Described simply, artificial intelligence (AI) is a field that combines computer science and robust data sets, to enable problem-solving. The umbrella term encompasses the subfields of machine learning and the more recently developed deep learning, which itself is a subfield of machine learning. Both use AI algorithms to create expert…

William Haseltine It is becoming increasingly clear that we have misunderstood SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Many people, including some experts in the scientific community, deemed the pandemic over with the release of the mRNA vaccines. The belief—or perhaps it was hope in disguise—was that…

By Dan Rhodes, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Strata Oncology Sponsored content brought to you by At Strata Oncology, we won’t rest until every patient with cancer gets their best possible therapy. Our approach to achieving this audacious goal is to develop innovative, highly quantitative, DNA- and RNA-based multivariate predictive treatment…

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) could prevent babies dying from treatable genetic diseases, a U.S. study suggests. WGS implicated single-locus genetic diseases in four out of every 10 deaths among infants at a large Californian pediatric hospital system over a five-year period. Yet more than half of the death certificates made no…

Gilead Sciences and EVOQ Therapeutics have announced a collaboration around EVOQ’s proprietary NanoDisc technology for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and lupus. NanoDisc is designed to enable lymph targeted delivery of disease-specific antigens for autoimmune diseases. The two companies will collaborate on preclinical development. EVOQ could receive up to…

The reality is that with nearly 11,000 identified rare diseases, with many that have only dozens of diagnosed patients, the economics of drug discovery and development simply don’t work within existing business models. But don’t tell that to the parents and family members of kids born with a rare disease.…

Adam Rosenthal is the CEO and founder of Star Therapeutics, a biotechnology company with a mission to develop life-changing therapies for as many rare diseases as possible. The company’s engine for innovation starts with identifying multiple rare diseases that share a common biology and then discovering novel therapeutics that can…

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over. It will not pass simply because we have grown tired of it. But it is equally misguided to think we are no better off now than we were during the early days of 2020. The past three years have yielded an immense amount of…

Sosei Group Corporation has inked a drug discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to discover, develop, and commercialize small molecules that modulate novel G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets associated with diabetes and metabolic diseases. GPCRs are the largest and most diverse group of membrane receptors in eukaryotes— organisms whose…

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…

Certain biomarkers may predict likelihood of checkpoint inhibitor drugs “backfiring” during melanoma treatment. Duke Cancer Institute researchers have identified a pathway that may explain why this serious side effect occurs in a subset of patients. Using a mouse model of melanoma, the team determined that an NLRP3 inflammasome (HSP70-TLR4) drives premetastatic…

Researchers have found how a specific protein in SARS-CoV-2 damages heart tissue in lab models. The group then used the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) to reverse the protein’s toxic effects on the heart. The team is from the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Center for Precision Disease Modeling. Their…

HOOKIPA Pharma has announced a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Roche to develop its HB-700 immunotherapy for KRAS-mutated cancers and a second undisclosed drug. This is HOOKIPA’s first oncology licensing collaboration. The company is developing a new class of immunotherapies based on its proprietary replicating arenavirus platform. HOOKIPA will…

Nearly 20 years ago, The Human Genome Project announced the sequencing of about 90% of the human genome.1 That success spurred a crucial question: When will this information improve healthcare? Just this year, scientists completed the sequencing of the entire human genome.2 Still, clinical sequencing—using genetic variants to identify or…

The All of Us project aims to enroll a million volunteers, as do the Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program and the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative. U.K. Biobank already has 500,000 participants and has made the entire genomes of 200,000 people available to scientists—the world’s largest single release of whole-genome…