Advances in Neuro-oncology

JEFF ZAGOUDIS | April 11, 2019 | 149 views

Brain tumors are some of the most complicated forms of cancer to treat due to their extremely sensitive location. Surgery is the first choice when possible, as it guarantees removal of the tumor. Brain surgery is, however, an extremely invasive procedure and requires weeks to months of recovery time for the patient. Radiation therapy offers a minimally invasive alternative, but it comes with its own set of side effects and complications, including cognitive issues, fatigue, and hair and scalp problems, among others. According to the National Brain Tumor Society, however, only four drugs and one device have been U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved to treat brain tumors in the past 30 years.

Spotlight

Just4Me Genetics

Just4Me Genetics offers fast, affordable, individualised genetic services to the community of the Middle East region across a variety of medical and lifestyle disciplines.

OTHER ARTICLES
MedTech

Top 10 biotech IPOs in 2019

Article | October 7, 2022

The big question at the start of 2019 was whether the IPO window would stay open for biotech companies, particularly those seeking to pull off ever-larger IPOs at increasingly earlier stages of development. The short answer is yes—kind of. Here’s the long answer: In the words of Renaissance Capital, the IPO market had “a mostly good year.” The total number of deals fell to 159 from 192 the year before, but technology and healthcare companies were standout performers. The latter—which include biotech, medtech and diagnostics companies—led the pack, making up 43% of all IPOs in 2019. By Renaissance’s count, seven companies went public at valuations exceeding $1 billion, up from five the year before

Read More
MedTech

Cell Out? Lysate-Based Expression an Option for Personalized Meds

Article | July 20, 2022

Cell-free expression (CFE) is the practice of making a protein without using a living cell. In contrast with cell line-based methods, production is achieved using a fluid containing biological components extracted from a cell, i.e., a lysate. CFE offers potential advantages for biopharma according to Philip Probert, PhD, a senior scientist at the Centre for Process Innovation in the U.K.

Read More
MedTech

Closing bacterial genomes from the human gut microbiome using long-read sequencing

Article | July 12, 2022

In our lab, we focus on the impact of the gut microbiome on human health and disease. To evaluate this relationship, it’s important to understand the particular functions that different bacteria have. As bacteria are able to exchange, duplicate, and rearrange their genes in ways that directly affect their phenotypes, complete bacterial genomes assembled directly from human samples are essential to understand the strain variation and potential functions of the bacteria we host. Advances in the microbiome space have allowed for the de novo assembly of microbial genomes directly from metagenomes via short-read sequencing, assembly of reads into contigs, and binning of contigs into putative genome drafts. This is advantageous because it allows us to discover microbes without culturing them, directly from human samples and without reference databases. In the past year, there have been a number of tour de force efforts to broadly characterize the human gut microbiota through the creation of such metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs)[1–4]. These works have produced hundreds of thousands of microbial genomes that vastly increase our understanding of the human gut. However, challenges in the assembly of short reads has limited our ability to correctly assemble repeated genomic elements and place them into genomic context. Thus, existing MAGs are often fragmented and do not include mobile genetic elements, 16S rRNA sequences, and other elements that are repeated or have high identity within and across bacterial genomes.

Read More

Selexis Cell Line Development Strategies

Article | February 11, 2020

In today’s biotechnology landscape, to be competitive, meet regulations, and achieve market demands, “we must apply Bioprocessing 4.0,” said Igor Fisch, PhD, CEO, Selexis. In fact, in the last decade, “Selexis has evolved from cloning by limiting dilution to automated cell selection to nanofluidic chips and from monoclonality assessment by statistical calculation to proprietary bioinformatic analysis,” he added. Single-use processing systems are an expanding part of the biomanufacturing world; as such, they are a major component of Bioprocessing 4.0. “At Selexis, we use single use throughout our cell line development workflow. Currently, we have incorporated single-use automated bioprocessing systems such as ambr® and the Beacon® optofluidic platform for accelerated cell line development. By using these systems and optimizing our parameters, we were able to achieve high titers in shake flasks. Additionally, the Beacon systems integrate miniaturized cell culture with high-throughput liquid handling automation and cell imaging. This allows us to control, adjust, and monitor programs at the same time,” noted Fisch.

Read More

Spotlight

Just4Me Genetics

Just4Me Genetics offers fast, affordable, individualised genetic services to the community of the Middle East region across a variety of medical and lifestyle disciplines.

Related News

Medical

Precision NanoSystems is Now a Part of Danaher's Life Sciences Platform

Cytiva, Pall Corporation | June 02, 2021

Danaher Corporation's Life Sciences platform has acquired precision NanoSystems (PNI). PNI is a global leader in technologies and solutions for developing genetic medicines, including mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. PNI will join Danaher's Life Sciences platform and complement other businesses in the forum, including Cytiva and Pall. "PNI has advanced several exciting innovations, and we're thrilled to welcome this talented team," says Emmanuel Ligner, Danaher Group Executive. "As mRNA has matured as a successful technology in some COVID vaccines, we see huge potential for this technology to accelerate other therapies. The work done thus far by the PNI team will also enable our customers at Cytiva and Pall to take a huge step forward in advancing their science to improve the lives of patients." James Taylor, co-founder, and CEO of Precision NanoSystems, says: "Over the last ten years, PNI has been a leading technology company, enabling the development of genetic medicines. Joining Danaher's Life Sciences platform allows our world-class team to accelerate and expand the work we do to support our customers with comprehensive technology platforms and the expertise to manufacture transformative medicines for the benefit of humanity. With the global reach of the Danaher Life Sciences platform and customers who are leaders in biotechnology, this is an incredible opportunity to bring PNI's innovations to market and expand our impact." The overall mRNA therapeutics and vaccines market was growing rapidly and accelerated with the development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. It is anticipated that mRNA technology will be used to develop other vaccines and to treat other conditions of high unmet medical need, such as cancer and genetic diseases. At present, most mRNA therapies and other types of genetic medicines in clinical development are designed to be delivered with the help of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). PNI's Genetic Medicine Toolkit, including its proprietary GenVoyTM LNP delivery platform and NanoAssemblrTM microfluidic-based nanoparticle manufacturing platform, enables the rapid development of genetic medicines. PNI's validated technologies increase the stability, efficacy, yield, and quality of non-viral genetic medication and lower the barrier to develop these essential medicines. PNI is developing a new center of manufacturing excellence in Vancouver, which will proceed as planned. When complete, the biomanufacturing center will further advance Canadian therapeutic and vaccine manufacturing capabilities, broaden the domestic life sciences sector, create new jobs in the region, and foster a new generation of scientific talent. About Pall Pall Corporation may be a filtration, separation, and purification leader providing solutions to meet customers' critical fluid management needs across the broad spectrum of life sciences and industry. Pall works with customers to advance health, safety, and environmentally responsible technologies. The Company's engineered products enable process and product innovation and minimize emissions and waste. Pall Corporation serves customers worldwide. About Cytiva Cytiva is a global life science leader with more than 8,000 associates across 40 countries dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics. As a trusted partner to customers that range in scale and scope, Cytiva brings speed, efficiency, and capacity to research and manufacture workflows, enabling the development, manufacture, and delivery of transformative medicines to patients.

Read More

MedTech

ZS and Seven Bridges Collaborate to Innovate Drug Research

ZS, Seven Bridges | May 07, 2021

ZS and Seven Bridges disclosed a collaboration today that will merge ZS's experience in biomedical testing facilities and data science with Seven Bridges' technology platform, which enables multi-omics analytics through the translational and clinical continuum. The hybrid offers biopharmaceutical and biotechnology firms a one-stop-shop for multi-omics analysis innovation and scalability. ZS and Seven Bridges work together to help clients produce breakthrough science, promote drug development, and improve the probability of approval for potential drug candidates. "Working side by side with our clients to help streamline R&D data and maximize pace and market to enhance patients' lives is at the heart of what we do at ZS," said Aaron Mitchell, principal, and leader of ZS's research and development excellence program. "Our collaboration with Seven Bridges allows our clients, and eventually patients, to gain access to new therapies and diagnostics more quickly." "Drug discovery, translational medicine, and preclinical drug research all require study at the molecular and genomic levels of implementation, and our collaboration with Seven Bridges provides our clients with a new option for innovation and scalable capacity," said John Piccone, principal, and leader of ZS's biomedical research service line. "We are building a talent pool of molecular natives with a strong knowledge of chemistry, data science, and technology to collaborate with our clients in the discovery of potential drug targets, the selection of drug candidates, and the solution of key translational medicine challenges. The integration of the Seven Bridges Platform and experts with the ZS consulting teams results in a modular approach for clients with growing multi-omics data and analytics requirements." "We are delighted to be combining the Seven Bridges platform with ZS's innovative apps for drug discovery and translational medicine. Integrating our multi-omics analysis platform and ARIATM, a centralized solution for molecular and patient-level phenotypic analysis at scale, with their research data lake is a critical requirement for ZS's pharmaceutical clients "said Bruce Press, Seven Bridges' Chief Revenue Officer. About Seven Bridges Seven Bridges allows researchers to derive meaningful insights from genomic and phenotypic data, thereby advancing precision medicine. A compliant analytic platform, intelligently curated content, innovative algorithms, unmatched access to federated data sets, and specialist on-demand technical resources comprise the Seven Bridges Ecosystem. Researchers at the world's leading academic, biotechnology, clinical diagnostic, government, medical centers, and pharmaceutical institutions are using this systematic approach to bioinformatics to maximize R&D effectiveness, improve hypothesis resolution, isolate vital biomarkers, and even transform a failing clinical trial around while also minimizing computational workflow times and data storage costs.

Read More

Research

Chemistry42, an AI System from Insilico, has been Incorporated into UCB's Drug Discovery Programmes

Insilico Medicine | March 15, 2021

Insilico Medicine, an AI drug discovery company, reported that UCB will incorporate Insilico's Chemistry42™ into UCB's inward drug discovery pipeline. UCB's initial appropriation of Insilico Medicine's restrictive innovation will give UCB's researchers the capacity to plan novel hit compounds that fulfill various predefined boundaries quickly and smooth out lead enhancement. With the Chemistry42™ platform, UCB researchers will likewise lessen the endeavors and expenses commonly connected with the plan, testing and commercialization of new drugs. Chemistry42™ v1.0 will be modified and conveyed on UCB's cloud-based supercomputing infrastructure. Chemistry42™ is an adaptable, easy to understand programming platform that incorporates man-made brainpower (AI) strategies with the fields of therapeutic and computational science for the plan of novel little atoms with client characterized druglike physicochemical properties. The platform is an adaptable conveyed web application equipped for running various assignments in equal very quickly. Container coordination and work process the executives consider unsurprising equipment freethinker asset distribution and the execution on one or the other cloud or neighborhood HPC infrastructures. "UCB is one of the leading companies in small molecule drug discovery. It was their insight and approach at the forefront of this science that encouraged us to move into AI-powered chemistry over five years ago and it gives me great pleasure to see UCB among the launch partners of our Chemistry42 operating system," said Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., CEO of Insilico Medicine. "Insilico Medicine has been very responsive in this quickly developing area of science and we are delighted to be one of the launch partners for Chemistry42," Jiye Shi, Global Head of Computer-Aided Drug Design at UCB said. "Our hope is that this platform will further enhance the digital transformation of our drug discovery capabilities for the benefit of patients worldwide." About Insilico Medicine Insilico Medicine develops software that leverages generative models, reinforcement learning (RL), and other modern machine learning techniques to generate new molecular structures with specific properties. Insilico Medicine also develops software for the generation of synthetic biological data, target identification, and the prediction of clinical trial outcomes. The company integrates two business models: providing AI-powered drug discovery services and software through its Pharma.AI platform (www.insilico.com/platform/) and developing its pipeline of preclinical programs. The preclinical program is the result of pursuing novel drug targets and novel molecules discovered through its platforms. Since its inception in 2014, Insilico Medicine has raised over $52 million and received multiple industry awards. About UCB UCB, Brussels, Belgium is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system.

Read More

Medical

Precision NanoSystems is Now a Part of Danaher's Life Sciences Platform

Cytiva, Pall Corporation | June 02, 2021

Danaher Corporation's Life Sciences platform has acquired precision NanoSystems (PNI). PNI is a global leader in technologies and solutions for developing genetic medicines, including mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. PNI will join Danaher's Life Sciences platform and complement other businesses in the forum, including Cytiva and Pall. "PNI has advanced several exciting innovations, and we're thrilled to welcome this talented team," says Emmanuel Ligner, Danaher Group Executive. "As mRNA has matured as a successful technology in some COVID vaccines, we see huge potential for this technology to accelerate other therapies. The work done thus far by the PNI team will also enable our customers at Cytiva and Pall to take a huge step forward in advancing their science to improve the lives of patients." James Taylor, co-founder, and CEO of Precision NanoSystems, says: "Over the last ten years, PNI has been a leading technology company, enabling the development of genetic medicines. Joining Danaher's Life Sciences platform allows our world-class team to accelerate and expand the work we do to support our customers with comprehensive technology platforms and the expertise to manufacture transformative medicines for the benefit of humanity. With the global reach of the Danaher Life Sciences platform and customers who are leaders in biotechnology, this is an incredible opportunity to bring PNI's innovations to market and expand our impact." The overall mRNA therapeutics and vaccines market was growing rapidly and accelerated with the development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. It is anticipated that mRNA technology will be used to develop other vaccines and to treat other conditions of high unmet medical need, such as cancer and genetic diseases. At present, most mRNA therapies and other types of genetic medicines in clinical development are designed to be delivered with the help of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). PNI's Genetic Medicine Toolkit, including its proprietary GenVoyTM LNP delivery platform and NanoAssemblrTM microfluidic-based nanoparticle manufacturing platform, enables the rapid development of genetic medicines. PNI's validated technologies increase the stability, efficacy, yield, and quality of non-viral genetic medication and lower the barrier to develop these essential medicines. PNI is developing a new center of manufacturing excellence in Vancouver, which will proceed as planned. When complete, the biomanufacturing center will further advance Canadian therapeutic and vaccine manufacturing capabilities, broaden the domestic life sciences sector, create new jobs in the region, and foster a new generation of scientific talent. About Pall Pall Corporation may be a filtration, separation, and purification leader providing solutions to meet customers' critical fluid management needs across the broad spectrum of life sciences and industry. Pall works with customers to advance health, safety, and environmentally responsible technologies. The Company's engineered products enable process and product innovation and minimize emissions and waste. Pall Corporation serves customers worldwide. About Cytiva Cytiva is a global life science leader with more than 8,000 associates across 40 countries dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics. As a trusted partner to customers that range in scale and scope, Cytiva brings speed, efficiency, and capacity to research and manufacture workflows, enabling the development, manufacture, and delivery of transformative medicines to patients.

Read More

MedTech

ZS and Seven Bridges Collaborate to Innovate Drug Research

ZS, Seven Bridges | May 07, 2021

ZS and Seven Bridges disclosed a collaboration today that will merge ZS's experience in biomedical testing facilities and data science with Seven Bridges' technology platform, which enables multi-omics analytics through the translational and clinical continuum. The hybrid offers biopharmaceutical and biotechnology firms a one-stop-shop for multi-omics analysis innovation and scalability. ZS and Seven Bridges work together to help clients produce breakthrough science, promote drug development, and improve the probability of approval for potential drug candidates. "Working side by side with our clients to help streamline R&D data and maximize pace and market to enhance patients' lives is at the heart of what we do at ZS," said Aaron Mitchell, principal, and leader of ZS's research and development excellence program. "Our collaboration with Seven Bridges allows our clients, and eventually patients, to gain access to new therapies and diagnostics more quickly." "Drug discovery, translational medicine, and preclinical drug research all require study at the molecular and genomic levels of implementation, and our collaboration with Seven Bridges provides our clients with a new option for innovation and scalable capacity," said John Piccone, principal, and leader of ZS's biomedical research service line. "We are building a talent pool of molecular natives with a strong knowledge of chemistry, data science, and technology to collaborate with our clients in the discovery of potential drug targets, the selection of drug candidates, and the solution of key translational medicine challenges. The integration of the Seven Bridges Platform and experts with the ZS consulting teams results in a modular approach for clients with growing multi-omics data and analytics requirements." "We are delighted to be combining the Seven Bridges platform with ZS's innovative apps for drug discovery and translational medicine. Integrating our multi-omics analysis platform and ARIATM, a centralized solution for molecular and patient-level phenotypic analysis at scale, with their research data lake is a critical requirement for ZS's pharmaceutical clients "said Bruce Press, Seven Bridges' Chief Revenue Officer. About Seven Bridges Seven Bridges allows researchers to derive meaningful insights from genomic and phenotypic data, thereby advancing precision medicine. A compliant analytic platform, intelligently curated content, innovative algorithms, unmatched access to federated data sets, and specialist on-demand technical resources comprise the Seven Bridges Ecosystem. Researchers at the world's leading academic, biotechnology, clinical diagnostic, government, medical centers, and pharmaceutical institutions are using this systematic approach to bioinformatics to maximize R&D effectiveness, improve hypothesis resolution, isolate vital biomarkers, and even transform a failing clinical trial around while also minimizing computational workflow times and data storage costs.

Read More

Research

Chemistry42, an AI System from Insilico, has been Incorporated into UCB's Drug Discovery Programmes

Insilico Medicine | March 15, 2021

Insilico Medicine, an AI drug discovery company, reported that UCB will incorporate Insilico's Chemistry42™ into UCB's inward drug discovery pipeline. UCB's initial appropriation of Insilico Medicine's restrictive innovation will give UCB's researchers the capacity to plan novel hit compounds that fulfill various predefined boundaries quickly and smooth out lead enhancement. With the Chemistry42™ platform, UCB researchers will likewise lessen the endeavors and expenses commonly connected with the plan, testing and commercialization of new drugs. Chemistry42™ v1.0 will be modified and conveyed on UCB's cloud-based supercomputing infrastructure. Chemistry42™ is an adaptable, easy to understand programming platform that incorporates man-made brainpower (AI) strategies with the fields of therapeutic and computational science for the plan of novel little atoms with client characterized druglike physicochemical properties. The platform is an adaptable conveyed web application equipped for running various assignments in equal very quickly. Container coordination and work process the executives consider unsurprising equipment freethinker asset distribution and the execution on one or the other cloud or neighborhood HPC infrastructures. "UCB is one of the leading companies in small molecule drug discovery. It was their insight and approach at the forefront of this science that encouraged us to move into AI-powered chemistry over five years ago and it gives me great pleasure to see UCB among the launch partners of our Chemistry42 operating system," said Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., CEO of Insilico Medicine. "Insilico Medicine has been very responsive in this quickly developing area of science and we are delighted to be one of the launch partners for Chemistry42," Jiye Shi, Global Head of Computer-Aided Drug Design at UCB said. "Our hope is that this platform will further enhance the digital transformation of our drug discovery capabilities for the benefit of patients worldwide." About Insilico Medicine Insilico Medicine develops software that leverages generative models, reinforcement learning (RL), and other modern machine learning techniques to generate new molecular structures with specific properties. Insilico Medicine also develops software for the generation of synthetic biological data, target identification, and the prediction of clinical trial outcomes. The company integrates two business models: providing AI-powered drug discovery services and software through its Pharma.AI platform (www.insilico.com/platform/) and developing its pipeline of preclinical programs. The preclinical program is the result of pursuing novel drug targets and novel molecules discovered through its platforms. Since its inception in 2014, Insilico Medicine has raised over $52 million and received multiple industry awards. About UCB UCB, Brussels, Belgium is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system.

Read More

Events