Researchers at ETH Zurich have identified a proteomic signature that could recognize long COVID six months after acute infection. Biologically, the signature indicated that the complement system remained active in patients with long COVID six months after infection. Translationally, it could lead to a diagnostic test for long COVID, and suggests that targeting the complement system could be a therapeutic approach to prevent or treat the disorder.

Researchers have for the first time used human neural stem cells to print 3D brain tissues that mimic the architecture of the brain’s outer layer, the cerebral cortex. This breakthrough technique, developed by a team from the U.K.’s University of Oxford, could one day be used to provide tailored repairs to the millions of people who suffer from severe brain injuries, for which there is no effective treatment.

Spybiotech Ltd. has filed a clinical trial application (CTA) with the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to evaluate SPYVLP-01, a vaccine targeting human cytomegalovirus (CMV) using its hepatitis B virus-like-particle platform technology.

Atamyo Therapeutics SAS has filed a clinical trial application (CTA) in Europe for ATA-200, its gene therapy targeting γ-sarcoglycan (SGCG)-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2C/R5 (LGMD-R5).

A research team from Leipzig University, the Max Planck Institute and Heidelberg University, all in Germany, devised a new segmentation algorithm for stroke lesions that improves upon previous methods. They used machine-learning models to effect CT image segmentation in the early stages of acute stroke. The research team published their findings on the fully convolutional graph network in July in the Journal of Medical Imaging.

Avencell Therapeutics Inc. has received approval from the EMA for its clinical trial application (CTA) for AVC-201 for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other selected hematologic malignancies positive for CD123. A phase I study will be conducted in Germany.

Researchers from the Institute of Translational Genomics at Helmholtz Munich have described a genetic overlap between type 2 diabetes (T2D), a disease that is also associated with obesity, and osteoarthritis, a degeneration of the joints that worsens with age and coincides in the factor risk of being overweight. The researchers used genetic data, multiomics and functional analysis of the tissues T2D and osteoarthritis express to identify which genes were associated and correlated with both diseases. They published their results on July 10, 2023, in The American Journal of Human Genetics.

Another brick in the ambitious Human Cell Atlas initiative has been put into place with the publication of the largest and most comprehensive cell map of the human lung. The open and freely available atlas catalogs the diversity of cells in the lung, including rare and previously undescribed cell types.