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Our host, Sandra Saville IPA’s Director of Education and Communication, sits down with Bill Bookout, Founder and President of the National Animal Supplement Council – NASC. Bill provides insights into the mission and goals of the NASC, shedding light on its purpose. Together, they delve into the companion animal supplement industry, discussing its evolution and regulatory landscape. Listen to the podcast. Bill Bookout is president, board chair, and a founding member of the National Animal Supplement Council, the world’s leading trade association representing manufacturers and suppliers of health and nutritional supplements for dogs, cats, and horses. For over 20 years,…

Funding to support commercial launch and continued development of treatments designed to ‘rejuvenate vision in the aging eye.’ British-American biotech Tenpoint Therapeutics has raised $235 million in new financing and announced the FDA approval of its once-daily prescription eye drop for presbyopia, a common form of age-related vision loss. The funding, which combines $85 million in Series B equity financing with a $150 million non-dilutive loan, will support the commercial launch of the company’s first product, and the advancement of addition pipeline programs aimed at age-related eye disease. According to Tenpoint, its YUVEZZI product is the “first and only” FDA-approved…

Credit: Dean Mitchell / Getty Images Genes contribute far more of a person’s lifespan than previously believed, a study in twins has revealed. The research, in Science, counters prevalent views that longevity is largely influenced by external forces such as environmental factors and lifestyle. The findings revealed that more than half of the human lifespan is inherited, with different diseases passed down to different degrees through the generations. The researchers suggest earlier studies may have failed to adequately account for the impact of external hazards such as accidents or infections. Commenting in a related Perspective article, Daniela Bakula, PhD, and…

BioMed X, a Heidelberg, Germany-based innovation hub for pharma, launched its first research project in partnership with the Government of Barbados and with support from the European Union’s PharmaNext Programme. The new global call for research proposals, entitled “AI-Enabled Therapy of Early Diabetic Kidney Disease in Barbados,” addresses a critical challenge in cardiometabolic disease: the biological heterogeneity of early diabetic kidney disease in the Barbadian population. The objective of this project is to understand the molecular mechanisms driving early diabetic kidney disease in individuals with type 2 diabetes in Barbados through deep molecular profiling and advanced AI-based modeling. By combining…

A new study found that progeria is caused by inappropriate bonds between proteins and DNA.Image credit:© iStock.com, photosaintProgeria is a genetic condition that involves accelerated aging. Patients develop wrinkled skin, hair loss, and bone and joint stiffness from a very early age. One of the more unusual forms of this already rare condition is Ruijs-Aalfs progeria syndrome (RJALS). Patients with this variant develop liver cancer in addition to their accelerated aging.Researchers trying to understand how conditions like RJALS begin had a breakthrough roughly 10 years ago when they discovered that mutations in a gene called SprT-Like N-Terminal Domain (SPRTN) caused the…

Credit: asbe / iStock / Getty Images Plus At the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, three companies—Aera Therapeutics, 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT), and Solid Biosciences—converged on a single theme shaping the next era of genetic medicine: delivery is no longer a supporting act but part of the main event. Each company is tackling the delivery problem from a distinct angle, yet together they illustrate how the field is maturing beyond first-generation tools toward more precise, scalable, and patient-friendly solutions.   Aera Therapeutics: Targeting LNPs for mRNA delivery  Emerging from stealth with deep roots in RNA delivery and CRISPR science,…

Small variations in DNA sequence can alter an organism’s response to the environment or susceptibility to disease. Interpreting the impact of genome sequence variation remains a research challenge. Non-coding variants that lie outside of protein-coding regions are particularly difficult to interpret because of the diversity of molecular consequences.  The Google DeepMind team behind Nobel Prize winning AlphaFold has now published AlphaGenome, a DNA sequence model that advances regulatory variant-effect prediction to understand genome function, in Nature.   AlphaGenome’s applications include the identification of new therapeutic targets and design of synthetic DNA with specific regulatory function. The authors state that AlphaGenome is particularly suitable for…

A team of researchers developed an artificial lung system that helped a patient survive while awaiting a double lung transplant.Image credit:©iStock.com, Elena NechaevaBreathing in the warm summer breeze and exhaling a smoky breath into the icy winter air are all made possible by our lungs—without them, a person couldn’t survive. However, the lungs are vulnerable to various illnesses, such as the flu, pneumonia, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).Of these, ARDS, triggered by pneumonia or sepsis, is particularly life-threatening as it leads to severe oxygen deprivation. Treatment typically involves mechanical ventilation and/or oxygen therapy, and with time, the lung crisis…

Credit:NanoCosm Vista/ Getty Images A specific immune response helps explain why only some cancer patients benefit from PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to research from scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The study was published in yesterday’s online issue of Nature Medicine. It shows that PD-1 therapy triggers a coordinated immune response where antibodies and T cells work together to fight cancer. It also points to IgG1 as a potential biomarker of response. “Plasma cells producing IgG1 at the tumor site (both before and after treatment with PD-1 blockade administered before surgery to liver cancer patients)…

Credit: Dr_Microbe/Getty Images A new research collaboration aims to study the connection between the alpha-synuclein (aSyn) protein and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Armed with $1.6 million in grant funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the initiative will combine research from the lab of Hilal Lashuel, PhD, a professor of neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), with Nautilus’ single-molecule proteomics platform.   Understanding the many forms and modifications adopted by the aSyn protein is one of the priorities of the MJFF. That’s because studies suggest that the protein may be an important driver of Parkinson’s. The data also indicates that post-translational modifications (PTMs) of the protein such as truncation and phosphorylation might drive pathogenesis and serve as…