Researchers have used explainable artificial intelligence (explainable AI) to find structurally new antibiotics with minimal toxicity. They reported their findings online in Nature on Dec. 20, 2023. In animal testing, compounds identified via the method showed that they had activity against drug-resistant gram-positive bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), one of the most serious bacterial public health threats.
Mission Bio Inc. released its Tapestri single-cell minimal residual disease (MRD) assay for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) on September 26, with the goal of enabling greater personalization of care for patients with blood cancers. The test can provide insights into the progression of AML and help identify targets for treatment in addition to identifying patients truly experiencing relapse as distinct from having pre-leukemic or precursor clones.
When a drug prevents bacteria from synthesizing their own folate, an essential compound for their survival, they take it directly from the host. This antibiotic resistance mechanism had not been detected until now because bacteria behave differently in the laboratory than they do in vivo during an infection.
Scientists from the University of Queensland have created a new antibiotic that can neutralize various gram-positive bacteria in mice, including major threats such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In a recent study, published in the Sept. 14, 2022, issue of Science Translational Medicine, the new compound outperformed the approved antibiotic vancomycin, and destroyed tough-to-eradicate bacterial biofilms while prompting a low rate of resistance.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd. have launched Radiopharm Ventures LLC, a joint venture (JV) that will develop radiopharmaceutical therapies for cancer. Radiopharm Theranostics owns 51% of shares in the new entity, while MD Anderson owns 49%.
Rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnostics company Lumos Diagnostics Holdings Pty. Ltd. saw its stock plummet 65% on the news that the U.S. FDA rejected its Febridx 510(k) because the device was not substantially equivalent to the predicate device.
An international study led by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has designed and synthesized broad-spectrum antimicrobial polymers (AMPs) and demonstrated the safety and efficacy of two such agents against multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in mouse models of sepsis.
A new web-based tool allowing rapid in silico prediction of the ability of candidate antibiotics to accumulate in Gram-negative bacteria should enable subsequent prioritization of new compounds for synthesis and further evaluation, U.S. researchers reported Nov. 18, 2019, in Nature Microbiology.
LONDON – Pfizer Inc. is taking further steps to distinguish its third-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, Lorbrena, from the rest of the field, funding a pan-European trial that will use liquid biopsies to track the resistance profile of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC).