UNITY Biotechnology

FierceBiotech | January 17, 2020

China-based cancer and autoimmune disease biotech I-Mab Biopharma has raised $104 million on the U.S. Nasdaq composite. It hit $14 a share, the midpoint in the range, and becomes the first Chinese biotech in more than two years (the last being Zai Lab back in 2017) to gain a U.S. IPO. According to recent reports out of Bloomberg, however, it had been quietly hoping for a $200 million offering. The offering seems relatively tame after the monster raises it has gained over the years, including $22...

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....