Biotech

Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AbbVie logo in this illustration taken on May 21, 2021.Dado Ruvic | ReutersBiotech stocks rose Thursday as AbbVie announced plans to buy cancer drug developer ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion. Shares of ImmunoGen jumped more than 80% Thursday, putting it on track for its highest close since November 2000. Meanwhile, AbbVie's stock rose more than 2%. ImmunoGen develops cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, which are designed to directly kill cancer cells and spare…

Scientists use harmless viruses to ferry and insert the new genetic material because of their natural ability to get inside cells. But the potential for these viruses to accidentally trigger another cancer has long been considered a theoretical risk. In its notice, the FDA said the use of these viruses may have played a role in patients developing secondary cancers.The downside of using viruses is that they tend to drop off their genetic cargo at a random place in a person’s genome. Depending on where this new genetic…

European biotech startup Cradle raised $24 million, gaining funds for its effort to use AI to help scientists design and engineer proteins faster and more cost-effectively.Index Ventures led the Series A round, joined by Kindred Capital, Chris Gibson, the co-founder of Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Tom Glocer, the former chief executive officer of Thomson Reuters Corp. and a Merck & Co. board member, Cradle said Tuesday. The startup has raised a total of $33 million so far, including a seed round last year.…

In early studies, Loyal dosed 130 research dogs with its investigational drug. Halioua says the company has shown that it can reduce IGF-1 levels in large dogs to those seen in medium-size dogs. Two dogs had loose stools for a day or two after receiving the injection, but beyond that, Halioua says, no major side effects have been observed.To determine the drug’s effect on lifespan, the company is planning a bigger study that will start in 2024 or 2025, and enroll about 1,000 large and giant breed companion dogs that are…

It has been nearly a year since OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT on the world, and it seems as if no one (at least in tech) has stopped talking about generative AI since. Meanwhile, the applications of GenAI go way beyond chatbots and copyright-grey-area image ‘artistry’.  For instance, Cradle, a biotech software startup out of Delft, Netherlands, is using it to help biologists engineer improved proteins, making it easier and quicker to bring synthetic bio-solutions for human and planetary health to…

Last week, in a global milestone for medicine, U.K. regulators approved the first-ever CRISPR gene-editing drug. The treatment, from Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics, will be licensed under the brand name Casgevy in the U.K. for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta thalassemia. The regulatory green light abroad isn’t surprising given the therapy’s established record of clinical trial success in treating these painful, and sometimes fatal, inherited blood disorders. But it marks a historic turning point for…

MIT researchers that can monitor vital signs including heart rate and breathing patterns from within a patient’s GI tract. The scientists also say that the novel device has the potential to also be used to detect signs of respiratory depression during an opioid overdose. , an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT who has been working on developing a range of ingestible sensors, told Engadget that the device will be especially useful for sleep studies.Conventionally, sleep studies require patients to be…

In a trial run by , a Cambridge–based biotech company, researchers discovered that a single infusion of a gene-editing treatment called VERVE-101 was able to reduce cholesterol levels in patients. This treatment was tested in individuals with hereditary conditions that made them susceptible to developing clogged arteries and heart attacks. Scientists were able to use techniques to tweak liver gene cells. The researchers a cholesterol-raising gene called PCSK9, which is found in the liver, in order to lower — sometimes…

In sickle cell disease, abnormal hemoglobin makes a person’s blood cells hard and crescent-shaped. These misshapen cells clump together and block blood flow to organs, causing bouts of extreme pain. The cells then die off early, leaving a lack of healthy red blood cells, or anemia.Beta thalassemia also causes anemia because the body makes less hemoglobin than normal.People with life-threatening beta thalassemia need blood transfusions every three to five weeks and other medications throughout their lifetime.“Both sickle…

“At the risk of sounding arrogant, I would say one of my greatest and ongoing challenges stems from being ahead of my time,” Dr. Todd explains. “My vision for medicine is, on occasion, years ahead of clinical practice. As such, I need to dig deep to find the patience and perseverance to see things through.”While Dr. Todd is always looking ahead at what’s coming next for diagnostic medicine, she’s also looking at the next generation of scientists and the changes that need to happen in the industry (and the world itself) in…