LONDON – Scientists have teased out a molecular mechanism that allows synapses to respond as quickly or as slowly as required for all neurological functions ranging from simple movements to cognitive function.

LONDON – "I really hope to create a building where as you walk round the corridors, at the coffee machine and in the cafeteria, that you hear people talking science, that science becomes the language of the place."

When Trevor Baglin, a hematologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital at Cambridge University had a head injury patient with a much-better-than-expected outcome, he did something unusual. He got very curious.

LONDON – South Korean biotech Kael-Gemvax is planning further investment and new clinical trials of GV1001, despite the cancer vaccine failing to meet the primary endpoint in a 1,062-patient UK Phase III trial that reported earlier this month.

LONDON – The ongoing row over clinical trials data transparency in Europe has polarized yet further, with a threat from scientist campaigners to publish results from previously confidential documents if companies do not pledge to make results of unpublished studies available in the next year, by submitting them to peer-reviewed journals.

SHANGHAI, China – A licensing agreement may help troubled Israeli firm Biolinerx Ltd. get a toehold in China with its hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment BL-8030.

• Immunogenes AG, of Zug, Switzerland, and Corvinius Kockazati Tokealap-kezelo Zrt, of Budapest, Hungary, formed a joint venture to fund the establishment for a scientific facility to develop and produce monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies and genetically modified animals in Godollo, Hungary.

DUBLIN, Ireland – In a sharp slap in the face to the company's management and its would-be acquirer Royalty Pharma, shareholders in Elan Corp. plc voted down three of four motions tabled at an extraordinary general meeting Monday.

LONDON – A £9.3 million (US$14.43 million) publicly funded ubiquitin research program has overcome difficulties in drugging those key protein recycling targets, leading to the formation of UB Pharma Ltd., which has now set out to raise £4 million to £6 million to take the lead candidates through to the clinic.

SHANGHAI – Beigene Co. Ltd. has licensed a second-generation BRAF inhibitor as a promising preclinical oncology drug to Merck KGaA, of Darmstadt, Germany, for the treatment of melanoma, colorectal cancer and other cancers.