Emergent BioSolutions: Top Official Warned That Vaccine Plant Had to Be ‘Monitored Closely`

Mr. de Notaristefani, a former top executive at two major pharmaceutical companies, cited “significant” personnel problems, writing that plans to increase staffing seemed “inadequate to enable the company to manufacture at the required rate.” He also noted that audits by the F.D.A. and individual companies that had hired Emergent “highlighted the need for extensive training…

Autism gene study finds widespread impact to brain’s growth signaling network

JUPITER, FL — Damage to the autism-associated gene Dyrk1a, sets off a cascade of problems in developing mouse brains, resulting in abnormal growth-factor signaling, undergrowth of neurons, smaller-than-average brain size, and, eventually, autism-like behaviors, a new study from Scripps Research, Florida, finds. The study from neuroscientist Damon Page, PhD, describes a new mechanism underlying…

A new treatment for metastatic lung cancer

A new phase 3 randomized clinical trial overseen by CU Cancer Center member Chad Rusthoven, MD, and Vinai Gondi, MD, from Northwestern University, is testing whether a new treatment approach could result in improved outcomes for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) that has spread to the brain. Funded by the National Cancer Institute…

Research shows cytonemes distribute Wnt proteins in vertebrate tissue

Scientists have made a pivotal breakthrough in understanding the way in which cells communicate with each other. A team of international researchers, including experts from the University of Exeter’s Living Systems Institute, has identified how signalling pathways of Wnt proteins – which orchestrate and control many cell developmental processes – operate on both molecular and…

MHRP launches trial to evaluate IL-15 Agonist as therapy to reduce HIV reservoir

SILVER SPRING, Md. – The U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research last week launched a Phase 2 clinical trial in Thailand to evaluate an interleukin-15 (IL-15) superagonist, ImmunityBio’s Anktiva® (also called N-803), administered during acute HIV infection as an experimental therapy to target establishment of the HIV…