liberated territories if you meekly retreat at the first sight of an invading Supernatural? Sometimes the best form of offense is a good defense–Universities are the backbone of your efforts to reclaim earth and sometimes they need defending.

University defense missions play out just as you’d expect. One moment you’re kicking back, sipping margaritas and reading back issues of “Superconductor Monthly,” and the next minute there’s waves upon waves of Supernatural hordes trying to overwhelm the campus.

UPGRADE SYSTEM

Spike Chunsoft 2021-08-03T21:21:38-07:00 August 4th, 2021 | Categories: Other |

There’s an adage in the post-apocalyptic Scientific community that goes a little something like this: “It’s always better on the second try”. Propelling humankind out of darkness requires that kind of never-give-up-and-constantly-redo attitude. This gives rise to the ability to upgrade gadgets, weapons, universities and their defenses.

Before you can do any upgrading you need to do the researching. Not just the “open a book and read for days” kind of research; you also need the “fill a Supernatural full of scientific lead and stuff its corpse in the Van for study” kind of research too.

Of course, research for one piece […]

Israeli attack on nuclear sites to prompt tit-for-tat, pursuing nukes: Iran

Iran warns Israel that if it goes ahead with a retaliation for last week’s attack, Tehran will respond in kind and also pursue a nuclear weapon.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned that it would attack Israel’s nuclear sites and may pursue a nuclear weapon if the country strikes at Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The development came on Thursday, after Israeli officials promised a response to Iran’s unprecedented attacks on Israel last week, which were a retaliation for the Israeli military’s suspected targeting of Tehran’s consulate in Syria.

Keep reading

‘serious escalation’: world reacts to iran’s drone, missile raids on israel, iran’s irgc seizes ‘israeli-linked’ ship near strait of hormuz, iran’s raisi reiterates warnings as israel mulls response to air attack, iran’s khamenei promises ‘israel will be punished’ for syria strike.

“The nuclear facilities of the Zionist enemy have been identified and all the necessary information from all targets is at our disposal,” the IRGC’s Brigadier General Ahmad Haghtalab was quoted as saying by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news website.

“Our fingers are on the trigger of firing strong missiles to destroy the designated targets in response to a potential attack by them,” said the commander of the IRGC division that is tasked with protecting Iranian nuclear facilities.

Haghtalab also gave what is Iran’s highest-level and most direct warning yet that it may abandon its stated policy of refraining from building a nuclear bomb.

“If the fake Zionist regime wants to use the threat of attacking the nuclear centres of our country as a tool, reconsidering the doctrine and policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and deviating from previously stated considerations would be likely and imaginable,” he said.

Iran’s top nuclear facilities, especially the installations at Natanz in central Isfahan, have been subject to multiple significant sabotage attacks blamed on Israel amid a shadow war in more than a decade that also saw several Iranian nuclear scientists assassinated.

But Israel has never directly attacked Iranian soil, let alone its nuclear facilities.

In March 2022, after several high-profile sabotage attacks and as the IRGC said it foiled yet another attack , the new nuclear security command unit of the elite force was first publicly mentioned.

Iran is currently enriching uranium up to 60 percent, which is a short technical step from the more than 90 percent enrichment required for an atomic bomb.

The country also possesses enough fissile material for several bombs, making it a threshold nuclear state.

But it has yet to start on further steps required to actually build a bomb, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and US intelligence assessments.

Even as Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers gradually faltered following the 2018 unilateral withdrawal by the United States, Tehran had so far said it had no plans to pursue a nuclear weapon.

The warning on Thursday comes as top Iranian political and military leaders have promised a quick and strong response if Israel decides to attack.

Hassan Abedini, an Iranian state media executive and adviser, on Thursday in a post on X published photos of meeting Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the aerospace chief of the IRGC.

According to him, Hajizadeh said the force refrained from using its main ballistic missiles during last week’s attack, including the Khorramshahr, Sajil, Haj Qassem, Kheibar Shekan-2, and the Fattah family of hypersonic missiles .

The IRGC used “minimum capability” and is ready for another significant attack, he was quoted as saying, likely in response to claims by US military officials that Iran depleted a considerable portion of its long-range ballistic missile arsenal.

Researchers develop a new way to safely boost immune cells to fight cancer

Researchers in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering have developed a new cancer immunotherapy to localize cancer-killing cytokines in tumors to improve treatment effectiveness.

• Hailey Wade

19 Apr 2024

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Cancer is the monster of our society. Last year alone, more than 600,000 people in the United States died from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society . The relentless pursuit of understanding this complex disease has shaped medical progress on developing treatment procedures that are less invasive while still highly effective. 

Immunotherapy is on the rise as a possible solution. Immunotherapy involves harnessing the power of the body’s immune system to fight against cancer cells. Researchers in the College of Engineering have found a way to revamp a treatment procedure into a groundbreaking practice.

Rong Tong , associate professor in  chemical engineering , has teamed up with Wenjun "Rebecca" Cai , associate professor in  materials science and engineering , to explore a cancer immunotherapy treatment that has long been of interest to researchers. In their newly published article in the journal Science Advances , Tong and Cai detailed their approach, which involves activating the immune cells in the body and reprogramming them to attack and destroy the cancer cells. This therapeutic method is frequently implemented with the protein cytokine. Cytokines are small protein molecules that act as intercellular biochemical messengers and are released by the body's immune cells to coordinate their response.

“Cytokines are potent and highly effective at stimulating the immune cells to eliminate cancer cells,” Tong said. “The problem is they’re so potent that if they roam freely throughout the body, they’ll activate every immune cell they encounter, which can cause an overactive immune response and potentially fatal side effects.”

Tong and Cai, in collaboration with chemical engineering and materials science and engineering graduate students, have developed an innovative approach to employ cytokine proteins as a potential immunotherapy treatment. Unlike previous methods, their technique ensures that the immune cell stimulating cytokines effectively localize within the tumors for weeks while preserving the cytokine’s structure and reactivity levels. 

Combining forces to take down cancer cells

Current cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, cannot distinguish between healthy cells and cancer cells. When someone with cancer is treated with chemotherapy, the treatment attacks all of the cells in their body, which can lead to side effects such as hair loss and fatigue. Stimulating the body’s immune system to attack tumors is a promising alternative to treat cancer. The delivery of cytokines can jump-start immune cells in the tumor, but overstimulating healthy cells can cause severe side effects.

“Scientists determined a while ago that cytokines can be used to activate and fight against tumors, but they didn’t know how to localize them inside the tumor while not exposing toxicity to the rest of the body,” said Tong. “Chemical engineers can look at this from an engineering approach and use their knowledge to help refine and elevate the effectiveness of the cytokines so they can work inside the body effectively.” 

The research team’s goal is to find a balance between killing cancer cells in the body while sparing healthy cells. 

To accomplish this goal, Tong and his students used their expertise to create specialized particles with distinctive sizes that help determine where the drug is going. These microparticles are designed to stay within the tumor environment after being injected into the body. Cai and her students worked on measuring these particles’ surface properties.

“In the field of materials science and engineering, we study the surface chemistry and mechanical behavior of materials, such as the specialized particle created for this project,” Cai said. “Surface engineering and characterization, along with particle size, play important roles in controlled drug delivery, ensuring prolonged drug presence and sustained therapeutic effectiveness.”

To ensure successful drug delivery, Tong and his chemical engineering students designed a novel strategy that: 

• Anchors cytokines to these new microparticles, limiting the harm of cytokines to healthy cells
• Allows the newly particle-anchored cytokines to jump-start immune systems and recruit immune cells to attack cancer cells

“Our strategy not only minimizes cytokine-induced harm to healthy cells, but also prolongs cytokine retention within the tumor,” Tong said. “This helps facilitate the recruitment of immune cells for targeted tumor attack.”

The next step in the process involves combining the new, localized cytokine therapy method with commercially available, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved checkpoint blockade antibodies, which reactivate the tumor immune cells that have been silenced so they can fight back the cancer cells. 

“When there is a tumor inside the body, the body’s immune cells are being deactivated by the cancer cells,” Tong explained. “The FDA-approved checkpoint blocking antibody helps “take off the brakes” that tumors put on immune cells, while the cytokine molecules “step on the gas” to jump-start the immune system and get an immune cell army to fight cancer cells. These two approaches work together to activate immune cells.”

Combining the checkpoint antibodies with the particle-anchored cytokine proved to successfully eliminate many tumors in their study.

Engineering an impact on cancer treatment

Team members hope their impact on immunotherapy treatment is part of a greater movement toward cancer treatment approaches that are harmless to healthy cells. The new approach of attaching cytokines to particles also could be used in the future to deliver other types of immunostimulatory drugs, according to the team.

“Researchers are still looking for safer and more effective cancer treatments,” said Tong. “This motivation is what drives us to develop new technologies in the field. The whole class of drugs that are employed to jump-start the immune system to fight cancer cells has largely not yet succeeded. Our goal is to create novel solutions that allow researchers to test these drugs with existing FDA-approved therapeutics, ensuring both safety and enhanced efficacy.”

Cai said the nature of cancer treatment research requires expertise across engineering disciplines. 

“I view this project as a perfect marriage between chemical engineering and materials science,” Cai said. “The former focuses on the synthesis and drug delivery part, the latter on applying advanced materials characterization. This collaboration not only accelerates immunotherapy research, but also has the ability to transform cancer treatment.”

Chelsea Seeber

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‘It could be the death of the museum’: why research cuts at a South Australian institution have scientists up in arms

Vice-Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe University

Disclosure statement

Elizabeth Finkel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

La Trobe University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared the museum is “not a university”, and will gut its research capabilities, starting this July.

In Australia and abroad, hundreds of scientists and friends of the museum have expressed their horror at the proposal, to the media, in letters to the state government, and in interviews with the author.

“It could be the death of the museum,” says renowned mammalogist Tim Flannery, a former director of the museum.

Palaeontologist Mary Droser of the University of California, Riverside, spent two decades working on the museum’s collection of half-billion-year-old Ediacaran fossils. “To say research isn’t important to what a museum does – it’s sending shock waves across the world,” she says.

Critics say the changes will make the museum “more of a theme park”, and make South Australia “the laughing stock of the scientific world”.

What’s the plan?

Gaimster plans to replace ten “science research” positions with five junior “science curators”, and reduce the number of specialist “science collection managers” from 12 to five.

According to the museum’s website , this skeleton crew will focus on “converting new discoveries and research into the visitor experience”.

That’s quite different to what the museum has been doing for the past 168 years. Its researchers have described more than 500 new species, such as tiny crustaceans that live only in desert pools and are at risk from mining.

Read more: Friday essay: the silence of Ediacara, the shadow of uranium

Museum researchers have also helped discover some 60 new minerals for the mining industry, some of which may help to clean up pollutants or deliver critical minerals for renewable energy technologies. Others have tackled global questions such as the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, how eyes evolved in Cambrian fossils, and Antarctic biodiversity .

What’s so special about a museum?

The museum’s record may be impressive, but couldn’t all this research be done by universities?

Their remits are different, says University of Adelaide botanist Andy Lowe, who was the museum’s acting director in 2013 and 2014. Unlike universities, he says, the museum was “established by government, to carry out science for the development of the state”.

Museum research is also unique because of its unique resources – the collections.

Visitors to the museum see the state’s treasures: the skeleton of marsupial lion Thylacoleo , the largest mammalian carnivore Australia ever had; weird fossils of our planet’s earliest multi-cellular life from the Ediacara Hills of the Flinders Ranges; glowing rocks and crystals that display the foundation of the state’s past and future wealth; and stone tools, boomerangs and bark paintings that record tens of millennia of Indigenous culture on this continent.

But these displays contain only a fraction of the full collections. The rest of the specimens reside beneath the public areas, with the researchers who continuously enrich them with new specimens and new knowledge.

“They’re crucial for what goes on above; you need experts not second-hand translators,” says University of Adelaide geologist Alan Collins. He wonders what will happen the next time a youngster comes into the museum asking to identify a rock. “There won’t be an expert on hand anymore.”

Collins also worries about a bigger looming public failure: a bid to obtain World Heritage listing for the Flinders Ranges. Collins has contributed to the bid by collaborating with museum researcher Diego Garcia Bellido to show how rocks at Brachina Gorge tell the story of how complex life first emerged.

Read more: How algae conquered the world – and other epic stories hidden in the rocks of the Flinders Ranges

Garcia Bellido and his now-retired colleague Jim Gehling used the museum’s collections to identify dozens of Ediacaran species. Their work led to the formation of Nilpena Ediacara National Park to preserve the sites containing unique fossil beds .

The collection of Indigenous objects dates back to anthropological expeditions carried out by the museum’s Norman Tindale and Harvard’s Joseph Birdsell in the 1930s. These expeditions helped Tindale produce the first map of the territories of “the Aboriginal tribes of Australia”.

The museum’s Phillip Jones now uses this collection in his research , delivering more than 30 exhibitions, books and academic papers.

Continuity and community

Maintaining the museum’s collections takes a lot of work. Without attentive curation and the life blood of research, the collections are doomed to “wither and die”, says Flannery. “There are no collections without research; and no research without collections.”

Many of the above-mentioned researchers, vastly overqualified for the newly described positions, will likely find no home in the reimagined museum.

That raises the issue of continuity. In Flannery’s words , the job of a museum curator:

is like being a high priest in a temple. You have been passed on the sacred objects by your predecessor who has looked after them through their career. That chain of care goes back to the foundation of the state of South Australia – the foundation of the museum […] but break the chain of care and you destroy the museum.

A case in point is Jones, who knew Tindale and interviewed him when he was based at Harvard. Over Jones’ four decades at the museum, his relationships with Indigenous elders have also been critical to returning sacred objects to their traditional owners.

Besides the priestly “chain of care”, there’s something else at risk in the museum netherworld: a uniquely productive ecosystem feeding on the collections.

Here you’ll find PhD students mingling with retired academics; curators mingling with scientists; museum folk with university folk. This rich ecosystem delivers the out-sized knowledge output of the museum and brings in millions of dollars of federal research grants each year. In the year ending 2023 for instance, joint museum and university grants amounted to A$3.7 million.

Read more: Museums are returning indigenous human remains but progress on repatriating objects is slow

But no more.

The new administration sees these joint grants as a burden. The problem, according to a museum spokesperson, is that “they did not include any remuneration for staff time or operational or administrative overheads”.

No one doubts the financial stresses the museum faces or that revamping exhibits is a desirable thing. But, as many have pointed out, the role of CEO is to knock on the doors of government and philanthropists and find the necessary funds. “It’s possible,” Flannery says. “I’ve done it.”

DNA and biodiversity

The museum has also declared it will no longer support a DNA sequencing lab it funds jointly with the University of Adelaide. The lab has worked with the museum’s collection of Australian biological tissue to help identify more than 500 new species, including 46 now listed as threatened.

“No other institute in South Australia does this type of biodiversity research,” says Andrew Austin, chair of Taxonomy Australia and emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide. “It’s the job of the museum.”

The cuts come while the SA government plans new laws to protect biodiversity.

According to Kris Helgen – chief scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney – the South Australian Museum has been “the primary natural science museum for the interior of the continent” for 150 years.

The museum’s re-imagining puts this history at risk – and also places the future in jeopardy.

An open letter published on April 10, signed by more than 400 of Australia’s leading researchers, former state chief scientists, Aboriginal elders, politicians including a former state premier, and many others, summed up the case:

the collections housed at the South Australian Museum […] are amongst the most significant in the world. They reveal to us the very beginnings of life on earth […] and they help us to prevent extinction of critical species that underpin all human life […]

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‘Deal with the Devil’: Harvard Medical School Faculty Grapple with Increased Industry Research Funding

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To See a Fossil Free Harvard, Reject Research Funding

This past week, I joined students across the Harvard community in celebrating “Intersectional Earth Week.” The event, hosted by Harvard Climate Coalition, featured teach-ins, affinity gatherings that centered on sustainable consumption, and other activities.

The success of Intersectional Earth Week reflects Harvard student support for environmentalist initiatives, but these aren’t the only strides Harvard has made towards a more sustainable campus in recent years.

In 2021, the Harvard Management Corporation declared it would divest from fossil fuels. A year later, the University announced the creation of the Salata Institute — an organization dedicated entirely to the clean energy transition and climate. And recently, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences significantly expanded the number of climate-oriented courses it offers.

Such initiatives indicate that Harvard is somewhat dedicated, or at least aware, of the importance of leading on the climate.

Despite this progress, none of Harvard’s schools possess an explicit policy for rejecting research funding from fossil fuel companies. One of the events of Intersectional Earth Week — a rally I organized with Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard — directly urged Harvard’s schools to disavow these funds. This is crucial because fossil fuel companies have historically funded disinformation campaigns for their economic benefit.

After scientists at Exxon routinely presented findings showing a link between carbon emissions and environmental destruction, the company decided to help create the “Global Climate Coalition.” This organization sowed doubt about research indicative of an impending climate crisis, impeding global climate agreements.

ExxonMobil has continued to meddle in climate research through the provision of research grants to universities — including Harvard.

Before fossil fuels, big tobacco also used research grants to manipulate studies in favor of their products.

In 1954, tobacco companies formed a research organization known as the “Tobacco Industry Research Company,” intending to dissuade the public that there was an explicit link between tobacco consumption and lung cancer. This misinformation undoubtedly resulted in significant health consequences given that smoking related illnesses are estimated to have led to the deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th century.

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health announced a policy in 2002 barring the acceptance of monetary assistance from the tobacco industry. Two years later, Harvard Medical School followed. Standing firm in their commitments to rejecting the tobacco industry’s research donations is a move that preserves the independence of their health research.

The lack of such a policy regarding fossil fuels similarly undermines our reputation as one of the world’s premier research institutions, and stalls Harvard’s ability to be a leader on climate.

Research studies that receive grants from fossil fuel companies tend to produce results that praise the benefits of non-renewable energy sources like oil and natural gas. However, research studies that do not tend to receive such funding paint a contrasting picture that more closely aligns with the scientific consensus on the detrimental effects of fossil fuel usage.

In order to ensure that researchers can remain objective in their scholarship, Harvard has an ethical imperative to reject grants from fossil fuel entities.

The climate crisis has significantly widespread health implications, similar to big tobacco. Take for example, higher rates of respiratory illness of communities located near major highways, or the myriad of deaths that have resulted from natural disasters in recent years. The evidence is clear — the climate crisis is actively damaging our health and livelihoods. By this logic, it is a moral imperative to create a similar funding policy for energy companies that rely on fossil fuels.

Despite no institutional policy, Harvard’s individual schools, departments, and researchers have a unique opportunity to lead the way on rejecting fossil fuel company grants.

While many researchers have already taken this pledge, my message to everyone, but especially students pursuing research at Harvard is clear: reject funding offers from fossil fuel companies.

Jasmine N. Wynn ’27, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Thayer Hall and is an organizer with Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard.

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Australian police charge five teenagers in Sydney cleric's stabbing

Australian police said on Thursday they charged five teenagers with terrorism-related offences in investigations following the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop while he was giving a livestreamed sermon earlier this month.