Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suffer from a scarcity of effective treatments. Current therapies primarily provide symptomatic relief but do not address the underlying pathology, failing to slow or halt disease progression. This underscores the urgent need to identify new therapeutic targets relevant to the pathology of these conditions. Kinases represent highly tractable drug targets, with kinase inhibitors achieving significant success, particularly in oncology. However, their potential in neurodegenerative diseases remains largely unexplored, presenting a promising avenue for future research and therapeutic development.
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The European Commission has presented its long-awaited Clean Industrial Deal, which aims at replacing its Green Deal in times of geopolitical tensions, slow economic growth and technological competition with “a transformational business plan” that makes the world’s 2nd largest economic bloc future-proof, sustainable while improving global competitiveness.
Fuse Vectors has secured US$5.2m in pre-seed financing to revolutionise gene therapy manufacturing with its cell-free viral vector technology. The Danish company is aiming to make treatments more accessible and cost-effective by streamlining production.
Dunn Labortechnik presents the new TEERZ device from Applied BioPhysics.
Krakow-based oncology specialist Ryvu Therapeutics zoo today announced a strategic reorganisation that will extend Ryvu’s cash runway to H2/2026 to focus on accelerating three ongoing RVU120 clinical programmes, and early pipeline small molecule and ADC assets to key data inflection points.
With a 7.7% lead, the incoming Christian Democrat Chancellor Friedrich Merz has put the radical right-wing AfD in its place. Before forming a government in Germany, Merz emphasised that Germany wants to strengthen the EU’s self-sufficiency, although the role of biotechnology seems to be of secondary importance to him.
Cambridge-based biotechnology company Nuclera has appointed William J. Kullback to its board of directors as a non-executive director.
French targeted DNA gene therapy specialist EG427 has closed a €27m Series B financing co-led by VC investor Andera Partners and BPI France to initiate Phase I testing of a Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (nrHSV-1) vector that specifically targets type C neurons to suppress dysfunctions of the bladder in people with spinal injury.
LINDIS Biotech GmbH has selected Swiss Celonic Group to manufacture its recently EU-approved malignant ascites treatment catumaxomab for commercial supply.
German-Canadian food tech specialist The Cultivated B reports that it has identified a small molecule that can replace bovine fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the production of cell-based meat with a stable, scalable small molecule that results in reproducible quality of sustainably cultured meat.