The Nobel Assembly has awarded Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó and US immunologist Drew Weissman the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023 for their breakthrough findings in RNA vaccine development. The discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates have revolutionised science’s understanding of how messenger RNA (mRNA) interacts with the immune system. The discovery was critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. While researchers have worked to produce vaccine technologies independent of cell culture, this has been challenging, due to the resource-intensiv ..read more

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has appointed Tony Wood as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) designate. As of 1 August 2022, Wood will assume full accountability for R&D from current CSO, Dr Hal Barron, at which time Dr Barron will become a Non-Executive Director on GSK’s Board, with additional responsibilities to support R&D. Wood has more than 30 years of experience working across diverse disciplines of R&D to deliver innovative medicines. He joined GSK as Senior Vice President, Medicinal Science and Technology from Pfizer in 2017 and is responsible for all science and technology platforms s ..read more

A new wave of medicines has emerged in recent years to supplement the well-established small and large molecule platforms that have historically dominated the market. Complex medicines offer diverse therapeutic modalities, including RNA therapeutics and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Advanced light microscopy techniques are one tool that can be used to understand these medicines. The biological characterisation of complex medicines is fundamental to translate these novel therapeutics and associated drug delivery technologies into the clinic; to understand the interplay with biological syste ..read more

City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organisations in the US, announced that the first patient to receive novel cancer medicine AOH1996, is doing well. The Phase I clinical trial is open at City of Hope Los Angeles. Its objective is to determine the maximum tolerated dose of the investigational pill, AOH1996, and to evaluate the medicine for preliminary efficacy. Eligible patients include adults with solid tumours who have not found standard treatments effective. Participating patients will be asked to take the medication in pill form twice a day. Dr Linda Malkas, pr ..read more

Research published in the journal Nature Chemistry, shows how researchers from Stanford University in the US uncovered a promising new method to synthetically manufacture the compound tigilanol tiglate, named EBC-46, which could offer targeted medicine for cancer and other diseases. Natural sources of the compound can only be found in a small section of the Northeastern Australia rainforest, in fruit seeds from the blushwood tree (Fontainea picrosperma). The compound is complex and thus difficult to replicate in the lab, yet Stanford scientists have managed to artificially produce tigilanol t ..read more

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced Phase II data for BI 1015550, a novel investigational phosphodiesterase 4B (PDE4B) inhibitor. The promising 12-week data showed a reduction in the rate of lung function decline in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). “These encouraging, early data showed that treatment with BI 1015550 slowed the rate of lung function decline in patients who were not on approved antifibrotics, as well as those who were taking existing antifibrotic therapy,” commented Luca Richeldi, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in ..read more

Northwestern Medicine scientists, in an international collaboration with scientists at the University of California – San Francisco and the University of Hong Kong, have identified a drug that inhibits growth of the most aggressive meningiomas and how to most accurately identify which meningiomas will respond to the drug.  The drug is a newer cancer treatment called abemaciclib. The scientists demonstrated the effectiveness of the drug in select patients, mouse models, three-dimensional (3D) living tissue brain tumour (organoids) and cell cultures. Investigators discovered meningiomas ca ..read more

Following its acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals last year, AstraZeneca is aiming to strengthen its discovery and development capabilities, positioning itself alongside Alexion’s corporate headquarters at a single innovation hub in the greater Boston area. The purpose-built facility will be in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US at the life sciences and innovation hub – a location which is key to AstraZeneca’s plans for collaboration and innovation given its close proximity to several major academic, pharmaceutical and biotech institutions. The company hopes to foster partnership ..read more

PRECISION MEDICINES combine information about an individual’s unique biology, matching the right treatment to the right person at the right time of their disease to improve patient outcomes. Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, significant progress in understanding the genetic and molecular drivers of diseases has led to the design of precision medicines that specifically target underlying disease mechanisms. Alongside these treatment advances, diagnostics have been developed that identify biomarkers in tissues and body fluids that can be used to predict a patient’s likel ..read more

Takeda has announced that it will exercise its option to acquire Adaptate Biotherapeutics, a UK company focused on developing antibody-based therapeutics for the modulation of variable delta 1 (Vδ1) gamma delta (γδ) T cells. Through the acquisition, Takeda will obtain Adaptate’s antibody-based γδ T-cell engager platform, including pre-clinical candidate and discovery pipeline programmes. Adaptate’s γδ T-cell engagers are designed to specifically modulate γδ T-cell-mediated immune responses at tumour sites while sparing damage to healthy cells. The acquisition follows the company’s recently ex ..read more