NTT Corporation Joins Japan Precision Medicine Platform Project, FDA Gives Grant To Aspen Neuroscience, Cancer Research Horizons And Genialis Team Up

By Bio-IT Staff

October 26, 2023 | NTT Corporation joins an agreement with BC Platforms AG, PRIME-R, and Bioxcellerator to develop the Japan Precision Medicine Platform (JPP), a secure information sharing platform for medical data designed to improve medical data analysis and medical research domestically across Japan; FDA grants Fast Track Designation for Aspen Neurosciencce Parkinson's disease treatment; Genialis announces a new data-sharing collaboration with Cancer Research Horizons to better predict responses to KRAS inhibitors, immunotherapies, and other emerging classes of therapeutics; and more. 

Genialis announced a new data-sharing collaboration with Cancer Research Horizons (CRH), the innovation arm of Cancer Research UK. Under the terms of the collaboration, CRH will make anonymized and curated datasets with 'omics and clinical metadata available to Genialis to validate Genialis ResponderID technology and machine learning-derived patient classifiers. This program will support validating Genialis-developed algorithms on diverse patient populations to better predict responses to KRAS inhibitors, immunotherapies, and other emerging classes of therapeutics. Press release. 

Dotmatics launched Dotmatics Luma, a revolutionary scientific data platform that helps scientists and administrators in life sciences unify and analyze large volumes of data for better decision-making. Luma provides customers an out of the box, low-code SaaS platform that flexibly aggregates all relevant data into intelligent data structures enabling clean, reliable data analysis paving the way for meta-analysis and AI & ML-based algorithms. Press release. 

PicnicHealth has acquired AllStripes, a platform dedicated to generating evidence about the rare disease community. This strategic consolidation establishes PicnicHealth as the leading patient-centric evidence generation partner within a rapidly evolving life sciences landscape. PicnicHealth engages directly with patients to collect and curate comprehensive clinical data and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) to generate rich insights across patient healthcare journeys. Historically, generating such evidence has required the establishment of a network of clinical sites, which are expensive to operate, burdensome to patients and sites, and often lead to delays. PicnicHealth and AllStripes pioneered a new model by working directly with patients, which enables a deeper view of each patient's health and experience while reducing the challenges of traditional site-based studies. Press release. 

NTT Corporation announced a collaboration agreement with BC Platforms AG, PRIME-R, and Bioxcellerator to develop the Japan Precision Medicine Platform (JPP), a secure information sharing platform for medical data designed to improve medical data analysis and medical research domestically across Japan. This initiative represents phase one in NTT’s ultimate development of a Global Medical Data Highway—a secure sharing platform for medical data that will enable the safe use of medical data in accordance with global health and security standards. With the JPP, NTT and its partners aim to address several structural issues incumbent in Japan’s medical care sector, including the low adoption of electronic medical records in over half of small medical institutions and a significant minority of large institutions in Japan. Additionally, the platform will alleviate the rising cost of medical expenses while addressing the increase in chronic illness in the Japanese population due to aging. Press release. 

Aspen Neuroscience announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation for ANPD001 for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) to improve motor function. ANPD001, is a personalized (autologous) cell therapy under investigation to treat PD by replacing lost dopamine neurons. The purpose of Fast Track Designation is to get important new drugs to patients earlier. FDA grants Fast Track Designation (FTD) to facilitate development, and to expedite the review of medicines to treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need. Benefits of FTD include early and frequent interactions with FDA during the clinical development process, as well as eligibility for accelerated approval and priority review. Press release. 

JPA Health has acquired True North Solutions, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Mass. True North specializes in commercial, clinical, and medical affairs, with expertise in digital acceleration and customized predictive analytics, as well as solutions powered by AI and natural language processing. This acquisition, the first for JPA Health, will further expand JPA's strategic offerings providing end-to-end integrated medical affairs, clinical development, commercial strategy, creative marketing, public relations, and patient advocacy solutions to clients. Press release. 

Complete Genomics has partnered with Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) to develop an ecosystem of advanced compatible products based on Complete Genomics' innovative DNBSEQ sequencing platforms. Complete Genomics and IDT are set to take high-throughput sequencing to the next level with a simplified workflow that is highly compatible, flexible, and efficient. With emerging needs in the field, the new ecosystem of compatible products represents a significant leap in providing users with more flexible, accessible, and impactful Complete Genomic solutions, empowering the next scientific breakthrough. Press release. 

Code Ocean introduced a new academic offering, exclusively available to university research labs. With deeper support and more robust capabilities, the new Code Ocean Academic Lab Offering includes the ability to not only publish, but also to build upon work that has been previously published by other institutions and teams. Press release. 

Saama announced a multi-year agreement with global biopharmaceutical leader AstraZeneca. The agreement is designed to streamline and facilitate AstraZeneca’s clinical data management and medical review processes using Saama’s AI-enabled technology platform and aims to set a new industry standard for accelerating clinical development. Press release. 

Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) announced the completion of its new Therapeutic Oligonucleotide Manufacturing facility in Coralville, Iowa. The milestone marks a significant achievement in the company’s 35-year-history—its entrance into the therapeutics space—and enables IDT to manufacture products for research use through to current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) grade cell and gene therapy reagents to provide researchers with a single partner that can help them rapidly transition from the lab to therapeutic development. Press release. 

Revvity and Element Biosciences announced a collaboration to introduce workflow solutions that save time and effort required for genomic analysis of samples. This collaboration is intended to elevate the overall customer experience by providing compelling application-specific data, stronger support, and easier access to the critical components necessary for a lab to go from sample to result. Press release. 

Metabolon launched its new Liver Fibrosis and Kidney Function Discovery Panels. As part of the Metabolon Discover portfolio of metabolomics services, Metabolon's new Liver Fibrosis and Kidney Function Discovery Panels assess multiple metabolites across diverse biological pathways associated with liver fibrosis and kidney disease, providing a greater understanding of these conditions. These new panels also leverage new visualization tools, allowing researchers to compare results across different data sets to identify and understand the impact of statistically significant changes in metabolite abundance. Press release. 

M42 has unveiled an advancement in healthcare technology with the launch of Med42, a new open-access Clinical Large Language Model (LLM). The 70 billion parameter, generative AI model is poised to transform the future of AI across the healthcare sector and create a direct impact on patient care outcomes. Med42 has the potential to revolutionize the pace of clinical decision-making, acting as an AI assistant for healthcare professionals. The capability of the model extends to developing personalized treatment plans by analyzing a patient's medical history to identify the best course of treatment. Press release. 

H1 announced the launch of GenosAI, a new generative AI tool seamlessly embedded into its clinical trial intelligence platform, Trial Landscape, to analyze and respond to all types of complex inquiries. Trial Landscape allows sponsors to identify new sites, centers of excellence, and investigators with diverse patients; evaluate site and PI patient recruitment strategies; and gauge competition across trials. GenosAI is a significant leap forward in enhancing efficiency, diversity, and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. It improves clinical research in the following ways: competitive intelligence and trial design, site selection and feasibility, diversity and inclusion, clinical trial design, and unlocking internal clinical trial data silos. Press release. 

Advarra announced new technology functionality designed to improve all stakeholders' clinical trial experiences. Longboat, an established platform used in more than 70 countries and by nearly 20,000 sites, now features an online patient portal with a comprehensive set of engagement tools, including a simple document exchange that enables transparent collaboration between patients, sites, and sponsors or clinical research organizations (CROs) without adding technology burden. The new Advarra Longboat patient portal provides key features that align the patient, site, and sponsor. Notable advancements include: sites being able to share important documents such as signed informed consent forms and lab results with patients; patients are able access all important documents and communications, as well as educational videos, study information, key study contacts, and quick links to other study tools in one easy-to-use portal; and sites are notified via email with information attached when the sponsor or CRO provides study newsletters and other information directly to the patient, allowing them to stay in the loop on communications. Press release. 

Sengenics Corporation has launched i-Ome Discovery, a comprehensive protein microarray platform for the analysis of autoantibodies associated with disease diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. The i-Ome Discovery platform was developed to support academic and clinical biopharmaceutical research teams who are seeking to better understand the dynamic interactions and relationships between proteins, the immune system, and disease. i-Ome Discovery leverages Sengenics’ patented KREX technology, which presents full-length autoantigen proteins that are properly folded and fully functional, allowing for highly sensitive, specific, and reproducible autoantibody detection. I-Ome Discovery provides over 1,800 autoantigens that were selected for their biological relevance to several diseases, including cancer, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative disorders. Press release. 

Quris-AI has extended its collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company. This follows the successful initial collaboration, a preclinical study to assess Quris-AI’s ability to predict drug toxicity in comparison to traditional in vitro and in vivo approaches. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany will now further leverage Quris-AI platform’s ability to effectively identify liver toxicity risks in a selection of drug candidates. Press release. 

DNAnexus announced that the UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP) community has grown to more than 5,000 users around the world. The UKB-RAP was designed to allow researchers to access and analyze the exponentially increasing scale of the UK Biobank (UKB) dataset, which now contains more than 28 petabytes (PB) of biomedical data, making it the world’s largest and most comprehensive resource for researchers looking to advance the understanding of human disease. Press release. 

BPGbio announced the commercial launch of the NAi (pronounced “nye”) Interrogative Biology Platform, the company’s AI-powered platform technology for broad scale development and repurposing of drugs, identification of diagnostic biomarkers, and health analytics. The platform has already delivered groundbreaking results in early-access customer research collaborations with leading government, industry, and academic partners such as the United States Department of Defense (DoD), Sanofi, and Harvard Medical School. Press release.   

Revvity unveiled Pin-point base editing platform reagents, providing researchers with unparalleled access to implement the advanced gene editing technique in their preclinical laboratories. Base editing represents a pivotal advancement in CRISPR gene editing, providing the capability for complex and safe multi-gene editing, which can result in enhanced functional genomics insights for optimizing drug development, as well as streamlining cell line and cell therapy development and manufacturing. The Pin-point platform is one of the few established base editing technologies currently being employed in clinical settings, positioning it as both a discovery and therapeutic tool. The introduction of Pin-point base editing reagents signifies a momentous stride toward democratizing access to base editing. Until now, base editing reagents were either custom-ordered by end-users or obtained by non-profit laboratories as individual components. However, with the newly launched reagents, scientists now can fully evaluate the Pin-point base editing platform in-house. Press release. 

Curio Bioscience announced an expansion of its Curio Seeker product line with a larger format to deliver a more complete view of large biological structures, including human tissue samples, providing one hundred times more data compared to other whole transcriptome spatial analysis solutions. Curio Seeker is a whole transcriptome analysis reagent kit solution that provides the ability to generate molecular images of tissue sections by capturing and mapping the spatial location of RNA molecules using next-generation sequencers. The spatial transcriptomic data generated by Curio Seeker enable researchers to better understand cellular functions in the context of their native environment, providing additional biological insight that are not available from single-cell RNA sequencing approaches. Press release. 

Omixon Biocomputing launched NanoTYPE MONO and MONO all - RUO, a single locus human leukocyte antigen (HLA) amplification kit compatible with Oxford Nanopore's MinION platform. NanoTYPE MONO is designed to empower clinical laboratories by offering the ability to retype, confirm, and analyze single HLA genes with exceptional precision using high-resolution typing. This technology is set to help clinical laboratories in the field of genetic marker assessment, providing an unprecedented level of accuracy at a competitive pricing structure. Press release.