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Gain Therapeutics uses AI-driven modeling to identify novel allosteric binders that target dysfunctional proteins in Parkinson’s disease.Image credit:©iStock, dem10Researchers have implicated the disruption of glucocerebrosidase (GCase) activity, an enzyme involved in lipid breakdown, in neurodegeneration.1 Gain Therapeutics is pursuing a novel Parkinson’s disease (PD) treatment that helps restore the protein’s folding and trafficking.Gene MackChief Executive OfficerGain TherapeuticsIn this Innovation Spotlight, Gene Mack, the chief executive officer of Gain Therapeutics, discusses the company’s Magellan™ platform, which uss machine learning and structural modeling to identify allosteric pockets in enzymes, unlocking new druggable targets in previously inaccessible proteins. This strategy led to the discovery…
Safety review, political shifts and fading demand challenge Moderna as mRNA medicine pushes into broader therapeutic territory. The US Food and Drug Administration has launched a formal investigation into reports of deaths potentially linked to COVID-19 vaccination, casting an unwelcome shadow over Moderna at a moment when the company is already navigating financial headwinds and a rapidly evolving policy environment. The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that regulators are reviewing fatalities across multiple age groups, although the FDA has not yet disclosed which cohorts fall under scrutiny. Earlier remarks from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary suggested that young adults…
Credit: Science Photo Library – ROGER HARRIS/Getty Images Results from an international research study suggest that women who carry either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 cancer-associated genetic mutations do not experience additional cancer risk if prescribed menopausal hormone therapy. In a study including 1,352 women in menopause carrying these genetic variants, half were treated with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and half were not. No increase in cancer risk in the HRT group was seen after almost six years of follow-up. Millions of women experience the symptoms of menopause each year, yet effective treatment options remain limited. HRT has long been the…
She’s 39, but her biological age is 25. Fitness coach reveals the three everyday foods she swears by for youthful energy and healthy aging. Zarina Manaenkova, a 39-year-old fitness coach known for her no-nonsense wellness advice, stunned her followers when she revealed that her latest lab results placed her biological age at 25. In a recent Instagram video, she broke down the surprisingly simple food habits she credits for feeling and looking more youthful than her passport suggests [1]. 1. Fatty fish At the top of her list is fatty red fish, which she says she eats regularly because it’s…
At the dawn of the genomic age, the narrative was one of possibility—a race to read the code of life. Thirty years later, the story has changed. The technology has matured, the costs have plummeted, and the question is no longer “Can we sequence everyone?” With uncertainties about who will pay the bill for accessible genomics testing and the effects the results may have on individuals, the question has become “Should we sequence everyone?” This is the current state of personal genomics: ramping up to becoming a household topic yet still grappling with its own purpose. Across medicine, researchers and…
This postdoc pushes liquid-biopsy innovation by merging chemistry, imaging, and machine learning.Image credit:Deepa Challa, ©iStock.com, HeitiPavesQ | Write a brief introduction to yourself including the lab you work in and your research background. I am Dinesh Medipally, an interdisciplinary scientist at the Centre for Radiation and Environmental Science, Technological University Dublin. My research focuses on developing innovative liquid biopsy technologies for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, integrating body fluid analysis, advanced spectroscopy, and artificial intelligence to enable accurate, non-invasive, and early disease detection.Q | How did you first get interested in science and/or your field of research? My interest in research…
Engineered MoS₂ nanoflowers help stem cells donate healthier mitochondria, improving energy production and cellular recovery. Texas A&M researchers have reported a method of coaxing human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) into producing and donating more mitochondria, potentially improving the recovery of damaged cells that rely on imported organelles to restore their energy balance. The work, published in PNAS, sits within a growing effort to understand and eventually manipulate intercellular mitochondrial transfer – a naturally occurring but inefficient process by which cells lend one another energetic support. The team engineered vacancy-rich molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanoflowers that, once taken up by stem cells,…
Genomics has undergone a transformation so rapid that even seasoned scientists remark on its velocity. Sequencing costs that seemed impossibly low a decade ago have fallen further still. Spatial and single-cell technologies now populate not just top-tier institutes but mid-size research hospitals. Physicians increasingly expect molecular information at the time of diagnosis, not months later. The scientific imagination has expanded accordingly: whole-genome sequencing for newborn screening, single-cell atlases for entire organs, and tumor profiling in real-time during therapy are now normal. Yet, amid this acceleration, a curious bottleneck has emerged. Sequencing, once the rate-limiting step, is often the easiest part.…
Concordia expanded its sustainable biomanufacturing capacities with upgrades to its Genome Foundry and bioprocessing facilities as the result of a $5 million Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) fund investment, which is funded 40% by the CFI, with matching funds from Quebec’s Ministry of Higher Education (MES). The upgrades position the Montreal-based university as one of Canada’s leading centers for synthetic biology and bioprocessing, according to Steve Shih, PhD, Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology co-director and associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering. They also strengthen the university’s capacity to develop biobased products from start to finish—from designing microbial and mammalian…
When the sun sets in Tasmania, a creature with fur as dark as the night emerges from its den to begin its search for food, scavenging for carrion and hunting small mammals and birds. To many, it’s best known as the inspiration for the whirling Looney Tunes character Taz. But to others, like University of Cambridge geneticist Elizabeth Murchison, it’s far more than a cartoon. To her, the devil is a national icon.Growing up in Tasmania, Murchison recalled rare glimpses of these elusive creatures during camping trips in the remote wilderness, though they were more often heard than seen. She…