News
Non-opioid small-molecule painkiller more effective and less risky than gabapentin
Gabapentin is a widely prescribed non-opioid painkiller, but it has many side effects, including memory loss, mood changes, and lethargy. New research out of NYU shows promise for a small molecule called CBD3063*, which in rodents has been shown to inhibit pain at...
Nobel Prize Awarded for mRNA Vaccines against COVID
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced today, and has been awarded to Drs. Karolin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their “discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”....
Pigneys – the Future of Renal Transplantation?
Last week was a big one for the future of kidney transplants – specifically, kidneys grown in pigs. At the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, scientists reported that they have used human pluripotent stem cells to grown part-human, part-porcine kidneys in...
Pfizer to buy Seagen for $43 billion
Pfizer has announced that it intends to buy Seagen, formerly known as Seattle Genetics, for the huge sum of $43 billion. Seagen is pioneer and driving force behind the development of antibody-drug conjugates for the treatment of cancer. In the best of all worlds this...
Optogenetics: A cool tool may have found medical use
Optogenetics is a biological technique that uses light to control neurons that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. As such, it is a neuromodulation method that controls the activities of individual neurons in living tissue — even...
A New Type of Antibody –
For a long time 5 antibody types have been known in mammals, IgG, IgM, IgA, IgE, and IgD, with IgG being the work horse in biotechnology. So it drew our attention that a group at Duke University has described a new type of anti-glycan antibody that binds to a patch of...
Monoclonal for Alzheimer’s
On Monday FDA approved Biogen’s aducanumab, brand name Aduhelm, through a program called accelerated approval. Aduhelm is the first new medication for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly two decades. FDA’s decision was welcomed by patients and their families as a...
San Diego #5 US Biopharma Cluster in 2020
A list of the ten top ranking biopharmaceutical clusters in the US was recently compiled by Genetic Engineering News. The list is based on available 2020 data for NIH funding, venture capital funding, patents, lab space and jobs. San Diego made #5 of the list. Yay!...
Honoring our friend and mentor, Ralph Reisfeld
Our dear friend and mentor, Ralph, passed in December after a long and fruitful life in science. Ralph leaves an important legacy as a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy and as a valued mentor, colleague and friend to many. We will miss him very much and want to share an...
Cold chain is a hot topic among investors
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 received an emergency use authorization from the FDA last Friday, and thousands of doses are being rolled out across the country this week. But the vaccine, which must be stored at between -80 and -60 degrees Celsius, necessitates the utilization of a “cold chain” to keep it within this temperature range from the moment it leaves the manufacturing site to just before it is administered to a patient.