News

Oracle's Larry Ellison Says Cancer Vaccine Tailored In 48 Hours Could Soon Be A Reality As Trump Announces $500 Billion AI Investment

“We can diagnose cancer using AI through a simple blood test,” Ellison explained during the briefing. “Once we sequence the genes of that cancer tumor, we can design an mRNA vaccine for each individual robotically using AI in about 48 hours.”

Novartis wagers more than $1B on gene therapies for the nervous system

Rare disease gene therapy startup, Kate Therapeutics, exited as a unicorn 4 years after its founding and just after raising Series B. As patients, doctors, and Big Pharma turn their attention towards gene therapies, such early exits, with very favorable returns to early stage investors before late stage investors get access, might be increasingly common in the near future.

Nobel Prize trifecta goes to gene tech in 2024

Physics - Hopfield and Hinton for neural networks that enable computational protein design tools such as AlphaFold

Chemistry - Baker for computational protein design methods and Hassabis and Jumper for AlphaFold itself

Medicine - Ambros and Ruvkun for discovering microRNA gene regulation

Gene Tech Surpasses Standard Newborn Screening

"Newborn screening is one of the greatest achievements in public health... It's an instant equalizer of health care because everyone is screened, ensuring all babies have the same chance at the healthiest life."

Complex genomic variants are related to psychiatric diseases, study finds

We have long known of a genetic link to psychiatric diseases. This is a step towards identifying exactly which genes, which could unlock more effective medicines.

The Colossal Foundation Aims to Save Threatened Species with De-Extinction Science

"Conserving and protecting remaining individuals is priority number one, but rebuilding a robust population means restoring lost genetic diversity."

Biotech Behemoths in Review

"the average time to an initial exit for the [tech] titans (8.2 +/-2.1 years) was considerably longer than that for the [biotech] behemoths ( ~4.7 +/- 2.7 years)."

AlphaFold 3, CRISPR Eyes, Ear Genes...

"We are living in an age of miracles."

LIC joins global drive for better African dairy cows

"[Livestock Improvement Corporation] is collaborating with United States-based precision breeding company Acceligen and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to breed heat-tolerant and disease-resistant dairy cows for sub-Saharan Africa."

Why the global bioeconomy urgently needs technical standards and metrics

"The global bioeconomy is estimated to be worth about $4 trillion, with more than 50 nations having published bioeconomy strategies."

Unlock Deeper Insights of Somatic Mutations with Deep Learning

"NVIDIA Parabricks expands the NVIDIA emphasis on solving omics challenges with deep learning and continues accelerating genomics instruments"

Democratize Omics Data Analysis with Basepair on AWS HealthOmics

Amazon Web Services' focus on genomics (and proteomics, transcriptomics, etc.) is evidence that the industry is digital and big.

The Taxa Technologies Story (personal hygiene)

"[I]t’s so delightful that Taxa Technologies will be using synthetic biology to get their consumers closer to nature, not further. In other words, they’ll be leveraging synthetic biology to deliver products that are actually less synthetic"

The ZBiotics Story (probiotic shot to avoid hangovers)

"Abbott shared that many Americans are actually ambivalent about GMOs."
"He explained that despite misconceptions about labeling and genetic engineering technology, genetic engineering in health products could be both safe and highly effective."

5 Startup Opportunities In Genomics

"The ability to read, interpret, and manipulate genetic information is not just transforming medicine by offering the potential to eliminate diseases and increase human lifespan - it's paving the way for entirely new industries."

Proteomics sets up single-cell and single-molecule solutions

"The future is not one in which every biologist has to be a mass spectrometrist"

The U.S. Bioeconomy: Charting a Course for a Resilient and Competitive Future

"Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, convened a Task Force to chart a course for achieving the promise of platform technologies such as engineering biology and artificial intelligence to contribute to what has recently been projected to become a future bioeconomy worth somewhere between $4 trillion and $30 trillion dollars globally, according to the most recent projections."

Safeguarding the Bioeconomy

"Moving forward, the life sciences communities will likely continue to experience change in the form of growing transdisciplinary and team-based science; an increasing shift toward applying engineering approaches to biology; a global environment for science that is driven by sharing, accessing, and analyzing large amounts of data; and changing stakeholders, workforce, and supply chains."