London's position as Europe's leading clinical research hub generates profound impacts extending far beyond laboratory walls and hospital wards. Hundreds of London trials running simultaneously create a sophisticated ecosystem connecting pharmaceutical companies, research institutions, healthcare providers, and most importantly, thousands of patients seeking access to innovative treatments whilst contributing to medical advancement. This ecosystem delivers tangible economic value whilst simultaneously addressing patient needs that conventional healthcare often cannot meet.
Last April, neuroscientist Sue Grigson received an e-mail from a man detailing his years-long struggle to kick addiction - first to opioids, and then to the very medication meant to help him quit. The man had stumbled on research by Grigson, suggesting that certain anti-obesity medications could help to reduce rats' addiction to drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. He decided to try quitting again, this time while taking semaglutide, the blockbuster GLP-1 drug better known as Ozempic.
The biotech company, which is headquartered in Milpitas, turned in a Chapter 7 filing, meaning that it seeks liquidation, rather than reorganization. The document is so sparse that it prompted a request from the court's deputy clerk for more information. But it depicts a company in dire straits: ASC Therapeutics estimates that it has between $100,000 and $500,000 in assets and between $10 million and $50 million in liabilities.
Cuba is battling a wave of mosquito-borne illnesses, with the country's top epidemiologist warning that nearly one-third of the population has been impacted, with large numbers of workers taken ill. On Thursday, fumigators armed with fogging machines probed alleys and crowded buildings in parts of the capital Havana, among the hardest hit by mosquito-borne viruses including dengue and chikungunya, authorities said.
The groundbreaking clinical trial, described on 31 October in the American Journal of Human Genetics, will deploy an offshoot of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique called base editing, which allows scientists to make precise, single-letter changes to DNA sequences. The study is expected to begin next year, after its organizers spent months negotiating with US regulators over ways to simplify the convoluted path a gene-editing therapy normally has to take before it can enter trials.
The announcement of a positive result from a major clinical trial is an incredibly exciting moment in the world of medicine. It's a validation of years of painstaking research, a potential new tool for doctors, and, most importantly, a powerful new source of hope for patients and their families. As a physician or a researcher, the desire to share this exciting news with the public is a natural one.
An SF-based biotech company is working on a safer, reformulated version of MDMA, better known as molly' or ecstasy,' and we're not tripping when we say they just won FDA approval to begin Phase 1 clinical trials. We have occasionally covered Bay Area medical research into MDMA, the street drug known as ecstasy or molly, and perhaps a little too enthusiastically at that.
But last Wednesday was a day unlike any other. I cried with every single patient, Sung says. It just was this crazy feeling that, for the patients and families, almost can't feel real. That day the results of important phase 1/2 clinical trials had finally been released: an experimental gene therapy drug was the first treatment shown to slow the progression of Huntington's disease.
Life sciences leaders are increasingly adopting AI and AI agents to address growing industry disruption. This shift is occurring as the sector confronts new regulatory demands that strain compliance teams, increasingly complex clinical trials, and rising expectations from healthcare professionals. A recent Salesforce study revealed that life sciences leaders see AI as a powerful tool for navigating these challenges, with 94% expecting AI agents to be critical for scaling organizational capacity and strengthening operations.
Recent headlines warning of concerns such as heart risks or danger to teenagers have put a new spotlight on a diet trend that has long been the popular epitome of a healthy lifestyle: intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting's image has been deeply tarnishedand quite rightly so, says Stefan Kabisch, a physician at the endocrinology and metabolic medicine department at ChariteUniversity Medicine Berlin. The hype was never really backed up by good data in humans.
We've still got the best universities, we've got some of the best scientists in the world, but it's not a good place to do the development work for medicines. It's an expensive place to operate, and it's a terrible place to sell medicines.
"Dancing molecules," the promising new treatment for acute spinal cord injuries developed at Northwestern University, has received Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Deep-brain stimulation involves inserting thin wires through two small holes in the skull into a region of the brain associated with movement. The hope is that by delivering electrical pulses to the region, the implant can normalize aberrant brain activity and reduce symptoms.
Biorce is exactly the kind of pioneering company we're here to back. They're combining deep sector expertise with cutting-edge AI to solve what truly matters.
The Neuralink chip, known as the Link or Telepathy, was implanted by surgeons at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, marking the first such procedure at a Miami hospital. The chip allows RJ to wirelessly control a computer, as demonstrated by his ability to play video games using only his mind.
The study highlighted that combining structured exercise with chemotherapy can improve overall health outcomes in colon cancer recovery, showing that exercise should complement medical treatments.
The ARCAD database is a wonderful example of collaborative efforts around the world to create large patient-derived datasets that enable expanded research opportunities beyond the initial question addressed in the original design of a clinical trial.
This funding round gives us the momentum needed to take the next big step in our journey, launching U.S. clinical trials and supporting our European commercialization strategy.