Results from an open-label Phase III study show that UK biotech Immunocore’s T-cell receptor therapy tebentafusp significantly improved overall survival of patients with metastatic uveal melanoma versus standard treatment. T-cell receptor (TCR) therapies are a new class of immunotherapy that “use an engineered high-affinity T-cell receptor to target any protein,…

Scientists have developed a specialized ‘self-injecting capsule’, which can inject its contents into the stomach wall, that could lead to the development of oral versions of drugs that normally have to be injected. MIT engineers, in collaboration with scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Novo Nordisk, developed the drug…

A genetically engineered strain of Bacteroides bacteria, designed to treat the kidney disease enteric hyperoxaluria, has gone into clinical trials. Developed by the San Francisco-based biotech Novome Biotechnologies, the engineered bacteria treatment, combined with a botanically derived polysaccharide, is designed to colonize the gut and degrade excessive amounts of oxalate…

Promega said today it will develop its microsatellite instability (MSI) technology as an on-label, solid tumor companion diagnostic (CDx) to Merck’s blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab), through a global collaboration whose value was not disclosed. Promega’s MSI testing is designed to functionally measure the genomic accumulation of insertion or deletion…

Two independent sets of research published in Science Immunology have demonstrated how a subset of immune cells in the gut, known as group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3), are tuned to the body’s daily circadian clock as they sense and interact with gut microbes. Collective results from the research indicate…

Biocartis said today it will partner with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) to develop a companion diagnostic for the pharma giant’s immuno-oncology therapies based on the Belgian molecular diagnostics developer’s Idylla MSI test. Under the collaboration—whose value and other financial details were not disclosed—Biocartis and BMS agreed to pursue joint development and…

Biocept said today it will partner with Providence St. Joseph Health, Southern California and its wholly-owned affiliates—Providence Saint John’s Health Center and the John Wayne Cancer Institute—on a study designed to validate the use of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a specimen type with Biocept's Target Selector liquid biopsy platform in…

Molecular diagnostics company Biocept has launched the first in what will be a series of liquid biopsy test kits for cancer with the intention of increasing the use of its Target Selector ctDNA testing platform. The first kit, available for research-use-only (RUO), is for the detection of the EGFR oncogene…

Biocept will apply Prognos’ artificial intelligence (AI) platform toward the use of its clinical laboratory diagnostics for precision oncology, through a collaboration whose value was not disclosed. The companies have signed a software license and laboratory data supply agreement, through which Biocept agreed to supply de-identified data from its liquid…

Investigators at Wake Forest School of Medicine have developed a probiotic “cocktail” derived from gut bacteria strains found in infant feces that may help increase the body's ability to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Findings from the new study were released in Scientific Reports through an article titled “Human-origin probiotic…

Research from a team of scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg–Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and other institutions, is shedding new light on the role of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway in the development of a variety of cancers and response to therapy. In a three-year clinical trial of…

Biocept said today it has granted Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) rights to commercially offer the molecular diagnostics developer’s Target Selector™ liquid biopsy testing services exclusively throughout Oregon. In addition, OHSU can use Biocept’s Target Selector assays in-house, and serve as a secondary laboratory for Biocept's research and testing…

Under a new research agreement, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and healthcare informatics company M2Gen will use data generated by the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN) to map and better understand the genetic profiles of patients with a range of cancers, all with the intent of speeding development work of new cancer…