• ‘Heretical’ Idea for Treating Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Moves Forward

    Bio-IT World | The clinical utility of treating cancer by modulating the estrogen receptor could radically and quickly expand, initially for patients with triple-negative breast cancer but potentially thereafter to those with melanoma and cancers found in the colon, lung, head, and neck. Hope springs from findings emerging from the lab of Professor Donald McDonnell, Ph.D., at Duke University School of Medicine, where the field of oral selective estrogen down-regulators was pioneered nearly two decades ago.

    Oct 15, 2024

  • Building Digital Architecture to Reach New Heights: Data and Knowledge Management for Pharma 4.0

    Bio-IT World | In early 2024, it was revealed that contract research and manufacturing organization WuXi Apptec had allegedly shared intellectual property with the Chinese government without their client’s consent. This breach of trust generated widespread concern and backlash, bringing renewed attention to the importance of proper data management and data sharing in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

    Oct 11, 2024

  • New Tool Helps Query Databases, Flag Anomalies in Data

    Bio-IT World | In a data science paper published in June, a team of researchers at MIT presents GenSQL, a system to ease answering data science questions. They published the work in Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages. GenSQL is available open source in Clojure on GitHub.

    Oct 8, 2024

  • New Techniques Make RNA Accessible to Study Variants of Uncertain Significance

    Bio-IT World | New work from Dr. Lachlan Jolly and the University of Adelaide’s Neurobiology Research Group is using cutting-edge RNA-based techniques to resolve genetic variants of uncertain significance (VUS) that can't be diagnosed through traditional methods. Many disease-causing genes do not express RNA in accessible tissues like blood or skin, leaving many patients without a clear diagnosis. To overcome this, the team is utilizing two innovative methods—transactivation and transdifferentiation.

    Oct 3, 2024

  • Fresh Hope of a Functional Cure for HIV

    Bio-IT World | The longstanding reality for most individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lifetime of taking antiretroviral therapy (ART). But the creation of an HIV-like virus particle that both reduces viral reservoirs and boosts the immune system could make it possible for at least half of all patients to achieve long-term control of the virus after a brief stint of treatment.

    Oct 2, 2024

  • New Alzheimer’s Approach Suggested by Data Mining

    Bio-IT World | In a paper published last month in Brain, researchers explored data from 24 past Alzheimer’s Disease trials and posited a new theory for why the most recent drugs have shown some success against the disease, and senior author Alberto Espay issued an open data challenge for pharma companies working in the space.

    Oct 1, 2024

  • Follow the Money: T Cell Engineering, Kidney Transplants, Intravascular Imaging Technology, More

    Bio-IT World | ArsenalBio plans to advance their lead programs through development invests in candidates for solid tumor cancers based on its proprietary T cell engineering technology; eGenesis moves to a first-in-human study for kidney transplant; SpectraWAVE will advance commercial expansion and product additions to their 510k-cleared HyperVue Imaging System; and more.

    Sep 26, 2024

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

    Bio-IT World | 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.

    Sep 25, 2024

  • A Pill That Triggers a Desire to Exercise? Maybe... For Now, Just Go to the Gym

    Bio-IT World | What Wegovy has done for people who want to lose weight but dislike the work involved might one day find its match with a pill that pumps up a person’s desire to exercise—all by adjusting their level of interleukin 15 (IL-15), a cytokine that in the brain stimulates locomotor activity. At least that’s one of the promising possibilities dredged up by a study in mice finding a muscle-brain pathway controlling “eagerness to train more when we exercise."

    Sep 24, 2024

  • The Rise and Importance of Population-Scale Genome Programs

    Bio-IT World | With the wealth of population-scale projects going on, we have entered a golden age of genomics. Based on efforts such as the All of Us program in the U.S. and the UK Biobank, among many others, we are poised to discover more than we ever knew about natural genetic diversity, what’s considered “normal” human biology, and the continuum of health and disease.

    Sep 20, 2024

  • 2025 Bio-IT World Innovative Practices Awards Call for Entries

    Bio-IT World | Bio-IT World is accepting entries for the 2025 Innovative Practices Awards, a competition designed to recognize the most exciting partnerships and projects pushing the life sciences industry forward.

    Sep 18, 2024

  • NVIDIA Bundles NIMs for GenAI Drug Target Screening

    Bio-IT World | Last June, NVIDIA launched NIM—NVIDIA Inference Microservices—a simple, standardized way to add generative AI to applications. Now the company has released the NIM Agent Blueprint for generative AI-based virtual screening. In a blog post announcing the news, NVIDIA describes a NIM Agent Blueprint as integrated NIMs that build a workflow.

    Sep 17, 2024

  • ‘Dancing Molecules’ Could Be the Key to Cartilage Regeneration

    Bio-IT World | Osteoarthritis affects more than 528 million people around the world. Cartilage in joints wears down, and bones rub against each other, causing pain, stiffness, and mobility issues. Current treatments slow down cartilage degeneration, though patients inevitably need expensive joint replacement surgery. However, researchers at Northwestern University discovered “dancing molecules” that might be the key to the first cartilage regenerative therapy.

    Sep 12, 2024

  • AI and Biotechnology: Navigating Opportunities and Risks in the Bioeconomy

    Bio-IT World | Last month’s Bioprocessing Venture, Innovation, and Partnering Conference brought together thought leaders from across the bioeconomy to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) in biotechnology.

    Sep 11, 2024

  • Researchers Add ‘New Piece to the Puzzle’ That is Celiac Disease

    Bio-IT World | Celiac disease is a surprisingly common but substantially underdiagnosed autoimmune disorder estimated to affect 1 in 100 people globally. Left untreated, it can have “serious clinical consequences” for patients, including malnutrition, bone weakening, and potentially even a higher risk of certain cancers.

    Sep 10, 2024

  • Biotech’s Secret to Surviving Economic Challenges? It’s All in the Data & AI

    Bio-IT World | Data has always been crucial in the life sciences industry, but in today's fiercely competitive landscape, its significance has skyrocketed. Amidst dwindling funding and mounting market pressures, biopharmaceutical companies need to better harness the power of information to design and accelerate clinical trials and timelines.

    Sep 6, 2024

  • Amgen’s AI Futures: Digital Twins, Unstructured Data, Human Review

    Bio-IT World | Jerry Murry, senior vice president, process and development, at Amgen, gave the plenary presentation at CHI’s Bioprocessing Summit last month. With an eighteen-year tenure at Amgen—and experience at Merck and Pfizer before that—Murry has seen nearly two decades of advances in the world of bioprocessing and manufacturing.

    Sep 3, 2024

  • NIH Launches Native Collective Research Effort Focused on Overdose

    Bio-IT World | In August, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched the Native Collective Research Effort to Enhance Wellness (N CREW) Program, an effort support Native American communities to lead public health research to address overdose, substance use, and pain, including related factors such as mental health and wellness. The planned program funding totals approximately $268 million over seven years.

    Sep 3, 2024

  • Follow the Money: AI-Powered Cell Therapies, Cancer Risk Assessment, More

    Bio-IT World | Outpace Bio will advance multiple programmed T cell product candidates to early clinical proof-of-concept for the treatment of solid tumors; Foresight Diagnostics plans to accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of their cancer recurrence testing platform, PhasED-Seq; PreciseDx plan to expand commercialization efforts for PreciseBreast risk assessment, an AI-Powered test used to assess early-stage invasive breast cancer risk; and more.

    Aug 29, 2024

  • Dovetail Genomics, Goenomics GmbH Partnership, Danaher Acquires Genedata, Andelyn Biosciences License Agreement With Broad Institute, More

    Bio-IT World |Dovetail Genomics has formed a partnership with Goenomics GmbH to deliver an enhanced genome assembly service with the fastest turnaround time and most complete annotation available in the industry; Genedata has been acquired by Danaher; Andelyn Biosciences has entered into a License Agreement with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to expand its AAV Curator Platform offering to include MyoAAV plasmids; and more.

    Aug 28, 2024