One way to prevent the effect of a molecule is to use the cell’s own machinery to break it down. This is what the PROTAC technology does, an acronym for proteolysis targeting chimera, or BacPROTAC, when applied to bacteria. A study led by Austrian and German scientists has demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique in eliminating the tuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The finding opens the door to the BacPROTAC strategy as an alternative to the development of drugs against this microorganism.

Integrated Biosciences Inc., an early-stage startup that is combining synthetic biology and machine learning in the hunt for drugs that tackle cell senescence, has demonstrated its capabilities in a newly published study in Nature Aging on May 4, 2023, which employed artificial intelligence to identify three novel compounds that are highly selective for Bcl-2 and that exhibit favorable medicinal chemistry profiles.

Lantern Pharma Inc. has developed highly accurate artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to predict...

Initial Therapeutics Inc. has launched with a focus on developing medicines that block difficult-to-drug protein targets with a new mode of action – selective termination of protein synthesis (STOPS).

A pill that delivers electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve from inside the stomach was able to trigger the release of appetite-controlling neurohormones, specifically the “hunger hormone” ghrelin. The work, which was described in the April 26, 2023, issue of Science Robotics, could pave the way for treating “metabolic, [gastrointestinal], and neuropsychiatric disorders noninvasively with minimal off-target effects,” the authors wrote in their paper.

Researchers have identified a druggable pocket on the phosphatase Wip1, which regulates the tumor suppressor TP53 as well as DNA damage repair proteins. The work, which was published in Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences on April 18, 2023, by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, could lead to therapeutics targeting Wip1. And the computational deep learning methods used to identify the pocket are broadly useful for identifying what the authors call “cryptic” pockets.

Veneno Technologies Co. Ltd. has entered into a joint research agreement with Sumitomo Pharma Co. Ltd. under which Veneno will conduct a program to obtain functional peptides (disulfide-rich peptides) for ion channels targeted by Sumitomo Pharma.

Bracco Imaging SpA and Sonothera Inc. have entered into an agreement under which Bracco Imaging will provide its cutting-edge gas-filled microbubbles technology platform to Sonothera for use in the development of its novel, ultrasound-guided nonviral gene therapy platform.