Researchers have identified enzymes in gut microorganisms that could cleave A and B antigens from red blood, transmuting them to O negative cells. This is “a decisive step forward” in the quest to develop a universal donor blood that can be administered to people of any blood group without eliciting a harmful immune response, according to Maher Abou Hachem of the Technical University of Denmark, who co-led the research.
Microbiome specialist Enterobiotix Ltd. has raised £27 million (US$34.2 million) in a series B round as it starts a phase II trial of EBX-102-02 in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.
CAR T-cell immunotherapy is designed with different targets depending on the receptors they will bind to. CARs can also contain different tools, like the concept of a Swiss army knife, with several utensils for different tasks. The goal is to make them more effective and durable. During the second session of the Spotlight on Immuno-Oncology conference, “Novel CAR designs and approaches,” Robbie Majzner, of Stanford University, described expanding the main components of CAR T cells to acquire new functions and act on different cell pathways.
Microba Life Sciences Ltd. has started dosing patients in a phase I trial of its gut microbiome-derived therapeutic, MAP-315, for ulcerative colitis, the major form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Microba Life Sciences Ltd. has started dosing patients in a phase I trial of its gut microbiome-derived therapeutic, MAP-315, for ulcerative colitis, the major form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
A research initiative led by Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield of the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, has landed $70 million in funding from the Audacious Project to bring the power and precision of CRISPR-based genome editing to the gut microbiome of humans and animals, in an ambitious effort to engineer complex microbial communities to achieve outcomes that can benefit human health and the environment.
Mbiomics GmbH raised €13 million (US$14.2 million) in a first close of a series A round that will enable it to pivot from being a microbiome analytics firm to becoming a therapeutics developer.
South Korean biotech peers Celltrion Healthcare Co. Ltd. and Liscure Biosciences Co. Ltd. signed a deal to co-develop microbiome-based oral live biotherapeutic products for Parkinson's disease.