University of California, Los Angeles

FDA granted NCATS Rare Pediatric Disease and Orphan Drug designations for five gene therapies targeting rare diseases, aiming to attract commercial sponsors and accelerate development.

The 2024 Nobel Prizes highlight AI's role in revolutionizing science and healthcare, with awards recognizing microRNA discovery, neural network development, and AlphaFold's protein structure prediction. These advancements promise to transform drug discovery and diagnostics, driven by curiosity and technology convergence.

North Carolina A&T’s CESJ hosts inaugural HBCU Democracy Day on Oct. 16, featuring scholars, journalists, and activists discussing HBCUs' role in American democracy. Speakers include Martha Jones, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Melanye Price, David Dennis Sr., David Dennis Jr., Khalilah Brown-Dean, and Eddie Cole. Event aims to promote social responsibility and civic engagement.

A phase 3 trial supports aztreonam-avibactam for treating multidrug-resistant infections. Penicillin allergies in nursing home residents lead to overprescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics, contributing to antimicrobial resistance. COVID-19 reinfections in unvaccinated individuals are more severe than breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals. COVID-19 increases cardiac event risk, with higher risk for A, B, and AB blood types. The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their work in machine learning.

Yuan Yuan discusses the rise of CDK4/6 inhibitors and ADCs in breast cancer treatment, highlighting uncertainties in eligibility, resistance, and sequencing. She mentions clinical trials like monarchE and NATALEE, and the importance of personalized radiation therapy and emerging ADCs. Yuan also addresses the need for research to understand drug resistance and the future of ADCs in breast cancer treatment.

Treatment for node-positive breast cancer may shift from lymph node dissection to less invasive methods like radiation therapy and ctDNA testing, as ongoing studies like A011202 and SERENA-6 explore their efficacy. Yuan Yuan emphasizes the need for more research on ctDNA's role in treatment decisions and monitoring, especially for patients with positive ctDNA results and no visible disease.

Stanford Medicine researchers received ARPA-H contracts for precision cancer care, surgical innovation, and large language model-driven patient communication. Katherine Ferrara leads a $35 million project on precision radiopharmaceutical imaging and therapy, focusing on ovarian and head and neck cancers. Lisa Knowlton co-leads a $22.3 million effort to improve intraoperative anatomy visualization. Roxana Daneshjou and Akshay Chaudhari are awarded $4.8 million to develop AI-driven medical chatbots for patient assistance.

The first patient has been dosed in the phase 2 CA-NINE trial comparing TLX250-CDx PET/CT to conventional imaging for detecting recurrent clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) post-surgery. TLX250-CDx targets carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) and showed high sensitivity and specificity in the phase 3 ZIRCON trial. The CA-NINE trial aims to enroll 91 patients, with primary completion expected by December 2029. Telix seeks FDA approval for TLX250-CDx, addressing sterility concerns in the BLA submission.

Telix Pharmaceuticals announces the first patient dosed in a Phase II trial for TLX250-CDx in recurrent clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) post-surgery, led by UCLA's Professor Brian Shuch.

Telix Pharmaceuticals announces first patient dosed in Phase II trial of TLX250-CDx PET agent for recurrent clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) post-surgery, led by UCLA's Professor Brian Shuch.