NEW YORK – German Cancer Aid said this week that it has awarded a total of €1.5 million ($1.6 million) in funding over four years to Hannah Uckelmann and Marit Vermunt for setting up their independent research teams and investigating the role of the epigenome in cancer. Both are leukemia researchers in the department of pediatrics at University Hospital Frankfurt and will start their new labs as part of the Max Eder Junior Research Group Program. Uckelmann recently completed a postdoc at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and will focus her research on epigenetic factors involved in cancer cell survival, aiming to develop treatment options for acute myeloid leukemia. Vermunt was a postdoc at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and plans to study the role of epigenomic modifiers in cancer, with the aim of identifying cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
Laboratory Corporation of America said this week that it has finalized its $239 million acquisition of certain assets of genetic testing firm Invitae. Labcorp acquired the assets through an auction as part of Invitae’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. The deal was originally announced in April and is part of Labcorp’s effort to expand its specialty testing business including genetic testing for oncology and rare diseases.
New York City-based Neurogene this week said that it's been granted regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for NGN-401, its investigational gene therapy candidate for Rett syndrome. NGN-401 is currently being tested in a Phase I/II trial, and the gene therapy was previously selected to be part of the FDA's START pilot program for rare disease gene therapies.
SCG Cell Therapy this week said it has partnered with the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) to develop pluripotent stem cell-based immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases. A*STAR will contribute its iPSC technology and bioprocessing capabilities, while SGC offers expertise in Good Manufacturing Practice cell therapy manufacturing and clinical development. The collaboration has nearly S$30 million (US$22.7 million) in funding under Singapore's Research, Innovation, and Enterprise 2025 Plan.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on Precision Medicine Online.