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2 weeks ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Helen Albert |Kathy Vuksanaj
Clinical trials are an essential part of bringing new medicines to patients but are often slow and expensive to complete. Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) over the last two decades are already having a positive impact on the way these trials are run and have the potential to improve them further in many ways, ranging from simple economics to more diverse trial cohorts.
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2 weeks ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Laura Cowen |Kathy Vuksanaj
In a world of increasingly precise therapies, companion diagnostics (CDx) are gaining importance. Yet the need for a CDx is often unclear, particularly for emerging cell and gene therapies (CGT) where patient eligibility may not simply depend on the presence or absence of a targetable mutation. A CDx is defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a medical device that provides essential information for the safe and effective use of a corresponding drug or biological product.
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2 weeks ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Jonathan Grinstein |Kathy Vuksanaj
Katalin Karikó, PhD, who is now a professor at the University of Szeged, Hungary, had one goal in mind when she was working with messenger RNA (mRNA) to develop therapeutics. It had nothing to do with vaccines—whether for viruses, cancer, or any other condition in which it would make sense to bring in the immune system.
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2 weeks ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Helen Albert |Kathy Vuksanaj
Current therapies targeting multiple sclerosis (MS) primarily target the symptoms of the disease but do not repair neurological damage caused by the condition. This is something that Chris Loose, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Progentos Therapeutics, and his colleagues are hoping to remedy. MS is a chronic, immune-mediated condition that results in the demyelination of neurons in the central nervous system.
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1 month ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Sophia Ktori |Kathy Vuksanaj
A common antidepressant may help boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer, according to new research from UCLA. The study found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) significantly improved T cell responses and reduced tumor growth in various cancer types, using both human and mouse models. Researchers also identified the serotonin transporter (SERT) as a potential new immune checkpoint target.
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1 month ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Sophia Ktori |Kathy Vuksanaj
Measuring a cell’s density can reveal important clues about its state, as changes in water content and molecular composition during proliferation, differentiation, or cell death often affect density. However, tracking these subtle shifts at large scale and single-cell resolution has been challenging—until now. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a method to rapidly and accurately measure cell density, analyzing up to 30,000 cells per hour.
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1 month ago | 
genengnews.com | Caroline Seydel |Kathy Vuksanaj
Home Topics Drug Discovery Crossing the Cell Membrane Without Viruses Because their gene editing platform is entirely based on RNA, Tessera Therapeutics can use lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for delivery to the cells of interest. LNPs are less immunogenic and less expensive to manufacure than viruses. Because their gene editing platform is entirely based on RNA, Tessera Therapeutics can use lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for delivery to the cells of interest.
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2 months ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Sophia Ktori |Kathy Vuksanaj
A study led by NYU Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center scientists found that monitoring DNA fragments shed by dying tumor cells in the blood may accurately predict skin cancer recurrence. In the Phase III COMBI-AD clinical trial, researchers observed that about 80% of stage III melanoma patients with detectable circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) prior to treatment eventually experienced a recurrence.
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2 months ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Larissa Warneck-Silvestrin |Kathy Vuksanaj
With the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies just over a decade ago, genomic information became available not only in labs, but also in clinical practice. Today, genomic testing is starting to play an important role in cancer patient care. Knowing the genetic makeup of a tumor can help oncologists determine the best therapeutic options for a patient, making genomic testing a growing part of precision medicine.
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2 months ago | 
insideprecisionmedicine.com | Helen Albert |Kathy Vuksanaj
Over the last decade, the cell and gene therapy space has changed beyond recognition. The field has experienced ups and downs, but such advanced therapeutics are becoming more mainstream and moving into spaces outside cancer and rare diseases. At the end of 2015, only three cell and gene therapy products had been approved by the FDA. By the end of 2024, this figure had increased to 43 products, with more therapies approved every year.
