That's quite a stretch

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Phase 3 trial for mRNA melanoma vaccine proves successful; all about the cocktail secret ingredient known as pastis; new study says music can alter the taste of food; and study finds music can impact perception of how food tastes.

Let’s get into it!

Pastis is one of the most common and revered aperitifs in France, with mixologists and sommeliers often wanting to share it with the world.

Along the Napa River, Angèle Restaurant & Bar shares the secret weapon of the two-ingredient cocktail with its guests, featuring it in three recommended beverages near the top of the menu: Mauresque, Perroquet, and Tomate

“In France, the aperitif is not just a drink, it is a ritual,” said Kelly Mitchell-Jacks, general manager of Angèle. “It signals that the evening has begun, opens the palate, and invites the appetite. [Pastis] is a classic aperitif—part of the rhythm of daily life in France in a way that feels both simple and ceremonial.

For the Mauresque, it’s a nutty orgeat syrup that gives the drink a cloudy almond look, and it tastes like it looks; the Perroquet is green and cloudy, thanks to the minty syrup it calls for; and the Tomate requires a pomegranate-based grenadine that “earns its name from the warm red hue it takes on in the glass,” according to Mitchell-Jacks.

The phase 3 trial for Merck and Moderna’s mRNA melanoma vaccine was a major success, according to those who worked on it.

The vaccine has been in testing all year, with Stake reporting on the successful results of the previous trial in August.

Phase 3 involved 1,137 patients who’d all had melanoma tumors surgically removed. All of them were given pembrolizumab, an existing therapy designed to prevent the reoccurrence of the cancer.

Two thirds of patients were also given the therapeutic mRNA vaccine, which is designed to train the body’s immune system to recognize a future melanoma threat and destroy it. The remaining patients were given a placebo.

The trial found after two years, 82% of those who were given both pembrolizumab and the mRNA vaccine were alive and without melanoma. 70% of those who received pembrolizumab but not the vaccine were alive and melanoma-free.

“I’m not one prone to exaggeration, but this really is a very, very big leap forward in cancer,” said the trial’s principal investigator Professor Georgina Long, who herself is partly responsible for the existing therapies that make melanoma survivable.

A study conducted by the Department of Food Science used MRI scans to assess the way the brain reacts when a person is both tasting food and listening to music.

Past studies have suggested certain types of music can enhance the taste of food, but such studies were anecdotal. This one proved the concept by measuring activity in participants’ brains while they ate, listened to music, did each separately, and did each simultaneously.

"When music reaches the ears at the same time as we are eating, we can see that the brain responds more strongly than when taste is experienced without music," said first author and postdoctoral researcher Alberte Baggesgaard Seeberg from the Department of Food Science.

The study demonstrated it’s possible that slow and harmonious pop music can make food taste sweeter. When played for participants while they ate sweets, that type of music enhanced taste-processing activity.

How sweet it is!

Slash’s first and eponymous solo record came out in 2010, and featured a dozen guest singers, including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Fergie, Adam Levine, and others.

One of the others was Myles Kennedy, who ultimately became the frontman of Slash feat. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators.

“It started off, just with Myles,” Slash told Ultimate Classic Rock. “[We] had an instant spark on that first solo record that I did."

Over the next couple of years, the Conspirators were almost summoned one by one, creating one of the most versatile yet under-the-radar rock ‘n roll bands of the 21st century.

"I was looking for drummers and, you know, I know all the drummers in L.A., but somehow there was this guy named Brent Fitz that someone told me…We jammed, and he was the perfect drummer.

Spooktacular part 3

Next stop on the spooky train…music! How many scary songs and lyrics do you remember? Find out, when you play today’s trivia!