Cell‐based immunotherapy, for example, chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR‐T) cell immunotherapy, has revolutionized cancer treatment, particularly for blood cancers. However, factors such as insufficient T cell tracking, tumour heterogeneity, inhibitory tumour microenvironment (TME) and T cell exhaustion limit the broad application of CAR‐based immunotherapy for solid tumours. In particular, the TME is a complex and evolving entity, which is composed of cells of different types (e.g., cancer cells, immune cells and stromal cells), vasculature, soluble factors and extracellular matrix (ECM), with each component playing a critical role in CAR‐T immunotherapy. Thus, developing approaches to mitigate the inhibitory TME factors is critical for future success in applying CAR‐T cells for solid tumour treatment. Accordingly, understanding the bilateral interaction of CAR‐T cells with the TME is in pressing need to pave the way for more efficient therapeutics. In the following review, we will discuss TME‐associated aspects with an emphasis on T cell trafficking, ECM barriers, abnormal vasculature, solid tumour heterogenicity and immune suppressive microenvironment. We will then summarize current engineering strategies to overcome the challenges posed by the TME‐associated factors. Lastly, the future directions for engineering efficient CAR‐T cells for solid tumour therapy will be discussed.

Histone methylations play a crucial role in chromatin remodeling and genome regulations. However, there is a lack of tools to visualize these histone modifications with high spatiotemporal resolutions in live cells. We have developed a biosensor based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and incorporated it into nucleosomes, capable of monitoring the trimethylation of H3K27 (H3K27me3) in live cells. We also revealed that the performance of the FRET biosensor can be significantly improved by adjusting the linkers within the biosensor. An improved biosensor enables the live-cell imaging of different histone methylation status, induced by the suppressive H3.3K27M or existing in breast cancer cells with varying genetic backgrounds. We have further applied the biosensor to reveal the dynamic coupling between H3K27me3 changes and caspase activity representing the initiation of apoptosis in cancer cells by imaging both H3K27me3 and caspase activity simultaneously in the same live cells. Thus, this new FRET biosensor can provide a powerful tool to visualize the epigenetic regulation in live cells with high spatial temporal resolutions.

This research aims to examine the effect of inflation, risk rate and money supply on the performance of stock mutual funds in the 2015-2017 period. This research uses purposive sampling and obtained 25 mutual funds stocks per year with a total sample of 75 samples. The analysis uses panel data regression with e-views version 9. The results show that inflation and money supply variable have a significant negative influence, while the risk rate variable has a significant positive influence. This shows that the performance of the stock mutual funds is influenced by macroeconomic factors such as inflation, the level of risk of each mutual fund product and the amount of money circulating in the community.