Social scientists are well aware of the consequences of what’s called assortative mating, that is, the fact that marriages tend to occur between people who are similar in things such as interests, social status, education and wealth. Biologists, on the other hand, have tended to ignore it. “When studying the genetic underpinnings of correlated traits, “for mathematical convenience, we’ve assumed basically for forever that mating is random,” Richard Border told BioWorld. “Which it isn’t.” Read More
It doesn't happen very often, but the same scientists who participated in the discovery of a signaling pathway can also undo their findings and go back to square one. “When we discovered Hippo signaling, some 20 years ago, everybody was excited about it because we thought it was going to explain a big part of how growth is regulated. Now it turns out that it is not what it is doing,” Georg Halder told BioWorld. Read More
An AU$300,000 grant from The Australian Pancreatic Cancer Foundation (Pankind) will support research at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research into the use of a porcupine-targeting molecule for pancreatic cancer. Read More
Essa Pharma Inc. has divulged androgen receptor antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Read More
Gilead Sciences Inc. has synthesized carboxy-benzimidazoles acting as glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists reported to be useful for the treatment of arthritis, diabetes, eating disorders, macular degeneration, myocardial infarction, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, sleep apnea and Parkinson's disease, among others. Read More
Researchers from Carisma Therapeutics Inc. have provided details on the discovery and preclinical evaluation of a novel mesothelin-targeting chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M), CT-1119, being developed as a potential solid tumor immunotherapy candidate. Read More
Kayothera Inc. and Princeton University have identified aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, type 2 diabetes and metabolic disease, as well as for male contraception. Read More
Alport syndrome (AS) is a hereditary disease affecting type IV collagen that is caused – in 80% of cases – by the COL4A5 gene. In 10% to 20% of AS cases, a mutation cannot be detected. Read More
Maze Therapeutics Inc. recently presented data from preclinical studies of a small-molecule APOL1 pore function inhibitor, MZ-301, describing the compound’s in vitro and in vivo activity. APOL1 G1 and G2 genetic variants are associated with an increased risk of progressive kidney diseases in African ancestry people. There are no APOL1-targeted therapies addressing the underlying driver of these diseases. Read More
Wigen Biomedicine Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. has patented poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, particularly PARP-1, reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer. Read More