Researchers from Technion Institute of Technology in Israel reported on a method of tagging cancer drugs with “barcodes” to monitor tumor growth. The team detailed their methods in a study published in the November issue of Nature Communications. The nanoparticle drug delivery system are tagged with synthetic DNA, which act as barcodes used to track the tumor’s response […]
Oncology
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Enterome ink immuno-oncology collab
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) said today that it inked a collaboration agreement with Enterome to discover and develop microbiome-derived biomarkers and drug targets as potential companion diagnostics and therapeutics for cancer. According to the agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb will be given exclusive rights to intellectual property and therapies that result from the collaboration. Enterome will get an […]
Are tiny ‘supermagnets’ the future of drug delivery?
Researchers from Quingdou University of Science and Technology in China developed a method to produce “supermagnets” that could one day be used as targeted drug delivery vehicles. The team’s work was published in Physics Letters A. Some magnetic materials are small enough that their magnetization randomly flips according to temperature; when scientists apply a magnetic field […]
Broad Institute, IBM Watson launch initiative to study cancer drug resistance
IBM Watson Health (NYSE:IBM) and the Broad Institute said today that they’ve launched a research initiative with the hopes of discovering the basis for cancer drug resistance. The 5 year, $50 million collaboration will utilize the genetic information of thousands of drug resistant tumors and Watson’s machine learning methods to help understand the underlying mechanisms […]
Gold nanoparticles target chromosomes in cancer cells
Researchers tagged gold nanoparticles with a small dose of radiation to trace the particles as they deliver a drug into the heart of a cancer cell, according to work presented at the 2016 National Cancer Research Institute conference. A team of researchers from the Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology worked to deliver drugs to the “control […]
Researchers stunt growth of ovarian cancer with nanohydrogels
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a targeted therapy using nanohydrogels to stunt the growth of ovarian tumors in in vivo tests in mice, according to a new study. The nanohydrogel is a gel pellet that researchers can load with RNA to carry into cancer cells and knock down a particular protein. “The dramatic […]
Lab models drug-eluting polymer beads in blood flow
Researchers from the University of Huddersfield developed a method to predict how drug-eluting polymer beads can affect the body if they are modified. The UK team of researchers published their work in the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Polymer beads are frequently used in cases of liver cancer, where they’re injected into a patient’s arteries to block […]
BriaCell names ex-GSK exec Williams as CEO | Personnel Moves, Nov. 1, 2016
BriaCell Thereapeutics (CVE:BCT) said last week that it named biotechnology veteran Dr. William Williams as its president & CEO effective Nov. 1. The Berkeley, Calif.-based company’s lead product is a genetically engineered, whole-cell vaccine derived from a human breast tumor cell line. BriaCell suggests that the vaccine may be able to trigger the immune system to […]
Erytech Pharma taps new scientific, business chiefs | Personnel Moves, Oct. 26, 2016
French biotech Erytech Pharma (EPA:ERYP) said today that it named Alexander Scheer as chief scientific officer and Jean-Sébastien Cleiftie as chief business officer. The Lyon, France-based company encapsulates enzymes inside red blood cells that deprive tumors of necessary nutrients to treat rare forms of cancers and orphan diseases. Erytech has an ongoing Phase I […]
Jivana Biotechnology raises $1m for targeted cancer therapy
Jivana Biotechnology raised $1 million for its preclinical work using targeted RNA-based therapies to treat a variety of cancers, according to a regulatory filing the Oak Park, Ill.-based company submitted this week. The minimum investment from an outside investor was $50,000, the company reported, and it used an estimated $125,000 for payments to its executive […]