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Credit: selvanegra/GettyImages Researchers at the Sant Pau Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, have developed an MRI-based tool that can more accurately identify progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD), two rare and underdiagnosed atypical Parkinsonian disorders. The study, published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, shows that structural magnetic resonance imaging can be used both to enrich clinical trials with patients who have a high probability of underlying four-repeat tau pathology and to track disease progression with greater sensitivity than functional or symptom severity scales. “These are diseases that cause balance problems, falls, stiffness, or difficulties with…

Four years after clinical failures sparked a convulsive restructuring that cost the company nearly 700 jobs, followed by a pivot to inflammatory skin diseases, Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) found some vindication this past week when it announced positive mid-stage data for its lead pipeline candidate in atopic dermatitis (AD), fueling a near doubling of its stock price. Nektar shares have zoomed 92% over the four trading days since it announced positive data from the 36-week blinded maintenance period of the 52-week Phase IIb REZOLVE-AD trial (NCT06136741) assessing rezpegaldesleukin (rezpeg) in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD). Rezpeg is designed to work by targeting interleukin-2…

Credit: the-lightwriter/Getty Images Research led by Emory University suggests that direct exposure to fine particulate matter pollution, or PM2.5, increases a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most frequent type of dementia and affects roughly 57 million people around the globe. As explained in PLOS Medicine, both air pollution and other health conditions or events, such as high blood pressure, stroke, and depression, are linked to increased risk for the neurodegenerative condition. “However, whether these comorbidities mediate or amplify the effects of PM2.5 on Alzheimer’s disease remains unclear,” wrote lead investigator and first author Yanling Deng,…

Paris-based AGS Therapeutics (AGS), which is focused on turning microalgae-derived extracellular vesicles (MEVs) into a next-generation drug delivery platform, signed an agreement with INITS SMO, a GMP-qualified shared manufacturing organization (SMO) also in France, to support the transition of its MEV manufacturing activities to full GMP compliance and enable the production of its first clinical-grade MEV batches. AGS will operate its proprietary MEV manufacturing, loading, and analytical processes within INITS’s infrastructure. AGS retains full ownership and operational control of its technology, processes, equipment, intellectual property, and teams. The collaboration is structured as an SMO model, distinct from a contract development…

AI biology company, Prima Mente, is on a mission to tackle one of the greatest challenges in medicine, uncovering the molecular basis of neurodegenerative conditions. These aging-related diseases are characterized by subtle changes in gene regulation, cellular identity, immune signaling, and more that begin decades before symptoms emerge.   While much progress in therapeutics has focused on designing new protein structures or analyzing fixed genome sequences, Prima Mente seeks to establish a new paradigm for precision diagnostics that uses AI to understand the dynamic epigenome, where aging biology happens in real-time.   “Imaging and cognitive scores don’t necessarily tell you how to intervene or…

New $1.6m collaboration aims to detect Parkinson’s disease earlier by tracking proteins one molecule at a time. Parkinson’s disease is usually diagnosed when symptoms become hard to ignore. By then, the brain has already been changing for years. The biology of those early changes – quiet, gradual and invisible to most tools – remains one of the biggest gaps in Parkinson’s research. That gap is what Nautilus Biotechnology, Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar (WCM-Q) and The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) are now trying to narrow. The three organizations have announced a new research collaboration, supported by a $1.6…

France Patrick Veiga is Research Director, specializing in the gut microbiota and its links with nutrition and health, with a particular commitment to the French Gut project. He also serves as Deputy Scientific Director of MetaGenoPolis and is a board member of the Pharmabiotic Research Institute. Throughout his career, he has worked across both academia and industry, including as a visiting researcher at Harvard University. His expertise spans gut microbiota research, nutrition, probiotics, and the emerging field of precision nutrition.

Longevity biotech firm deepens UAE presence, linking AI drug discovery to national genomics and an emerging geroscience ecosystem. Juvenescence has announced an expansion into Abu Dhabi, establishing operations in Masdar City as part of a broader collaboration with UAE partners that includes access to large-scale genomic and health data. The move builds on existing investment relationships in the region and positions the longevity-focused biotech within a healthcare system increasingly oriented towards prevention, precision and population-scale insight. The company also confirmed the appointment of Eileen Jennings-Brown as Chief Technology Officer, bringing experience in AI-enabled drug discovery at scale as Juvenescence advances…

Credit: Olink Sponsored content brought to you by Drug development remains a high-risk, capital-intensive endeavor, with average costs exceeding $1 billion per approved therapy and late-stage failure rates remaining high. As pressure mounts to accelerate timelines, reduce costs, and improve success rates, biomarkers are increasingly viewed not only as discovery research tools, but as strategic assets. Enabled by advances in protein biomarker technologies, biomarkers can support smarter decision-making across the drug development lifecycle—from target selection to clinical trials—making programs more efficient, data-driven, and precise.1   Drug discovery and development processes with a potential to benefit from biomarkers Phase I, II,…

Vesalic targets ‘toxic exosome’ identified in ALS patients, suggesting disease biology may not be confined to the brain and CNS. British biotech Vesalic has emerged from stealth claiming a potential breakthrough in how motor neuron diseases, and potentially other neurodegenerative diseases, can be understood and tackled. The London-based company says it has identified a “previously unknown” systemic metabolic dysfunction – found largely outside the brain and central nervous system – that appears to drive damaging processes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the most common form of motor neuron disease. According to Vesalic, the ALS field has spent decades pursuing targets in…