Smooth muscle and vascular endothelial cells induced from pluripotent stem cells could help model rare vascular diseases, according to a study published in Stem Cells Translational Medicine. Vascular diseases are tricky to study because they are hard to model and human tissue samples are scarce. An appropriate model for real blood vessels could enable researchers to […]
Discovery
CRISPR uncovers drug compounds in bacterial genome
Researchers at the University of Illinois and the Agency for Science, Technology & Research in Singapore are using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to uncover potentially useful drug compounds. The team has used CRISPR-Cas9 to turn on “silent” gene clusters in Streptomyces and express genes that naturally produce drug compounds to be used as antibiotics or […]
How artificial life spawned a billion-dollar industry
(Reuters) – Scientists are getting closer to building life from scratch and technology pioneers are taking notice, with record sums moving into a field that could deliver novel drugs, materials, chemicals and even perfumes. Despite ethical and safety concerns, investors are attracted by synthetic biology’s wide market potential and the plummeting cost of DNA synthesis, […]
ViaCyte, Gore ink co-development deal for synthetic pancreas
ViaCyte and W.L. Gore & Assoc. said today that they inked a co-development deal for the synthetic pancreas ViaCyte is developing to treat diabetes. The San Diego-based company’s Encaptra device is designed to be seeded with stem cells engineered to become pancreatic cells and implanted under the skin. The newly created pancreatic cells generate insulin and […]
Evotec, Celgene ink drug development deal for stem cell treatments for neurodegenerative diseases
Evotec (ETR:EVT) said today that it inked a 5-year drug discovery and development deal with Celgene (NSDQ:CELG) to identify stem cell therapies for a range of neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. According to the agreement, Hamburg, Germany-based Evotec will receive an upfront payment of $45 million and Celgene will hold exclusive […]
Bayer, Versant close $225m Series A to launch stem cell company
Bayer (ETR:BAYN) and Versant Ventures said today that the 2 groups closed a $225 million Series A financing round to launch BlueRock Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company focused on developing induced pluripotent stem cell therapies. The funds are estimated to support the company for 4 years as it advances cell therapy clinical programs for cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. “Accessing […]
SRI wins $150m grant to develop HIV prevention products
SRI International said today that it landed a $150 million contract from the National Institutes of Health‘s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Division of AIDS to support the development of HIV microbicides and other pre-exposure agents. According to the 7-year deal, the research institute will provide preclinical product development services for non-vaccine […]
Microchip imaging platform for roundworms could accelerate research
Researchers developed a microchip imaging platform to image-analyze thousands of roundworms simultaneously, according to the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. This is the 1st large-scale, in vivo drug discovery platform using a whole animal model, the school reported. The study, published in Nature Communications, detailed a flexible, cellphone-sized chip with […]
Intarcia, Numab log milestones for autoimmune drug-device combo
Intarcia Therapeutics and pharmaceuticals maker Numab said today that they’ve logged several milestones in their joint project to develop a drug-device combination for treating inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Wädenswil, Switzerland-based Numab identified a pair of antibody-based compounds for the program, which aims to use the delivery and formulation technology developed by Cambridge, Mass.-based Intarcia. The companies said […]
Diabetes: Medtronic joins $44m round for Semma Therapeutics
