More News! 11 Oct 2019 RNA Therapy Improves Vision in Untreatable Genetic Blindness A phase I/II trial run by the Dutch company ProQR has found that its RNA therapy could significantly improve the vision of people with Leber’s congenital amaurosis, a rare genetic disease for which there is no treatment. The RNA drug, called sepofarsen, is designed to treat people with a specific mutation in a gene […] October 11, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 3 Jul 2019 Meet the First Company in the Brand New Field of Epitranscriptomics A whole new therapeutic area is taking medical research by storm. In Cambridge, UK, the company Storm Therapeutics is leading the development of the first treatments to target a new layer of genetic information encoded in the RNA. The term ‘epitranscriptomics’ did not exist a decade ago. It was coined in 2012, when scientists started […] July 3, 2019 - 5 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 May 2019 Update: British RNA Biotech Increases Series A to €34M Update (20/05/19): Storm Therapeutics has increased its series A financing round by an additional €16M (£14M) to €34M (£30M), which the company plans to use to advance its pipeline of RNA focused drug candidates towards the clinic. Seroba Life Sciences, an Irish VC focusing on new and innovative therapies, is the key new investor. Existing […] May 20, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 May 2019 RNAi Therapy Smashes Solid Tumors in Preclinical Tests Developed by the UK biotech Celixir, a therapy based on silencing genes with RNA molecules in a process called RNAi has shrunk tumors by 50% in culture. Although there are lots of innovative cancer treatments in the market, such as CAR T-cell therapy for blood cancer, solid tumors remain difficult to tackle. For this reason, […] May 14, 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 11 Dec 2018 UK Biotech Settles Lawsuit on the First RNAi Drug Silence Therapeutics and Alnylam have reached a settlement that puts an end to a legal dispute between them resulting in Silence receiving some royalties on Onpattro, the first RNA interference drug. The lawsuit started last year, when Silence went to the UK courts claiming that Alnylam was infringing on its intellectual property. As part of […] December 11, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Sep 2018 RNA Therapy Shows Promise for Treating Liver Cancer British biotech MiNA Therapeutics’ innovative RNA treatment may enhance liver cancer patients’ response to standard cancer therapies, suggest early results from a Phase I/IIa clinical trial. When they received the biotech’s small activating RNA (saRNA) treatment, two patients showed complete responses after being given the cancer treatment sorafenib and one showed a partial response to […] September 20, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Sep 2018 RNA Therapy Improves Vision in Patients with Rare Genetic Blindness Dutch company ProQR has released data from a Phase I/II trial showing its RNA therapy can improve the vision of people with a rare form of hereditary blindness. The clinical trial recruited 10 people with the rare disease Leber’s congenital amaurosis 10. Caused by mutations in a gene called CEP290, this condition leads to […] September 5, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 30 Aug 2018 First RNAi Drug Approved in Europe After 20 Years of Research The first ever RNA interference (RNAi) drug, used to treat polyneuropathy in patients with hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis, has been given marketing approval by the European Commision. The approval follows that of the US FDA who gave the green light to US biotech Alnylam Pharmaceutical’s Onpattro (patisiran) earlier this month following positive Phase III findings in […] August 30, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Aug 2018 New Gene Therapy Could Treat Cystic Fibrosis With One Dose A new partnership in the UK will develop a gene therapy for cystic fibrosis that could treat the disease with a single dose. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that causes mucus to build up in a patient’s lungs. As a result, patients suffer from blocked airways and bacterial infections. While treatment advances have increased […] August 6, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alexander Burik Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 12 Mar 2018 A Dutch Company on the Quest Against Cystic Fibrosis ProQR is the result of a personal quest against cystic fibrosis started by its CEO, Daniel de Boer. Interested in his story and the company’s unique approach to treating the disease using RNA technology, I decided to speak with him. Daniel de Boer founded ProQR in 2012 following a strong determination to improve the lives […] March 12, 2018 - 6 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Mar 2018 French Biotech Uses Natural Peptides to Boost Plant Growth and Immunity Micropep Technologies, a Toulouse-based biotech, has raised €4M to develop peptides that boost plant growth and disease resistance by regulating gene expression. Micropep Technologies has raised a Series A funding with the support of two new investors, Sofinnova Partners, the largest industrial biotech fund in the world, and Irdi Soridec Gestion. The company aims to use the funding […] March 6, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alexander Burik Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email