LONDON – Researchers have pinpointed a little-studied gene as responsible for doubling the risk of respiratory failure in COVID-19 and shown exactly how it exerts its effect. The gene, leucine zipper transcription factor like 1, is activated by a single base pair change on chromosome 3 that occurs in 60% of people of South Asian ancestry and 15% of people of European ancestry.

Trendlines Group Ltd. reported the acquisition of its portfolio company Orthospin Ltd. by Synthes GmbH, a division of Depuy Synthes, the orthopedics company of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), for $79.5 million in cash. Johnson & Johnson’s involvement in the company goes back to July 2018, when J&J Innovation (JJDC) led the company’s series A round.

Despite the morbidity associated with coronary artery bypass graft, this procedure has never been entirely displaced by percutaneous coronary intervention. The results from the latest in a series of studies does not seem to help the case for drug-eluting stents (DES) for patients with three-vessel disease, as the data from this study failed to demonstrate non-inferiority for DES devices implanted with the help of fractional flow reserve measurement to ensure optimal stent placement.

Fapon Biotech Inc. expanded its presence in the global next-generation sequencing (NGS) market by acquiring all of the shares in U.S. firm Sequlite Genomics US Inc. With the acquisition, the Dongguan, China-based Fapon Biotech will manage Sequlite’s product development and business operation.