Tag: Biotech

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Microstructure makes ePTFE a versatile medtech material

By Matt Navarro, Aptyx Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) has become a staple in the medical device industry for applications ranging from vascular grafts to stent encapsulations and more. It’s known for chemical inertness, biocompatibility, flexibility, and durability. What may surprise engineers is that ePTFE is not a single, uniform material. It takes several forms with varying…

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Medical devices win 2026 Edison Awards for innovation

Medtronic, Abbott, Boston Scientific, Medical Microinstruments (MMI) and other medical device developers earned honors at the 2026 Edison Awards. They were among more than 150 finalists for the awards, which recognize “excellence in product and service innovation, marketing, and human-centered design” across a range of categories including health, medical and biotech, engineering and robotics, materials…

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Abbott’s device leader pay climbs again with double-digit sales growth

Abbott EVP and Medical Devices Group President Lisa Earnhardt’s pay package increased more than 20% in 2025 as device sales maintained their double-digit growth. That’s according to the latest executive compensation disclosure from Abbott, which was the world’s eighth-largest medical device company in Medical Design & Outsourcing‘s Medtech Big 100 ranking by revenue. That ranking…

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Stem Cell Editing Programs the Immune System to Make Own Therapeutic Proteins

For pathogens like HIV, malaria, and rapidly evolving influenza strains, coaxing the immune system to produce the rare, highly potent antibodies needed for protection has long been a scientific bottleneck. Vaccines can train B cells to evolve such broadly neutralizing antibodies, but only under ideal conditions—and only in a small fraction of people. Even attempts to genetically edit mature B cells produced responses that faded as the cells died out.

A team at the Rockefeller University has now taken a more upstream approach: programming hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs)—the source of all B lymphocytes—to carry permanent genetic instructions for therapeutic antibodies or other proteins. Because the immune system naturally amplifies rare, useful cells after vaccination, even a tiny number of edited stem cells can seed a durable, boostable immune response.

“The immune system is inefficient in that it produces a vast quantity of cells to protect itself,” said Harald Hartweger, a research assistant professor in Michel Nussenzweig’s Laboratory of Molecular Immunology. “We wanted to take advantage of the immune system’s ability to amplify useful, rare cells.”

The study, published in Science and titled “B lymphocyte protein factories produced by hematopoietic stem cell gene editing,” demonstrates that CRISPR‑edited HSPCs can mature into B cells that express engineered antibodies upon vaccination. A standard vaccination then acts as the trigger: antigen exposure drives those edited B cells to expand, differentiate into plasma cells, and secrete high titers of the inserted antibody that last long-term.

According to the paper, as few as ~7,000 edited HSPCs were enough to generate “high titers of long‑lasting protective or therapeutic antibodies and/or cargo proteins.” In mice engineered to produce a broadly neutralizing influenza antibody, this response was strong enough to protect against an otherwise lethal viral infection.

The platform proved unexpectedly versatile. Edited B cells could also secrete non‑antibody proteins, pointing to potential applications in genetic diseases. And by mixing HSPCs engineered with different antibody instructions, the researchers created immune systems capable of producing multiple antibodies simultaneously, an approach that could limit viral escape in HIV or other rapidly mutating pathogens. Human HSPCs edited using the same strategy produced functional human B cells in an immunodeficient mouse model, offering an early sign of translational feasibility.

“Our goal is to permanently impact the genome with a single injection, so that the body can make proteins of interest,” Hartweger said. “That protein could be an antibody that’s universally protective against HIV or influenza, but it could also be any therapeutic protein.”

The team is now moving toward preclinical testing in non‑human primates to evaluate protection against HIV and exploring whether similar strategies could be applied to T cells. The broader vision is a generalizable, long‑term protein‑production platform, one that could support treatments for infectious disease, protein deficiencies, autoimmunity, metabolic disorders, and cancer, according to Hartweger.

As Nussenzweig puts it, “The present study proposes a workaround for the antibody problem—a way of getting around the possibility that we may never get to a universal HIV vaccine, while still providing a promising, long‑lasting solution.”

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A pancreatic cancer breakthrough, and new hope for an off-the-shelf CAR-T treatment

On this week’s episode of the Readout LOUD: a pancreatic cancer breakthrough and new hope for an off-the-shelf CAR-T treatment in lymphoma. 

Your favorite biotech podcasting crew is back to full strength this week, and we’re bringing you two newsy guest interviews. First, we’ll talk with Allogene Therapeutics Chief Medical Officer Zach Roberts about new study results that bolster the company’s efforts to develop an off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy for B-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.

Read the rest…

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Intercellular Communication via Condensate Corona-Nanoparticle Complexes

Cells and tissues have a multitude of methods for intercellular communication. Nanoscale assemblies that transfer proteins and RNAs between cells are known, but the impacts of external additions or synthetic materials is unclear.

Researchers from the University College of Dublin’s Centre for BioNano Interactions (CBNI) explored detailed changes in nanostructure-biological hybrid complexes as they leave one cell and enter another.

“We had long believed that there are natural couriers and gateways that allow special, very small particulates to communicate in organisms,” said lead author Kenneth Dawson, DPhil, CBNI director.

The team published their work in a paper titled, “Condensate corona–nanoparticle complexes transfer functional biomolecules between cells” in Nature Materials.

In rare instances, a subset of nanoparticles that enter a cell undergo an unexpected transformation, acquiring a coating known as a “condensate corona.” This corona allows for regulated entrance into the cell.

“By gaining access to these natural gateways, it could be possible to ferry ‘toolkits’ of functional biomolecules, for example, extended corrective messages, directly into previously inaccessible areas within cells, and across biological barriers, greatly improving the effectiveness and, importantly, the safety of RNA-, gene- and protein-based therapies,” said lead author associate professor Yan Yan, PhD, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.

Using “magnetic-cored, silica-shelled nanoparticles precoated with a grafted or adsorbed biomolecular corona,” the researchers created a scaffold that provided the cell with a recognition cue, allowing for the cells to deposit a secondary corona. With magnetic cores, and silica shells that carry fluorescent labels, the nanoparticles are easily controlled, extracted, and visualized.

Live-cell imaging showed that these additionally transformed nanoparticles were re-exported and retained both their original corona, along with their new cell-derived layer.

“By combining magnetic core extraction with an optimized pulse–chase regime and post-isolation washing, we obtained highly reproducible particle-complex isolates with minimal background contamination,” the authors wrote. Analysis showed that the cell-derived corona was “solid-like, structurally stable and biochemically robust.”

They also identified protein profiles using stable-isotope amino acid labelling (SILAC) in the cells producing the corona, followed by mass spec analysis. These proteins have a high affinity for the ER and mitochondria and about 70% of the proteins have been previously associated with mesoscopic intracellular RNA granules.

“With the prototype in our hands, we were able to break into these communications and understand how biological information is shared between cells. From there, we began to send our own messages via the same system,” Dawson noted.

In further tests, the team found that within endosomes of the recipient cell, the corona detaches from the core and the fates of the core and corona diverge, with the proteins and RNA components of the corona escaping the endosome—and escaping degradation—to be distributed within and access targets in the cell. They were able to disrupt this process and keep the corona and the attached materials, in the endosome by grafting short peptides onto the coronal surface.

Utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 they tested the functionality of corona-bound particles that escape the endosome. They generated particle complexes for bioluminescent markers to monitor functionality. Analysis revealed “intact enzymatic activity can be delivered to recipient cells by condensate-borne cargo.”

The authors explained that together, their data suggest these condensates function as an encoded biomolecular transfer program that are activated by the recipient cell. They wrote: “It is remarkable that such architectures, built entirely from endogenous biomolecules of producer cells, can embody transfer programs that overcome most of the challenges faced within nanoscale therapeutics.”

“The findings provide a new blueprint for sending strategic and therapeutically effective biological messages to currently inaccessible locations in the body. That points towards a new concept of medicine that could reverse, rather than manage, currently intractable diseases,” concluded Dawson.

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Brain Circuits Underlying Placebo Pain Relief Identified in Mice

Though the placebo effect is a well documented phenomenon, the neurological mechanisms that underlie the process are still not fully understood. Now scientists from multiple institutions led by a team at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have pinpointed the brain circuitry in mice that they believe is responsible for placebo pain relief. Details of their findings are published in a new paper in the journal Neuron. In it, they describe brain regions that support placebo effects and highlight sites where endogenous opioid neuropeptides send signals that are important for placebo pain relief. 

The paper is titled “Top-down control of the descending pain modulatory system drives multimodal placebo analgesia.” According to the team, theirs is the first study to establish placebo mechanisms by adapting a protocol used for humans to work in mice. Working alongside labs at the University of Pennsylvania, University of California Irvine, and elsewhere, the UCSD team detected activity in parts of the mouse brain that correspond to those previously implicated in human studies. Furthermore, by precisely mapping neural pathways and brain activity in the mice, the team identified essential roles for neural circuits that link the cortex to the brainstem and spinal cord during placebo pain relief. 

They also found that training mice to exhibit a placebo effect with one type of pain results in relief from several different types of pain including pain from injuries. That is particularly notable because it has “direct implications for how placebo training in humans might be used to produce resilience to future pain that results from injury,” explained Matthew Banghart, PhD, an associate professor in UCSD’s neurobiology department and lead author on the study. The findings also open a door to “expectancy-driven” placebo effects as a substitute for addictive painkillers, he noted, meaning that it might be possible to use placebo conditioning to train patients to build preemptive resilience to pain.

Full details of the findings and methods used are provided in the paper. In it, the teams explain that they used sensor technology and a light-activated drug developed in the Banghart lab to study the role of naturally-occurring opioid peptides in the brain. Specifically, they used the sensors to detect opioid peptide signaling in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) region, a known hub for pain signaling, during placebo trials. They then used the light-activated drug called photoactivatable naloxone, or PhNX, to establish that these opioid peptides actually drive pain relief in a manner similar to drugs like morphine. The light allowed the scientists control and timing of the opioid signaling interference. Using PhNX, they confirmed that both morphine-induced pain relief and placebo pain relief use the same opioid signaling pathway in the vlPAG region of the brain. 

Essentially, “we trained a mouse brain to create its own broad-spectrum painkillers on demand, precisely where they are needed to treat pain, without the off-target effects of opioid-based painkillers,” said Janie Chang-Weinberg, a PhD student in the biological sciences graduate program at UCSD and one of the first authors on the study. 

Future studies planned by the team will dig more deeply into how placebo learning unfolds in the brain and evaluate different placebo training strategies in mice with an eye towards developing protocols that readily translate to produce placebo pain resilience in people living with chronic pain.

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Proteins.1 Launches to Develop Single Molecule Protein Amplification Tech for Diagnostics

Finnish deep-tech startup, Proteins.1, launched with €4.7 million in pre-seed funding, led by Lifeline Ventures and Cloudberry Ventures, with in-kind support from VTT and Business Finland. Harnessing technology transferred from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Proteins.1 is developing a PCR-like enzyme-free, ultra-sensitive amplification platform for the detection of proteins at the single-molecule level. The firm says it aims to transform early disease diagnostics by enabling detection of disease-related molecular warning signals long before there are clinical signs.

While polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology has transformed modern diagnostics by allowing tiny amounts of DNA to be amplified into detectable signals, no equivalent amplification method has existed for proteins, which often signal the earliest onset of cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease, and inflammatory conditions, the company notes. Proteins.1 aims to leverage its technology to establish a new category of ultra-sensitive protein diagnostics, combining high multiplexing, scalable chip-based detection, and significantly lower capital costs compared to existing systems.

The patented, physics-based technology introduces cyclic signal amplification for proteins, potentially enabling up to 1,000 times better sensitivity than current gold-standard platforms, Proteins.1 claims. Unlike conventional immunoassays that rely on enzymatic reactions prone to variability and noise, the Proteins.1 approach is solid-state, enzyme-free, and compatible with semiconductor-based photonic detection.

The platform replaces enzymatic signal amplification with a physics-based magnetic cycling mechanism that repeatedly reads a single captured protein molecule, accumulating signal clarity without increasing background noise. The company says this supports ultra-high sensitivity combined with high multiplexing, potentially enabling the simultaneous measurement of hundreds of biomarkers from a few drops of blood.

“For decades, diagnostics has been limited not by biology, but by what our instruments can detect,” commented Proteins.1 co-founder and CEO Prateek Singh, who is inventor of the core technology. “The body produces early warning signals long before disease becomes visible. Our mission is to make those signals measurable and actionable, years earlier than today.”

Built on research conducted at VTT and further validated through European Union breakthrough innovation funding, the technology has been granted U.S. and Finnish patents, and additional international applications are pending. Initially, the company aims to develop research-use-only applications in oncology, neurology, and immunology, before progressing toward regulated clinical diagnostics. “Early detection dramatically improves survival rates in diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders,” Singh continued. “If we can detect disease at the molecular stage rather than the symptomatic stage, we entirely change treatment possibilities.”

Proteins.1 plans to expand its engineering and product development team in Finland during 2026–2027, positioning itself as a European hub for next-generation diagnostic technology. “Proteins.1 represents the kind of deep scientific breakthrough that can redefine an entire industry,” said Jyri Engeström at Lifeline Ventures. “The team combines world-class research with proven experience in building and scaling regulated medtech businesses.” Cloudberry Ventures further highlighted the company’s strong alignment with European strengths in photonics, microfabrication, and precision engineering.

Added Rene Kromhof, at Cloudberry VC, “What sets Proteins.1 apart is a fundamentally new sensing approach. Rather than using enzymes that give you one chance to detect a protein, they use light and thin-film transistors to amplify the signal from a single protein until it rises above the noise. That dramatically improves sensitivity, and ultimately, how early disease can be caught.”

CEO Prateek Singh has previously raised venture capital for microfluidics ventures and holds multiple patent families. Co-founder and COO Harri Hallila previously built and exited a regulated medical device company. The broader team includes commercial leadership with experience in leading diagnostics platforms.

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Advances in Stem Cell‑Derived Insulin‑Producing Cells for Type 1 Diabetes

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed an improved method for creating insulin-producing cells from human stem cells. In a newly published study, the team demonstrated that these cells effectively regulate blood sugar levels in laboratory tests and can reverse diabetes in mice.

“We have developed a method that reliably produces high-quality insulin-producing cells from multiple human stem cell lines,” said Per-Olof Berggren, PhD, professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet. “This opens up opportunities for future patient-specific cell therapies, which could reduce immune rejection.” Berggren and Siqin Wu, PhD, researcher at Spiber Technologies AB (formerly at Karolinska Institutet), are co-corresponding authors of the researchers’ published paper in Stem Cell Reports, titled “An optimized protocol for efficient derivation of pancreatic islets from multiple human pluripotent stem cell lines.”

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) occurs when the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, meaning the body can no longer absorb glucose from the blood and regulate blood sugar levels. “In type 1 diabetes (T1D), autoimmune destruction of β cells results in loss of glycemic control,” the authors wrote.

One possible treatment strategy is to replace these cells with new ones. However, previous methods of producing such cells from stem cells have often yielded mixed results. Stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes is already being tested in several clinical trials. However, a challenge with previous methods is that the stem cells often develop into a combination of the desired and undesired cell types, increasing the risk of complications. Another challenge is that the insulin-producing cells created are often not mature enough to respond well to glucose.

“The success of cell therapy for type 1 diabetes (T1D) depends on reliable differentiation of stem cells into functional pancreatic islets,” the authors noted. They pointed out that previous protocols have exhibited variable efficiency across different human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines. “Differentiation beyond the stage (S) 4 pancreatic progenitor (PP) stage frequently yields heterogeneous cultures containing proliferative non-endocrine cells and immature endocrine cells … increasing the risk of cyst or tumor formation,” the team further commented.

The newly optimized production process reported by Berggren and colleagues yields more mature and purer insulin-producing cells than previous methods. In a laboratory setting, the cells were able to secrete insulin and responded strongly to glucose. When the researchers transplanted these cells into streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice, the animals gradually regained the ability to regulate their blood sugar. “By adjusting the culture steps and allowing the cells to form three-dimensional clusters themselves, many unwanted cell types are eliminated and the cells gain a better ability to respond to glucose, according to the researchers. “Single-cell analyses show that the SC-islets are free of non-endocrine cell populations before and after transplantation,” the team stated.

The transplantation was performed in the anterior chamber of the eye (ACE) which provides a transparent and accessible site for noninvasive monitoring of engrafted SC-islets through the cornea, the team pointed out. Transplantation into this compartment is also straightforward and minimally invasive.  In their paper, the team noted, “Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests (IPGTT) at three, four, and six months post-transplantation showed improved glucose handling over time … SC-islet transplantation reversed hyperglycemia by three months, and by five–six months blood glucose levels fell slightly below pre-STZ baselines.”

Berggren commented, “This is a technique we use to monitor the development and function of the cells over time in a minimally invasive way. We observed that the cells gradually matured after transplantation, retaining their ability to regulate blood sugar for several months, which demonstrates their potential for future treatments.”

Fredrik Lanner, PhD, professor at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, and last author of the paper, added, “This could solve several of the problems that have previously hindered the development of stem cell-based treatments for type 1 diabetes. Building on this, we will work towards clinical translation aiming at treating type 1 diabetes.” In their report the authors concluded, “Our protocol generated glucose-responsive SC-islets from all eight hPSC lines tested … demonstrating potential for autologous applications … Our efficient differentiation protocol represents a key step toward autologous cell therapy, though further work is required to realize this goal.”

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Integrated Sample Preparation System Standardizes and Streamlines Pre-Analytical Workflows

Invivoscribe launched the PrepQuant™ sample preparation platform that integrates nucleic acid extraction, concentration, and quantification with a single automated instrument. The product is designed to standardize sample preparation and simplify pre-analytical workflows to reduce costs and eliminate a primary source of inconsistency in molecular testing.

Developed in collaboration with Hitachi High-Tech Corporation, PrepQuant combines Invivoscribe’s experience in developing standardized molecular assays, providing global clinical testing services, along with Hitachi High-Tech’s technological and manufacturing capabilities

The PrepQuant system is assay agnostic, generating highly concentrated genomic DNA and cell free DNA (cfDNA) yields for next-generation sequencing (NGS), qPCR, and digital PCR (dPCR) assays. By consolidating multiple steps in a single platform, the system can lab operating costs, sample variability, and lab bench space, while optimizing tests results.

“PrepQuant represents a significant advancement in our commitment to standardize the entire testing process, starting with the pre-analytical workflow,” said Jeff Miller, CEO and CSO of Invivoscribe. “This is particularly important in the era of precision medicine, where reliability of measurable residual disease and liquid biopsy results depend markedly on the quality and consistency of the starting material.”

“The concept for the [product] was driven directly by insights from LabPMM, our global network of testing laboratories,” added Jordan Thornes, vice president, global clinical lab operations. “Our teams recognized the limitations of currently available automated instruments, particularly the labor-intensive nature and increased risk of errors associated with running three separate protocols across multiple instruments. This all-in-one system was designed to reduce costs, while addressing those challenges and significantly improving operational efficiency.”

The PrepQuant is designed and validated for use with blood, plasma, and bone marrow specimens, with ongoing development for additional specimen types. Invivoscribe will officially unveil the product at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, at booth #3459 from April 19–22.

 

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