Recent News

• People With Severe Diabetes Are Cured in Small Trial of New Drug
  The New York Times – June 20, 2025
  A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 out of 12 people with the most severe form of type 1 diabetes. One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin. The other two patients need much lower doses. The experimental treatment, called zimislecel and made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston, involves stem cells that scientists prodded to turn into pancreatic islet cells, which regulate blood glucose levels. The new islet cells were infused and reached the liver, where they took up residence. The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association and published online by The New England Journal of Medicine. “It’s trailblazing work,” said Dr. Mark Anderson, professor and director of the diabetes center at the University of California in San Francisco.
• Arialys’ precision therapy shows promise in rare encephalitis disorder and beyond
  Fierce Biotech – June 20, 2025
  Arialys Therapeutics’ precision medicine has shown preclinical potential to address the underlying cause of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (ANRE), a rare brain disorder that comes with severe psychiatric and neurological symptoms. The data, which were published in Nature Communications, showed that Arialys’ candidate ART5803 blocked pathogenic antibodies that target the NMDA receptor and reversed behavioral symptoms in a nonhuman primate model. It means ART5803 has potential to become a “fast-acting, efficacious, and safe treatment option,” according to the article in Nature. There are currently no approved treatments for ANRE. The results support the continued development of ART5803, Arialys said. The treatment is already being evaluated using healthy volunteers in phase 1 safety studies, which are expected to read out in the second half of this year.
• ‘Razor blade throat’: As summer heats up, COVID-19 levels rise and some report unpleasant symptom
  The Mercury News – June 19, 2025
  As you prepare for summer vacation, road trips and long weekends at the beach, you might consider packing an old — but hopefully not expired — COVID-19 test. Along with the temperature, the virus is once again on the rise. The newest variant, NB.1.8.1, also known as Nimbus, is now widespread in California and across the United States. The new variant comes with increased transmissibility, and some are reporting an unpleasant symptom: “razor blade throat,” or a severe sore throat. While the symptom is, predictably, uncomfortable, the latest variant doesn’t appear to be driving a spike in severe illness, at least not so far. “We haven’t really seen a huge uptick yet,” said Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco professor of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases. “I think it’s coming, but it’s been relatively stable for the last few weeks,” Chin-Hong said.
• FDA approves Gilead’s twice-yearly HIV prevention injection, offering a powerful and convenient new option
  CNBC – June 18, 2025
  The Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead’s twice-yearly antiviral injection for preventing HIV — a milestone that the company and some experts say could help bring the world closer to ending the decadeslong epidemic caused by the virus. But the launch of the injectable drug, which will be marketed under the name Yeztugo, faces a set of potential threats, including the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to federal funding for HIV prevention efforts. In two groundbreaking clinical trials in 2024, Gilead’s injection proved to be capable of virtually eliminating new HIV infections when taken every six months. That’s a less frequent dosage than for all existing HIV prevention medications, including daily pills from Gilead and another injection, from GSK, taken every other month.
• Agenus and Noetik Enter Collaboration to Develop AI-Enabled Predictive Biomarkers for BOT/BAL Using Foundation Models of Virtual Cell Biology
  Agenus – June 17, 2025
  Agenus Inc.a leader in immuno-oncology innovation and Noetik, a leader in AI-driven spatial and multimodal biology, announced a research collaboration to develop predictive biomarkers of response to Agenus’ lead clinical stage immuno-oncology (IO) combination, botensilimab (BOT, multifunctional Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4) and balstilimab (BAL, anti-PD-1). The collaboration harnesses Noetik’s proprietary virtual cell foundation models and large-scale, multimodal tumor data to uncover novel insights into the biology of tumor immunology. Together, the teams will deploy Noetik’s first-in-class foundation models directly on clinical results with the aim to enrich clinical efficacy.
• Moffitt Cancer Center and cTRL Therapeutics Partner To Develop Next-Generation Cell Therapies for Cancer Patients
  Moffitt Cancer Center – June 16, 2025
  Moffitt Cancer Center announced a new partnership with cTRL Therapeutics, a biotechnology company. The organizations will collaborate to develop and advance the next generation of cellular immunotherapies designed to treat solid tumors more effectively and with greater accessibility. cTRL Therapeutics is at the forefront of cell therapy innovation, leveraging a proprietary platform to extract circulating tumor-reactive lymphocytes (cTRLs) from blood. This approach builds on the proven advantages of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapies but offers the potential for significant improvements in efficacy, consistency and patient accessibility.
• COVID-19 vaccination protects against severe kidney damage, study suggests
  NBC News – June 13, 2025
  Complications from a COVID-19 infection can harm the heart, brain, lungs and kidneys. A new study finds that patients hospitalized for COVID-19 were less likely to suffer severe kidney damage if they were vaccinated. Researchers at UCLA Health analyzed electronic medical records at a large academic hospital between March 1, 2020, and March 30, 2022, of approximately 3,500 hospitalized patients, ages 18 and older, and compared hospitalized patients who got at least two primary doses of the Moderna or Pfizer mRNA vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine for COVID-19 with hospitalized patients who had not been vaccinated. The researchers examined which participants developed kidney disease severe enough to require a type of dialysis known as CRRT, or continuous renal replacement therapy.
• FDA clears first AI tool for breast cancer risk prediction from startup Clairity
  Fierce Biotech – June 5, 2025
  Startup Clairity scored a green light from the FDA for the agency’s first artificial intelligence tool designed to predict five-year breast cancer risk from a routine screening mammogram. According to the company, the FDA’s de novo clearance paves the way for Clairity to launch the risk prediction platform with leading health systems through 2025. Current commonly used screening methods focus on detecting existing cancer in breast tissue, and most traditional risk models rely on risk factors including age and family history to guide patient follow-up, according to the company. The platform, called Clairity Breast, analyzes the mammogram itself. The platform uses AI to analyze subtle imaging features on screening mammograms that correlate with future breast cancer risk. The result is a validated five-year risk score delivered to healthcare providers through existing clinical infrastructures, according to the company, which supports more personalized follow-up care.
• From No Hope to a Potential Cure for a Deadly Blood Cancer
  The New York Times – June 3, 2025 
  A group of 97 patients had longstanding multiple myeloma, a common blood cancer that doctors consider incurable, and faced a certain, and extremely painful, death within about a year. They had gone through a series of treatments, each of which controlled their disease for a while. But then it came back, as it always does. They reached the stage where they had no more options and were facing hospice. They all got immunotherapy, in a study that was a last-ditch effort. A third responded so well that they got what seems to be an astonishing reprieve. The immunotherapy developed by Legend Biotech seems to have made their cancer disappear. And after five years, it still has not returned in those patients — a result never before seen in this disease. These results, in patients whose situation had seemed hopeless, has led some battle-worn American oncologists to dare to say the words “potential cure.”