Genomics

ERS Genomics and ZeClinics have announced a non-exclusive license agreement granting ZeClinics access to ERS Genomics’ CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio. ERS Genomics was formed to provide broad access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property co-owned by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier. ZeClinics is a contract research organisation using zebrafish to carry out services focused on analysing the safety, […]

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 virus variants highlight the need for better genomic monitoring of the virus, says Katia Koelle, Associate Professor of Biology at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. “Improved genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 across states would really help us to better understand how the virus causing the pandemic is evolving and spreading in the United […]

The COVID-19 antiviral race: we’re all in this together By Uduak Grace Thomas In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, international scientists from academia and industry have pooled their expertise and resources to identify candidate compounds that inhibit the activity of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, in order to develop a clinically effective antiviral. The aptly named […]

The Personalized Medicine Coalition The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider, and payer communities, seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. As part of its mission, the PMC publishes The Case for Personalized Medicine. Since the first […]

Collaborative Research Leads To New Understanding Of Biomarkers By Dr Max Ryadnov and Professor Jason Crain A new collaborative research paper sheds light on the way antibodies distinguish between different but closely related ‘biomarkers’ – in this case protein fragments which reveal information about the condition of the human body. This new understanding could enable […]

Phenotypic Drug Discovery With High Content Screening Sponsored by PerkinElmer Early drug discovery used to be conducted mainly in a target-agnostic fashion, focusing on qualitative readouts from a living system – cells, tissue, or organisms – and asking the question, did this entity affect the phenotype? Target Based or Phenotypic Screening? With the rise of […]

TTP Labtech Ltd, a global leader in the design and development of automated instrumentation and consumables for life science applications, has announced its corporate name change to SPT Labtech effective from January 6, 2020. The change of name is a contractual requirement of its divestment from TTP Group in 2018 with the backing of technology-focused […]

A team of British and American scientists has discovered a way to slow the growth of breast cancer stem cells in the lab. The study led by Dr Bruno Simões and Professor Rob Clarke from The University of Manchester could eventually lead to combination drug therapies on previously untreatable breast cancers. Around three quarters of […]

Image: Joshua Coleman According to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), pharmaceutical companies should stockpile six weeks’ worth of goods “to help ensure the continuity of supply of medical goods into and out of the UK”. In a letter to the industry Steve Oldfield, Chief Commercial Officer, acknowledges the impact of COVID-19 on the sector […]

Image: Ani Kolleshi The US Department of Defence (DOD) has awarded Evotec’s Seattle-based subsidiary, Just-Evotec Biologics a contract worth $18.2 million to develop monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for treatment and/or prevention of COVID-19 Under the contract, Just–Evotec Biologics will design a manufacturing process for the production of Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) clinical supplies of two […]

30 July 2020 Image: Sven Mieke Genes linked to ageing that could help explain why some people age at different rates to others have been identified by scientists. The international study using genetic data from more than a million people suggests that maintaining healthy levels of iron in the blood could be a key to […]

Some of the most promising advances in cancer treatment have centred on immunotherapies that rev up a patient’s immune system to attack cancer. However, immunotherapies don’t work in all patients, and researchers have been searching for ways to increase their effectiveness. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have combined two immunotherapy strategies […]

British Patient Capital is committing $65m to SV Health Investors’ latest fund, SV7 Impact Medicine Fund (IMF), to turn scientific breakthroughs into biotech companies producing high impact precision medicine drugs for poorly treated diseases. The commitment increases British Patient Capital’s exposure to life sciences and health technology, building on a commitment to the Dementia Discovery […]

27 July 2020 Image: Michael Dziedzic New survey results from the Pistoia Alliance, the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) and QuPharm show almost one third of life science organisations polled are set to begin quantum computing evaluation this year. A further 39% are planning to evaluate next year or have quantum computing ‘on their radar’, […]

Understanding Animal Research (UAR), which promotes openness about animal research, has released a list of the ten organisations in Great Britain that carry out the highest number of animal procedures in medical, veterinary and scientific research. These statistics are freely available on the organisations’ websites as part of their ongoing commitment to transparency and openness […]

21 July 2020 Image: Anshu A Thanks to seed financing from Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) and Evotec, Quantro Therapeutics will generate a drug discovery pipeline, aiming to transform the precision and scope of cell-based compound screens. With the introduction of ‘Transcriptional Fingerprinting’ to drug discovery, Quantro intends to revamp the scope of pharmacologic interventions […]