Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies have shown unprecedented success in treating leukemia but limited clinical efficacy in solid tumors. Here, we generated 1928zT2 and m28zT2, targeting CD19 and mesothelin, respectively, by introducing the Toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) to 1928z and m28z. T cells expressing 1928zT2 or m28zT2 showed improved expansion, persistency and effector function against CD19 leukemia or mesothelin solid tumors respectively in vitro and in vivo. In a patient with relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a single dose of 5 × 10/kg 1928zT2 T cells resulted in robust expansion and leukemia eradication and led to complete remission. Hence, our results demonstrate that TLR2 signaling can contribute to the efficacy of CAR T cells. Further clinical trials are warranted to establish the safety and efficacy of this approach.

The magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effects of Ni50−xMn38+xSb12 ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys with x = −1, 0, 1 and 2 that undergo a martensitic transformation were investigated. The magnetic-entropy changes ΔS of nominal Ni49Mn39Sb12, or Ni49.5Mn38.6Sb11.9, at 279 K is 6.15 J kg−1 K−1 for a magnetic-field change ΔB = 1 T, with negligible hysteresis loss, as it transforms from a low-temperature martensitic phase to a high-temperature austenitic one. The large inverse ΔS in a small field change and the negligible hysteresis loss, along with the low cost of Sb, indicate that Ni49Mn39Sb12 is a promising candidate for room-temperature magnetic refrigeration.

In our work, insights into the total dose response and native point defect behavior in the Al 2 O 3 gate dielectric during irradiation were gained by gamma-ray irradiation experiments and firstprinciples calculations. It is found that the O vacancy (V O ) can act as a hole trap in the Al 2 O 3 gate dielectric during irradiation, leading to the negative shift of the capacitance-voltage (C-V ) curves of the Al 2 O 3 -based metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure. Our calculations show that the neutral defect V O becomes a +2 charged center after irradiation, and the positively charged V O is a kind of conductive path for electrons, which contributes to an increase of the leakage current in the irradiated MOS capacitors. Additionally, the trapped holes are accumulated with irradiation doses, which can lower the barrier height of the Al 2 O 3 gate oxide and further cause the increase of the leakage current. The other native point defects in the Al 2 O 3 layer, such as aluminum vacancy (V Al ), aluminum interstitial (Al i ) and oxygen interstitial (O i ), only act as fixed charge centers during irradiation. Net negative charges existing in the Al 2 O 3 layers before irradiation are mainly induced by the negatively charged defects of V Al and O i .