Brian Buntz

Gantenerumab—an experimental monoclonal antibody discontinued that Roche/Genentech discontinued in 2022, has shown significant effectiveness in delaying symptoms when administered long-term to patients with a rare genetic form of the disease. A recent study from Washington University School of Medicine reveals that among patients who received the drug for an average of eight years, the risk…

In 2025, AI “agents” are a growing trend—from coding applications like Claude Code to content retrieval tools like OpenAI’s DeepResearch. But while many organizations are merely wading into these new waters, ConcertAI is diving headfirst alongside NVIDIA. By pairing clinical-grade, multi-modal oncology data with an integrated network of specialized AI “agents” (including a blend of…

What if drug companies could grow peptide-based diabetes or weight-loss medication using Nicotiana benthamiana, a close relative of tobacco plant? A team of University of Ottawa students aims to make that dream a reality with Phytogene. Ozempic, a go-to drug for type-II diabetes and weight loss, has been plagued by shortages until recently. The students found…

MIT engineers have developed an efficient method to directly convert skin cells into functional neurons, bypassing the time-consuming step of creating stem cells first. This streamlined process, achieving over 1000% yield in mouse cells, promises to accelerate the production of neurons for cell therapies. The research, which was published in Cell Systems, holds promise for…

Picture this: A lung cancer drug candidate was headed for abandonment until AI-powered pathology analysis identified which patients would benefit from it. Using machine learning and digital pathology, the two sponsors backing the candidate built an algorithm capable of distinguishing responders from non-responders to the compound they were developing. “Without that AI model and digital…

​Over 300 million people worldwide live with a rare disease, yet roughly 95% of these conditions lack an FDA-approved treatment. Traditional clinical trials face significant challenges in this segment. Barriers include small patient populations with correspondingly limited statistical power. Yet emerging biosimulation and virtual trial methods offer a promising path forward., says Oxana Iliach, vice-chair…

AnaptysBio has unveiled positive findings from its Phase 2b RENOIR clinical trial evaluating rosnilimab. Nearly 70% of participants achieved low disease activity (CDAI ≤10) by Week 14, with improvements persisting through Week 28. The investigational therapy met its primary endpoint by delivering statistically significant gains in DAS28‑CRP scores at Week 12 compared to placebo, alongside…

The humble vitamin biotin (vitamin B7) has emerged as a potential neuroprotective agent against manganese-induced neurotoxicity linked to Parkinson’s disease (PD). A recent study published in Science Signaling used fruit fly models and human dopaminergic neurons to show that biotin supplementation can reverse neurologic damage caused by excessive manganese exposure. Manganese, though essential at low…

COTA Healthcare recently unveiled what it calls a major breakthrough in real-world oncology data (RWD). At the heart of this achievement is a generative AI (GenAI) platform that the company says makes large-scale curation of cancer data both accurate and profitable, marking a significant shift from previous industry attempts to automate the labor-intensive RWD abstraction…

Current RA treatments, while effective for some, often fall short of providing long-term remission owing to the disease’s complexity, leaving many patients cycling through therapies like methotrexate and biologics without sustained relief. Here, rosnilimab stands out as novel by targeting the PD-1 pathway, aiming to reset the immune system through the selective depletion of pathogenic…

As the CEO and cofounder of Atropos Health, Dr. Brigham Hyde is focused on closing the “evidence gap” that frequently arises in modern medicine. While healthcare decisions often boil down to detective work, the pursuit of the best data to guide decisions is sometimes hamstrung by limited or partial guidance from clinical trials or established…

It may not be perfect, but OpenAI’s Deep Research tool can significantly accelerate mundane internet-based research tasks. You give it an assignment, it asks a few follow-up questions, which you reply and there it goes, thinking and researching your query for about five minutes — or as long as half an hour. Built on OpenAI’s…

“The era of ‘what if’ for AI in healthcare is over. Now, it’s all about ‘what is.’ ” So says Blythe Adamson, head of outcomes research and evidence generation at the real-world evidence platform Flatiron Health, a company reimagining cancer care infrastructure. “Post-ChatGPT,” she states, “the skepticism has vanished.” The proof? Flatiron is seeing data…

Oxford Nanoimaging (ONI) recently launched the Aplo Scope super-resolution microscope that pushes imaging precision to 20 nm. The Aplo Scope integrates lasers, optics, chemistry, and software in a compact footprint, helping researchers capture and analyze molecular interactions at the nanoscale. With its user-friendly design and portability, ONI aims to simplify super-resolution microscopy and potentially reduce…

A new AI technology known as VersAI, a proprietary AI technology from Verseon, is challenging the dominance of deep learning—especially in areas where data is scarce. In a recent preprint, Verseon researchers and a colleague at the Missouri University of Science and Technology show that VersAI can train predictive models considerably faster than Google AutoML, based…

One of the largest unmet needs in modern medicine is the effective treatment of osteoarthritis (OA)—a degenerative joint disease afflicting more than 30 million Americans and costing the healthcare system $459.5 billion in all-cause medical costs, according to a 2020 study in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. “We see this as one of…

In the classic Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day, the main character is stuck reliving the same day—again and again. Biotech startups often face a similar fate when they sprint to first-in-human trials without planning for the realities of large-scale manufacturing. “Many times, researchers rush to get their product tested in humans with processes that are…

Capsida Biotherapeutics, a gene therapy startup that has quietly amassed a network of Big Pharma partnerships, announced in January that its partner AbbVie will exercise its option on their first neurodegenerative disease program, triggering a $40 million license payment. The five-year-old company, which has built its war chest primarily through pharma collaborations rather than traditional…

Immunotherapy resistance in solid tumors remains one of oncology’s most significant therapeutic challenges, with multiple cancer types showing limited response to current approaches. Microsatellite stable colorectal cancer (MSS CRC) exemplifies this challenge, with over 90% of MSS CRC cases failing to respond to checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy, while resistance patterns also emerge in many other immunologically…

The FDA’s approval of Omvoh (mirikizumab-mrkz) for Crohn’s disease—its second IBD authorization since 2023—establishes it as the first biologic in >15 years with Phase 3 two-year efficacy data at launch. In the pivotal VIVID-1 trial, 53% of Omvoh-treated patients achieved clinical remission at one year versus 36% on placebo*, with early endoscopic response tripling placebo…

Imagine a shape-shifting pathogen invisible to the naked eye, armed with toxin-laced barbs that rupture human cells. This isn’t fiction—it’s Clostridioides difficile, a superbug causing 29,000 U.S. deaths annually through severe diarrhea and colitis. After an initial infection, up to 35% of patients experience recurrence, with subsequent episodes becoming increasingly likely—up to 60% of these…

When a 30-person Austrian startup gets showcased by Jensen Huang, CEO of the trillion-dollar tech giant NVIDIA, schedules tend to fill up fast. That’s precisely the case for Innophore, a biotech company tapping NVIDIA’s computational clout with its Catalophore platform to accelerate AI-driven drug safety screening and binding-site analysis. This year, the company was highlighted…

Migraines, like many diseases, are not monolithic. In that regard, they are something like weather — they can shift suddenly, and predicting when they might arise can be elusive. Clinical trials traditionally capture a snapshot of the migraine storm, often failing to reflect the dynamic, lived experience of patients. Yet recent studies, including the phase…

Three years after demonstrating the first-ever in vivo use of click chemistry by safely delivering 12 times the standard dose of doxorubicin directly to tumors, Shasqi is again pushing boundaries. Its CAPAC platform, which initially relied on intratumoral injections, now targets CEACAM5, a cell-surface antigen overexpressed in lung, gastric, pancreatic, colorectal, esophageal/HNSCC, and cervical cancers,…

After several muted years, the 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference signaled a return to big-ticket deals. J&J’s proposed $14.6 billion acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies and GSK’s $1 billion purchase of IDRx catapulted this year’s meeting to the largest M&A showing since at least 2019. But behind those high-profile acquisition announcements, JPM speakers and insiders also…