Synaffix and Sidewinder Agree to Advance Next-Generation Bispecific ADC Development
Synaffix, a Lonza company, and Sidewinder Therapeutics have signed a multi‑target licensing agreement to co‑develop first‑in‑class bispecific antibody‑drug conjugates (ADCs) for solid‑tumor indications. The deal gives Sidewinder access to Synaffix’s GlycoConnect antibody‑conjugation, HydraSpace polar spacer, and toxSYN linker‑payload technologies, while Lonza will receive upfront, milestone and royalty payments and manufacture key components. Both firms will share responsibility for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of the new ADCs. The collaboration aims to improve the therapeutic index and tolerability of bispecific ADCs.
Study Finds Weight Returns More Quickly in GLP-1 Users
A new BMJ meta‑analysis of 37 studies involving over 9,000 adults shows that weight lost with GLP‑1 agonists such as Wegovy and Mounjaro is regained rapidly after treatment stops, at about 0.8 kg per month. This rebound rate is four times...
Tessera Therapeutics to Lay Off 90 Employees, According to Document
Tessera Therapeutics, a heavily funded gene‑editing startup, announced plans to lay off roughly 90 employees. The cuts represent a significant reduction in its workforce, signaling a shift in the company’s growth trajectory. The layoffs come as the biotech sector faces...
GSK, Noetik Sign Cancer Deal on AI Virtual Cell Models
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has entered a multi‑million‑dollar agreement with AI‑driven biotech Noetik to license its virtual cell models for cancer research. The partnership gives GSK access to Noetik’s proprietary AI simulations that predict cellular responses, allowing the pharma giant to evaluate...
Hengrui Gets First OK for a PD-L1/TGF-Beta Drug for Cancer
Jiangsu Hengrui Pharma secured China’s first approval for retlirafusp alfa, a bispecific PD‑L1/TGF‑beta fusion protein, as a frontline treatment for advanced gastric and gastro‑esophageal junction adenocarcinoma. The decision follows the phase 3 RELIGHT trial, which demonstrated a 34% overall‑survival gain versus...
Cas12a3 CRISPR System Targets tRNA Without Destroying Host Cell
Researchers at Utah State University identified a novel CRISPR nuclease, Cas12a3, that selectively cleaves the 3′ CCA tails of transfer RNAs, halting protein synthesis without damaging host DNA. Unlike Cas9, which makes a single cut in DNA, Cas12a3 is activated...
Diagonal Banks Another $125M for ‘Clustering’ Antibody Drugs
Biotech startup Diagonal Therapeutics secured $125 million in a Series B financing, bringing its total capital raised since 2024 to over $250 million. The funding will advance its lead candidate, DIAG723, a clustering antibody designed to reactivate the ALK1 pathway...
Reduced Cystathionine Γ-Lyase Levels May Contribute Meaningfully to Age-Related Neurodegeneration
Researchers found that cystathionine γ‑lyase (CSE) levels decline with age and that complete genetic removal of CSE in mice reproduces key features of brain aging. CSE‑deficient mice exhibited oxidative damage, blood‑brain barrier breakdown, impaired neurogenesis, and measurable cognitive deficits. The...
Improved Drainage of Cerebrospinal Fluid as a Time Critical Treatment for Stroke
Researchers at Monash University are developing non‑invasive neck devices that accelerate cerebrospinal fluid drainage via the glymphatic system immediately after ischemic stroke. Advanced imaging of 140 participants shows women have less lymphatic coverage in the brain’s outer layer, potentially explaining...
Blood Test Reveals Risk of Multimorbidity
A study by Karolinska Institutet identified a handful of blood biomarkers that reliably predict multimorbidity risk in people over 60. Researchers measured 54 markers and found seven, especially five metabolic indicators, linked to disease count, patterns, and progression speed. The...
The Top 12 Companies Hiring in Biopharma Now
BioSpace’s December hiring report shows a 10 % month‑over‑month drop in active job postings and a 16 % year‑on‑year decline versus December 2024, reflecting typical holiday‑season slowdown. A noticeable surge in postings during the first week of January signals that hiring momentum is...
Biopharmas Axed 47% More Employees Year Over Year
Biopharma layoffs surged 47% year‑over‑year in 2025, affecting roughly 42,700 employees, as capital tightening forced both early‑stage and large firms to cut staff. The wave was driven by investor pull‑back after biotech failures, prompting leaner operations and accelerated M&A activity....
Outsourcing Partnerships Fuel Global Biopharma Discovery and Scale-Up
Strategic outsourcing through CROs and CDMOs is reshaping biopharma pipelines, linking discovery, formulation, and early‑phase manufacturing into seamless workflows. By tapping external expertise, companies can accelerate complex modalities such as cell and gene therapies, RNA medicines, and next‑generation biologics. Integrated...
Novel Gene Therapy Approach Targets Pain Centers in the Brain
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have unveiled the first central‑nervous‑system‑targeted gene therapy designed to relieve chronic pain by modulating cortical opioid circuits. Using an AI‑driven mouse model, they identified a persistent affective pain signature that morphine reverses, then engineered...
Timing Pays: Ventyx Deal Rewards Early IPO Investors
Ventyx $VTYX acquired by Lilly $LLY for $14/share or $1.2B valuation. IPO'd in 2021 at $16/share, around $800M market cap. So acquisition is like ~15% below the IPO price but ~50% above the IPO valuation Great pivot from TYK2 lead program...
Advancing Rare Disease Therapies: Policy and Regulatory Outlook
I’m coming up on @SquawkCNBC where I’ll be discussing recent advances in the treatment of rare diseases and the policy and regulatory path for bringing them to patients. https://t.co/9xsIvvY5Tm
Alumis’ Phase III TYK2 Data Intensify Psoriasis Efficacy Contest
Alumis announced Phase III results for its oral TYK2 inhibitor envudeucitinib in moderate‑to‑severe plaque psoriasis. The trial met its primary endpoint, with 71% of patients achieving PASI‑90 at week 16, outperforming the active comparator and matching or exceeding data from...
2026 Marks First AI Prescription Renewals and ChatGPT Health
2026 is off with two new precedents in health and medical AI —@doctronic given green light in Utah for AI prescription renewals, pilot study 250 patients https://t.co/EQ3fmqWwyz —ChatGPT Health initiated https://t.co/VOvd3wVkeR @fidjissimo Both need prospective study, rigorous independent assessment, and report of results
Trust Library Sources over Conspiracy for Vaccine Facts
Our friend needs to visit the public library, and rely less on conspiracy sites. I develop low cost vaccines for the world’s poorest people, which actually bypass big pharma. Almost all childhood vaccines are tested through RCTs, available National Library...
$1B-Plus Biotech Takeouts: 2025 Biggest Year in Last Decade
Biotech M&A in 2025 saw a surge in mega‑transactions, with deals exceeding $1 billion accounting for more than half of all takeouts. The total value of these large deals topped $10 billion, marking the strongest year for billion‑dollar biotech acquisitions in the...
Delay Discounting Correlates with Depression but Does Not Predict Relapse After Antidepressant Discontinuation
The AIDA longitudinal study examined whether delay discounting could predict depressive relapse after antidepressant discontinuation. While patients with remitted major depressive disorder displayed modestly higher discount rates than healthy controls and discounting correlated with HAM‑D scores, baseline discounting and changes...
Shared Neurogenetic Architecture Links Adolescent Neurodevelopmental Deviations to Adult Psychopathological Procrastination
A new study demonstrates that the same genetic factors shaping adolescent brain development also predispose individuals to pathological procrastination in adulthood. Using twin data, high‑resolution MRI and normative modeling, researchers identified overlapping neurogenetic signatures in cortical and subcortical regions linked...
Trump Administration Backs Pediatric PRVs
The Trump administration is lobbying Congress to approve the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, which would reauthorize the rare pediatric disease priority voucher (PRV) program. The bill has already cleared the House of Representatives. In the Senate, Senator...
Lilly Snaps up Ventyx for $1.2B in Pursuit of Oral Immune Drugs
Eli Lilly agreed to acquire Ventyx Biosciences for $1.2 billion, paying a 62 % premium to secure the oral NLRP3 inhibitor VTX3232. The drug showed a 64 % reduction in a cardiac‑risk biomarker and synergistic effects with semaglutide in obesity‑related trials. The purchase expands...
ABVX's UC Expansion Will Boost M&A Valuation
Prediction: High penetration of the existing UC market is one thing, but $ABVX expanding the UC market on their own will be looked back on as the key piece that ultimately took the M&A value to the next...
AI Tool Can Take a Cattle's Temperature with only a Photo
Researchers at the University of Arkansas unveiled CattleFever, an AI system that estimates a calf’s body temperature from a single RGB‑thermal photo. The model, trained on the newly released CattleFace‑RGBT dataset with 13 facial landmarks, achieved temperature predictions within one...
2026 Predictions: Historic FDA Shift, Plausible Mechanisms, Bespoke Tx, RFK Jr., Biotechs, State AGs, Peptides, Embryos
The blog forecasts a historic regulatory shift in 2026, with the FDA likely approving Capricor’s deramiocel for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and at least two additional cell therapies based on limited data. New FDA buzzwords—plausible mechanisms, N=1 trials, bespoke therapies, and...
Autonomous Brain Microchips Eliminate Need for Surgery
Excited to share the recent #Forbes article featuring our technology, #Circulatronics — a new generation of 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 that are 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐲-𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞! 🧠 Forbes feature: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2025/12/29/how-our-own-cells-could-implant-the-next-generation-of-nonsurgical-brain-microchips/ 🎥 MIT Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDcgLM6Glg4 📖 MIT news release: https://news.mit.edu/2025/new-therapeutic-brain-implants-defy-surgery-need-1105
Ribosomal Engineering Creates 'Super-Probiotic' Bacteria with Enhanced Immune Activation
Researchers at Shinshu University used ribosome engineering to create a Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG strain with a K56N mutation in ribosomal protein S12. The mutant displays markedly more surface moonlighting proteins, especially GAPDH, leading to double the adhesion to intestinal cells...
A Small Sample of the Complexity of Hair Follicle Aging
A recent single‑cell RNA sequencing study mapped the transcriptional landscape of human hair follicles across a wide age range, profiling 57,181 cells from young, middle‑aged and elderly donors. The analysis identified three distinct keratinocyte subtypes and highlighted activation of the...
An Effort to Detect and Treat Alzheimer’s at Its Earliest Stages
In this episode, Daniel Levine interviews Valerie Daggett, founder and CEO of AltPep, about the company's strategy to detect and treat Alzheimer's disease at its earliest stage by targeting toxic α‑sheet oligomers with synthetic peptide therapeutics and companion diagnostics. Daggett...
Sulfolobus Islandicus: Expanding the Genetic Toolkit for Drug Delivery and Biotechnology Applications
University of Illinois researchers used the CRISPR‑COPIES pipeline and multi‑omics profiling to map chromosomal integration hotspots in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus islandicus. They identified 66 crRNAs targeting 21 intergenic regions and functionally validated eight sites with a lacS‑β‑galactosidase reporter. Overexpressing...
Lab Automation Accelerates: RACs Deploy in Boston
Check out the video below from Rashard showing how we test the integration of ginkgo’s RAC automation with the specific vagaries of a piece of fancy lab equipment— then mine showing a bunch of RACs showing up for our new...
Advances in Extracellular Vesicle Separation and Isolation
Finnish researchers reviewed the latest size‑, charge‑, and affinity‑based methods for extracellular vesicle (EV) isolation as exosome therapeutics move toward clinical use. They highlighted emerging size‑based techniques such as deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) with thermally‑oxidized tapered structures and viscoelastic microfluidic...
Fungus with Hidden Talent Leads to Rethink on Making Classic Cancer Drug
Researchers have identified an endophytic fungus, *Colletotrichum siamense*, living inside the Madagascar periwinkle that can synthesize the chemotherapy drug vinblastine. The fungus produced the compound at a modest 138 µg per liter, matching the plant‑derived molecular signature. Laboratory tests confirmed that...
Automated Lab of the Future May Herald Lower-Cost Therapies
German researchers at TU Berlin’s KIWI‑biolab have built a self‑driving laboratory that uses robotics, AI and bioinformatics to automate the development of new biomolecules. The system runs E. coli cultures in 10‑100 mL bioreactors, validates processes up to 100 L, and relies on...
CCGT Sector Needs Purpose-Built Quality Management Systems
Researchers argue that traditional quality management systems, built for large‑scale protein drugs, are ill‑suited for cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing. Manual, paper‑based processes have evolved into fragile eQMS platforms that struggle with the lean, modular nature of CGT production....
Behind the Headlines Episode 31: Optimism, Opportunity, Optimization of COGs & Organizational Streamlining
In the Behind the Headlines Episode 31, veteran pharma leader Deborah Dunsire declares a "golden era" for biological sciences, driven by targeted therapies such as GLP‑1s and emerging tools like AI and quantum computing. She stresses the need for fact‑based communication...
Measles Cases Surge to Highest Since 1991
1. New #measles numbers out from #CDC. Confirmed cases for 2025 stand at 2,144, the highest single year count since 1991. A decision was taken in 1989 to make measles vaccination a 2-dose regimen; after it was implemented, it &...
CRISPR Discovery Could Lead to Single Diagnostic Test for COVID, Flu, RSV
Utah State University researchers have uncovered a novel function of the bacterial immune protein CRISPR‑Cas12a3 that directly targets RNA and cleaves tRNA tails, halting viral protein production without damaging host DNA. Published in Nature, the work shows Cas12a3 can be...
RFK Decimates Vaccine Schedule
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as HHS secretary, has reduced the U.S. routine vaccine schedule from covering 17 illnesses to just 11, moving hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal, influenza and COVID‑19 into a “shared clinical decision‑making” category. The change bypasses...
Elon Musk Proves Society Now Embraces Higher Tech Risk
Yeah I agree -- I think @elonmusk has shown in the last 10 years that you can take more risk than people thought in the world of atoms. (that's in part why the vibe is it like it is in...
GISAID Faces New Issues Compromising Viral Sequence Data
Repeating to fix link: More problems with #GISAID, the international database that is the key repository of #flu and #Covid viral sequences, @kakape reports. https://t.co/YCblC7jSpf
AI Predicts Hundreds of Diseases Years Ahead From Health Data
Large health models and predicting diseases —In September, >1,200 diseases predicted and when, by EHR and lifestyle factors, for 20-years forward https://t.co/31prJJL1v6 —Yesterday, >130 diseases were predicted from 1 night of sleep data and EHR (Figure) https://t.co/ebHlmaWjfK
AbbVie’s $20B RVMD Acquisition Hits JPM26 M&A Milestone
$ABBV taking out $RVMD would certainly check the #JPM26 big M&A box. $20B plus deal.
Two Novel Strategies Supercharge Cancer Immunity
2 new ways to get the immune system revved up vs cancer —intratumor vaccination https://t.co/PUWOHy8Dkw —bacterial outer membrane vesicles https://t.co/2xC5PAC8OG
High Lp(a) Raises Long‑Term Risk; Therapies Coming
The risk of high lipoprotein A [Lp(a)] in nearly 28,000 healthy women followed for 30 years. Fortunately, after waiting for decades, we will have drugs vs Lp(a) soon to reduce this risk https://t.co/SfXTtpaV0i https://t.co/PdykVP6nKB
Mitochondria Transfer From Glia Offers Neuropathy Therapy
Discovery of a new potential approach for treating peripheral neuropathy: mitochondria transfer from satellite glial cells to neurons @Nature https://t.co/EZxAkbi6kk https://t.co/I4td8aScPP
Atrial Fibrillation Drives Cognitive Decline, Not Prevented by Blood Thinners
Atrial fibrillation and cognitive decline. Blood thinners don't help. Possible explanations not mentioned here include less brain clearance of metabolic waste products with this heart rhythm, recently documented https://t.co/IWzR05JaBN https://t.co/5UA4vcW3GO
Perturb-Seq Maps T Cell Regulators and Immune Traits
Genome-scale perturb-seq in primary human CD4+ T cells maps context-specific regulators of T cell programs and human immune traits https://t.co/tMc4efSMxe https://t.co/XUdax0qxn1