Weekly reads: $1B+ Neurona acquisition, cells + organs = better transplant?, DAXX in germ cells, KRAS

The last 3 weeks have been extremely busy with grant work, but one recent bit of news that caught my eye was UCB’s $1 billion+ acquisition of Neurona. Neurona has been on my radar screen for years.

Neurona and stem cells for epilepsy

Here’s the news: UCB pays $650M+ for Neurona, marking ‘strategic expansion’ into regenerative medicine, Fierce Biotech. From the piece, “Building on its established foothold in epilepsy, UCB has agreed to purchase cell therapy biotech Neurona Therapeutics and its lead candidate NRTX-1001.”

I’ve written before about Neurona’s exciting work on stem cells for epilepsy. The principle behind NRTX-1001 is unique. It consists of specialized inhibitory interneurons. You can imagine other brain conditions where inhibitory interneurons might be useful.

Recommended reads

• Cell therapy primed liver transplant patients to avoid organ rejection, small study shows, STAT. The idea of using an additional transplant of just cells, whether stem cells or somewhat specific immune cells, to induce tolerance of organ transplants is exciting. Here’s the new Nat. Comm. paper: Donor-derived regulatory dendritic cell infusion and early immunosuppressive drug withdrawal in living-donor liver transplantation: a phase I/IIa trial.
• DAXX directs dual modes of H3.4-to-H3.3 histone replacement in the male germline, G&D. Great stuff from the lab of my colleague Satoshi Namekawa.
• A transgene-free, human peri-gastrulation embryo model presents trilaminar embryonic disc-, amnion- and yolk sac-like structures, Nat Cell Bio. Human stem cell-based embryo models (SCBEM) continue to become more realistic and have more embryo features. I wrote recently about 6 key dilemmas with human SCBEM.

Cancer research

The race to catch KRAS, pancreatic cancer’s ‘greasy ball,’ and create the most promising drug in decades, STAT.

Blast from the past

Cloning Justin Beiber or Einstein or you? Who’s first? This is from 2011.