Medical, Diagnostics
prnewswire | August 28, 2023
Aspen Neuroscience today announced that it is partnering with Emerald Innovations, a pioneer in the creation of "invisible" off-body sensors for measuring health analytics, and Rune Labs, a software and data analytics company for precision neurology, to incorporate digital health (DHT) modalities in the company's Trial-Ready Screening Cohort Study.
The Trial Ready Screening Cohort study was launched in 2022 to screen, enroll and begin manufacturing cells for potential patient candidates for the future Phase 1/2a clinical trial for ANPD001, a personalized (autologous) cell therapy to treat Parkinson's disease (PD) by replacing lost dopamine neurons.
Aspen Neuroscience is advancing the collection of objective measures of motor function via passive in-home monitoring, working with Emerald Innovations' contactless biosensors, and active monitoring, working with Rune Labs' clinical development platform, StriveStudy. The use of DHT empowers trial investigators to include objective, long-term (pre-treatment) motor and sleep symptom capture, to provide data on each patient's rate of disease progression.
"Parkinson's disease is very personal in nature, and we are working to develop a personal cell therapy for PD," said Damien McDevitt, PhD, Aspen president and CEO. "Everyone with Parkinson's has a unique experience, with varied symptoms. We look forward to working closely with the innovative and collaborative teams at Rune Labs and Emerald Innovations to capture a holistic and precise pattern of motor symptom activity over time for people in our screening study."
"Parkinson's is a heterogeneous condition, adding to the challenge of assessing treatment benefit without a personalized view of each trial participant's symptom activity," said Brian Pepin, CEO of Rune Labs. "Through StriveStudy, our biopharma partners are able to collect large quantities of continuous multimodal data to characterize participant's disease activity across a range of clinical features. We are excited to collaborate with Aspen Neuroscience to help them characterize patient symptoms as they bring their personalized cell therapy into clinical testing."
"We are delighted to collaborate with Aspen Neuroscience," said Dr. Dina Katabi, MIT professor and the co-founder and president of Emerald Innovations, Inc. "A significant hurdle in Parkinson's disease clinical trials is the reliable monitoring of disease progression and medication response without the need to enroll hundreds or even thousands of patients. Empirical evidence has demonstrated that readings from the Emerald sensor offer a dependable marker for tracking disease progression. The Emerald sensor gathers this data without body contact, relying solely on the analysis of radio signals in the environment as patients go about their normal lives."
About DHT in the Trial Ready Cohort Screening Study
Aspen will partner with Rune Labs to deeply characterize each patient's symptoms in the Trial Ready Cohort, including the collection of multimodal data, thereby enabling robust disease characterization over time. This will include objective measures of tremor and dyskinesia levels captured on FDA-cleared StrivePD on the Apple Watch, medication monitoring, as well as Apple HealthKit, including global activity (e.g., daily steps).
Aspen and Emerald will collaborate to assess passive "invisible" in-home monitoring of participants enrolled in the Trial Ready Cohort. This will include gait speed measured across walking intervals, sleep onset, the amount of time between entering different sleep stages; sleep duration, sleep efficiency and WASO: the total time spent in the WAKE stage after sleep onset.
About Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease is the world's second most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting more than 10 million people worldwide, including more than 1 million in the U.S., where an additional 90,000+ people are diagnosed every year. Patients can experience non-motor symptoms such as mental and behavioral changes, sleep problems, depression, memory difficulties and fatigue; and motor symptoms caused by the loss of dopamine neurons in the brain, including unintended or uncontrollable movements (dyskinesia), shaking (tremor), stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination, which worsen over time.
By the time of diagnosis, it is common for people to have lost the majority of cells in the brain that make dopamine. To date, there is no disease-modifying therapy that can stop, replace or prevent the loss of dopamine neurons or slow the progression of PD.
About Aspen Neuroscience
Headquartered in San Diego, Aspen Neuroscience, Inc. is a clinical development-stage, private company focused on personalized (autologous) regenerative medicine. The company is developing patient-derived iPSCs to create personalized cell therapies that address diseases with high unmet medical needs, beginning with autologous neuron replacement for Parkinson's disease and extending across the brain and affected organs.
A leading iPSC platform company, Aspen combines stem cell biology with the latest artificial intelligence and genomic approaches to investigate patient-specific, restorative treatments. The company has developed a best-in-class platform to create and optimize iPSC-derived cell therapies, which includes in-house bioinformatics, manufacturing and QC.
About Emerald Innovations, Inc.
Emerald Innovations is a health analytics company that specializes in digital health solutions for passive, contactless in-home monitoring. Emerald seamlessly captures continuous health data from patients as they go about their normal lives. The Emerald biosensors fall under a cutting-edge category known as "Invisibles." Installed in the homes of study participants, these sensors continuously analyze surrounding radio signals. Using artificial intelligence, they extract patients' physiological data while prioritizing their privacy. Emerald simplifies clinical trials for its clients by obtaining statistically significant biomarkers, making them readily available to clinicians and data analysts, and consistently providing updates on the progress of clinical trials. Emerald's clientele encompasses big pharma, Fortune 500 pharmaceutical firms, innovative biotech companies, and leading disease research foundations.
About Rune Labs
Rune Labs is a software and data analytics company for precision neurology, supporting care delivery and therapy development. StrivePD is the company's care delivery ecosystem for Parkinson's disease, enabling patients and clinicians to better manage Parkinson's by providing access to curated dashboards summarizing a range of patient data sources, and by connecting patients to clinical trials. For therapeutics development, biopharma and medical device companies leverage Rune's technology, network of engaged clinicians and patients, and large longitudinal real-world datasets to expedite development programs. The company has received financial backing from leading investors such as Eclipse Ventures, DigiTx, TruVenturo and Moment Ventures. For more information, please visit runelabs.io and strive.group.
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Medical, Industry Outlook
Businesswire | July 24, 2023
Massive Bio, an AI-powered platform connecting patients with clinical trials and CureMatch, a healthcare technology company leveraging Knowledge Representation & Reasoning (KRR) AI for precision medicine support for oncology, and have announced a transformative partnership aimed at revolutionizing cancer treatment through advanced genomics, artificial intelligence, and expansive clinical trial accessibility.
Massive Bio and CureMatch will leverage their cutting-edge technologies to provide oncologists and their patients unprecedented access to potentially lifesaving clinical trials, personalized cancer treatments, and comprehensive reports on the most effective therapies based on individual patients' profiles.
Selin Kurnaz, CEO and Co-Founder of Massive Bio, highlights the potential of this alliance: "This partnership with CureMatch combines the power of precision medicine with the most advanced AI-driven clinical trial matching. It disruptively accelerates the drug development process, offering faster access to advanced therapies for patients."
Navid Alipour, CEO of CureMatch, also emphasized the transformative potential of the partnership. "CureMatch is thrilled to join forces with Massive Bio. By integrating our personalized oncology platform with their AI-driven clinical trial matching system, we can reach more patients and provide the best possible treatment options. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for countless patients and contribute to the global fight against cancer."
In this game-changing alliance, CureMatch will harness its distinctive platform to identify patients who stand to benefit most from groundbreaking clinical trials, thereby magnifying the reach and impact of Massive Bio's trials. Simultaneously, Massive Bio will employ its cutting-edge AI capabilities to process a wealth of patient clinical health data, including variables such as cancer type, demographics, geographic location, and historical data. By weaving this intricate data mosaic with CureMatch's customized reports, Massive Bio will expertly determine potential matches for appropriate clinical trials. This pioneering approach not only streamlines patient identification but also propels drug development and fortifies personalized treatment strategies. As a result, this transformative partnership presents a highly compelling opportunity for similar future partners looking to fuel the future of precision oncology.
Dr. Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, Co-Founder of Massive Bio, believes the collaboration will not only contribute to cancer treatment innovation but will also play a vital role in reducing disparities in clinical trial participation. "This partnership addresses a critical gap in oncology research, providing an opportunity for all patients, regardless of their geographical location, to access cutting-edge treatments."
By leveraging the expertise and technological capabilities of both organizations, the partnership aims to facilitate the referral of patients to clinical trials, thus increasing access to potential therapies for cancer patients. As a result, patients worldwide stand to benefit from advanced precision medicine delivered locally, improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.
About Massive Bio
Massive Bio is at the forefront of empowering cancer patients to discover their optimal treatment options. Utilizing AI to enhance equitable access and precision targeting for clinical trial matching, drug matching, and drug development, Massive Bio is committed to breaking down barriers in clinical trial enrollment, fostering value-based oncology decisions, and facilitating data-driven cancer treatment. Serving over three dozen pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and hospital networks, Massive Bio has earned recognition from the National Cancer Institute with an SBIR contract. Founded in 2015 by a team of clinical, technology, and M&A executives, Massive Bio boasts a global presence with nearly 100 people across 12 countries. For further details, please visit www.massivebio.com, https://askfiona.ai, https://drarturo.ai or interact with us on our social media channels.
About CureMatch
CureMatch, Inc. is a digital health company focused on personalized medicine and combination therapy in oncology. CureMatch's Decision Support System guides oncologists in the selection of cancer drugs that are personalized for individual patients based on their molecular tumor profile.
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Medical, Industry Outlook
PRNewswire | August 07, 2023
Ginkgo Bioworks the leading horizontal platform for cell programming and biosecurity, and the Government of the Republic of Panama's Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, today announced that they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with the intent to develop and implement new biosecurity capabilities in Latin America.
Ginkgo, through its biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, aims to support the Gorgas Institute as it builds Panama's foundational bioeconomy that will serve not only the country, but also the surrounding region. These efforts will bolster Panama's biosecurity infrastructure, giving the country key tools to detect, identify, and monitor current and future pathogens. It will also be Concentric's first Latin American program, as the company continues to expand operations internationally.
As part of the program, Concentric will collaborate with the Gorgas Institute to strengthen their current surveillance infrastructure for COVID-19, as well as other respiratory and enteric pathogens, leveraging Concentric's expertise in wastewater monitoring, lab enablement, and bioinformatics analysis and decision support.
The program is expected to operate in strategic locations that can help bolster both national and regional public health and security throughout Panama. These include, but are not limited to, wastewater surveillance in major urban centers like Panama City, as well as at ports-of-entry, including the border crossing in the Darien National Park and Tocumen International Airport (PTY).
By establishing these monitoring programs, Panama will become a critical node in Concentric's global network that collects data to help public health and national security officials detect and respond to emerging biological threats. The information captured from these programs is expected to play a key role in strengthening not only Panama's COVID-19 and novel pathogen detection infrastructure, but also provide key data for regional pandemic preparedness.
"We're honored to collaborate with the Republic of Panama to strengthen the region's health security capabilities through pathogen threat detection in Panama City and the Darien region," said Matt McKnight, General Manager, Biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks. "Robust bio-surveillance in Panama is critical not only for the health of the country, but also for the security of the Western Hemisphere, and I am confident this partnership will strengthen health security in the region and the world."
"These detection and monitoring programs are an important aspect of Panama's public health initiatives. We are excited to collaborate with Concentric on these important biosecurity programs," said Dr. Juan Miguel Pascale, General Director of Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo's biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats.
About the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies
Gorgas Memorial Institute is the national reference laboratory and research institute of Panama, and the support arm of the Ministry of Health. Founded in 1928 in memory of Dr. William C. Gorgas who implemented public health measures that allowed the control of malaria and yellow fever enabling the construction of the Panama Canal, its research has been centered in the study of tropical diseases: leishmaniasis, malaria, yellow fever, Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya among other arbovirosis as well as the surveillance of Influenza and respiratory viruses and endemic agents such as Hantavirus, Venezuelan and Eastern Equine Encephalitis. During the last decade it has also been involved in HIV surveillance and in research of non-communicable diseases in the country.
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