Recent News

• Measles Cases Reach 1,046 In US As Infections Confirmed In 30 States: CDC 
  ABC News – May 23, 2025
  Measles cases have reached 1,046 as the virus continues spreading across the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases have been confirmed in 30 states including Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Infectious disease experts have previously said the U.S. is likely on track to surpass the 2019 total of 1,274 cases, which were confirmed over the course of a year. This year’s total also marks the second highest case count in 25 years, CDC data shows.
• UCSD team is part of cutting-edge, nationwide cancer program
  San Diego Union-Tribune – May 23, 2025
  UC San Diego researchers are part of a nationwide effort to increase the precision of cancer therapy through the better and broader use of computer modeling and machine learning, often called artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, acting through its Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, announced up to $142 million in funding for the Advanced Analysis for Precision Cancer Therapy program. The agency named 10 different organizations to handle specific parts of the larger effort, which a statement describes as a “bleeding edge” attempt to “predict a patient’s cancer trajectory and identify the best next therapy for survival.” UC San Diego is listed among five different organizations tasked with making therapy recommendations and techniques based on computer-enabled genetic analysis.
• A Blood Test for Alzheimer’s: What to Know
  The New York Times – May 21, 2025
  A blood test that can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration. This is a step toward a goal of scientists and doctors to one day be able to diagnose a confounding illness with the prick of a finger. But there is still a long way to go. Here is what to know: What is the test, and how should it be used? The test, manufactured by Fujirebio Diagnostics,  is intended to be used only by specialists in Alzheimer’s, the F.D.A. said. Its mouthful of a name — Lumipulse G pTau217/ß-Amyloid 1-42 Plasma Ratio — describes what the test measures: levels of two proteins, amyloid and tau, that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. In people who develop Alzheimer’s, amyloid begins to accumulate and form plaques in the brain more than 20 years before any symptoms of cognitive impairment.
• Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine gets FDA approval
  BioPharma Dive – May 19, 2025
  Novavax has at last gained full Food and Drug Administration approval for its COVID-19 vaccine, but the OK comes with limitations not specified for other COVID-19 shots available in the U.S. Dubbed Nuvaxovid, the vaccine is cleared for use in people 65 years and older as well as for individuals between 12 and 64 years who have an underlying condition that puts them at higher risk of severe disease. The vaccine, which uses an older protein technology than the mRNA shots of Pfizer and Moderna, has been available in the U.S. since 2022 under emergency use authorization. While narrower, the approved indication is no more restrictive than what Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch expects advisers to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will recommend next month.
• World’s first personalized CRISPR therapy given to baby with genetic disease
  Nature – May 15, 2025
  A baby boy with a devastating genetic disease is thriving after becoming the first known person to receive a bespoke, CRISPR therapy-for-one, designed to correct his specific disease-causing mutation1. Little KJ Muldoon, now nearly ten months old, is doing well after receiving three doses of a gene-editing treatment to mend a mutation that impaired his body’s ability to process protein, his parents told reporters. But it is too soon to use the word “cure”, says Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, a paediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and one of Muldoon’s physicians. “This is still really early days,” she says. “We know we have more to learn from him.” To reach this point, an international team of clinicians and researchers in industry and academia, with support from US government funders and regulatory agencies, raced to develop Muldoon’s therapy in a mere six months.
• Merck’s Keytruda finds a path in ovarian cancer with phase 3 win in certain recurrent patients
  Fierce Pharma – May 15, 2025
  Merck’s Keytruda, with more than 40 approved indications, hasn’t yet been able to crack specifically into ovarian cancer. But with promising early results from a phase 3 study in certain patients, the checkpoint inhibitor may have found its place. At a pre-specified interim analysis of Merck’s phase 3 Keynote-B96 trial, which is testing Keytruda plus chemotherapy with or without Roche’s Avastin in patients with platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer, the drug showed “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” improvements in progression-free survival regardless of patients’ PD-L1 status, Merck reported. The trial compared the Keytruda regimen against placebo and chemotherapy, again with or without Avastin. Keynote-B96 enrolled a broad all-comers population with or without PD-L1 expression. In the PD-L1-positive subgroup, Keytruda was able to help patients live longer compared to the control regimen.
• Innovative therapeutics offer hope in liver disease treatment
  Pharma Phorum – May 13, 2025
  In the realm of medical research, liver disease remains a complex and often overlooked field. Despite the growing global burden of liver-related diseases, hepatology is still a relatively young specialty. While our scientific grasp of liver disease mechanisms has paved the way for new treatments, these breakthroughs do not consistently attract the resources often dedicated to other diseases. This imbalance has led to a scarcity of treatment options, limited patient support, and slower research progress in tackling liver diseases. Liver diseases pose complex challenges for medicine, and advances in the space have previously been hindered by low funding and industry investment. Established therapeutic modalities have often failed due to the challenging tractability of liver targets that modulate both inflammatory responses and tissue repair over a years-to-decades timespan, and clinical trials face difficulties in monitoring and establishing liver safety.
• FDA approves Teal Health’s HPV screening test as an at-home alternative to the Pap smear
  Fierce Biotech – May 9, 2025
  The FDA has cleared its first at-home collection kit that allows women to screen themselves for human papillomavirus and cervical cancer risk by mailing a sample to a lab—where it is analyzed by the same Pap smear test used in clinics. Developed by Teal Health, the Teal Wand is available with a prescription. It uses a spongelike swab to gather a sample from within the vagina, with no speculum required. According to a study conducted by the company that included more than 600 participants, samples collected with the Teal Wand were shown to be just as accurate as those taken by a clinician during an office visit—and much more preferable. About 94% of participants said they would opt for self-collection in the future, and 86% said they felt they would be more likely to stay up to date with cervical cancer screening if they could do it at home.
• Medicine Spares Cancer Patients From Grisly Surgeries and Harsh Therapies
  The New York Times – April 27, 2025 
  When a person develops solid tumors in the stomach or esophagus or rectum, oncologists know how to treat them. But the cures often come with severe effects on quality of life. That can include removal of the stomach or bladder, a permanent colostomy bag, radiation that makes patients infertile and lasting damage from chemotherapy. So a research group at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, using a drug from the pharmaceutical company GSK, tried something different. The researchers started with a group of 103 people. The trial participants were among the 2 to 3 percent of cancer patients with tumors that should respond to immunotherapy, a drug that overcomes barriers that prevent the immune system from attacking cancers. But in clinical trials, immunotherapy is not supposed to replace the standard treatments.