Prism Biolab Co. Ltd. has entered into a drug discovery, license and collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly & Co.

Researchers from New York University College of Dentistry’s Pain Research Center in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh found a candidate for chronic pain treatment among a library of 27 million compounds.

Novel approaches are needed to improve anti-inflammatory drug delivery to the brain, particularly to glial cells, in order to reduce neuroinflammation.

Burnet Institute has entered into a research license and option agreement with Argenx SE for Burnet’s Stellabody technology.

Postera Inc. has announced a multitarget collaboration with Amgen Inc. that seeks to leverage Postera’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Proton, an innovation in generative chemistry and synthesis-aware design, and Amgen’s drug discovery expertise, to advance up to five small-molecule programs.

A new derivative of coumarin, a natural plant product abundant in cinnamon, could hold the key to healthy aging. Researchers at the Buck Institute have shown that it extended life span and prevented neurodegenerative disease in worms and mice. The drug, a TFEB gene inducer called MIC, promoted mitochondria recycling (mitophagy) but also interacted with lysosomes, which could have multiple applications. The scientists published the results of this aging and mitophagy study on Nov. 13, 2023, in Nature Aging.

Investigators at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have generated a chimeric monkey by injecting an embryonic stem cell into the morula, which is an extremely early embryo consisting of 16 to 32 cells. The animal survived for only 10 days, and it is not the first live birth of a chimeric primate. But it is the first such chimera with contributions from an embryonic stem cell, and that stem cell contributed a far higher proportion of cells in the newborn than have been achieved in previous attempts at creating chimeras.

Gate Bioscience Inc., a new(ish) company with a new class of drugs in the works, emerged from stealth mode and disclosed a $60 million series A financing led by Versant Ventures and A16z Bio + Health. Arch Venture Partners and GV took part in the financing as well.

Scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have designed a group of synthetic molecules that could prevent the rejection of allogeneic cell transplants. Their strategy consisted of activating the immune checkpoints of different populations of immune cells from the cell surface, but avoiding the cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages that would destroy the transplanted cells.

Ibio Inc. has expanded its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology offering with the launch of Shieldtx, an antibody masking technology designed to enable specific, highly targeted antibody delivery to diseased tissue without harming healthy tissue.