By Heather Hobbs
BRINGING YOU THE LATEST NEWS & EVENTS FROM THE SCIENCE INDUSTRY Cell Function Discovery brings hope for RA Sufferers
Researchers at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Fondazione
A.Gemelli IRCCS in Italy and the Versus Arthritis funded Research into Inflammatory Arthritis Centre (RACE) – found that people with arthritis in long-term remission had a difference in cell function which could settle inflammation and ‘teach’ nearby cells to repair the joint.
Scientists hope these resolving cells could be effectively harnessed to improve treatments for people who experience flare-ups of the disease.
Lead author Dr Mariola Kurowska-Stolarska, from University of Glasgow and RACE, said: “The result of this study is a credit to the vision and teamwork of our multinational collaborators. We identified different types of macrophages and our goal now is to discover treatments that will encourage development of resolving macrophages in the joint.
“This would be a useful additional strategy to current Dr Mariola Kurowska-Stolarska Professor Iain McInnes
treatments that calm-down the aggressive macrophages in arthritis. In the meantime, the relative numbers of resolving macrophages or aggressive macrophages in the synovium, or joint, might be a good predictor of flare and an indicator of
Merck Announces VAR2 Pharmaceuticals as Winner of its Advance Biotech Grant
the potential to treat multiple types of human solid tumours.
“Emerging biotech companies play a significant role in the pharma value chain, typically developing therapies for rare and orphan diseases and often need support in bringing these important drugs to market,” said Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. “VAR2 Pharmaceuticals’ use of a malaria protein to treat cancer is promising and we are proud to support them.”
Ali Salanti, CEO, VAR2 Pharmaceuticals Mads Daugaard, Executive
Chairman of the Board, VAR2 Pharmaceuticals
Merck has announced that VAR2 Pharmaceuticals has been selected as the European winner of its 2020 Advance Biotech Grant Program. Copenhagen, Denmark-based biotechnology company VAR2 Pharmaceuticals was chosen for its development of a promising novel cancer treatment that has
VAR2 Pharmaceuticals is in pre-clinical development of a drug conjugate that uses a recombinant malaria protein, rVAR2, to target and combat cancer cells. The rVAR2 protein has been tested on different cancer cell lines and has, in such tests, bound to the vast majority, including melanoma, lymphoma, breast, prostate and ovarian cancer and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Although today’s focus on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics development is critical, patients around the world need drugs to treat diseases like cancer. With its potential ability to rapidly shrink tumours and target a broad range of cancer cell lines without knowingly disrupting healthy cells, rVAR2 shows promise to be a safe and effective therapy against a broad range of cancers that have virtually no treatment options available.
As part of the grant award, VAR2 Pharmaceuticals will receive in-kind Merck products and consultation support to advance its harvest, downstream and formulations process development challenges in the production of its drug- conjugated malaria protein.
“We are honoured to have been selected as the winner of Merck’s Advance Biotech Grant,” said Ali Salanti, founder and CEO of VAR2 Pharmaceuticals. “The products, process development support and expertise belonging to the Life Science business of Merck in developing biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes will be instrumental in moving this project forward to GMP to enable clinical trials and we look forward to the collaboration.”
Since 2014, Merck’s Advance Biotech Grant Program has awarded technologies and consultation to 28 biotechnology companies. These grants have been used to support biotech companies whose missions are to help patients suffering from cancer, brain tumours, osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disorders.
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Space Mission Instruments send Images of the Sun
The images from RAL Space’s Spectral Investigation of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument, alongside measurements from Solar Orbiter’s 9 other instruments, show that they are already observing unknown phenomena and are ready for further scientific observations as it travels closer to the Sun and images the poles for the first time.
Dr Andrzej Fludra, the SPICE Instrument Consortium lead and a Co-Principal Investigator from RAL Space said:
Combining remote-sensing and in situ measurements Credit:Solar Orbiter/SPICE Team; SWA Team; EUI Team/ ESA and NAS
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Solar Orbiter space mission to study the sun has sent back its first set of images to Earth, including those from an instrument built by the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) RAL Space.
“We are delighted to see the first spectra and images from SPICE. They promise to solve the outstanding questions about the dynamic processes and composition of the Sun’s atmosphere. Spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the diagnostic of fundamental processes in hot plasmas. Each spectral line gives us a piece of the puzzle - combining information from all lines reveals the amazing complexity of the atmosphere.”
This first glimpse of data from SPICE will help unravel the mysteries of the origin of the solar wind by giving researchers measurements of the temperature, composition and speed of plasma flowing out from the Sun’s atmosphere.
arthritis patients maintaining remission.”
Professor Iain B McInnes, Director of the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation at the University of Glasgow and RACE, said: “For many years we have focussed our research efforts on the pathways that switch on inflammation in the joints of people with rheumatoid arthritis – and this new study is remarkable in showing us how natural resolution of inflammation occurs. This gives us new clues as to how we can best design new treatments to achieve remission -our long-standing goal!”
The study, ‘Distinct synovial tissue macrophage subsets regulate inflammation and remission in rheumatoid arthritis’ was published in Nature Medicine.
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SOlar Orbiter first images and data Credit: Solar Orbiter (ESA and NASA)
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