Interview 5 Feb 2020 Harnessing Genetic Suppression to Treat Rare Disease Through quirks of genetics, some people are naturally resilient to heritable diseases. Thijn Brummelkamp, Managing Director and founder of the Dutch startup Scenic Biotech, explains how the company is using this genetic resilience to treat rare diseases and cancer. Heritable diseases result from genetic mutations that cause essential proteins in the body to malfunction. For […] February 5, 2020 - 5 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Feb 2020 Swiss Biotech Raises €16M to Treat Autism Spectrum Disorder Stalicla has bagged €16.3M in a Series A round to test drugs repurposed using AI for the treatment of autism spectrum disorder in phase I. The round consists of a recent €7M (CHF 7.7M) closing and an initial first tranche of €9.3M (CHF 10M) raised last year. The investors in the latest closing were not […] February 4, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 3 Feb 2020 CureVac Bids to Develop First mRNA Coronavirus Vaccine RNA vaccine developer CureVac will receive a grant of up to €8.3M from a global partnership to develop an mRNA vaccine against the new coronavirus strain from China. The agreement follows on from an existing collaboration launched in 2019, when the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, granted CureVac €30M to develop facilities that […] February 3, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Feb 2020 Cardior Pharmaceuticals’ Heart Failure Drug Shows Curative Potential German biotech company Cardior Pharmaceuticals’ candidate heart failure drug has the potential to stop the condition in its tracks, according to early studies in animal models. At present, treatments for heart failure, including ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, and diuretics, target the symptoms of the disease, such as high blood pressure, rather than the actual cause. […] February 1, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 31 Jan 2020 AI-Designed Drug Enters Phase I to Treat OCD A drug designed by the UK firm Exscientia using AI-powered software has entered into a phase I clinical trial for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, commonly known as OCD. The clinical development of the drug will be carried out by Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Exscientia’s Japanese collaborator. The drug took just 12 months to get to […] January 31, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 31 Jan 2020 This Cancer Immunotherapy Attacks the Sugar Coat of Tumor Cells The Portuguese company CellmAbs is developing cancer immunotherapies that prevent tumor cells from evading the immune system by hitting sugar molecules on their surface. Mission: To develop drugs that bind with a type of sugar molecules only found on the surface of cancer cells called aberrant glycans. Some of these aberrant glycans are able to […] January 31, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 30 Jan 2020 Austrian Genomics Company Joins Fight Against Coronavirus Ares Genetics will use next-generation sequencing technology from the Chinese genomics company BGI Group to track and control the spread of a new coronavirus originating in China. A new strain of coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV and originating in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has caused widespread concern in recent weeks. While only 20% of people with […] January 30, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Jan 2020 Oxitec Unveils First Field Trial Results for Crop-Protecting GM Moths A study led by Oxitec has shown for the first time that diamondback moths genetically engineered to produce only male offspring can survive in the wild, a solution that shows promise for cutting populations of the crop pest. Caterpillars of the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella are one of the most destructive pests for growers of […] January 29, 2020 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 28 Jan 2020 10 Scientists Behind Modern Biotech You Probably Don’t Know The modern biotech industry is a multi-million euro business, but who are the Europeans behind the science that made the industry what it is today? Here are 10 scientists, engineers and healthcare professionals we think you should know about. Over the last 25 years, biotech has become a burgeoning worldwide industry. It only became the […] January 28, 2020 - 8 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Jan 2020 A Future Gene Therapy Could Be Delivered in Tiny ‘Nanocontainers’ A Swiss research group has developed tiny plastic particles that could carry gene therapies to the center of the cell with less risk of getting attacked by the immune system than conventional gene therapies. The majority of gene therapies in use today are delivered to the DNA of target cells using viral vectors. While efficient […] January 28, 2020 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Jan 2020 UK Startup Snaps up Potential Universal Cancer Immunotherapy The cancer vaccine developer Ervaxx has licensed a preclinical-stage ‘universal’ cancer immunotherapy based on the recent discovery of a new strain of immune T-cells at Cardiff University, UK. Last week, a team led by researchers at Cardiff University published research about T-cells capable of hunting a wide range of cancers including leukemia and melanoma. Experiments […] January 27, 2020 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Expert Advice 27 Jan 2020 Five Reasons Why Biotech Startups Fail: How to Avoid Them Biotech startups are a high-risk venture and many do not reach the final line. Experts explain what the most common reasons for failure are and what can be done to avoid them. You might have heard that only 10% of startups make it. Well, biotech startups can have it even harder. Unlike the typical tech […] January 27, 2020 - 9 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email