Using ALK+ lung cancer patient-derived cell lines, researchers have performed phosphoproteomic screening and identified guanylate kinase 1 (GUK1) as a TKI sensitive metabolic molecule in ALK-driven lung cancer. They reported their results online in Cell on Feb. 6, 2025. Read More

The former head of the U.S. NIH has sounded a warning that the uncertainty caused by the Trump Administration’s funding cuts and layoffs is blocking “critical work” and “paralyzing” biomedical research. “Every time we launch a new program, every time we continue to commit resources to ongoing work, those are important decisions that we make every single day, and in times like this, that decision-making is paralyzed,” said Monica Bertagnolli, who stood down as director of the NIH on Jan. 17. Read More

Perceive Pharma Inc., a spin out from Perceive Biotherapeutics Inc., has closed a $15 million series A funding round to help it advance first-in-class therapies to prevent vision loss in glaucoma, and additional undisclosed disease areas. Read More

In a recent publication in Cell, researchers from the National University of Singapore and collaborators have proposed using commensal bacteria in the nasal cavity as a delivery vector for precision therapy targeting the OE and brain. Read More

Kairos Pharma Ltd. has announced that through its academic partnership with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai has received $600,000 in funding from the Department of Defense lung cancer research program to advance the development of ENV-205, a new drug to treat chemotherapy drug resistance and cachexia. Read More

The Clarivate Medtech Trends to Watch in 2024 report noted the resilience of the medtech sector in the face of changing macroeconomic factors and the preparation required to navigate the market’s many complexities. It is likely that 2025 will be no different. Read More

Shanghai Wennai Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd. has disclosed sodium channel protein type 10 subunit α (SCN10A; Nav1.8) blockers reported to be useful for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Read More

Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening disease predominantly with respiratory symptoms. Most of the subjects with the disease harbor the F508del variant in the CFTR gene that causes the protein to misfold and be prematurely degraded. Despite approved drugs that restore the CFTR protein, the maximal lung function improvement is approximately 14%. Read More

Septerna Inc. has announced its decision to discontinue a healthy volunteer phase I trial of SEP-786, an oral small-molecule agonist of the parathyroid hormone 1 receptor being developed for the treatment of hypoparathyroidism. Read More

In a recently published study, researchers from Cima Universidad de Navarra and collaborators presented a novel SdAb-based CAR T-cell discovery platform that allows the generation, characterization and selection of SdAbs by several properties. Read More

Beijing Synthetic Vaccine Biosciences Co. Ltd. has synthesized Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) agonists reported to be useful for the treatment of autoimmune disease, cancer, inflammatory disorders and viral infection. Read More

Shenzhen Zhongge Biotechnology Co. Ltd. has identified translation initiation factor 2B (EIF2B) activators reported to be useful for the treatment of autoimmune disease, cancer, viral infection, neurodegeneration, metabolic diseases, and eye, dermatological and inflammatory disorders, among others. Read More

Researchers from Kevirx Inc. and collaborators have described the use of KVX-053, a PTP4A3 inhibitor aimed to be used for the prevention of COVID-19-associated cute lung injury (ALI). Read More

Ona Therapeutics SL is accelerating development of its first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapeutics, targeting novel tumor-specific markers to eliminate hard-to-treat, resistant cancer cells for multiple large solid tumor types. Read More

Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Hansoh Biomedical Co. Ltd. have divulged cytochrome P450 11B2, mitochondrial (CYP11B2; aldosterone synthase; ALDOS) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of chronic kidney disease, diabetic nephropathy, congestive heart failure, hypertension, primary aldosteronism, Cushing syndrome, kidney and myocardial fibrosis. Read More

Researchers from Morphic Therapeutic Inc. and affiliated organizations published data from a study that aimed to assess the potential of using arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD) integrins for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Read More

Haisco Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. has described Werner syndrome ATP-dependent helicase (WRN; RECQ3; RECQL2) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer. Read More