MEDTECH, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
Globenewswire | April 13, 2023
Centogene N.V. the essential life science partner for data-driven answers in rare and neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the launch of NEW CentoGenome®, an enhanced Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based assay. Healthcare professionals can leverage NEW CentoGenome to provide more comprehensive diagnostic information, which could accelerate access to potential treatment options.
Serving as a first-line test, NEW CentoGenome is the most comprehensive commercially available Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) test on the market for both rare and neurodegenerative disorders – covering almost all disease-causing variants, including the most relevant repeat expansions associated with neurological diseases, in a single assay. NEW CentoGenome also detects Copy Number Variations (CNVs) associated with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), as well as complex disease-causing variants associated with Gaucher Disease (GD) and susceptibility to GBA1-related Parkinson's Disease (PD), with the highest levels of sensitivity.
The newly designed WGS assay leverages a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-free approach. This significantly diminishes the typical bias induced by PCR and provides higher quality sequencing data across the typically challenging regions of the genome by enabling more uniform coverage and superior performance in variant detection.
“As a pioneer of genetic diagnostics, we are committed to enabling access to high-quality diagnostics and ensuring that cutting-edge data analyses are available to support better patient health outcomes,” said Prof. Peter Bauer, Chief Medical and Genomic Officer at CENTOGENE. “Building on this expertise, CENTOGENE’s enhanced whole genome sequencing is the leading solution on the market, reflecting the latest advanced technologies and unique insights that can’t be found anywhere else to provide maximized disease coverage. Ultimately, this will provide physicians with an unparalleled level of certainty when diagnosing, prognosing, and treating patients.”
CENTOGENE’s NEW CentoGenome - Superior Technology With Market-Leading Clinical Coverage in a Single Test
CENTOGENE’s enhanced WGS solution consists of three seamlessly integrated key features
Advanced Technology for Greater Insights
Implementing PCR-free technology to significantly reduce bias and provide high-quality sequencing information for difficult-to-sequence genetic regions – enabling greater insights into coding, regulatory, and intronic regions
Superior Performance for Enhanced Disease Coverage
Delivering superior performance in variant detection thanks to CENTOGENE’s automated CE-IVD bioinformatics pipeline and medical expert-based analysis of the CENTOGENE Biodatabank, which consists of approximately 700,000 patients representing over 120 highly diverse countries
Integrated Variant Reclassification and Confirmatory Testing for a Life-Long Commitment to Patients
Demonstrating CENTOGENE’s unique commitment to improving the lives of patients with rare and neurodegenerative diseases, NEW CentoGenome is paired with life-long diagnostic support and a free-of-charge and proactive diagnosis confirmation and reclassification program
About CENTOGENE
CENTOGENE’s mission is to provide data-driven, life-changing answers to patients, physicians, and pharma companies for rare and neurodegenerative diseases. We integrate multiomic technologies with the CENTOGENE Biodatabank – providing dimensional analysis to guide the next generation of precision medicine. Our unique approach enables rapid and reliable diagnosis for patients, supports a more precise physician understanding of disease states, and accelerates and de-risks targeted pharma drug discovery, development, and commercialization.
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INDUSTRIAL IMPACT, MEDICAL
Twist Bioscience | March 10, 2023
On March 9, 2023, Twist Bioscience Corporation, a leading firm providing high-quality synthetic DNA through its silicon platform, announced the launch of integrated antibody discovery services. This premium offering combines the company's synthetic libraries and AI machine learning with an in vivo immunization approach acquired through its acquisition of Abveris, also known as Twist Boston. This service provides customers with optimized, development-ready antibody candidates.
The combined team, now called Twist Biopharma Solutions, is led by Tracey Mullen, MBA, the senior vice president of biopharma for Twist Bioscience. This newly formed entity leverages years of industry expertise, scientific excellence, and proprietary technology to discover the best antibody candidate for therapeutic targets of interest.
Twist Biopharma Solutions offers an end-to-end workflow for centralized antibody discovery and optimization, including target validation, hit generation, lead selection, lead optimization, and lead characterization. Twist, supported by high-throughput DNA synthesis and IgG antibody production, constructs extensive and particular synthetic antibody libraries with discovery starting with either in vivo or in vitro diversity.
The newly integrated in vivo discovery approach from Abveris of single B cell screening and hybridoma discovery enables parallel paths where multiple technology methods can be leveraged to build a panel of highly diverse antibody leads with broad epitope coverage. In addition, this multi-pronged approach can increase the likelihood of discovering highly specific, high-affinity functional antibodies by sampling synthetic and natural diversity.
The South San Francisco and Boston biopharma teams were combined to create Twist Biopharma Solutions, led by Tracey Mullen. Aaron Sato, Ph.D., remains integrally involved in Twist Biopharma Solutions and, as a chief scientific officer of Twist Bioscience, extends his expertise across the organization. Tracey Mullen joined Twist Bioscience in November 2021 through the acquisition of Abveris. In April 2022, she took on the position of senior vice president of operations, driving the completion of the Factory of the Future in Wilsonville, Oregon, which began shipping products in January 2023. Before joining Twist, she served as CEO of Abveris and worked on the antibody discovery team at Biogen.
About Twist Bioscience
Twist Bioscience is a leading biotechnology company specializing in synthetic biology and genomics. It has developed a proprietary DNA synthesis platform that enables the production of custom-designed DNA strands faster, more accurately, and at a lower cost than traditional methods. In addition, Twist collaborates with partners across industries to develop customized DNA sequences for specific applications and offers a range of other products and services, such as oligonucleotides, synthetic genes, and custom panels for next-generation sequencing. The company has also developed a library of over 100 billion synthetic antibodies, which can be used for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
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INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
Globenewswire | May 29, 2023
Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc. a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel molecular glue degrader (MGD)-based medicines, announced its second development candidate, MRT-6160, a novel, potent, and selective molecular glue degrader of VAV1. The Company plans to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for MRT-6160 in the first half of 2024 and to develop the molecule as a potential treatment for autoimmune diseases.
“MRT-6160 is a potent, orally bioavailable MGD designed to degrade VAV1, an important protein involved in the signaling pathways of T and B cells. Our in vitro studies have shown that MRT-6160 selectively degrades VAV1 without detectable effects on other proteins. By targeting VAV1, MRT-6160 attenuates multiple aspects of T- and B-cell function and inhibits disease progression in established in vivo models of autoimmunity,” said Owen Wallace, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Monte Rosa. “The underlying biology and our preclinical data both demonstrate that MRT-6160 acts as an immune modulator, which has the potential to avoid the broad immune suppression seen with other approaches. We look forward to progressing our clinical plan developed with the goal of providing early insights into safety, PK and PD, and proof of concept regarding differentiated effects on key immunomodulatory signaling pathways.”
“Our goal centers on pioneering therapeutically meaningful new drugs for patients with serious diseases. By addressing VAV1, a validated but previously undruggable target, we believe we've created a potentially groundbreaking therapy for patients suffering from a range of serious autoimmune conditions, particularly those involving both T- and B cell-mediated autoimmunity,” said Markus Warmuth, M.D., CEO of Monte Rosa. “MRT-6160 is expected to be our second MGD to enter clinical trials, showcasing the continued productivity of our QuEEN™ platform. We anticipate significant progress and milestones in our portfolio in the upcoming year, including initial clinical data from our GSPT1 MGD, MRT-2359, in the second half of this year and filing of an IND application for MRT-6160 in the first half of next year.”
About Monte Rosa
Monte Rosa Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing novel molecular glue degrader (MGD) medicines for patients with serious diseases such as oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. MGDs are small molecule protein degraders that employ the body’s natural mechanisms to selectively eliminate therapeutically relevant proteins. The Company’s QuEEN™ (Quantitative and Engineered Elimination of Neosubstrates) platform enables it to rapidly identify protein targets and design highly selective degraders by combining diverse libraries of proprietary MGDs with in-house proteomics, structural biology, AI/machine learning, and computational chemistry capabilities.
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