Cambridge-based Sano Genetics has raised $11.4M in a new funding round to drive its clinical trials software platform in precision medicine. The latest funding was led by early-stage investors Plural with the participation of venture capitalists MMC Ventures, which led its Series A round, as well as existing contributors Episode…

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, have discovered elevated levels of a protein known as Arl8b in Alzheimer’s disease brain models, marking it as a potential target for treatment of the condition. The most widely known biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease are amyloid beta plaques and…

Jim Geraghty Jim Geraghty, a seasoned biotech executive and a veteran of the orphan drug movement since its inception, took some time to talk to Damian Doherty about his new book, Inside the Orphan Drug Revolution. Jim gives an historical perspective of the leading protagonists who…

New biomarkers that distinguish acute from chronic phases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been identified by scientists at Arizona State University (ASU). Their work could lead to new therapeutics and diagnostics and also help explain why people who have had TBI are more susceptible to developing neurodegenerative diseases such…

With eyes on the future of the coming wave of approved, personalized cell therapies for a range of diseases, life sciences company GoodCell announced it is launching its Personal Biobanking Service that allows individuals to proactively collect and store their stems cells that can be used in the future for…

A Brazilian dataset is adding diversity to the international pool. It includes whole-genome sequences from 1,171 highly admixed Brazilians. The data was compiled by researchers affiliated with the Human Genome and Stem-Cell Research Center (HUG-CELL) at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Biosciences (IB-USP) and is posted to the…

Rutgers researchers have linked the genetic disorders Fragile X and SHANK3 deletion syndrome to specific walking patterns by examining patients’ microscopic movements. The researchers used special motion-sensor enabled sneakers and a simple walking task to measure micro-fluctuations in biorhythmic motions. According to their new study in the journal Scientific Reports, the approach detects…

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine researchers have used a novel gene therapy to prevent learning and memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The results of their experiments, which involved delivering a gene called SynCav1 to the mouse brain, could represent a key…

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) have advanced enormously in recent years and are now well on their way to becoming an established part of modern medicine. But there are still some issues such as accuracy and applicability that need to be solved before they can truly become mainstream. With increasingly sophisticated…

A team of researchers based at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that a common nutritional supplement can reduce the risk of fatal stroke in people with the rare genetic disorder called hereditary cystatin C amyloid angiopathy (HCCAA). HCCAA is part of a group of diseases in which amyloid proteins…

A genetic change that occurs in astrocyte cells in the brain and spinal cord causes them to become ‘reactive’ and trigger the onset of the degenerative motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to research from University College London and the Francis Crick Institute. When genes in the disease-causing…

A new modified gene therapy approach avoids a toxicity seen in some nonhuman primate studies using adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors to treat neurological disorders. Penn Medicine researchers developed the technique, which uses a modified transgene with a microRNA target designed to reduce the level of transgene expression in the dorsal…

A new tool for linking genes, behavior and the brain is here and could dramatically change the field of neuroscience. Scientists have created a tool to detect which genes and their non-coding counterparts are associated with psychiatric and other brain disorders, something that is notoriously hard to pin down in…

Scientists at the University of Cologne in Germany have identified a protein that blocks accumulation of the toxic protein aggregates that cause neurodegeneration in Huntington’s disease. Studies by research head David Vilchez, Ph.D.,and colleagues at the University of Cologne’s Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research (CECAD), found that a protein…

Clinical categories for psychiatric disorders may need to be rethought, suggests a new study from the aptly named Brainstorm Consortium, a collaborative effort that accepted input from researchers representing 600 institutions worldwide. By pooling their data on hundreds of thousands of genomes, these researchers found genetic connections among distinct psychiatric…