The success of a vaccine, a gene editing design for an untreated disease, or achieving cell engraftment after several attempts, comes from years of accumulated basic science studies, thousands of experiments, and clinical trials. Innumerable steps precede hits in gene and cell therapies before a first-time revelation, and most of them are failures at the time. At the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) in Baltimore last week, several groups of scientists presented achievements that years ago looked impossible.
Ascidian Therapeutics Inc. recently provided preclinical data for ACDN-01, an AAV-encoded RNA exon editor targeting ABCA4, being developed for the treatment of ABCA4-related retinopathies, including Stargardt disease.
From glaucoma to Stargardt disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to retinitis pigmentosa, or a corneal transplant to Bietti’s crystalline dystrophy, the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) is working to bring some light to patients with age and congenital diseases that affect vision. From May 7-11, 2024, thousands of scientists are gathering in Baltimore to show their advances against the challenges of delivering genes and cells to the correct place, avoiding immunogenicity and improving diseases.
Macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) is a transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor expressed in brain microglia, and mutations in the CSF1R gene have been linked to adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glia (ALSP).
At the recently concluded ARVO meeting, Splicebio S.L. presented the first preclinical results on the company’s new candidate, SB-007, for the treatment of Stargardt disease, a rare genetic disease caused by mutations in the ABCA4 gene with no approved treatment on the market.
Crispr Therapeutics AG has expanded its in vivo pipeline with two new programs, which utilize lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing cargo to the liver.
From glaucoma to Stargardt disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to retinitis pigmentosa, or a corneal transplant to Bietti’s crystalline dystrophy, the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) is working to bring some light to patients with age and congenital diseases that affect vision. From May 7-11, 2024, thousands of scientists are gathering in Baltimore to show their advances against the challenges of delivering genes and cells to the correct place, avoiding immunogenicity and improving diseases.
“Prenatal therapies are the next disruptive technologies in health care, which will advance and shape the future of patient care in the 21st century,” said Graça Almeida-Porada, a professor at the Fetal Research and Therapy Center of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) annual meeting in Baltimore on May 5, 2024, Almeida-Porada introduced the first presentation of the scientific symposium “Prospects for Prenatal Gene and Cell Therapy.”
Schepens Eye Research Institute presented new preclinical data on its AAV2.sFasL gene therapy, an adeno-associated virus (AVV2) encoding soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) for the potential prevention of glaucoma.
Latus Bio Inc. has launched with a focus on developing novel gene therapy candidates for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. An initial close of $54 million in series A financing will support the company.