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Liver Cancer: A Promising Avenue for More Effective Immunotherapies

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Research team identifies biomarker that may explain treatment failure in some people

LAVAL, QC, Feb. 14, 2024 /CNW/ – A research team of Canadian and French scientists, led by INRS professor Maya Saleh, has been investigating immunotherapy resistance in certain patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with steatotic liver disease. The findings are published in the journal Cell Reports.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with known risk factors such as chronic hepatitis B or C infection, alcohol abuse, and metabolic dysfunction. It is the most common type of liver cancer. Despite major advances in immunotherapy, this cancer is often fatal: around 75% of patients with advanced HCC fail to respond to this type of treatment, for reasons that had yet to be clarified.

This encouraged the research team to explore the link between metabolic dysfunction-associated liver disease, a chronic inflammatory disease of the liver, and therapeutic resistance to immunotherapy in HCC patients.

“We have identified an immune biomarker for HCC associated with stetatotic liver disease, which will allow us to develop new immunotherapies,” explains Professor Maya Saleh, an international specialist in immuno-oncology. “We could envisage immunotherapies that restore an effective immune response against HCC by attenuating the damaging liver inflammation.”

Discovery of a potential therapeutic target

HCC remains a major public health concern; in North America, its incidence has doubled in the past three decades. Prior to the approval of immunotherapy, the treatment options for advanced HCC were limited and ineffective. As an example, sorafenib improves mean overall survival by just 3 months and is associated with significant side effects.

Immunotherapies, when administered in combinations, increase the average survival of HCC patients by 17 months on average.

Thanks to the use of “omics” technologies, which allow large quantities of biological data to be analyzed in a short timeframe, the team developed an immune map of the tumour and adjacent non-tumoral liver in 10 patients. These initial immune maps led them to study databases of hundreds of patients in order to validate the immune profiles related to risk factors and associated with disease severity.

These initial results indicate that the chronic inflammation from steatotic liver disease makes the liver cancer environment unique, with an expansion of immunosuppressive cells that paralyse the immunological attack of the tumour.

The research team has demonstrated that the immunosuppressive cells express an inflammatory receptor, named TREM1, which makes them more dangerous. They therefore highlighted TREM1 as a potential therapeutic target in HCC associated with steatotic liver disease.

Interesting implications for immunotherapy research

By identifying this biomarker, which could explain treatment failure in people with HCC, the team has paved the way for a new approach to classifying patients. This would allow them to determine who would be more likely to respond to immunotherapy before treatment even begins.

Such a scientific breakthrough would ease the psychological burden for patients who don’t respond to immunotherapy. Important physical impacts, including side effects, could also be prevented.

“This is a promising avenue for the next few years. We will continue the analysis by characterizing the immune component of tumours in a larger cohort of patients, including comprehensive imaging of tumour cell composition and the use of artificial intelligence to link immune profiles to response to therapy. This could have a significant impact on the field,” concludes Professor Saleh.

About the study

This paper was co-authored by Julie Giraud, Domitille Chalopin, Eloïse Ramel, Thomas Boyer, Atika Zouine, Marie-Alix Derieppe, Nicolas Larmonier, Olivier Adotevi, Brigitte Le Bail, Jean-Frédéric Blanc, Christophe Laurent, Laurence Chiche, Marc Derive, Macha Nikolski, and Maya Saleh.

Entitled “THBS1+ myeloid cells expand in SLD hepatocellular carcinoma and contribute to immunosuppression and unfavorable prognosis through TREM1,” it was published in Cell Reports Vol 43, Issue 2. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.11377.

This research was funded to Dr. Saleh by the Fondation ARC, IDEX Bordeaux, ITMO Cancer, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in France, and SIRIC BRIO.

About INRS 

INRS is an academic institution dedicated exclusively to graduate research and training. Since its creation in 1969, it has actively contributed to Quebec’s economic, social, and cultural development. INRS ranks first in Quebec and Canada in research intensity. It is made up of four interdisciplinary research and training centres located in Quebec City, Montreal, Laval, and Varennes, which focus their efforts on strategic sectors: water, earth, and environment (Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre); energy, materials, and telecommunications (Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre); urbanization, culture, and society (Urbanisation Culture Société Research Centre); and health and biotechnology (Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie Centre). The INRS community includes over 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty and staff members. 

SOURCE Institut National de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

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TeamLogic IT Honors Top Franchisees, Brings Leading Industry Experts Together at TeamLogic IT Owners Summit Convention

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MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TeamLogic IT, a national provider of managed IT services and technology support, celebrated the achievements of its franchise network at the company’s annual Owners Summit and Vendor Show, held October 5-8, 2026. The event brought together TeamLogic IT franchisees, vendors and partners for a week of learning, collaboration and connection, culminating in the recognition of the network’s top-performing franchisees.

“One of the things that makes TeamLogic IT so special is the strength of our franchisee community. Our TeamLogic IT franchise owners represent the very best of the managed services industry,” says Richard Lowe, president and CEO of TeamLogic, LLC. “Owners Summit gives us the opportunity to come together, exchange ideas and celebrate what we’ve accomplished as a network. Recognizing our top-performing owners is always a highlight. Their leadership and commitment to delivering high-quality technology solutions are helping drive our network forward and strengthen the TeamLogic IT brand nationwide.”

The sold-out vendor exhibition featured more than 70 leading companies in the technology industry, including Pax 8, the conference’s signature sponsor, Bitdefender, Blackpoint, Cytracom, Sophos, Kaseya, N-able, NinjaOne, Proofpoint, Rewst, Slide and more.

At a closing ceremony, the following awards were presented:

Franchisee of the Year: Arti Dutt – West Northridge, CA

Rookie of the Year: Reese Verschelde and Corey Gisondi – Bryn Mawr, PA

Technician of the Year: Federico Hansen – N. Palm Beach, FL

VIP (Volume Increase Percentage)
Larry Anderson and Tony Anderson – Montgomery, ALSteve Anderson – Johns Creek, GATop 15 (Based on 2025 sales)
Jim Hackett and Andrew Hackett – Woburn, MATodd & Linda Harrell – Morris Plains, NJTodd & Ruth Tolly – Santa Rosa, CAPaul Behrman & Nadia Pukhova – Lake Forest, CACory & Kathleen Boxall – Ashburn, VARob Fallows & Chris Kasten – Phoenix, AZKirk Gramoll and John Halama – Germantown, WICindy McPike, Cameron Nelson, and Jacob Harrington – Salem, ORBob Roloff – Ft. Myers, FLDwight & Allison Blankenship – Columbus, OHRick Higgins – Dunwoody, GADan & Becky Thomas – Durham, NCScott Daniels – Naples, FLEric Summers – Des Moines, IARandall Wilson – Decatur, ALMillion Dollar Club
Kyle Temple – Richmond, VAJeremy Mason – East Madison, WIJoseph & Joyce Tauras – Manchester, NHSandeep Kaushal – Vernon, CTJim & Mikki Young – Lake Arlington, TXSteve & Jamie McGlumphy – Aurora, ILMike Treiser and Danny Ramey – Denver West, COMayank & Jaimini Patel – Niles, ILAllen Chu – White Plains, NY

About TeamLogic IT
TeamLogic IT is a national provider of advanced technology solutions for companies of all sizes. Local offices provide clients with the IT support they need to run their businesses more efficiently by leveraging the latest technology solutions, including managed IT services, cybersecurity, business continuity, cloud, co-managed IT services, managed AI, and consulting and support. With more than 350 independently owned and operated locations across North America, TeamLogic IT helps companies minimize downtime, improve productivity and secure their IT infrastructure. Visit www.teamlogicit.com or www.TeamLogicFranchising.com for more information on the TeamLogic IT franchise network.

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SOURCE TeamLogic, LLC

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Mili and Egnyte Partner to put Client Documents to work in Financial Advice

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The partnership brings Egnyte’s secure content platform and Mili’s AI agents together, so advice firms can deliver more comprehensive, personalized advice at scale.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Mili, an AI platform for wealth management firms, and Egnyte, a leader in secure content collaboration, intelligence, and governance, today announced a partnership that brings Mili’s AI agents to client documents in Egnyte. Advisors work from a file or a whole client folder alongside data from the firm’s CRM, portfolio and planning systems, under each advisor’s Egnyte permissions.

Kitces Research finds that reviewing client documents is the most common way advisors use AI. Its productivity research puts a new financial plan at 15 to 40 hours of team time.

Advisors use Mili’s agents to model the tax cost of moving a client’s accounts into the firm’s strategy, weigh a rebalance against unrealized gains, summarize a bonus agreement and build a financial snapshot from a statement. The agents link answers to their sources and flag what an analysis may still need.

David Ringler, Managing Director at Onyx Bridge Wealth Group ($1.6B+ AUM), said, “Egnyte and Mili are two valuable pieces of technology in our stack, and bringing them together has changed how our practice runs. Mili’s meeting prep and planning agents have become significantly better with Egnyte data behind them.”

Chirag Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO of Mili, said, “How many clients an advice firm can serve well has long been capped. It is set by the work of understanding each client’s financial life. Agentic AI is changing that, helping advice firms uplift client capacity by accelerating the delivery of high-quality advice.”

Kyle Blair, Director of Global Financial Services at Egnyte, said, “Egnyte helps financial services firms accelerate critical business operations by turning document-heavy tasks into faster, connected, and revenue-generating workflows. Our partnership enables Mili’s AI agents to securely access and work on customer data within Egnyte for better business outcomes.”

The integration is live for mutual customers. Building on Mili’s work with hundreds of advice firms, it aims to put a firm’s full client knowledge into its advice.

About Egnyte

Egnyte is a leader in secure content collaboration, intelligence, and governance, trusted by more than 23,000 customers to increase employee productivity, drive operational efficiencies, and secure mission-critical content. Egnyte’s AI-powered platform empowers organizations to create, share, and protect their information at scale, with specialized solutions designed to meet the unique needs of organizations in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC), financial services, life sciences, and other industries. For more information, visit www.egnyte.com.

About Mili

Mili is an AI platform for wealth management firms. Its specialized agents automate advisor workflows across meetings, prospecting, onboarding, planning, data management, document intelligence, and compliance. Mili is SOC 2 certified, ISO 27001 compliant, and works with RIAs and broker-dealers managing $250B+ in client assets. Learn more at getmili.ai.

Media Contact

Chirag Gandhi
chirag@getmili.ai

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mili-and-egnyte-partner-to-put-client-documents-to-work-in-financial-advice-302915772.html

SOURCE Mili

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QUANTUM CONNECTIONS PROMOTES JAMES “JAMIE” GRIFFETH TO CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND DIRECTOR OF THE DIALOGUE TRAINING INSTITUTE

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DALLAS, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Quantum Connections® has promoted James “Jamie” Griffeth to Chief Operating Officer. Griffeth joined the organization in September of 2025 as Chief Learning Officer and will continue to serve as Director of the Dialogue Training Institute in addition to his new responsibilities.

Since joining Quantum Connections, Griffeth has focused on the organization’s learning mission. He designed a four-tier practitioner credentialing framework, architected the Quantum Dialogue Profile behavioral assessment, led the migration to a new enterprise learning management system, and built the organization’s localization pipeline—delivering that training in French Canadian with Spanish and Chinese queued as next languages.

Griffeth’s expanded role brings together organizational operations and learning leadership around multiple goals: maintaining the company’s infrastructure in ways that align with its mission, expanding the certified leadership network, and continuing to make dialogue skills easier to access, practice, and apply in everyday life.

“Jamie has earned my complete trust and admiration thorough his exceptional leadership, strategic thinking, and ability to turn vision into execution.” Said Dr. Jonathan Thorp, Chief Executive Officer of Quantum Connections. “When I asked him to success me as Chief Learning Officer, I already knew he was capable of great things. His performance has only reinforced that confidence. I’m delighted to recognize his contribution with this promotion and look forward to partnering with him as we continue building the future of Quantum Connections.”

Griffeth will continue to support Quantum Connections’ mission by preparing the company for sustainable growth while maintaining the quality and consistency of its learning experiences. By linking program delivery to assessments and evidence, Griffeth aims to use technology to expand its reach to more partners and clients, helping them understand how to apply dialogue skills and the outcomes that follow.

About Quantum Connections
Quantum Connections, founded by renowned relationship experts Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D., leverages over 40 years of expertise to provide individuals and organizations with invaluable relational competency skills rooted in neuro and quantum social sciences. Quantum Connections serves small businesses, large corporations, global faith communities, educational institutions, and community organizations, as well as individuals, couples, and families, offering live and on-demand training, coaching certification, and resources to foster authentic connections through effective communication and skill development.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quantum-connections-promotes-james-jamie-griffeth-to-chief-operating-officer-and-director-of-the-dialogue-training-institute-302915777.html

SOURCE Quantum Connections LLC

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