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June 2016 Volume 12, Issue 6

Volume 12, Issue 6 | June 2016

In this Issue

Clinical Trials

Accelerating oncology trials

M2Gen partners with pharmas and ORIEN to speed targeted trials for advanced-stage cancers

EMA looks to improve safety of first-in-human trials

Reflection on changes to best practices begins in wake of French clinical trial tragedy

Working toward a fibroid solution

Repros Therapeutics’ Proellex appears to reduce bleeding in women with uterine fibroids

A status update on SRSE efforts

SAGE-457 shows efficacy in treating severe seizure disorder and advances to Phase 3 trial

End to end for imaging and workflows

Medidata’s acquisition of Intelemage seeks in part to improve data and image handling for clinical trials

Discovery

Partners to advance early-stage discovery

FEI teams with five pharmas, MRC and University of Cambridge to form Cryo-EM Research Consortium

Unlocking memory’s mysteries

TSRI study identifies common fruit fly gene with implications in strengthening memory

Exploring synergy in immunology

Aduro and UC Berkeley seek to accelerate treatment and prevention of cancer, infectious and autoimmune diseases

A homegrown partnership

U.K. companies Kymab and Heptares partner on GPCRs against cancer

Editor's Focus

The diseases are rare, corporate maneuvers are not; balance must be key

Rare diseases, like M&As and creative collaboration deals before them, present opportunities for pharmas and biotechs to boost their bottom lines, but there is a risk of tunnel vision (and plenty of precedent for it as well) of which we must remain wary

Commentary

Thin really does matter after all

Some might argue that saying 'thin is in' with regard to humans is a matter of size discrimination, but in science and technology, thin can make all the difference in the world for better results

Guest Commentary: Back to cancer’s drawing board

Decades after the precision medicine revolution began, it is worth assessing whether the evidence still supports genomics as the primary pillar upon which to understand cancer and make treatment decisions

Feature

Commentary: Identification of durable, assessable biomarker signatures for parasite-induced cholangiocarcinoma

Biomarkers that are present in body fluids have the potential to form the basis of affordable diagnostic tests to detect diseases in their earliest stages and monitor disease progression (and allow vital treatment where early intervention is crucial or diagnosis currently difficult), and neglected tropical diseases are provided here as an example.