© Valneva SE

French vaccine specialist Valneva SE has inked a supply contract with the US Department of Defense for IXIARO its Japanese encephalitis (JE). 

The development of gasification technology takes place in VTT's Bioruukki piloting centre in Espoo, Finland. © VTT

Researchers at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd have presented a new gasification-based technique to turn forest industry byproducts into transport fuels and chemicals.

© 123rf.com/Jovanche Vitanovski

German researchers have modeled when cellular alterations inevitably lead to the development of cancer. The transition is tissue-specific and needs only a few cells.

Pseudocoloured cluster of circulating tumour cells (CTCs), isolated from the blood of a patient with breast cancer, trapped on a microfluidic device. © M Oeggerli / Micronaut 2018, supported by Pathology-, C-CINA / Biozentrum-, and I Krol, and N Aceto, Faculty of Medicine-, University Hospital and University Basel.

A team of Swiss researchers has identified Na+/K+-ATPase blockers as candidate drugs capable to prevent formation of metastases. In blood, the repurposed drugs identified in a screening dissociated clusters of circulating tumour cells (CTCs), forerunners of metastases.

© Audivisual Services of the EC

In summer the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that crops created by biological mutagenesis techniques fall under EU GMO legislation. Germany’s government and the European Parliament see no need to take action. 

©123rf.com/Watchara Khamphonsaeng

Just in mid-December, antibiotic resistance detection expert Ares Genetics (Vienna, Austria) inked an agreement with Sandoz to use its pathogenome database and bio-IT know-how to develop repurposed and novel antiinfectives that help fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Now, the company baged another financing to expand its diagnostic capabilities.

© FDNA

Experts in artificial intelligence (AI) have created another problem for bioethicists and data protection specialists: their algorithm has learned to identify people with rare genetic syndromes from facial images.

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Sanofi and Regeneron announced they have "restructured" their US$2,17bn immunoncology collaboration. While the companies will continue co-marketing of the FDA approved  (2018) PD1 blocker cemiplimab (REGN2810) as treatment for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Sanofi will quit development of early stage antibody discovery programmes under the 2015 agreement.  

Microscopic slice through an artery. © 123rf.com/Suliman Razvan

Cells that line the blood vessels do not behave identically but instead exhibit varied responses to the same biochemical signals, British researchers report in Science. 

© Bautzova/Science Translational Medicine

Differences in microbiome composition can help to distinguish inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Dutch and US researchers report.