Drug Discovery

A new hyaluronic acid hydrogen therapy, tested in large animals, shows protective function in injured articular cartilage at synovial joints. This biocompatible sealant material interlocks with the tissue, providing mechanical fortification and chemical cues that cause injected stem cells to stick at the affected site and attract matrix to further seal the injured site.

The surge in facility expansions involves not vaccines or large-market mAbs but cell and gene therapies and small-volume mAbs.

Digital technology is helping contractors handle customers’ manufacturing projects more efficiently and effectively.

Deal provides Resilience with 300 skilled employees and over 200,000 sq. ft of manufacturing, office, process development, quality assurance, and quality control space.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet Wednesday to review the cases and assess their potential significance. The FDA also plans to investigate those cases, and will review the CDC’s analysis, the agencies said.

Icosavax's virus-like particle (VLP) technology, developed at UW’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD), is designed to address a challenge that has impeded wider use of VLP vaccines: How to construct and manufacture VLPs capable of displaying complex viral antigens that have been difficult to successfully produce at scale, including for RSV and hMPV.

Medulloblastoma is the most common high-grade brain tumor in children. New preclinical research in human tissue samples, human cell lines, and mice by scientists at the Queen Mary University of London demonstrates a new strategy to starving tumor cells of energy to prevent further growth. The new findings could potentially lead to changes in how some patients are treated if confirmed in human clinical trials.

On the first day of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, the synthetic biology company Synlogic presented data from a Phase I trial of their immunotherapy drug, SYNB1891. The drug, which consists of engineered bacteria that are injected intratumorally, is being developed for the treatment of solid tumors and lymphoma. The data suggest that the drug is safe, well-tolerated, and activates the STING pathway in patients.

The virus that causes tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) appears to trick the immune system, misdirecting it into producing inferior antibodies. But new research shows some people produce more potent antibodies, providing hope for treatments and vaccines. The best antibodies are also effective against the Langat, louping ill, Omsk hemorrhagic fever, Kyasanur forest disease, and Powassan viruses.

Kazu Kikuchi, PhD, and his team at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney have discovered a critical new genetic switch that could help human hearts repair damaged heart muscle after a heart attack. The Klf1 gene selectively turns on in uninjured heart muscles cells in the zebrafish, allowing them to multiply and replace injured cells, and turns off once the healing is complete.