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Optogenetics: Start-Ups Head For The Light

 
• By Monya Baker

Optogenetics – technology to control neurons with light – has swept through basic neuroscience research. Efforts to commercialize optogenetics are complex, but a spunky group of start-ups plan to develop therapies using the technology.

If flash gathered cash, optogenetics technology would be rolling in dough. The first paper showing that mammalian neurons could be readily engineered to respond to light was reported in 2005. In 2010, Nature Methods named it its method of the year. In 2013, the coveted Brain Prize went to a half-dozen scientists who pioneered the technology. Thousands of basic science labs use optogenetics to control cells with light, and its transformation of research is routinely described as revolutionary.

The standard version of the technique starts with the gene for a light-sensitive protein called an opsin, usually channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2), a version of which makes swimming algae move toward light....

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Final Chance To Have Your Say: Take Scrip's Reader Survey This Week

 
• By Eleanor Malone

Editor’s note: This is your final call to participate in the survey to better understand our subscribers’ content and delivery needs. The deadline is 20 September.

Shape Our Content: Take The Reader Survey

 
• By Eleanor Malone

Editor’s note: We are conducting a survey to better understand our subscribers’ content and delivery needs. If there are any changes you’d like to see in the coverage topics, content format or the method in which you receive and access Scrip, or if you love it how it is, now is the time to have your voice heard.

Galapagos Expands Point-Of-Care CAR-T Study To The US

 
• By Andrew McConaghie

CEO Paul Stoffels said gaining US clearance for an IND for its novel CAR-T product was demanding, but now opens up a pathway towards a pivotal study starting in 2025.

Analysts Split On Eisai’s Chances Of Changing EU Regulator’s Mind On Leqembi

 
• By Andrew McConaghie

A final rejection of Leqembi could also spell the same fate for Lilly’s rival drug but public outcry and demand for Alzheimer’s therapies might force the regulator’s hand

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ASCO: Regeneron Looks To Become Bigger Immuno-Oncology Player

 
• By Alaric DeArment

The drugmaker presented oral abstracts at the meeting for Libtayo in adjuvant cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma and linvoseltamab in multiple myeloma.

ASCO: Lupin Presents Early Data On PRMT5 Inhibitor

 
• By Vibha Ravi

ASCO sees the debut of Lupin’s PRMT5 inhibitor candidate LRNP7457, currently in Phase I studies in India. While no drug with this mechanism of action has been approved anywhere so far, several candidates are in clinical trials.

MetaVia Sees Obesity Opportunities Despite Challenging US Market

 
• By Jung Won Shin

Despite new challenges related to obesity drug insurance coverage in the US, MetaVia's CEO is confident in the company's novel contender, which unlike rival GLP-1 therapies doesn’t require dose titration.