Illumina Reacts to GRAIL Acquisition Ruling, AstraZeneca, Moffitt Cancer Center Partnership, 10x Genomics Platforms Mentioned, More

By Bio-IT World Team  

September 25, 2024 | Illumina welcomed the European Court of Justice's judgment ruling that the European Commission did not have jurisdiction over Illumina's acquisition of GRAIL; Moffitt Cancer Center announced a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca that aims to accelerate the development of cell therapies, specifically chimeric antigen receptor T cell and T cell receptor therapies; 10x Genomics’ Chromium Single Cell Gene Expression and Xenium In Situ platforms in publication; and more. 

Illumina welcomed the European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) judgment ruling that the European Commission did not have jurisdiction over Illumina's acquisition of GRAIL. This judgment confirms Illumina's longstanding view that the European Commission exceeded its authority by asserting jurisdiction over this merger. The basis for the €432 million fine has now been removed and will no longer be payable. Following Illumina's spin-off of GRAIL in June 2024, GRAIL is now an independent public company. Press release. 

Moffitt Cancer Center announced a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca that aims to accelerate the development of cell therapies, specifically chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) and T cell receptor (TCR T) therapies. Under this collaboration, AstraZeneca will have priority access to Moffitt's leading clinical environment and forge strong connections between physician-scientists to accelerate the investigation of novel cell therapies. The collaboration aims to address cell therapy development challenges and expand cell therapies' reach to more patients in the United States and beyond. A key focus will be on advancing clinical studies to investigate cell therapies in solid tumors and further optimizing clinical operations to streamline and expedite the delivery of autologous cell therapies to patients. Press release. 

Ginkgo Bioworks has introduced Ginkgo Automation, a new product line that aims to help labs work smarter and scale faster. Powered by the same modular automation technologies that drive Ginkgo’s platform, the end-to-end solution is designed to be flexible, extensible, low-touch, and provide rich data customer programs to help accelerate R&D. Previously, these tools had been kept in-house and only accessible to Ginkgo scientists, and now, they’re available around the world. Press release. 

UTHealth Houston and OpenAI have announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration in the United States, marking the integration of AI technology into health care and education while protecting privacy. UTHealth Houston will be giving students, faculty, and staff access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Education tool, leveraging the platform to build custom solutions that are compliant with both the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Compliance with HIPAA and FERPA ensures the protection of sensitive health and educational information. The collaboration leverages OpenAI’s expertise in developing AI models and UTHealth Houston’s position as one of the nation’s most comprehensive academic health centers. Press release. 

10x Genomics’ Chromium Single Cell Gene Expression and Xenium In Situ platforms were used in a publication in Cancer Cell (DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.08.012) that sheds light on the role of fibrotic scars in glioblastoma treatment recurrence. The study, led by researchers at the University of Lausanne and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Lausanne, Switzerland), showcased how inhibiting both colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R; a therapeutic target under investigation for treating multiple cancers, including glioblastoma (GBM)) and the formation of fibrotic scars led to improved survival of mice in preclinical trials. Press release. 

Generate:Biomedicines announced a multi-target collaboration with Novartis to discover and develop protein therapeutics across multiple disease areas. The collaboration leverages Generate’s proprietary generative AI platform, “The Generate Platform,” to create potentially first- and best-in-class molecules through AI-based optimization and de novo generation. The collaboration will combine The Generate Platform, which integrates machine learning with high-throughput experimental validation, with Novartis expertise and capabilities in target biology, biologics development, and clinical development to create novel therapeutics and to accelerate the pace of drug discovery and development. Press release. 

Firefly Neuroscience announced the advancement of its artificial intelligence-powered Brain Network Analytics (BNA) technology after successful research collaborations with Takeda and Novartis, two global leaders in pharmaceutical R&D, illustrating the value of Firefly’s AI-based technology in providing objective measures in neuroscience drug development. Incorporating Firefly’s BNA technology into CNS drug development provides biotechnology and pharma companies with tools to enhance patient and dose selection, thus reducing cost and accelerating drug development. Firefly intends to continue leveraging its unique database and technology to expand its partnerships with neuroscience pharmaceutical companies, building on its collaborations with industry leaders. Press release. 

Scale Bio partnered up with Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) in the 100 Million Cell Challenge. CZI will fully subsidize support for 50 million cells' worth of awarded projects. This partnership comes on the heels of an overwhelming response to the challenge, with researchers pledging to analyze over 100 million cells within days of the initial announcement. The 100 Million Cell Challenge aims to push the boundaries of single cell genomics research by encouraging large-scale projects across diverse biological systems. With the support of CZI and other program collaborators, Ultima Genomics and NVIDIA, the initiative is poised to make an even greater impact on the scientific community, helping to increase understandings of complex biological systems and catalyze new discoveries, from basic research to translational medicine. Press release.   

Oracle announced CancerMPact Treatment Architecture Trends. The new cloud-based service enables pharmaceutical companies to analyze historical and global cancer treatment patterns to determine the impact of market events, such as new drug approvals, and the uptake of drugs and drug classes. Treatment Architecture Trends is the latest module in CancerMPact, a comprehensive oncology decision support resource. It can be used for market sizing and analysis, strategic planning, and identification of commercial opportunities in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and China. It also assesses the current and historical trends in the clinical management of patients by site and stage for all cancer treatment modalities—including surgical, radiologic, and systemic agents, as well as untreated patient populations for up to 31 tumor types in the G8 markets. Press release. 

Verseon International Corporation announced benchmark test results from VersAI, demonstrating prediction accuracy superior to the current state-of-the-art. VersAI is the company's patent-pending AI technology designed for small, sparse datasets. This system has shown dramatically lower error rates (as much as 35%) in predictions for a diverse array of real-world data scenarios when compared to Google's state-of-the-art Deep Learning technology. Press release.   

MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, launched the first single-use reactor specifically designed to manufacture antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). ADCs are a rapidly emerging class of therapeutic agents that can target and selectively kill tumor cells, while protecting healthy ones. The Mobius ADC Reactor is tailored precisely to meet the unique requirements for linking the necessary components. It enables biopharmaceutical companies to produce their critical therapies faster and safer. Performance improvements include elimination of potent liquid waste and a 70% increase in efficiency. Press release. 

Gilead Sciences and Genesis Therapeutics entered a strategic collaboration to discover and develop novel, small molecule therapies across multiple targets. Genesis is pioneering generative and predictive artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help create therapeutics for challenging targets. This collaboration will deploy Genesis’ field-leading AI platform, GEMS (Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space), to assist in generating and optimizing molecules for targets selected by Gilead. The companies will collaborate closely on preclinical research activities and Gilead will have exclusive rights for potential clinical development and commercialization of collaboration compounds. Press release. 

Primrose Bio and ExPLoRNA Therapeutics announced a strategic partnership aimed at jointly developing and marketing products for mRNA medicines. Together, Primrose Bio and ExPLoRNA will co-develop and offer RNA polymerases and capping compounds, co-optimized to enhance mRNA quality, manufacturing performance, and therapeutic safety and efficacy. This partnership provides mRNA drug developers superior manufacturing solutions and innovative design options through advanced capping chemistry. Press release. 

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital have found a new method to increase both speed and success rates in drug discovery. The study was published Aug. 30 in the journal Science Advances and offers two approaches for screening potential new drugs. The research team used a database from the Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) to screen tens of thousands of small molecules with potential therapeutic effects simultaneously. Then they combined the search with targeted docking simulations used to model the interaction between small molecules and their protein targets to find compounds of interest. That sped up the timing of the work from months to minutes—taking weeks of work required for initial screening down to an afternoon. Press release.