Genetics

Touchlight, a company providing DNA services and manufacturing enzymes, has completed the redevelopment and expansion of its UK manufacturing facility in London, UK.   The expanded facility’s manufacturing capacity has tripled and is now capable of producing more than 8kg a year. This exceeds the current, but growing, global supply of plasmid DNA for genetic medicine, […]

Researchers have identified two previously unknown genes linked to schizophrenia and newly implicated a third gene as carrying risk for both schizophrenia and autism. Led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the multi-centre study further demonstrated that the schizophrenia risk conferred by these rare damaging variants is conserved across ethnicities. The study […]

Aera Therapeutics has launched with a vision to “unlock the potential of genetic medicines across a wide range of modalities and therapeutic areas”.   The company’s delivery platform is based on research conducted in the laboratory of scientific founder Feng Zhang and aims to address the limitations of today’s delivery technologies to more broadly enable new […]

This is the latest episode of the free narrated DDW podcast, “Is genomic data the new frontier in drug discovery?” It covers two articles written for Volume 23, Issue 1 – Winter 2021/22 of DDW. They are called “Genomics boosts understanding of Covid-19 severity and susceptibility” and “Rare variant contribution to human disease”. The Covid-19 […]

A new study has provided the first detailed genetic insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).   This is the first time that replicable genetic findings have been reported in over 30 years of study into the disease, potentially offering new approaches for better diagnosis and treatment of patients.  The results were […]

The University of California, Davis, has received over $12 million from the National Institutes of Health for the third and final five-year phase of the Knockout Mouse Phenotyping Project (KOMP2). ‘Knockout’ mice are bred in a laboratory with specific genes silenced or ‘knocked out’. They have been valuable tools for research on a wide range of […]

Scientists modelling the cancer-suppressing p53 gene identify how the 20 different molecules unique to elephants get activated for increased sensitivity and response against carcinogenic conditions – with implications for cancer treatments in humans. Scientists from seven research institutions including the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh have used pioneering bioinformatic modelling to investigate […]

A partnership between life sciences companies PrecisionLife and Sano Genetics aims to drive insights into the genetics of long Covid and potentially identify new treatments.    The companies will analyse Sano Genetics’ data of 3,000 adults suffering from long Covid symptoms using PrecisionLife’s combinatorial analytics platform to identify risk-factors and potential drug targets.    The […]

Michael Henderson, MD, Chief Business Officer of BridgeBio Pharma, tells Lu Rahman about the company’s pursuit of transformative medicines to treat genetic diseases. BridgeBio’s mission is to discover, create, test and deliver transformative medicines to treat patients who suffer from genetic diseases and cancers with clear genetic drivers as quickly and safely as possible. “To do […]

News round-up by DDW’s Reece Armstrong for 18-22 April    Covid-19, the link between ageing and genetic mutations, alongside funding opportunities for drug developers are some of the themes of this week’s news round-up.   1: Researchers shed light on ageing in new study   Animals with a large difference in lifespan and size end their natural lives […]