Repeated RNA elements have a virus-like behavior in the cells that express them. Furthermore, they could confer a novel mode of tumor expansion based on changes in cellular states. “About 10 years ago, we had identified that these repetitive elements were highly expressed in pancreas cancer,” co-senior author David Ting, associate professor of medicine and assistant physician at the Mass General Cancer Center at Harvard Medical School, told BioWorld.

The anti-HER2 biparatopic antibody (bpAb) KJ-015 was rationally designed at Shanghai Bao Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. by leveraging published antibody-antigen structures to share common light chain with two Fab arms, resulting in functionally balanced high affinity for two HER2 nonoverlapping epitopes.

Starting with a study of how mutations affect sensitivity to 10 molecularly targeted drugs, researchers have laid the foundations for a prospective, systematic approach to understanding the genetic mechanisms behind cancer drug resistance. These insights will inform the development of drugs that avoid resistance emerging. For existing drugs, it will be possible to better tailor treatment and to identify second-line therapies for patients whose tumors become resistant.

During an Innovation Ignited webinar sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, experts talked about how precision medicine has helped advance the field of oncology and how those lessons can be applied to immunology. Advancements in precision medicine have helped oncologists know which drugs are most likely to help patients as their tumors advance and mutate.