Industry news

NIH researchers identify striking genomic signature shared by five types of cancer

U.S. National Institute of Health

National Institutes of Health researchers have identified a striking signature in tumor DNA that occurs in five different types of cancer. They also found evidence that this methylation signature may be present in many more types of cancer. The specific signature results from a chemical modification of DNA called methylation, which can control the expression of genes like a dimmer on a light switch. Higher amounts of DNA methylation (hypermethylation), like that found by the researchers in some tumor DNA, decreases a gene's activity.

08 February 2016

University of Bath biotech spin-out wins EU approval for ground-breaking chlamydia test

Julia Bradshaw / The Telegraph

A small biotech that started life at the University of Bath has won approval from European regulators to sell a device that tests for the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia in just 30 minutes.

Follow-on bonanza drives U.K. investment in life science stocks past £1B

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

At first glance, 2015 looks like the year the London Stock Exchange turned its back on biotech once again. Acacia Pharma and Shield Therapeutics both tried and failed to be 2015's Circassia (LON:CIR), the big success story of 2014, leaving AIM listings and outliers such as PureTech (LON:PRTC) as the most notable London IPOs of the year. And yet, from another angle, 2015 looks like a landmark year.

Crick researchers get OK for gene editing on human embryos

Nuala Moran / BioWorld

he U.K. regulator has given researchers at the Crick Institute in London permission to use CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing on human embryos, with the aim of understanding which genes are involved in successful early development.

New analyzer to identify dangerous viruses developed in Novosibirsk

Marchmont Innovation News

Researchers at Medical Biological Union (MBU), a biotech company in Novosibirsk, in Siberia, have come up with a new immune-enzyme test system that is said to be able to identify four of the world’s most dangerous viruses simultaneously, the Russian news agency TASS  reported , citing Darya Popova, the developer’s head of marketing. 

At MIPT, new cooling for next gen computers developed

Marchmont Innovation News

Physicists at Moscow’s MIPT, a leading Russian university focused on physics and technology, also known as Phystech, have developed a cooling system or the plasmon components of optoelectronic chips which are expected to run tens of thousands of times faster than today’s computers, the MIPT website announced. 

2016 finally sees first U.S. IPO

Kyle Stanford / PitchBook Blog

VC-backed IPO activity in the U.S. is expected to stay low in 2016. The markets are volatile, oil prices are dragging down stocks and fears of overly frothy private valuations pervade. Many recent IPOs have underperformed, even after their terms were revised in many cases, adding to the wariness of investors looking to cash in on their investment and take a company public. 

Backed by a lineup of marquee VCs, Unity Biotechnology tackles the hard science of aging

John Carroll / FierceBiotech

Imagine a drug that could clear away "senescent" cells and make the life span allotted to you longer and healthier, absent many of the myriad diseases that can accumulate with age. Some investigators have been working on that subject for more than a decade, and now a biotech is being launched to see if it can make that dream a reality.

Blockbuster new launches coming from Intercept, Gilead and Merck: Reuters

Carly Helfand / FiercePharma

The pharma industry heralded 11 new blockbusters in 2015, an act that's tough to follow. But while 2016 may not see quite that many, it's still on track to ring in 7 new therapies that have a shot at cracking the billion-dollar sales mark, a new analysis says.

Value, Validation Mark Upbeat State of Industry in Regenerative Medicine

Peter Winter / Life Sciences Connect

In delivering the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine’s (ARM) 2016 state of the industry briefing at the Biotech Showcase event this month in San Francisco, chair of the international advocacy organization representing the regenerative medicine and advanced therapies (RM/AT) community, Edward Lanphier, said 2015 had been a great year for the sector, exemplified by excellent clinical data readouts that have helped attract significant investments and big pharma validation through major partnerships.