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.
The team also found that this layout in the nose aligns with corresponding maps in the olfactory bulb of the brain. This connection offers new clues about how scent signals travel from the nose into the brain.
The findings were published April 28 in Cell.
Scientists have long known how sensory receptors are arranged in the eyes, ears, and skin, and how those arrangements connect to the brain. Smell has been the exception.
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