Alex Trebek appeared well en route to surviving pancreatic cancer this past summer when his doctors followed up his initial successful chemotherapy with an undisclosed immunotherapy. That move backfired. “I was doing so well. And my numbers went down to the equivalent of a normal human being who does not…

AbbVie and Scripps Research said today they will integrate Scripps’ expertise in digital and precision medicine with AbbVie’s drug R&D expertise in an expanded collaboration designed to develop new treatments for disease areas that include oncology, immunology, neurology and fibrosis. The collaboration—whose value was not disclosed—marks an expansion of a…

As 2020 approaches, it is fair to say that significant—and perhaps surprising—advances will be made in the precision medicine and omics arenas, as there were in 2019. While we don’t know for sure what lies ahead for 2020, six industry leaders have shared with Clinical OMICs and now you, our…

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) said it has more than doubled its funding of research into childhood blood cancers, adding 20 new grants valued at more than $13.8 million to its 2019 portfolio. The new pediatric grants are part of the LLS Children’s Initiative: Cures and Care for Children,…

IsoPlexis has won a $4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Development Center toward commercializing its IsoLight single-cell, secreted protein analysis system. Based in Branford, CT, IsoLight is a precision engineering platform designed for research use only in CAR-T therapy product evaluation, quality…

In 2013, much of the world was introduced to the burgeoning field of precision medicine when world-famous actress, Angelina Jolie, announced she had undergone a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer. With that announcement, things like BRCA genes, mutations, and proteins were thrust onto the public…

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s recently announced $4.2 billion partnership to co-develop and co-commercialize Merck KGaA, Darmstadt’s cancer immunotherapy candidate M7824 was a reminder of just how much biopharma giants are willing to invest in a therapeutic area that has generated sometimes-dazzling results. How high is up for immuno-oncology? Numerous firms have ventured their best…

The cancer immunotherapy toolbox may one day make room for a new tool, the DNA-encoded monoclonal antibody (DMAb). Like conventional monoclonal antibodies, DMAbs bind to cancer checkpoint molecules, thereby releasing the brakes on immune cell activity. Unlike conventional monoclonal antibodies, DMAbs are expressed in vivo rather than being painstakingly manufactured,…

Even standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology should, in principle, boost weak mutant signals so that they may emerge from all the genomic noise emitted by wild-type sequences. Yet standard PCR, for all its sequence-amplifying and signal-boosting powers, is still a qualitative technique.  That is, it can indicate only if…

Researchers at Cardiff University in Wales have used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to engineer killer T cells that are up to a thousand times more sensitive to cancer cell antigens than T cells engineered using more conventional approaches, and which allowed far better targeting of T cells to cancer…

A faster and easier approach to genetically reprogram cells, compared to current viral and electroporation methods is being explored by scientists based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. According to these scientists, nanoparticles can be used to deliver transient gene changes to targeted cells, making therapies for a variety…

A pilot project designed to advance precision medicine for people with cancer in Canada was launched today by a research institution and two of the country’s leading cancer centers. The Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI), the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, and the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver, will…