What’s it going to take for Australia’s biotech industry to be more self-sufficient? Although Australia is far away from the rest of the world, no one is an island when it comes to biotechnology, Ausbiotech CEO Lorraine Chiroiu said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held in Brisbane Nov. 1-3. Investors gathered to riff about what they were looking for in Australian biotech investments and what needs to change for the sector to be sustainable. All agreed that the science in Australia is top-notch but that the ecosystem needs more investment to be competitive.
Multinational pharma companies like Moderna Inc. and Sanofi SA are setting up mRNA R&D centers in Australia and are banking on the country’s decades of mRNA expertise to bring new therapeutics to the clinic and to serve as regional hubs in Asia Pacific, speakers said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held Nov 1-3 in Brisbane, Australia.
Australia has a lot to celebrate when it comes to vaccines. The University of Queensland is where Ian Frazer invented the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil, and now Australia is projected to be the first in the word to eliminate cervical cancer, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held Nov. 1-3 in Brisbane, Australia.
Myeloid cells expressing LILRB2 are abundant in the tumor microenvironment and can both drive cancer progression and hinder immune responses. Thus, targeting LILRB2 offers a potential strategy to boost immune-based cancer therapies, as it counteracts their suppressive effects on pro-inflammatory pathways.
At the recent American Society of Human Genetics meeting, researchers from Stanford University reported clinical and functional evidence of the involvement of ARHGAP1, a Rho GTPase-activating protein (GAP) gene, in a patient exhibiting a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder.
The DDX39B gene belongs to the DExD/H-box family of ATP-dependent RNA helicases, playing a vital role in mRNA processing. DDX39B is a component of the TRanscription-EXport (TREX) protein complex, whose pathogenic variants have been recently associated with neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.
Researchers from Genequantum Healthcare (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. have presented the first preclinical data on GQ-1007, an antibody immune agonist conjugate (AIAC) targeting HER2, for the treatment of cancer. GQ-1007 is an anti-HER2 antibody conjugated via Genequantum’s highly stable linker and enzymatic conjugation technology to a Toll-like receptor 7/8 (TLR7/8) agonist.