Two separate groups have recently shown that in mouse models, inactivation of a single gene was enough to directly convert other cell types in the brain into neurons.

DUBLIN – Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. and its academic and clinical collaborators have provided a first glimpse at the utility of a liquid biopsy test as a screening tool for picking up cancers in an asymptomatic population. In an interim one-year readout of data from the prospective five-year DETECT-A study in 10,000 women, an early version of Thrive’s Cancerseek test picked up 26 cancers ahead of standard-of-care screening, while the latter modality picked up another 24 cancers that Cancerseek missed.

Biopharma industry leaders in China who were the first to experience the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic shared their thoughts during a closing plenary session of the virtual Bio-Europe Spring 2020 meeting.

DUBLIN – Bio-Europe Spring’s virtual panel on the partnering dynamic between big pharma and microbiome-focused biotech firms was essentially an in-house webinar hosted by Seventure Partners, a Paris-based venture capital fund that has led the way in investing in microbiome-related therapeutics, diagnostics and other products.

Business as usual only three months ago has transformed into health care industry overdrive as biopharma and med-tech companies scramble to test and scale-up treatments, vaccines and diagnostics to address COVID-19.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Berlin-based Biotronik SE & Co. reported new data from the BIOFLOW-V trial showing that its Orsiro ultrathin strut drug-eluting stent (DES) continued to outperform Abbott Laboratories’ Xience DES through three years’ follow-up.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Cardiovalve Ltd., of Or Yehuda, Israel, scored a double hit with the U.S. FDA, winning a breakthrough device designation for its transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement system, as well as approval to conduct an early feasibility study in tricuspid regurgitation (TR).

Medical device companies are seeking to reduce product defects and increase patient safety with an industry-managed program that focuses on final product quality via oversight of the most critical manufacturing processes. Modeled on a 30-year-old aerospace industry program called Nadcap, Medaccred brings device manufacturers and suppliers together to define accreditation for special processes.

SEATTLE – As it enters its third year, the Human Cell Atlas project has mapped 100 million of 100 billion cells, and by comparing gene expression profiles of normal and aberrant cells and building networks of cellular interactions, is leading to breakthroughs in understanding of disease at a molecular level.

SEATTLE – Tracing the family tree of COVID-19 through its evolving DNA sequence makes it possible to disprove many false claims circulating on social media about the novel coronavirus, and, in particular, that it was generated in a covert biological weapons program.