Biologically Inspired Engineering, synbio, synthetic biology, crispr
Arc Institute is a nonprofit research organization headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Arc is an independent institute that operates in collaboration with Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco. According to Arc, biomedical innovation in areas such as mRNA technology, gene editing, and cell therapies suggest that historic … Read more
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. The immune system helps your body fight infections and other diseases. It is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system. Cancer immunotherapy is sometimes referred to as immuno-oncology. Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy. … Read more
What is life? For much of the 20th century, this question did not particularly concern biologists. Life is a term for poets, not scientists, argued the synthetic biologist Andrew Ellington in 2008, who began his career studying how life began. Despite Ellington’s reservations, the related fields of origins-of-life research and astrobiology have renewed focus on … Read more
The number of STEM jobs — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — is in a secular growth storm, having sped past the number of non-STEM jobs by three times since 2000. Students pursuing STEM education will be positioned to benefit from the wave of innovations in synthetic biology. And experts say there might not be enough graduates in those fields to fill … Read more
Today, access to the world’s largest browsable resource linking rare protein-coding genetic variants to human health and disease was launched through a genetic exome sequence analysis collaboration between AbbVie, Biogen Inc. and Pfizer. Managed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the browser gives access to results from analyses of whole exome sequencing data … Read more
In April, three leading synthetic biology companies announced the launch of the Synthetic Biology (SynBio) Coalition (www.synbioco.com) to promote investment and support for the American synthetic biology industry. Synthetic biology is a field of science that involves redesigning microorganisms for useful purposes. It is already being leveraged across many industries, including pharmaceuticals and medical treatments, … Read more
In June, GRAIL, Inc., presented the first results from the interventional PATHFINDER study evaluating Galleri™, a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) blood test. The results, presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting, support Galleri’s performance in clinical settings. The company also announced today that Galleri is now available in the U.S. by prescription only. “The interim … Read more
A change of instructions in a computer program directs the computer to execute a different command. Similarly, synthetic biologists are learning the rules for how to direct the activities of human cells. “Cells are intricate machines that have evolved many interacting circuits—sets of genes that coordinate functions like migration, metabolism, and cell division,” explains David … Read more
Verve Therapeutics, a biotech company innovating new approaches to the care of cardiovascular disease with single-course gene editing medicines, announced terms for its $201 million IPO on today. Insiders Wellington Management and Casdin Capital and new investor Fidelity have indicated an interest in purchasing up to an aggregate $75 million worth of shares in the … Read more
In October 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two blood tests, known as liquid biopsies, that can help guide treatment decisions for people with cancer. The tests, Guardant360 CDx and FoundationOne Liquid CDx, are made by different companies and were approved separately. Doctors have traditionally based treatment decisions on features like the organ … Read more