The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the promise and power of vaccination to protect society against infectious diseases. However, factors such as shortage of healthcare workers, ineffective supply chains, and lack of funding to acquire vaccines have also led to a drop in overall vaccination coverage for children, particularly in developing nations. UNICEF’S State of the World’s Children 2023 report estimated that one in five children are not vaccinated against life-threatening diseases such as cholera, polio and measles, with vast inequalities across urban and rural areas. While most ..read more

Researchers led by Didier Trono’s group at EPFL have uncovered a crucial survival tactic employed by cancer cells. The scientists identified a group of proteins, known as KRAB zinc finger proteins (KZFPs), that help cancer cells maintain genetic stability and avoid immune system detection. Their findings are published in Cancer Research in an article titled, “A cluster of evolutionarily recent KRAB zinc finger proteins protects cancer cells from replicative stress-induced immunogenic inflammation.” “Heterochromatin loss and genetic instability enhance cancer progression by favoring clonal ..read more

Novartis has agreed to acquire MorphoSys for €2.7 billion ($2.9 billion), the companies said, in a deal designed to bolster the buyer’s oncology pipeline with a promising late-stage myelofibrosis candidate, as well as an early-stage candidate under study in patients with solid tumors or lymphomas. Through the acquisition, Novartis will add to its pipeline pelabresib (CPI-0610), a drug administered in combination with ruxolitinib for patients with myelofibrosis. MorphoSys acquired pelabresib when it bought Constellation Pharmaceuticals for $1.7 billion cash in 2021. Novartis said a regulatory f ..read more

An international research team has analyzed tumor gene expression patterns from patient samples and determined that a B-cell gene expression signature and CD19 protein expression were significantly associated with improved event-free survival for patients treated with axi-cel CAR T but not standard therapy. Patients with lower tumor cell levels of CD19 had gene expression patterns associated with immune suppression. These observations suggest that the tumor immune environment may play an important role in regulating axi-cel therapy and outcomes. In addition, biomarkers associated with improved ..read more

Monash University researchers report they have cracked the code behind IKAROS, an essential protein for immune cell development and protection against pathogens and cancer. The findings may reshape our comprehension of gene control networks and its impact on everything from eye color to cancer susceptibility and design of novel therapies. The study is published in Nature Immunology in an article titled, “IKAROS and AIOLOS directly regulate AP-1 transcriptional complexes and are essential for NK cell development.” “Ikaros transcription factors are essential for adaptive lymphocyte function ..read more

A Stanford Medicine-led, international study of hundreds of samples from patients with classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) has shown that levels of tumor DNA circulating in the blood can identify those individuals who are responding well to treatment and those who are likely to experience a disease recurrence. The study results suggest that profiling using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) could potentially let some patients who are predicted to have favorable outcomes forgo lengthy treatment. The study also, surprisingly, revealed that Hodgkin lymphoma—a cancer of the lymph nodes—can be divi ..read more

By Kevin Davies, PhD Two esteemed guests—Rachel Haurwitz, PhD, and Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD—joined the State of Biotech meeting to provide a snapshot of progress in the field of CRISPR and genome editing. Haurwitz is the CEO of Caribou Biosciences, and Barrangou is a professor at North Carolina State University and the editor in chief of The CRISPR Journal.  How far has the field come in the decade since the seminal work of Doudna (with whom Haurwitz took her PhD) and Charpentier that led to the Nobel Prize? “We’re at an incredibly exciting moment in CRISPR-land,” Haurwitz said. “It’s extraord ..read more

Scientists from Stanford University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered a class of molecules that use endogenous proteins to modulate genetic pathways involved in cell death. These molecules, which are called transcriptional/epigenetic chemical inducers of proximity (TCIPs), use local transcription factors or epigenetic regulators to restart the expression of genes responsible for instigating apoptosis in cancer cells. Full details of the study are described in a Nature paper titled “Rewiring cancer drivers to activated apoptosis” published this week. “The coe ..read more

BOSTON — Rachel Haurwitz, PhD, greets me with a congenial smile as she sits in the press room at the Boston Convention Center, one of 14,000 attendees at the BIO 2023 conference. Her coolness and precision, both temporally and conversationally, are a stark contrast to my fumbling with belongings as I wipe the sweat off my forehead, straighten my clothes, and take a tardy seat to kick off my second day at the conference. A decade ago, Haurwitz jumped from being a humble graduate student in Jennifer Doudna’s lab to launching a biotech start-up as co-founder and chief executive. “I went straight ..read more

By Yuwen Wang and Andy Tay, PhD Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy has significantly transformed the management of cancer, specifically in patients suffering from leukemia and lymphoma. This treatment approach entails the isolation of T cells from the patient, genetic modification to introduce CARs on their surface, and reintroduction back into the patient’s bloodstream.1 Through CARs, T cells are enabled to identify and eliminate cancerous cells expressing the antigen of interest. One of the key manufacturing steps for CAR-T cells is to activate and expand them. This is particul ..read more