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During her keynote at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening meeting, Serena Silver, PhD, chief scientific officer at Accent Therapeutics shared data on a new KIF18A protein inhibitor currently in clinical testing [Uduak Thomas] BOSTON—When I first attended SLAS two years ago, I was struck by how much automation is embedded in virtually all areas that GEN covers, from wet-lab research through drug discovery all the way through to bioprocessing. So, it came as no surprise that the keynote which kicked off the first full day of talks at this year’s meeting in Boston, slated to run from Feb…

Credit: SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI/ Science Photo Library / Getty Images A new study is reshaping how researchers think about the earliest steps of pancreatic cancer progression, revealing that sympathetic nerves and cancer-associated fibroblasts collaborate far earlier than expected to fuel disease growth. In work published in Cancer Discovery, investigators from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and colleagues show that in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), dense sympathetic nerve infiltration is already present at the stage of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN)—microscopic, pre-malignant lesions that precede invasive cancer. Rather than being passive bystanders, specialized fibroblasts appear to orchestrate this neural remodeling and then amplify its…

Credit: Top Microbial Stock/Getty Images Gator Bio, which focuses on biolayer interferometry (BLI) systems, and Hudson Lab Automation highlighted their integrated automation solution for high-throughput antibody discovery and characterization at this week’s SLAS conference. According to officials at both companies, the Gator Bio Pivot and Pro BLI systems, integrated with Hudson’s PlateCrane automation platform, deliver an instrument that can increase sample throughput from 400 to 1,200+ samples per day, a 3X capacity increase depending on workflow configuration. This addresses a critical bottleneck for organizations scaling antibody discovery programs, particularly those leveraging AI-designed antibody libraries that generate thousands of candidates requiring…

Credit: wildpixel/Getty Images Cambridge biotech Microbiotica has achieved good results for its microbiome-based therapy for ulcerative colitis in a Phase Ib trial, which showed significantly better outcomes in patients who received the therapy versus placebo. Ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease affecting up to 1.3 million people in the U.S. that affects the colon and rectum. While drugs are available to manage symptoms, many patients have an incomplete response to current therapies or significant side effects leading to complications—meaning there is still a need for new, more effective treatments. Microbiotica is a spin-out from the Sanger Institute…

Credit: freshidea/Fotolia A study led by NYU Langone Health researchers has found that the increased size of, and lesser blood supply to, a key brain structure in patients with long COVID tracks with known blood markers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and with greater cognitive decline. The study discovered that patients reporting long COVID had a 10% larger choroid plexus (ChP) than those who had fully recovered from their initial infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The results also showed that increased ChP size aligned with blood levels of proteins that increase as Alzheimer’s disease worsens, and with blood…

New study shows up to 55% of human lifespan could be influenced by genes, reshaping how we think about aging and longevity. For as long as we can remember, the advice has been the same. Eat right, exercise, don’t smoke. Eat healthy, do some physical activities, don’t drink too much alcohol. Follow the rules, and maybe you’ll live longer. But what if there’s a piece of the puzzle we’ve been underestimating all along? A new study published in Science suggests that genetics may have more say over our lifespan than we thought – up to 55% [1]. That’s more than…

Flush with cash from its obesity/diabetes dual blockbuster tirzepatide, Eli Lilly signaled earlier this month that it intended to invest some of that money into new deals to strengthen its pipelines in oncology, neuroscience, and immunology. Lilly has begun delivering on that promise through a pair of business development deals announced this week. The pharma giant said it will shell out $2.4 billion to acquire genetic medicine developer Orna Therapeutics, whose lead programs apply in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies targeting forms of autoimmune diseases and cancers. In addition, Lilly committed up to $8.85 billion—including $350 million upfront—to…

Credit: TEK Image/Science Photo Library/Getty Images As laboratories push for higher throughput, greater reproducibility, and more automation‑ready workflows, the industry is increasingly turning to collaboration to solve persistent bottlenecks. Omega Bio‑tek is leaning into that shift. At the 2026 SLAS International Conference & Exhibition, the company is debuting several partnerships designed to streamline nucleic acid purification across a wide range of sample types and applications. For Omega Bio‑tek, the strategy reflects a broader ambition: to support high‑quality nucleic acid purification products for labs of every scale. The company, based in Norcross, GA, manufactures more than 900 DNA and RNA isolation…

NextSense launches brain-sensing earbuds that move sleep tech beyond tracking and into real-time intervention. For all the attention lavished on sleep in recent years, much of the consumer tech designed to support it has remained observational rather than interventional. Rings, watches and bedside devices have become adept at translating restless nights into charts and percentages, yet they rarely change the underlying biology in any meaningful way. Into this crowded and occasionally complacent market steps NextSense, a neurotechnology company now shipping Smartbuds – truly wireless earbuds that use in-ear EEG to both measure and modulate sleep in real time. The premise…

New weight-loss drugs promise deeper results and reshape obesity care, but also raise questions for health, ethics and longevity. For years, obesity and type 2 diabetes treatments felt like slow, frustrating sprints. Pills could nudge blood sugar down or help shed a few pounds, but for many, hunger and cravings remained constant companions. That’s what made the first wave of GLP-1 drugs, like Wegovy and Zepbound, feel revolutionary. They worked by teaching the brain to recognize fullness in a way some people hadn’t experienced since childhood. Now, the story is accelerating. Pharma companies are racing to develop drugs that don’t…