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March 2018 Volume 14, Issue 3

Volume 14, Issue 3 | March 2018

In this Issue

Discovery

An ‘intelligent’ approach

AI and machine-learning approaches seem to be an industry theme for Q1 2018

Working the crowd

Open-access communities launch to support drug discovery efforts

Compugen catches a new checkpoint

Discovery of ILDR2 as a novel immune checkpoint and potential for autoimmune diseases published in back-to-back papers

Getting the ‘Akt’ straight in angiogenesis

Sanford Burnham team details how the R-Ras/Akt pathway triggers and supports new blood vessel growth

Pushing paper

A roundup of discovery-related research published recently in journals

Research & Development

‘Virus-cracking’ molecules

Indiana University team fights hepatitis B

Protein power

New methods emerge to manufacture therapeutic proteins

Have a (mouse) heart!

Single-cell characterization of non-myocyte heart cells offers new insights into structure and function

Are immortalized stem cells poor surrogates?

Deleted gene that immortalizes MSCs may be critical to their function

Corning introduces new dissolvable microcarriers

Product offering is designed for improved large-scale cell expansion

Pieris and Seattle Genetics announce immuno-oncology collaboration

Companies to evaluate novel bispecific agents combining anticalin technology with select antibodies

Preclinical

Tag team against Usher syndrome

Foundation Fighting Blindness and ProQR enter into a partnership to develop QR-421a for genetic disease

‘Not just science, but an art form’

Kinase inhibitor may prove useful in treating rare genetic disease

In with the new

RWTH explores biohybrid development and digital notebook option

Double the good news

BioLineRx’s BL-8040 and AGI-134 programs boost survival in preclinical studies

China- and U.S.-bound for RX-0201

Rexahn announces collaboration with Zhejiang Haichang Biotechnology for development of Archexin to treat hepatocellular carcinoma

A deal for artificial lymph node technology

ProBioGen and TEVA enter into research license deal on tech to assess drug effects on the immune system

Feature

Spotlight on Oncology

New discoveries in cancer-related targets and pathways, plus other recent news in oncology R&D and clinical trials

Special Focus on Neuroscience and Neurology

Looking at recent cutting-edge research in potential therapeutics for neurological conditions, plus additional news on autism breakthroughs, addiction treatment and more

Editor's Focus

Editor’s focus: So much to share

A tour of what we have to offer you in our largest-ever issue of the magazine, from neurology to oncology and plenty of other places in the pharma and biotech world

Contract Services

Coming together in contract services

A roundup of mergers and alliance deals in the contract services and pharma consulting spaces

Innovate UK confident in Cobra

Cobra Biologics receives two separate grants from British innovation funder

Presenting a plan for growth

Vetter introduces South Korea’s pharma and biotech community to company management

Kicking up clinical capture

IACT Health selects Alpha Clinical Systems ACS360 e-source platform for trial data capture

Business & Government Policy

NHGRI: Seeing 2020

Strategic plan aims to engage experts and diverse communities to identify paradigm-shifting areas of genomics

Supporting science startups

Elsevier welcomes six biotech and pharma companies to The Hive

On the cutting edge

A roundup of instrumentation, software and other tools and technology news

Patent Docs: The CRISPR chronicles

The Broad Institute wins one and loses one

FDA approves record number of personalized medicines in 2017

Personalized medicines now account for more than one in four new drug approvals

Clinical Trials

Viral suppression

Study investigates two new drugs for HIV

Replacing a needle with a pill

Allergan achieves positive top-line Phase 3 results for oral CGRP receptor antagonist targeting acute treatment of migraine

A digital path for studies

TriNetX tech helps Sanofi streamline clinical trial protocols, improve efficiency and extend digital strategy

Out of the starting gate

A roundup of clinical trial startups and initial breakthroughs

Diagnostics

A new ‘path’ for Parsortix

ANGLE and Abbott seek blood test for metastatic breast cancer

A novel companion biomarker for glaucoma

Q BioMed signs exclusive option with Washington University related to growth differentiation factor-15

Money for MeMed

$4M grant awarded to support transfer to manufacturing of MeMed’s pioneering point-of-care platform

microRNAs for earlier diagnosis?

Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s team identifies set of seven microRNAs that could detect early-stage ovarian cancer

FDA approval for Hologic’s Aptima

Assay for quantitation of hepatitis B viral load receives pre-market approval

Commentary

Many discoveries and new fields come and go (when it comes to noteworthiness and newsworthiness) in the life sciences, but perhaps the microbiome will be something of a different nature, both in terms of notoriety, complexity and impact for many years to come