Parkinson’s patient Thomas Matsson was the first in the world to receive 7 million lab-grown brain cells in 2023. Today, he can smell and play sports.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have successfully implanted 7 million lab-grown brain cells into a patient to treat Parkinson’s disease.
Swedish resident Thomas Matsson was the first in the world to test the method about a year ago.
Kanvas looks amazing! They’re systematically deciphering microbiomes and developing clinical-stage interventions to improve patient outcomes in oncology and beyond. Very impressive! I’m also especially interested in their approach to maternal environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), which apparently affects 150M people!
Ever since the genomics revolution revealed how reliant the human organism is on its microscopic microbial cohabitants, the microbiome has been medicine’s most elusive frontier, promising better health if only we could untangle the trillions of interactions that influence nearly every facet of our physiology. But until now, effective medicines that harness the microbiome have been rare. Because of the diversity of microbial species and the complexity of host-to-microbe interactions, as well as the lack of a reliable, easily manufactured drug modality (the package that delivers a medicine’s therapeutic effect), the microbiome has been hard to treat, despite its importance to functions like immune response. Microbiome science has disappointed patients, doctors, founders, and investors.
That’s why DCVC is so excited about the cascade of recent developments at Kanvas Biosciences, which is moving the field beyond descriptive profiling of the microbiome to translating comprehensive biochemical insights into clinically useful products. In the past few weeks, the Princeton-based spatial biology company has kicked off a Phase 1 clinical trial for its first drug candidate, secured significant new backing from the Gates Foundation (closing a $48 million Series A financing, bringing Kanvas’s total funding to $78 million), and bolstered its scientific leadership by adding one of the most respected names in bioengineering to its board.
Clinical milestone
The most significant milestone in Kanvas’s evolution is the dosing of the first patients in a Phase I clinical trial for KAN-4. This live biotherapeutic product (LBP), resembling an ordinary pill, treats the colitis that many cancer patients develop after receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), allowing them to remain on the life-saving therapy longer.
A higher level of the fat that gathers around organs has been linked to faster brain aging in a new study, with glucose and insulin the likely mediators.
The study, led by a team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel, suggests that reducing visceral fat can protect against brain atrophy.
Like other parts of the body, the brain doesn’t necessarily age at a consistent rate: wear and tear can increase or decrease, depending on numerous factors. Faster brain aging typically means a faster decline in mental performance, and a higher risk of brain diseases.
Misshapen proteins cause a mess of trouble—particularly in neurodegenerative diseases. But a new study suggests it’s possible that giving them a little bit of extra support could keep them working correctly, and even reverse the damage they have caused.
The new research focuses on one such aberrant protein, TDP-43, which binds to RNA in the cell’s nucleus and is responsible for regulating thousands of human genes. If TDP-43 turns from a healthy, liquid-like phase into diseased, fibrous solid-like aggregates, its presence can be fatal.
This protein is one of the key drivers of the diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)—a discovery first made by pioneering Penn Medicine scientists Virginia M.-Y. Lee, Ph.D., MBA, and the late John Trojanowski, MD, Ph.D.
Aging is a complex process influenced by changes in our blood that affect how quickly we age. Scientists have shown that blood contains important molecules and cellular components — including proteins, metabolites, and immune cells — that can either accelerate or slow aging. Tools such as the ‘proteomic aging clock’ predict age and disease risk based on blood protein profiles, whereas emerging multi-omics approaches integrate metabolomic and immunomic data. Large-scale analyses of circulating factors reveal how these components change with age and identify markers of organ-specific aging. Certain blood-borne molecules can predict diseases such as heart disease and Alzheimer disease. These findings demonstrate that aging does not occur uniformly across tissues. Overall, studying diverse blood components provides valuable insight into aging biology and offers opportunities to develop strategies that promote healthier aging and improve long-term health.
This summary was initially drafted using artificial intelligence, then revised and fact-checked by the author.
That is one of the stranger truths about human evolution. Some of the traits helping people survive now are not purely modern at all. They are remnants of older branches of humanity, carried forward because they still work.
Evolution needs variation, inheritance, and reproduction. Those conditions have not disappeared.
Long-term health studies that follow multiple generations indicate that natural selection is still acting in modern populations. Certain traits are associated with having more children, and over time those traits become more common. Patterns in the data point toward earlier childbirth and later menopause, which together extend the reproductive window. Other trends suggest shifts in metabolism, including lower cholesterol and blood pressure.
Cas12a2 enzyme is programmed to identify specific RNA sequences rather than DNA. Upon successful recognition and binding to its target RNA, the protein undergoes a conformational change that unleashes indiscriminate collateral cleavage of intracellular DNA, effectively shredding the genetic material and inducing rapid cell death. In preclinical in vitro and in vivo models, a single administration of this targeted Cas12a2 system suppressed the proliferation of KRAS-mutated cancer cells by 50% and eliminated human papillomavirus (HPV)-infected cells with an efficacy exceeding 90%. Crucially, the intervention demonstrated high specificity, displaying no significant off-target cytotoxicity or damage to healthy tissue. This RNA-triggered DNA-shredding mechanism provides a highly adaptable and potent platform for oncology and virology, shifting the CRISPR paradigm from localized genetic correction to the targeted apoptosis of diseased cells, with future applications potentially expanding to target HIV and other robust infections.
Kadin Crosby, Ryan Jackson and colleagues report newly discovered details demonstrating how CRISPR Cas12a2 can be repurposed to discriminately kill cancer cells in the petri dish and in mice.
