News and Trends 14 May 2019 First Potential Gene Therapy for Hemophilia B Restores Blood Clotting in Phase II A gene therapy developed by the Dutch biotech uniQure increased the activity of a blood clotting protein enough to stop bleeds in patients with the blood disorder hemophilia B. Hemophilia B is a rare genetic condition in which patients have a mutation in the blood clotting protein factor IX (FIX), reducing its activity below 6% […] May 14, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 30 Apr 2019 Orchard’s Gene Therapy Shows Potential in Treating Patients with Beta Thalassemia Patients with the life-threatening blood disorder beta-thalassemia required fewer blood transfusions after receiving a gene therapy developed by the UK company Orchard Therapeutics, with four out of nine no longer depending on transfusions. Beta thalassemia is a genetic disorder that affects hemoglobin, a protein that blood cells use to carry oxygen. In the most severe […] April 30, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 25 Apr 2019 European Biotechnology in 2019 and Beyond: What’s Hot and What’s Not? We spend a lot of time focusing on specific developments in biotechnology, but sometimes it’s good to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. With this in mind, I asked three experts at our recent Refresh event in Vienna to share what is hot in European biotech right now and what trends […] April 25, 2019 - 11 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 20 Mar 2019 Unlocking the Potential of Fast DNA Synthesis While the price and speed of reading DNA have dropped massively, writing DNA fast and affordably still remains a challenge. Philip talked to Sylvain Gariel, COO of the French company DNA Script, who strives to reinvent DNA synthesis. DNA has become a basic necessity in any biology lab. Thanks to new technologies we can now […] March 20, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Mar 2019 Microsoft Aims to Make Cell Therapies Cheaper with Artificial Intelligence Microsoft has launched a collaboration with the UK company Oxford BioMedica to use Microsoft’s artificial intelligence technology to make gene and cell therapy manufacturing easier and cheaper. Genetically programming cells and viruses to make cell and gene therapies is not as simple as programming a computer. Organisms have many layers of complexity and unpredictability, sometimes […] March 14, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Mar 2019 Biogen Acquires UK Biotech Developing Gene Therapy for Blindness The big US biotech Biogen has agreed to acquire Nightstar Therapeutics for €773M ($877M), including Nightstar’s candidate gene therapies for inherited blindness. Expected to be complete by mid-2019, Biogen’s acquisition of Nightstar bags it the UK company’s most advanced program. Currently in phase III, the therapy targets choroidemia, an incurable genetic condition which causes progressive […] March 4, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 28 Jan 2019 5 Real-Life Technologies Where Biotech Meets Science Fiction From genetic engineering to synthetic food and immortality, biotech is getting surprisingly close to recreating science fiction in real life. Science fiction is always a step ahead of real-life science. The genre imagined space travel, wireless communication and virtual reality years before they became a reality. In fact, sci-fi has coined some scientific terms […] January 28, 2019 - 6 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Jan 2019 Topical Gene Therapy Shows Early Promise for Inherited Skin Disease A gene therapy applied to the skin, developed by UK company Amryt Pharma, showed positive preclinical results for the treatment of a rare genetic skin disease. The disease, called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), is one of a group of diseases in which sufferers have mutations in proteins vital to the integrity of the […] January 8, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 24 Dec 2018 Looking Back on 2018: Our 10 Most Popular Interviews As 2018 draws to a close and our thoughts are torn between holiday plans and what the new year may bring, we decided to look back and revisit the people and the stories that attracted our readers the most during the year. These were well received the first time around, so we thought you might […] December 24, 2018 - 8 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Dec 2018 Italian Biotech Raises Big Series A for ‘Gene Therapy 2.0’ Altheia Science, based in Milan, has raised €17M to fund the development of gene therapies for autoimmune diseases with the remarkable potential to be curative. “The success of our fundraising campaign is unprecedented over a Series A in Italy,” said Paolo Rizzardi, co-founder and CEO of Altheia. The funds will go towards taking the company’s […] December 19, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 11 Dec 2018 Easy as ATCG: Commercialization of DNA as Data Storage You could be storing information in DNA sooner than you might think. Although the technology is still quite early — the first video encoded in DNA, revealed last year, was quite simple — the rate at which the cost of writing DNA is going down might make DNA data storage a reality in the coming […] December 11, 2018 - 5 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Dec 2018 Orchard’s Gene Therapy for Rare Immune Disease Works for Over a Year A single dose of a gene therapy developed by Orchard Therapeutics can restore immune function for at least a year in patients with X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (X-CGD). The gene therapy was trialed in patients between the ages of 2 and 27 with the rare disease, which is caused by a rare genetic mutation that […] December 7, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email