BlueRock Therapeutics

BioSpace | August 08, 2019

Bayer AG and BlueRock Therapeutics today announced an agreement under which Bayer will fully acquire BlueRock Therapeutics, a privately held US-headquartered biotechnology company focused on developing engineered cell therapies in the fields of neurology, cardiology and immunology, using a proprietary induced pluripotent stem cell iPSC platform. Following a 2016 joint venture with Versant Ventures to establish BlueRock Therapeutics, Bayer will acquire the remaining stake for approximately USD 24...

Drug Target Review | January 15, 2020

Scientists have created the first lab-dish models of the cellular clock, where each ‘tick’ stimulates the formation of the vertebra, which uses stem cells derived from adult human tissue. Over 20 years ago, Olivier Pourquié’s lab at Harvard University, US discovered a cellular clock in chicken embryos where each ‘tick’ stimulates the formation of a structure called a somite that ultimately becomes a vertebra. Now, Pourquié has led one of two teams to c...

Labiotech | January 15, 2020

The US company bluebird bio has launched the first gene therapy for the blood disorder transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia in the EU, with a hospital in Germany becoming its first qualified treatment center. Bluebird bio’s gene therapy, branded as Zynteglo, was given conditional market approval by the EU in June 2019. It was the first gene therapy approved to treat people over 12 years of age with all but the most severe form of transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, a condition that n...

Genetic Literacy Project | January 14, 2020

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College published a new study (“Anti-Phospho-Tau Gene Therapy for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy”) in Human Gene Therapy that shows the feasibility of using gene therapy to treat the progressive neurodegenerative disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The study demonstrated the effectiveness of direct delivery of gene therapy into the brain of a mouse model of CTE....