Biotech & Life Sciences
Monk Fruit Under the Microscope: What Makes It Tick
Monk fruit is usually talked about as a sugar substitute, and that is fair. That is how most people encounter it. The plant, known as Luo Han Guo (Siraitia grosvenorii), comes from southern China and belongs to the same family as squash and cucumbers. It has been used there for a long time, mostly in…
Illumina and Big Pharma Collaborate on Massive Cell Atlas for AI Models
Illumina has unveiled what it calls the largest genome-wide genetic perturbation dataset ever created, aimed at boosting AI-driven drug discovery across the pharmaceutical industry. The new Billion Cell Atlas represents the first phase of a planned five-billion-cell resource that the company expects to complete over the next three years. Illumina says the project will eventually…
New Immune Map Offers Hope for Multiple Myeloma Patients
Scientists are mapping immune cells in the bone marrow of multiple myeloma patients. You could say it’s a way to see how the immune system interacts with cancer cells. It might also help doctors figure out how aggressive the cancer is and guide new immune-based therapies. The study, in Nature Cancer, involved teams from WashU…
New Lung-on-a-Chip Mimics TB Infection in Real Time
Scientists have made a human lung-on-a-chip that mimics the tiny air sacs in the lungs, called alveoli. You could say it’s like a mini-lung in a lab dish. It might help researchers understand how TB infects the lungs and how treatments could work for different people. The study, published in Science Advances, comes from the…
AI in Pharma Gets a $25M Shot in the Arm
Converge Bio, a Boston- and Tel Aviv-based startup, raised $25 million in a Series A round. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round. TLV Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, and executives from Meta, OpenAI, and Wiz also joined. The company uses AI to help pharma and biotech companies develop drugs faster. The funding comes a year and…
Japanese Scientists Create Skin That Glows to Track Health
Japanese researchers might have found a new way to track health continuously. Instead of a smartwatch or a patch, they made skin that actually glows when certain internal molecules appear. You could say it’s like a living health monitor. The team, from Tokyo City University and The University of Tokyo, along with RIKEN and Canon…
