New Synthetic Opioid Shows Lower Addiction Risk Than Morphine in Rodent Study
Researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that DFNZ, a novel nitazene‑derived opioid, produced weaker withdrawal symptoms and less compulsive self‑administration than morphine in rats, hinting at a safer pain‑relief alternative.
Rejuvenation Stems From Removing Old Blood, Not Young Transfusions
Munger was right to “avoid crazy” regarding young blood transfusions. While animal data is compelling, evidence shows rejuvenation (in mice) comes mostly from removing old blood components to dilute age-elevated factors. 🩸
10x Genomics Unveils Atera Platform for Whole‑Transcriptome Spatial Biology
10x Genomics announced Atera, a new in situ spatial biology platform that delivers whole‑transcriptome analysis at single‑cell resolution and scale. Debuted at the AACR 2026 meeting, the technology aims to reshape disease research and clinical diagnostics by removing trade‑offs between...

20 Years Of Priority Review Vouchers, A Tool For Spurring Needed Drugs
The U.S. priority review voucher (PRV) program, created in 2007 to spur drug development for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), has turned into a lucrative market incentive, with vouchers fetching nine‑figure sums. A landmark case is MDGH’s moxidectin, the first new...
Trump Signs Order to Fast‑track Ibogaine and Other Psychedelics
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to accelerate the FDA’s review of ibogaine and other psychedelic drugs, citing potential relief for veterans with PTSD and opioid addiction. The move includes priority vouchers that could cut review times from months...

A Closer Look at Body Composition in Obesity Drug Trials
A new systematic review of 36 randomized controlled trials, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, reveals that obesity medications often cause a sizable loss of lean mass. In 65% of drug trials, more than a quarter of total weight loss...

Major Antineoplastic Mechanisms of Combination Ivermectin-Mebendazole
In this episode of American Sunrise, chief scientific officer Dr. Peter McCullough discusses a new wellness‑company study showing that the antiparasitic drugs ivermectin and mebendazole, when used alongside standard cancer therapies, yielded an 84% positive net clinical benefit in over 200...

Is VC6TF the OSK Reversal Cocktail?
Researchers at the Sinclair Lab have identified a five‑molecule mix called VC6TF that chemically mimics the OSK (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4) gene‑therapy cocktail used to reset cellular age. The core of the “three‑chemical” version discussed by Dr. Sinclair includes CHIR‑99021, RepSox...

Weekly Reads: Prasad Successor, Sammy Hagar Stem Cells, More on OSK Trial, Finnish Speaker Needed
Vinay Prasad is set to leave his role as head of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER within two weeks, prompting speculation about the agency’s future direction. A new flexible oversight framework for rare‑disease gene and cell therapies...

STAT+: The Race to Catch KRAS, Pancreatic Cancer’s ‘Greasy Ball,’ and Create the Most Promising Drug in Decades
A new wave of KRAS‑targeted therapies is reshaping pancreatic cancer treatment after decades of failure. Revolution Medicines’ daraxonrasib, a next‑generation KRAS inhibitor, delivered dramatic survival benefits for patient Leanna Stokes, who enrolled in a clinical trial. The drug’s success has...

The Next Chemical Cage Has a Beautiful Door
President Biden signed an executive order fast‑tracking psychedelic drugs, granting the FDA priority vouchers for serotonin‑2A agonists. The move follows a public ceremony with Joe Rogan, RFK Jr., and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, signaling a shift from traditional plant‑based use to pharmaceutical...
Chinese Biotech's Global Surge May Hinge on AI
China’s drug makers are speeding up – will AI be their secret weapon? Chinese biotech firms are striking big global deals as drug makers, but could artificial intelligence take them to the next level? No "overcapacity" here.... https://t.co/sktFORaVey via @scmpnews
10x Genomics Unveils Atera Spatial Platform at AACR Meeting
10x Genomics announced the Atera spatial platform at the AACR meeting, promising whole‑transcriptome spatial profiling at scale. The instrument delivers four times the throughput, six times the plex capacity, and up to three‑fold higher sensitivity compared with the company’s Xenium...
TG Therapeutics: Flawless Execution And $500 Million Non-Dilutive Capital Bolster Outlook
TG Therapeutics was downgraded from Strong Buy to Buy after a 17% rally that brought its valuation closer to fundamentals. The company’s flagship MS drug, Briumvi IV, continues to capture market share, while a fully enrolled sub‑cutaneous trial could double...
Forbion Crowned Europe’s Largest Independent VC, Targets Asian Expansion
Forbion has been named Europe’s largest independent venture capital firm and, in the same announcement, unveiled a plan to seek new life‑science investments across Asia. Managing Partner Sander Slootweg said the move aims to offset funding constraints in Europe and...
HSS Studies Contribute Early Evidence to Help Guide Emerging Perioperative Considerations for Patients Using GLP‑1 Medications
At the ASRA annual meeting, Hospital for Special Surgery researchers presented two studies on peri‑operative management of patients taking GLP‑1 agonists. A multicenter ultrasound assessment of 354 elective surgery patients found no statistically significant difference in full‑stomach incidence between GLP‑1...
Teva's $40 Target: Olanzapine, Specialty Drugs and Biosimilars Fuel Upside
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' stock has surged 130% in the past year, and analysts see three catalysts—FDA approval of a long‑acting olanzapine, accelerating specialty‑drug sales, and a wave of biosimilar launches—that could push the share price past $40. The outlook rests...

Quality Metrics for Drug Manufacturing
The FDA is advancing a Quality Metrics Reporting Program to collect objective manufacturing data from drug producers. By analyzing these metrics, the agency aims to enhance risk‑based surveillance, predict shortages, and streamline inspections. The initiative builds on a decade of...
Night‑Shift Work Tied to Higher Thyroid Disorder Risk, Review Finds
A health review released this week links night‑shift work to a higher incidence of thyroid disorders, citing disruptions to the hypothalamic‑pituitary‑thyroid axis. The analysis notes that thyroid disease affects roughly 200 million people worldwide and is five‑to‑ten times more common in...
Definium Therapeutics Applauds White House Executive Order to Accelerate Mental Health Innovation and Expand Access to Psychedelic Medical Treatments
Definium Therapeutics welcomed the White House’s new executive order that aims to speed research, regulatory review, and access to innovative mental‑health treatments, including psychedelics. The order directs federal agencies to streamline pathways and boost cross‑agency collaboration. Definium highlighted its DT120...

Three Gene Therapy Pioneers Just Won the Breakthrough Prize. This Is Their Story
Three pioneering scientists—Jean Bennett, Albert Maguire, and David J. Wilson—have been honored with the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their work on Luxturna, the first gene‑therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Luxturna treats a rare...
Compass Pathways Commends White House Executive Order to Accelerate Research and Access for Psychedelic Treatments
Compass Pathways welcomed the White House Executive Order aimed at speeding up research and access to psychedelic therapies for serious mental illness. The biotech highlighted its COMP360 synthetic psilocybin, which has delivered statistically significant results in two Phase 3 trials for...

Sidewinder Cuts DNA Assembly Errors to One‑in‑Million
Biology's source code is DNA. For 40 years, we've been able to read it. Writing it, especially long, complex sequences, is still painfully slow, expensive, and error-prone. Current DNA assembly methods fail about once every 10 to 30 connections. Kaihang Wang's lab...
Inocras and Broad Institute Researchers Present New TCGA Whole-Genome Cancer Insights, Accelerating Discovery in Cancer Genomics
Inocras and the Broad Institute will unveil findings from one of the largest whole‑genome cancer analyses ever conducted, covering over 8,000 tumor‑normal pairs from the TCGA across more than 30 cancer types. The joint effort identified more than 250 million variants,...
Wastewater Detects Drug-Resistant Candidozyma Auris Emergence
Researchers published a Nature Communications study showing that wastewater‑based epidemiology can identify drug‑resistant Candida auris in hospitals weeks before patients test positive. By extracting fungal DNA from sewage and applying metagenomic sequencing plus quantitative PCR, the team quantified pathogen load...
San Francisco Confirms First U.S. Case of Clade I Mpox Strain
San Francisco health officials have confirmed the city’s first case of the more severe clade I mpox strain in an unvaccinated adult who was hospitalized but is now improving. The detection adds the Bay Area to a handful of U.S. locations...
They Promise Glowing Skin, a Ripped Body and Better Sex. Peptides Are Having a Moment – but Are They Safe?
Peptide injections have surged in popularity after influencers and startups like Superpower, a $300 million health‑tech firm, began touting benefits ranging from youthful skin to enhanced workouts and sexual performance. The debate intensified when Superpower founder Max Marchione faced off with...
Glycaemic Swings Drive Heart Cell Damage in Diabetes
A new study slated for *Nature Communications* reveals that rapid blood‑sugar swings, not just chronic hyperglycaemia, directly damage heart muscle cells. Researchers showed that glycaemic variability fragments mitochondria, depresses ATP output, disrupts calcium handling and spikes oxidative stress, leading to...
Membrane Protein Amuc_1098 Eases Pancreatitis via TLR2
A study published in Nature Communications identifies the gut bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila membrane protein Amuc_1098 as a potent modulator of Toll‑like receptor 2 (TLR2). By selectively engaging TLR2, Amuc_1098 dampens inflammatory signaling and reshapes pancreatic glycerophospholipid metabolism, leading to marked...

Pliant Therapeutics Announces Presentation of Updated Data From the Phase 1 Trial of PLN-101095 in Patients with ICI-Refractory Solid...
Pliant Therapeutics presented updated Phase 1a/1b data for its integrin inhibitor PLN‑101095 combined with pembrolizumab at the 2026 AACR meeting. In ICI‑refractory solid‑tumor patients, the regimen produced an average 89% tumor reduction and a median treatment duration of 19 months among...
Scalable Flow Reactors for Stable Biofilm Formation and Continuous Whole‐Cell Catalysis
Researchers have unveiled a modular, scalable microfluidic reactor that uses flow‑induced deposition to form robust E. coli biofilms directly from suspended cells. By coupling pillar‑based designs with computational fluid dynamics, the team mapped microscale flow features that drive cell attachment,...
Spatially Controlled Capture and Site‐Resolved Analysis of Single Extracellular Vesicles
Researchers have introduced an array‑based platform that captures single extracellular vesicles (EVs) in optically resolvable nanowells and couples it with mask‑gated fluorescence analysis. A PDMS translation step clears excess particles, delivering >99 % capture at predefined locations and low‑background, site‑specific signals....
Swedish Study Links Anemia to Higher Dementia Risk, Flagging Iron Deficiency for Longevity Hackers
Swedish researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University reported that anemia triples the risk of dementia in older adults, based on a cohort of 2,200 participants. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, shows low hemoglobin correlates with elevated Alzheimer’s...
Eli Lilly’s Foundayo Poised as Biggest Game‑Changer in 150‑Year History
Analysts have flagged Eli Lilly’s newly approved oral GLP‑1 drug, Foundayo, as the most consequential product in the company’s 150‑year history. The needle‑less therapy could generate $1‑2 billion in sales within its first year, complementing Lilly’s injectable tirzepatide (Zepbound) and expanding access...

INVITATION: Join Me for a Live Session on Personalised Drug Repurposing in Cancer Care
Amanda, the Metabolic Nutritionist, will co‑host a live conversation with author and metabolic oncology researcher Travis Christofferson on drug repurposing in precision oncology. The event, organized by Astron Health, will explore how approved medications can be matched to cancer patients...
Trial Shows Donor-Derived Cells Can Eliminate Immunosuppressants in Liver Transplants
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC infused donor‑derived regulatory dendritic cells into 13 living‑donor liver transplant patients, enabling four to stop immunosuppressive drugs and three to remain drug‑free for more than three years. The result marks the first...
AI and Multi‑Omic Advances Highlighted in New Breast Cancer Special Issue
Cancer Biology & Medicine released a special issue on March 15, 2026, edited by Professor Zefei Jiang, that pairs AI research with breakthroughs in immunotherapy, antibody‑drug conjugates and cell therapies. The collection underscores AI as an enabler of precision breast...
Harvard Study Finds 479 Gene Variants Shaped by Natural Selection in Last 10,000 Years
Harvard researchers led by David Reich and Ali Akbari published a Nature study showing that 479 genetic variants were favored by natural selection across West Eurasia in the past 10,000 years. The analysis of 15,836 ancient genomes more than doubles...
Zai Lab Presents New Preclinical Data Suggesting ZL-1503, an IL-13/IL-31Rα Bispecific Antibody, Provides Rapid Itch Relief and Reduction in Inflammation...
Zai Lab unveiled preclinical data for ZL-1503, a bispecific antibody that blocks IL-13 and IL-31Rα, showing sustained itch suppression and inflammation reduction for up to 112 days after a single dose. The study demonstrated dose‑dependent efficacy across skin, lung, nasal...

Illuminating the Dark Proteome: Protein Sequencing’s Next Frontier
The Human Genome Project mapped our DNA. We still can't read most of our proteins. There are billions of proteins in biology we've never sequenced: no function known, no structure solved, no role in disease understood. They're not hypothetical, they're real...

FDA Poised to Approve Psychedelics Amid Strong Political Push
It seems clear that the administration is poised to approved psychedelic applications at the FDA. This is strong political momentum & it seems approval is extremely likely so long as phase 3 data resemble phase 2 data. FDA Commissioner Makary: There...

Amgen's Potts Lab Unveils Universal Molecular Glue Platform
Next up #aacr26 is @pottslab from Amgen discussing their broad and diverse molecular glue & degrader platform “any target, every time” https://t.co/SfJ0jGYene

DepMap's Future: PRMT5 Inhibitor Differences Unveiled
Excellent talk from Bill Sellers on future directions with DepMap. Interesting differences between different PRMT5 inhibitors (SAM & MTA) and how they compare with selective inhibitors #aacr26 https://t.co/xfmKVqEpp1
Late‑stage Oral Cocktail Adds 33% Lifespan in Obese Mice
An oral drug combination, including a senolytic (quercetin), NR, urolithin A, and alpha-lipoic acid, extended median remaining lifespan in mice by 33%. Important to note, however, that the mice were fed a high-fat "Western Diet" and the intervention started at 18...

NAD+ Rhythms Drive Sleep, Aging; Resetting Delays Decline
NEW PAPER: Ups & downs in NAD+ over 24 h dictates our body's clock & sleep but declines with age. Disrupting the cycle promotes mouse aging & restoring it improves fitness & metabolic function, pointing to "circadian reprogramming" as a...
AI Maps Tumors in 3D Single‑cell Detail for Early Detection
For anyone w/ access to #AACR26 recordings and interested in early cancer detection, @deniswirtz gave a beautiful talk yesterday on AI-driven mapping of tumours in 3D and at single-cell resolution. Two examples from the pancreas and fallopian tubes: https://t.co/sLXh5FX6du
Hassan Predicted Sugammad
Also, after all these years and all the FDA delays, Fred Hassan was right about sugammadex... except it took a really long time. (This is a pharma deep cut, links in the comments.)
President Signs Order to Boost PTSD Drug Research
JUST IN: The president signed an executive order to ramp up research on drugs for PTSD and other mental health issues.
Choosing Risk Over Safetyism to Save Millions
Ultimately humanity will have to decide, are we open to risk and hundreds of new therapies and cures or does safetyism win as we watch millions unnecessarily die each year (for the price of hundreds or thousands of deaths for...

NovaSeq 6000 Two‑color Chemistry Creates T>G Artifact
NovaSeq 6000's two-color chemistry introduces a recurrent T>G substitution artifact that doesn't show up on HiSeq X10's four-color chemistry. Germline and high-VAF somatic calls are fine. Low-VAF mosaicism calls are not. https://t.co/9PknN8Vyrb