FEATURES
AI Can’t Create What It Doesn’t Know: Why Inputs Matter
AI can analyse evidence faster than ever, but primary research with customers still creates the evidence pharmaceutical companies require for strategic decision making, says Dan Barton, Spherix Global Insights.
In the 2000s I participated in the pharmaceutical industry rush to...
The biggest barrier to AI in life sciences isn’t the AI
Only 12% of agentic AI initiatives reached production over the past year. The challenge isn’t the technology, but ensuring AI can operate within highly regulated environments. Natosha McNeal, of agentic platform Camunda, investigates.
Life sciences is not short of ambition...
The life sciences sector has more intelligence than ever. But is it leading to better decisions?
By Andy Smith, Director of Life Sciences, AlphaSense.
Artificial intelligence has been behind groundbreaking developments across all industries - and life sciences is no exception.
Just this month, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) described AI as an exceptional...
Measuring the people drivers behind bioscience innovation and performance
Bioscience innovation depends on more than scientific discovery. As organisations face pressure to innovate, scale and deliver, understanding the people and working conditions behind performance can help build resilience and support sustainable growth.
Supporting bioscience employers to build resilient, high-performing...
Investment in rare disease biotechs rises, but UK lags behind
Investment in rare disease biotechs has increased following renewal of the FDA’s Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program, but the US remains dominant, says Dan Williams, CEO, SynaptixBio.
In February this year the PRV program was signed into law and will...
East of England biotechs break into UK’s top 10 fastest-growing companies Â
The region claims eight spots in the country’s top 100, with six in its thriving healthcare sector.
The East of England has cemented its position as one of Europe’s leading life sciences clusters, with six healthcare firms placing in the...
Unique living ‘magnetobots’ to fight solid cancer tumours
The next-generation bots, which are specially engineered microorganisms, will help diagnose solid cancer tumours and deliver targeted treatments.
Aston University has been awarded €1.2m through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Staff Exchanges programme for a project bringing together 18 partner...
The nanoscale device that behaves like a neuron
The structure - made from inorganic material - could be used to improve artificial retinas and make AI more efficient.
McGill University researchers have developed a light-detecting nanoscale structure that mimics how a neuron processes information.
The neuron-like behaviour emerges from...
Global ‘superbug brain’ to fight antimicrobial resistance
The Fleming Initiative, a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, has received support from Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) intelligence platform.
The backing, which includes several million pounds worth of...
Bacteria could help tackle deadly drug-resistant infections
Scientists at Imperial College London and The University of Manchester have developed a promising new way to create safer and more effective treatments for life-threatening fungal infections.
The research, published today in Nature, describes a new family of antifungal agents, which...
New Parkinson cell therapy shows promising results
Transplanting stem-cell derived dopamine progenitor cells into the brain to treat Parkinson’s disease is feasible, a landmark study has shown.
Eight patients were transplanted in the first clinical trial, and no serious side effects linked to the transplanted cells were...
Lab grown human cells will fuel safer liver drug tests
bit.bio, a Cambridge-based pioneer in human cell programming, has launched a new human iPSC-derived hepatocyte, called ioHepatocytes, designed to address some of the biggest limitations in liver toxicity testing and preclinical drug development.
Developed using bit.bio’s proprietary opti-ox™ technology, the...
What the UK clinical trials reforms mean for collaboration with Ontario, Canada
INSIGHT: Susan Marlin, President and CEO of Clinical Trials Ontario, and Garrett Tone, Executive Director, Life Sciences at Invest Ontario
As part of a bid to strengthen its position as a global leader in life sciences, the UK recently introduced...
Brain cancer: Immunotherapy first, surgery afterwards
A team from UNIGE and HUG has shown that administering cell immunotherapy before surgery to remove a brain tumour is significantly more effective than administering it afterwards.
With survival at barely 5% at five years, glioblastoma remains one of the...
Hormone differences could pave way for endometriosis blood test
Women with endometriosis have a distinct pattern of hormones which could be identified by a blood test, with the potential to revolutionise diagnosis of the condition, research suggests.
Scientists found that those with endometriosis have differences in a previously overlooked...
New blood analysis could lead to better cancer care
Blood tests have proved to be a promising tool for detecting and monitoring cancer.
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a new method that makes it possible to analyse samples containing as...
Heavy metals may be helping lung cancer resist chemotherapy
Researchers at Durham University, working with Pleco Therapeutics (Netherlands), have uncovered a surprising new reason why some lung cancers stop responding to chemotherapy: the combined action of several different metals inside tumour cells.
While metals such as copper, zinc and...
Innovation network brings bioprinted medicine closer to reality
Millions of people worldwide are losing their sight waiting for corneal transplants. To end this dependence on donors, researchers are working on 3D-printing replacement corneas from stem cells.
A new multimillion-euro international research network has been set up to accelerate...
Diabetes: a protective gel for a future without insulin injections
By developing an innovative gel, UNIGE and HUG researchers have achieved a major breakthrough toward a bioartificial pancreas.
Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) have reached a significant advance in the fight against type...
Living ‘tumour on a chip’ could give best insight into aggressive brain cancer
Scientists are creating a glioblastoma ‘tumour on a chip’– a tiny living system capable of mimicking the key features of the human brain and providing a deeper understanding of how the aggressive brain cancer works.
It is hoped that the...
Growing sustainable rubber from dandelions
A Norwich-based biotech firm is developing sustainable natural rubber from specially engineered dandelions.
QuberTech recently raised £3.4 million in combined grant funding and equity investment to accelerate development of its engineering biology platform and scale commercial operations.
The funding backs QuberTech’s...
Implantable tech could cast new light on bladder cancer treatment
A new implantable device which aims to maximise the effectiveness of light-sensitive drugs could improve future outcomes for bladder cancer patients.
Engineers and cancer scientists from the University of Glasgow have developed the device, which uses wirelessly powered micro-LEDs to...
Manchester team powers next-gen enzyme engineering
A University of Manchester techbio spin-out has secured £5 million to deploy quantum physics, AI modelling, and highly automated labs to power next-gen enzyme engineering.
Imperagen has raised a total of £8.5m to accelerate R&D, expand wet lab capabilities, and...
World first: genome loaded onto quantum computer
Scientists have achieved a world first by loading a complete genome onto a quantum computer – a major step towards using quantum computing to tackle some of biology’s most complex bioinformatic challenges.
The breakthrough comes from a collaboration between...
Delivering versatility without complexity in medical technology
In laboratory instruments, linear motion is where precision meets practicality. Whether positioning a pipette, advancing a fluid, or moving a sample through a preparation workflow, designers need motion that is accurate, repeatable, and dependable over long duty cycles. At...
Why high performance cultures break down under pressure in bioscience organisations
High performance in bioscience organisations rarely breaks down because people aren’t capable. It breaks down when scientific, regulatory and commercial pressure increases, but the systems supporting performance don’t evolve with it. What looks like a talent or execution issue...
A growing bioscience cluster – built for innovation, scale & impact
As the UK’s life sciences sector continues to grow, businesses are increasingly looking for environments that offer more than just laboratory space. Access to talent, specialist infrastructure, research expertise and opportunities for collaboration are becoming critical factors in supporting...
Redefining the future of surgery
Nerve repair demands complex microsurgical suturing skills. Maria Pereira, co-founder of TISSIUM, explains how biomorphic materials are changing the landscape of surgical repair.
For decades, we have tried to repair the human body with materials and solutions that don’t heal...
Injectable gel could help repair damaged swallowing muscles
Biomaterial increases stem cell survival fivefold in preclinical tests, paving the way for advances in regenerative treatments.
A new injectable gel developed by researchers at McGill University and Kyoto University could enable stem cell-based treatments for swallowing disorders.
While stem...
Coral surface behaviour offers insights into physics of infertility and ovarian cancer
A new study could hold the key to understanding the causes of long-term health problems, such as infertility and ovarian cancer.
The study, published in Physics Review X Life, used a combination of high-resolution imaging, flow measurements, and mathematical modelling to examine...
