Chemotherapy usually induces cachectic muscle loss through different mechanisms. Among these, oxidative stress is known to decrease protein synthesis and increase proteolysis leading to muscle atrophy.

Medannex Ltd. has been awarded an Innovate UK grant to fund a £313,000 (US$403,000) project developing a new treatment for pediatric osteosarcoma. Innovate UK will fund £231,000 (US$297,000) of the project costs, with the remainder financed by Medannex.

Not all cancer cells that detach from the primary tumor and embark on a journey to another organ colonize it. To establish themselves, cells need specific conditions. Scientists at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) explored this hypothesis in the liver and identified a protein involved in metastatic transformation. Blocking it prevented liver metastasis. Their findings may have applications in other organs and various types of cancers.

With $50 million in hand from Flagship Pioneering, Abiologics Inc. is pairing generative artificial intelligence with high-throughput chemical protein synthesis to attack oncology and immunology indications with Synteins, synthetic proteins that represent a new class of programmable medicines. Avak Kahvejian, co-founder and CEO of Abiologics and general partner at Flagship, told BioWorld that Abiologics stands “at the precipice of a completely new modality.”