Welcome to those still standing,

This week, Keir Starmer isn't the only one having a bad time: one of Oxford's brightest biotech hopes has been dragged into liquidation, a French startup is waving the white flag on severed nerves with a clever goo, RQ Bio has surrendered to the seasonal flu grind with a long-acting antibody, a new eye drug could make dreaded eyeball injections a far rarer event, and old mice are staging a small rebellion with youthful gut bacteria.

Surrender accepted,

Dodo

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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📈 Record-breaking UK biotech firm in near £3 million collapse (Oxford Mail): How the mighty have fallen. OxStem Limited, a once high-flying Oxford biotech, backed by a then-record £16.9m spinout investment, has collapsed in a complex liquidation battle. The company, which aimed to tackle ageing-related diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, was still seeking funding for clinical trials as recently as 2019, before financial trouble set in. Liquidators were appointed in 2022, but the winding-up remains unresolved.

Our take: A headline-grabbing cheque does not always buy survival. The University of Oxford – which spun OxStem out, supplied its founding science and championed its record investment – now sits as a creditor, chasing more than £3m from its own creation through arbitration. Oxford is on every side of the table at once (founder, backer and claimant), a tangle that is precisely why the liquidation has dragged on for three years with no end in sight.

🤕 A startup is using special polymers to better help nerves heal (Wired): French startup Tissium has developed a biodegradable goo that might help severed nerves knit back together after surgery. Made from fatty acids and glycerol, the material acts as a temporary splint, holding damaged nerves steady while the body sets about its own repairs. In a US trial of 12 patients with finger nerve injuries, all who completed follow-up regained the ability to feel temperature, pain, texture and light touch, vs a meaningful recovery rate of just 54% for the sutures it would replace.

Our take: A clean run across the patients who completed the trial is a charming result on a thin evidence base. The commercial test will be whether better sensation and fewer complications are achieved in larger, more diverse patient groups. A 200-patient US hernia trial and an upcoming cardiovascular pivotal trial will be the real proving ground for the polymer platform; surgeons and hospitals, quite understandably, will want consistency at scale before reaching for the goo.

🤧 RQ Bio raises $115m for long-acting flu antibody (European Biotechnology Magazine): The London-based company has raised a hefty Series A to push RQB01, a long-acting flu-prevention antibody, towards the clinic. Backed by life sciences investors and LifeArc Ventures, the firm’s vision is to develop a single jab to shield vulnerable patients for a whole season. RQB01 targets conserved parts of the virus that do not change year to year, the idea being that one shot covers broad strains where vaccines alone fall short.

Our take: RQ Bio is chasing a narrow target: vulnerable patients whose immune systems cannot mount an adequate response to a vaccine. The trouble is, everyone else is chasing it too. Better mRNA vaccines, rival antibodies and nasal sprays like Leyden Labs’ are all converging on the same small group. RQB01’s pitch is one jab for a whole season, but it has to prove that the gap is wide enough to justify this much capital.

👀 Ollin refuels with $330M to back pivotal tests of Vabysmo challenger (BioPharmaDive): Ollin Biosciences is pushing ahead with its lead eye disease drug OLN324 into pivotal trials, in one of biotech’s biggest venture rounds of the year. The antibody is being lined up as a challenger to Roche’s Vabysmo, which racked up around $5B in 2025 after less than four full years on the market. Early data hints that OLN324 may prove more potent and longer-lasting than the incumbent.

Our take: Beating Vabysmo on raw efficacy is not the prize Ollin is chasing. The real game is to change the treatment calculus for diseases in which patients currently endure repeated jabs into the eyeball over many years. If OLN324 can meaningfully extend durability, the real value will lie in reducing clinic capacity pressure, patient burden and long-term treatment fatigue.

And finally…

💩 Faecal transplant makes the brains of old mice act young again (The New Scientist): Transplanting gut microbiomes from younger animals has been shown to boost brain plasticity, enhancing the brain’s ability to remodel itself and form new connections. Treated mice exhibited responses similar to young animals, suggesting their brains had regained some adaptability. Additionally, the study revealed that disrupting the microbiome in young mice with antibiotics affected more than 1,000 genes in the visual cortex.

Our take: Brain plasticity has always been considered fixed after childhood. If the gut microbiome really does govern this adaptability, early-life antibiotics and diet may matter more than appreciated. Faecal transplants may be a crude starting point, but the implications run deep: disorders currently written off as untreatable after childhood – like amblyopia, or lazy eye – might not be so permanent after all.

Tune in 🎧

🧑‍🔬 BIO International Convention 2026: Former Evotec CEO Werner Lanthaler explains why BIO is the industry’s most important partnering forum, and shares practical, hard-won advice for biotechs.

🧪 Keeping an early-stage cell therapy biotech in the black with IN8bio’s William Ho: A candid, step-by-step account of financing a gamma delta T-cell company through a tough IPO market and prolonged cash constraints.

🔥 A pipeline in a product that reimagines control of inflammation: BioAegis CEO Susan Levinson discusses recombinant human plasma gelsolin as a potential first-in-class therapy for ARDS and other inflammasome-driven diseases.

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🧬 Business Development Manager, Biocytogen: Ready to bridge science and dealmaking in biopharma? You’ll combine deep scientific expertise with commercial acumen to source opportunities, lead negotiations, and represent the company at global conferences.

🔬 Senior Scientist, Evotec: Interested in leading complex biologics programmes from design to delivery? You’ll drive antibody and protein engineering projects end-to-end, overseeing experimental strategy, high-throughput workflows, and data quality.

🦀 Clinical Study Lead, In Vitro Diagnostics, QIAGEN: Passionate about driving global studies for precision oncology diagnostics? You’ll lead full clinical performance programmes, designing protocols, managing cross-functional teams and sites, and delivering regulatory submissions.

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🕶️ 02.07 | BIA Summer Party | London, UK: Join the sector’s finest for an unforgettable evening of cocktails, canapés, and high-level networking. Whether you’re looking to connect with peers or showcase your brand, the Summer Party offers the perfect setting.

💡 04-08.07 | 50th FEBS Congress | Maastricht, Netherlands: A landmark gathering in molecular and cellular life sciences featuring Nobel laureates and global research leaders, with plenary lectures and 17 symposia showcasing the latest discoveries across the field.

🥼 09.07 | Disrupting Bio Innovation | Cambridge, UK: Explore the breakthrough technologies, policies and business models reshaping drug discovery, with a focus on translating cutting-edge research into diagnostics and treatments.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my regenerating readers,

The streamers have barely come down from last week’s 100th issue milestone, and we’re at it again – this old Bird turns two this week!

In celebration, this week’s stories: machine learning breathes new life into natural product discovery, Berlin’s drug pricing reform hits a midlife crisis, mRNA flu vaccines outlast the standard shot, oral Wegovy is the new kid on the block in UK pharmacies, and Texas A&M coaxes mammalian regeneration out of dormancy – encouraging news for a bird with a complicated relationship to extinction.

Many happy returns,

Dodo

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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🌿 Machine learning identifies natural compound to treat lung disease (News Medical): Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a devastating disease with a median survival of 3–5 years. Using machine learning, researchers screened 16,700+ herbal compounds and landed on dihydromyricetin (DHM), a flavonoid from the Japanese raisin tree, which blocks ALK5 – the receptor that drives TGF-β signalling and with it lung fibrosis. In a mouse study, DHM shrank fibrotic lesions while showing a better safety profile than existing drugs.

Our take: Current pharmacotherapies, including pirfenidone and nintedanib, only slow IPF’s decline and do not halt or reverse fibrosis. That is what makes DHM interesting. Blocking ALK5 directly is a sharper shot at the fibrotic process itself, and in a disease this short on options, a cleaner mechanism is urgently needed. The catch is that TGF-β also works as a tumour suppressor; researchers have reported that blocking it has been linked to skin cancers in trials, so the trick will be silencing it in the lung without activating it everywhere else.

🇩🇪 German government to abandon variable drug discounting plans (Reuters): Berlin has dropped the variable rebate mechanism from its healthcare reform bill following intense industry pushback, replacing it with a fixed-rate discount so companies can plan ahead. The climbdown came after drugmakers threatened to pull money out, with Lilly halving a planned €2.3B German investment and AstraZeneca and Pfizer issuing similar threats. It is only a single concession though; the wider reform package keeps its price freeze extension and binding price-volume discounts.

Our take: Germany is trying to close a €20B funding gap, and the drug industry has just shown how much leverage it holds over that effort, with a single threat to pull investment enough to make the government u-turn on one of its cost-cutting measures within weeks. This has implications across Europe, where health systems face the same funding pressures. Both sides have now learnt the same lesson: pressure works, making any similar reform harder for the next government.

💉 mRNA Flu vaccine shows stronger, longer-lasting immune response (GEN): New research published in Nature Immunology shows Moderna's mRNA-1010 produced broader and longer-lasting antibody responses than a standard flu shot, and recognised strains the shot was not built to target. Five of 13 recipients developed germinal centre responses in the lymph nodes lasting the full 26 weeks, against none of the 15 people on the standard flu shot.

Our take: This is the first solid evidence the mRNA platform does something biologically different to standard flu shots, not just a stronger version of the same response. It lands at a pointed moment: mRNA-1010 was hit with a rare refusal-to-file in February, then won a unanimous 9-0 vote from the FDA’s advisory committee this week, with the final decision due 5 August. Reject it now and the FDA overrules its own experts, a hard position to defend.

💊 Weight-loss drug Wegovy to be available in pill form in UK for first time (BBC News): The MHRA has cleared Novo Nordisk’s oral semaglutide for prescription in the UK, the first oral GLP-1 approved for weight management. Taken once daily on an empty stomach, the tablet offers an alternative for patients who cannot or will not inject; at 25mg, it carries more than ten times the semaglutide of the injected version. NHS access depends on a NICE assessment Novo Nordisk has yet to initiate.

Our take: The appeal is obvious – a daily pill reaches people who would never inject. The catch is the dose: Wegovy compensates for how little semaglutide survives digestion by loading in far more of it, keeping manufacturing costs stubbornly high. Lilly’s orforglipron, by comparison, is a non-peptide small molecule, which is far cheaper to make at scale. Once orforglipron reaches the UK, Wegovy pills’ position becomes far more precarious, and Novo Nordisk knows it.

And finally…

🦎 Humans may have hidden regenerative powers (ScienceDaily): Texas A&M researchers have regrown amputated body parts in mice, restoring bone, joint, tendon and ligament after digit amputation, though imperfectly. The trick was two growth factors applied in sequence, FGF2 followed five days later by BMP2, which coaxed the wound’s own cells away from forming scar tissue and toward a salamander-like regrowth structure instead. BMP2 already holds FDA approval for spinal fusion and FGF2 is in multiple clinical trials.

Our take: The “hidden regenerative powers” headline writes itself, but the research team is more measured. The near-term prize is scar reduction, not limb regrowth. Fibrosis wrecks healing in burns, surgical wounds and amputations, and even a modest shift away from scarring would matter enormously to patients with no good option. Because both growth factors are already in or near the clinic, that prize could arrive far sooner than any regrown limb. Regeneration, alas, comes too late for this particular bird.

Tune in 🎧

🧠 The Woman Who Felt No Fear: Neuropsychologist Justin Feinstein recounts experiments with a patient whose non-functioning amygdala left her virtually fearless, and the single stimulus that finally triggered panic.

🕊️ Nikola Tesla Fell in Love with a Pigeon: Michael and Hannah explore the physics of Tesla coils and his vision for wireless electricity, alongside the stranger corners of his life – pearl phobias, hypnosis, and an unlikely devotion to one particular bird.

🤖 Cybernetics: Misha Glenny and guests trace how Norbert Wiener’s 1948 framework for studying communication, feedback and control across animals and machines laid the intellectual groundwork for the information age.

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🎬 Director, CMC Regulatory Affairs, GSK: Got the instincts to steer small molecules through global regulatory scrutiny? You’ll lead CMC strategy across investigational and commercial programmes, identify risks, and keep patient supply firmly on course.

💪 Clinical Development Medical Director, Novartis: Fancy guiding neuromuscular therapies from trial to approval? You'll lead clinical strategy, drive regulatory submissions, and engage KOLs and advisory boards across Novartis's global neuroscience pipeline.

🔬 Senior Development Scientist, Portal Biotech: Keen to productise cutting-edge proteomics? You’ll lead experimental programmes, translate feasibility findings into platform-ready workflows, and manage a team at Portal’s White City headquarters.

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🧬 22-25.06 | BIO International Convention | San Diego, USA: The world’s largest biotech gathering convenes 20,000+ global leaders across pharma, biotech, academia, government and investment, with a strong focus on business development through its BIO Partnering platform, enabling targeted one-to-one meetings.

🩻 23.06 | 9th Annual Workshop on Advances in X-ray Imaging | Manchester, UK: Join scientists from across fields to discuss developments and applications of various X-ray imaging and complementary techniques, and to build international collaborations.

👩‍🔬 08.07 | Women in Biotech - Canary Wharf | London, UK: Hosted by the BIA, this evening of panel discussion and networking gathers CFOs from across the biotech ecosystem to share candid perspectives on building investor relationships, raising capital and championing women in leadership. Open to all.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my caffeinated comrades,

Crack open the bourbons and pop the kettle on, we’ve hit 100 issues! The biotech news just keeps on brewing, and your favourite Dodo has all the tea…

This week: Cambridge scientists brew up an AI-designed vaccine to stay ahead of COVID’s mutations, a new US alliance pours firepower into the biotech space race with China, GSK opens its cheque book for a multibillion-pound oncology buy, a new radiotherapy slashes cancer sessions for England’s prostate patients, and a morning cup of joe could hold the key to future cell therapies.

Happy latte sipping!

Dodo

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☢️ Vaccine made by AI will shield against mutations (The Times): Cambridge researchers have trialled a new “universal” coronavirus vaccine in humans for the first time. Using AI, they’ve designed an antigen targeting the parts of the virus that stay fixed as it mutates, in the hope the jab protects against current strains and variants yet to emerge. In an early trial of 39 volunteers the vaccine triggered immune responses across the Sarbeco family – Covid, SARS and related bat viruses with pandemic potential.

Our take: The clever bit is which part of the virus the vaccine teaches the immune system to attack. Seasonal jabs aim at the spike protein, the part that mutates fastest, which is why they need reformulating every year. This one aims at the structural core a coronavirus struggles to change without breaking itself, so each new variant should still carry it and still get recognised.

🚀 New biotech group rises to fuel American rockets in China space race (BioSpace): A new lobbying group is in town and wants the US to stop talking about China’s rise and start building its own plan. The American Biotech Innovation Alliance, founded by Patroski Lawson and backed by around 50 companies, including Moderna, is pushing for a national biotech strategy by 2027, aiming to unite industry, academia and investors behind a coordinated roadmap for biomedical innovation.

Our take: It’s worth looking a little closer at who is holding the pen... Lawson runs a lobbying shop paid by biotechs, and the founding roster is the incumbents with the most to lose from Chinese undercutting. A ‘national strategy’ from that quarter could mean domestic tax breaks, quicker approvals and a wall around Chinese trial data, with the framing turning plain self-interest into something Congress can salute.

🤑 GSK makes biggest ever acquisition with $10.6bn for US cancer drug firm (The Guardian): The UK pharma giant is rebuilding its oncology ambitions and buying Nuvalent, a Boston biotech with two late-stage non-small cell lung cancer drugs – zidesamtinib and neladalkib – under FDA review. If approved, both could launch later this year and become multi-billion-dollar products. The deal also gives GSK access to Nuvalent’s wider lung cancer pipeline, including Ris-Rez, a late-stage candidate that could treat multiple forms of cancer.

Our take: What GSK is buying here is a launch, with the pipeline as a bonus. Both lead drugs face FDA decisions in September and November, so the $10.6B buys products that could be on the market within months. After a run of modest bolt-ons, Miels has gone big on near-term, de-risked assets to plug the revenue gap before the patent cliffs bite, Ris-Rez the longer-term upside thrown in.

💩 Advanced radiotherapy for prostate cancer to cut sessions from 20 to five (BBC News): The NHS is rolling out stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) to thousands of men with early prostate cancer, with all 48 NHS England radiotherapy centres expected to start offering it within weeks. The technique fires precisely targeted doses from many directions, paring back side effects and hastening recovery. Around 3,500 patients a year are likely to opt in, a sizeable shift towards leaner, less gruelling cancer care.

Our take: SABR could become a pressure release valve for the cancer backlog. Cutting prostate sessions by three quarters frees up staff capacity across stretched cancer services while handing back valuable machine time to every other cancer in the queue. The dividend is narrower than the headline implies though, with only 3,500 of 17,500 eligible men expected to take it up.

And finally…

☕ AI reimagines caffeine as a molecular off‑switch for engineered cells (GEN): Texas A&M researchers have used AI-guided protein design to create CODS, a caffeine-operated molecular switch that acts like a cellular “pause button” with a synthetic mini‑binder designed using the BindCraft platform. In early lab tests, caffeine could switch off gene circuits, trigger engineered cell death and temporarily dampen CAR-T cell activity, pointing to safer, more responsive future cell therapies.

Our take: Patient caffeine intake varies wildly, and a heavy coffee drinker has a very different baseline from someone who avoids the stuff. Therapeutic CAR-T deactivation needs precise pharmacokinetic control, and caffeine clearance swings up to 40-fold between individuals thanks to CYP1A2 variants – so the same cup that trips the switch in one patient could barely register in another. And because caffeine is everywhere, patients (and doctors) would have to police every coffee, tea and cola to avoid setting it off by accident.

Tune in 🎧

🧬 Ardelyx Leaders Mike Raab & Laura Williams on building biotech around patients: How embedding patient advocacy into Ardelyx has shaped its culture and steadied it through setbacks, from the leaders who drove it.

📅 The editors’ roundtable: A midyear look at the 2026 life sciences industry: LSC joins Business of Biotech host Tyler Menichiello to unpack key industry trends shaping 2026, from AI-driven manufacturing regulation and supply chain pressures to IPO signals.

🍼 Milk Proteins without the dairy: Adam Tarshis and Dr. Cory Tobin explain how Mozza is building a better dairy alternative, using microbial fermenters to brew the proteins behind cheese’s stretch, texture and bite.

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🤖 Account Manager, PROCEPT BioRobotics: Ready to grow robotic BPH surgery adoption across target hospitals? You’ll build territory plans, support surgeons and surgical teams, lead account reviews, drive Aquabeam utilisation, and manage forecasts and CRM reporting.

💰 Business Development Manager, Biosynth: Interested in turning pharma and biotech prospects into long-term clients? You’ll drive forward the sales process, build a strong industry network, negotiate contracts, spot market opportunities, and work with marketing and BD teams to grow the Life Sciences division.

🩻 Field Applications Specialist, Beckman Coulter Diagnostic: Want to help labs get more from diagnostic IT and automation systems? You’ll deliver application support, train laboratory teams, support installations and go-lives, troubleshoot customer issues, and work with sales and service colleagues to improve workflows.

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🤑 15.06 | Capital For Cures Liquidity Event – Royalty Financing | Amsterdam, Netherlands: This networking and panel event brings together investors, family offices and biotech innovators to discuss royalty financing, with a focus on how non-dilutive capital can fund breakthroughs while preserving long-term value.

🩺 15–18.06 | HLTH Europe 2026 | Amsterdam, Netherlands: Europe’s biggest healthcare innovation gathering hauls 5,000+ leaders to Amsterdam, with one in three at the C-suite level, to thrash out the continent’s particular healthcare headaches and opportunities.

🧬 22-25.06 | BIO International Convention | San Diego, USA: The world’s largest biotech gathering convenes 20,000+ global leaders across pharma, biotech, academia, government and investment, with a strong focus on business development and partnering.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hi my fellow lab rats,

This week, Swedish researchers break free of biological constraints with artificial heart muscle made from conductive plastic, SMArT liberates CRISPR from its genomic baggage filtering dangerous edits before they reach patients, Osaka scientists unleash tomato-picking robots, Chinese biotech escapes its discount-era pricing, and the FDA releases cancer drug development from mandatory animal testing.

Free at last,

Dodo

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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🫀 Scientists create conductive plastic to replicate heart muscle cells (Bioengineer.org): Researchers at Linköping University, led by Simone Fabiano, have built an artificial cardiomyocyte from conductive polymers, the first contraption to recreate the slow calcium channel dynamics that drive cardiac contraction. Published in Nature Communications, the device handles both ionic and electronic conductivity, paving the way for biocompatible pacemakers, sensors for cardiac disturbances, and implants for muscular dystrophy or nerve injury.

Our take: Fabiano’s gang previously built artificial organic neurons emulating sodium and potassium channels. The cardiomyocyte adds slow calcium kinetics, a rather thornier piece of biology inorganic electronics have never got the hang of. Linköping is methodically working through the body’s electrically excitable cell types in plastic, a rather more ambitious programme. The commercial path seems to be bioelectronic medicine, in which polymers sidestep silicon’s immune-related issues.

🧬 New SMArT platform improves safety of CRISPR gene editing (News Medical): Edited blood stem cells can now be enriched to near-purity, thanks to SMArT, a CRISPR add-on built by Luigi Naldini’s San Raffaele Telethon group. The platform uses transient synthetic AND-gate reporters to hoover out cells carrying potentially harmful genomic alterations. The most advanced version uses a single CRISPR regulatory system to detect correct integration and switch on genes that may improve stem cell engraftment.

Our take: Two earlier sickle cell trials were paused after patients developed myeloid malignancies, traced to cytotoxic conditioning or insertional mutagenesis from lentiviral vectors. CRISPR was meant to be the cleaner alternative by editing in situ, though the risk simply migrated, with large deletions and chromosomal rearrangements from Cas9 cuts emerging as the new bogeyman. SMArT concedes the field couldn’t engineer those out and built a sorting system to find the survivors.

🍅 Scientists develop virtual tomato training arena for agricultural robots (Phys.org): 3D Gaussian splatting and Unreal Engine 5, more commonly the domain of video games, have been put to work generating synthetic training data for tomato-picking robots. The virtual farm, built by Takuya Fujinaga’s team at Osaka Metropolitan University, automatically produces images and YOLO-formatted labels for AI vision systems, sidestepping the slog of hand annotation, with plans already underway to extend the approach to other crops.

Our take: The bottleneck in agricultural AI isn’t the hardware these days – robots can already pick tomatoes at 86.7% accuracy, and the kit has been steadily improving for years. The constraint is the vision system telling them which one to pick, and those systems run on labelled training data that farms have been paying humans to produce, season after season. A virtual farm doing that labour for free should generalise across crops.

🇨🇳 No longer a bargain pool, Chinese biotechs command higher premiums (BioSpace): Total deal value for China-developed assets has risen to $10.1B so far this year, a sharp escalation from previous discount-driven dynamics. Eli Lilly leads as the most aggressive buyer with over $13B committed since March 2025. Platform deals are replacing single-asset licensing as the dominant transaction model, and Chinese biotechs are increasingly demanding upfront payments closer to those of comparable US counterparts.

Our take: The bargain bin has closed. Royalty rates on Chinese deals have settled at the 10-13% range now standard for these deals, with single-digit royalties largely vanished. Astellas-Hutchmed was the last big single-digit deal, and rates that had previously sunk to 2-3% are gone for good. The economics have reset entirely, leaving Western buyers paying more upfront and more in perpetuity, changing the calculation for anyone still treating China as a value play.

And finally…

🐭 FDA ends mandatory animal testing for cancer therapeutics effective June 2026 (GeneOnline News): Draft guidance issued on 29 May proposes to reduce animal testing in nonclinical safety studies for oncology biologics and conjugated products, with public comments open until 30 July. The guidance builds on FDAMA 2.0, which removed the blanket animal-testing mandate in 2022, and supplements existing ICH and FDA frameworks. It signals the agency’s broader push to embrace new approach methodologies, including organs-on-chips and in silico modelling.

Our take: Animal models have less than 8% correlation with human clinical trial outcomes in oncology, which makes preclinical mouse testing in cancer not so much ethically uncomfortable as scientifically rather suspect. The FDA isn’t being kind – it’s catching up. Mouse xenografts have failed to predict human cancer responses for decades, and the draft guidance simply acknowledges what every oncology developer has known for years. From one Dodo to a great many laboratory pals, this bird says good riddance.

Tune in 🎧

🦠 Why the Ebola Outbreak Has Been Nearly Impossible to Stop: NYT Africa correspondent Declan Walsh reports from the epicentre of one of the worst Ebola outbreaks in history, examining why under-resourced health workers are struggling to contain its spread.

⌛ The past, present and future of DNA science: Professor Turi King traces DNA science from forensic fingerprinting to medical screening, and what her book reveals about the secrets genetics has yet to unlock.

🧠 Outside of Our Minds: Anthropologists, historians, and a brain-computer interface researcher trace how humans have externalised thought from stone carvings to AI, and where the next frontier of communication may lead.

Apply ✍️

🥼 Senior lab Technician, Portal Biotech: Think you could keep a single-molecule protein sequencing platform stocked, safe, and shipshape? You'll own reagent prep, inventory, equipment servicing, and lab operations that are scaling quickly toward a global product launch.

🎬 Associate Director Safety Sciences, BioNTech: Got a forensic eye for emerging safety signals in oncology? You'll oversee safety surveillance, author DSURs and Risk Management Plans, contribute to regulatory submissions, and act as Subject Matter Expert.

⚙️ GMP Production Biotechnologist, OXB: Ready to get hands-on with viral vector manufacture at one of gene therapy's original pioneers? You'll lead GMP processes, act as SME for SOPs and batch documentation, and train others across lentivirus, AAV, and adenoviral programmes.

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🖥️ 08–12.06 | London Tech Week | London, UK: Europe’s premier tech gathering – drawing innovators, investors and enterprise leaders to hear from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Isomorphic Labs and the UK government on what’s next in tech.

🔬 10–12.06 | BioInference 2026 | St Andrews, UK: A three-day academic conference at Scotland’s oldest university, bringing together statisticians and biologists to tackle inference problems across epidemiology, genomics, spatial omics, and mathematical biology.

🤑 15.06 | Capital For Cures Liquidity Event – Royalty Financing | Amsterdam, Netherlands: This networking and panel event brings together investors, family offices and biotech innovators to discuss royalty financing, with a focus on how non-dilutive capital can fund breakthroughs while preserving long-term value.

🩺 15–18.06 | HLTH Europe 2026 | Amsterdam, Netherlands: Europe’s biggest healthcare innovation gathering hauls 5,000+ leaders to Amsterdam, with one in three at C-suite level, to thrash out the continent’s particular healthcare headaches and opportunities.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow pipette pioneers,

This week: a skin-worn ultrasound keeps watch over babies in the womb, Oxford scientists scramble to ready an Ebola jab as an outbreak rages, Eli Lilly goes on a vaccine shopping spree, US lawmakers eye Chinese biotech deals with fresh suspicion, a new solid tumour treatment treats its first patient, and a start-up reckons it can grow sperm in a lab.

Mind the petri dish!

Dodo

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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👶 Scientists create wearable ultrasound to continuously monitor babies in womb (The Guardian): A new skin-worn device could give doctors a continuous, real-time view of foetal health, rather than relying on occasional snapshots during clinic visits. Where current methods rely on intermittent scans or imprecise continuous monitoring, the “UPatch” tracks foetal heart rate and blood flow as the baby moves about. Early trials in the US and UK show it matches traditional ultrasound accuracy.

Our take: Continuous monitoring could unlock far deeper understanding of why some babies survive in the womb and others don’t – and the researchers are clear that preventing stillbirth is the ambition. In one case, the patch flagged severe growth restriction in a pre-eclamptic patient, prompting a life-saving early C-section. The potential is particularly significant in low-resource settings, where repeated clinic scans and skilled operators are hard to come by.

💉 UK scientists developing Ebola vaccine that could be ready for trials in months (BBC News): Oxford scientists are racing to adapt their Covid-era vaccine platform for a rare but deadly Ebola strain now driving an emergency outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The experimental Bundibugyo jab could reach clinical trials within two to three months, though plenty of uncertainty remains. Should it work, it would be deployed through ring vaccination, targeting close contacts and frontline health workers.

Our take: The harder problem here is logistics, not immunology. A Bundibugyo response leans on spotting cases quickly through community surveillance, tracing complex contact networks to break transmission, and getting jabs to remote settings where cold-chain kit and reliable transport are frequently nowhere to be found. A clever vaccine counts for little if the machinery meant to deliver it buckles under the pressure of an escalating epidemic.

💰 Eli Lilly to buy three small vaccine developers (STAT): Eli Lilly has snapped up three early- and mid-stage vaccine developers in deals worth up to nearly $4B, each pairing an upfront payment with milestones tied to clinical and regulatory progress. Curevo brings a shingles jab designed to improve on the tolerability of GSK’s Shingrix, LimmaTech a Staphylococcus aureus vaccine with surgical infection prevention in mind, and Vaccine Company an Epstein-Barr virus candidate linked to long-term risk reduction for multiple sclerosis and several cancers.

Our take: The targets are vaccines against pathogens known to trigger chronic complications downstream – shingles with stroke risk, EBV with multiple sclerosis and cancer. That framing nudges Lilly beyond straightforward prevention into disease modification territory, and helps make the commercial case at a time of broader pressure on vaccine manufacturers. The buys fold neatly into a GLP-1-funded acquisition spree that has now reached oncology, autoimmune disease, sleep disorders, and infectious disease in the space of a year.

🧬 Ori Biotech and ImmuXell announce strategic partnership and dose first patient (BioSpace): The first patient has been dosed in an investigator-initiated trial targeting KRAS G12V-mutated solid tumours, including colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lung cancer. Shanghai-based ImmuXell partnered with Ori Biotech, using their IRO® platform to manufacture the TCR-T cell therapy in just four months.

Our take: For cancers with no good treatment options, speed to patients is everything – and cell therapy manufacturing has historically been slow, expensive, and difficult to scale. IRO® is designed to eliminate those tradeoffs: speed without sacrificing quality, scale without sacrificing cost. If it delivers on that promise more broadly, the implications for patient access go well beyond this trial.

🇨🇳 As calls for COINS Act expansion grow, will new rules sweep up China biotech licensing? (Fierce Biotech): As American biopharma increasingly looks to China for faster, cheaper innovation, some US policymakers want biotechnology folded into the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act, which restricts outbound investment in sensitive sectors. Supporters argue intervention is needed to protect domestic innovation and competitiveness.

Our take: This change could bring fresh scrutiny to licensing deals, NewCo structures, and joint ventures with Chinese assets – potentially slowing dealmaking and pushing up costs. Chinese biotech assets have become attractive partly because they can offer strong clinical data, faster development timelines and lower costs than Western assets. But if every deal starts carrying extra legal review, government notification and political risk, the economics begin to change.

And finally…

🍆 Will lab-grown sperm let infertile men have children of their own? (The New Scientist): A US start-up is claiming it can grow sperm in the lab for men who produce none of their own. Paterna Biosciences says it can take stem cells from the testes and coax them into sperm cells, potentially opening a fresh route to biological fatherhood. The unmet need is real enough, particularly for men who produce no sperm and have precious few options as things stand.

Our take: This is not a blanket fix for male infertility. Even if Paterna can do what it claims, patients would still need viable stem cells in the testes to harvest in the first place. For men whose infertility stems from genetic defects, lab-grown sperm may therefore need pairing with gene editing – which raises the prospect of gene-edited children, one of bioethics’ most contested territories.

Tune in 🎧

🤑 $250M VC explains women’s health market: endometriosis & PCOS: This episode explores why conditions like endometriosis and PCOS remain underdiagnosed and underfunded, despite the growing investor interest in femtech.

🧑‍🔬 From pipettes to python: How to break into computational biology: Dean Lee shares how he built credibility from a bench science background; learned scRNA-seq analysis on the side; and turned self-directed projects, reproducibility work, and public data into a real path into comp bio.

💊 Rare disease drug commercialisation with Zevra Therapeutics’ Neil McFarlane: Zevra’s CEO explores building a focused rare disease company through acquisitions, scaling commercialisation, partnering with patient advocacy groups, and using AI to identify undiagnosed patients.

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🤝 External Partner Manager, Bristol Myers Squibb: Want to sit at the intersection of science, strategy, and supplier management? You’ll lead relationships with CDMOs, drive joint governance and performance via VDOTs, and translate technical development needs into commercial agreements.

🧫 Biotechnologist, Lonza: Ready to build hands-on GMP manufacturing experience from the ground up? You’ll support production at Lonza’s Slough facility, learn key quality systems like deviations and change control, and help keep manufacturing safe, compliant, and on schedule.

🧪 Field Application Specialist - Downstream Bioprocessing, Merck: Fancy turning DSP expertise into commercial impact? You'll support customers across the UK and Ireland from pre-sales to implementation, partnering with commercial and MSAT teams to spot growth opportunities and shape strategy.

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🖥️ 08–12.06 | London Tech Week | London, UK: Europe’s premier tech gathering – drawing innovators, investors and enterprise leaders to hear from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Isomorphic Labs and the UK government on what’s next in tech.

🔬 10–12.06 | BioInference 2026 | St Andrews, UK: A three-day academic conference at Scotland’s oldest university, bringing together statisticians and biologists to tackle inference problems across epidemiology, genomics, spatial omics, and mathematical biology.

🤑 15.06 | Capital For Cures Liquidity Event – Royalty Financing | Amsterdam, Netherlands: This networking and panel event brings together investors, family offices and biotech innovators to discuss royalty financing, with a focus on how non-dilutive capital can fund breakthroughs while preserving long-term value.

🩺 15–18.06 | HLTH Europe 2026 | Amsterdam, Netherlands: Europe’s biggest healthcare innovation gathering hauls 5,000+ leaders to Amsterdam, with one in three at C-suite level, to thrash out the continent’s particular healthcare headaches and opportunities.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow hypothesis generators,

This week, Cyclana Bio recruits its first endometriosis patients, Parabilis heads for the public markets with spiral-shaped peptides, DeepMind and Edison are each building an AI scientist, Daiichi lines up five pivotal ADC readouts, and Cowboy Space Corporation raises $275M to launch data centres into orbit.

Test your assumptions,

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Taking cell therapy inside the body

The next technological leap for genomic medicine uses the machinery inside our cells. What could that mean for patients?

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🩸 Cyclana Bio granted Health Research Authority approval and recruits first patients for clinical observational study in endometriosis (NewsMedical): The Cambridge biotech has secured HRA and ethics approval for a 500-patient observational study, running across two NHS sites, using patient biopsies and donated menstrual fluid to build 3D in vitro models of endometriosis. Comparing tissue-level dynamics in healthy women against those with the condition, it aims to uncover the disease’s underlying biology, identify druggable targets, and develop patient stratification tools.

Our take: Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women, takes an average of eight years to diagnose, and has no cure – a research gap that reflects how routinely women's pain has been dismissed and deprioritised. The progressive disease can affect every stage of a woman's life, and yet the biological foundations needed to direct drug development have simply never been properly established. Cyclana’s tissue-first methodology is a rare attempt to fill that gap.

🧬 After raising $800M, Parabilis seeks an IPO to pursue ‘undruggable’ targets (BioPharma Dive): Founded as FogPharma in 2015, the Boston biotech enters the public markets with early clinical data in hand and a potential $2B Regeneron deal behind it. Its Helicons – spiral-shaped peptides designed to reach cancer-driving proteins beyond the grasp of conventional drugs – have shown early promise in desmoid tumours, with Phase 3 planning underway and ambitions stretching into more common cancers.

Our take: FOG-001 targets the β-catenin/TCF transcription factor interaction – one of the canonical undruggable problems in oncology. Transcription factors have no obvious binding pocket for small molecules, which is why the field has largely given up on them. Helicons mimic the alpha-helical structures proteins use to interact with each other, effectively picking the lock from the inside. If that holds beyond desmoid tumours, the addressable market is considerably larger than the IPO filing suggests.

🤖 Google DeepMind and Edison are building the AI Scientist (GEN): Two independently developed systems that automate the scientific method have landed in Nature – both built to generate, test, and refine hypotheses using AI. DeepMind’s Gemini-powered Co-Scientist generated hypotheses across drug repurposing, target discovery, and antimicrobial resistance, while Edison’s Robin went a step further – proposing a glaucoma drug for dry age-related macular degeneration and validating it in patient-derived cells. Edison is now deploying its newer system, Kosmos, with Incyte.

Our take: The promise is an AI capable of closing the loop between hypothesis and validation. Robin’s most interesting result is the identification of KL001 – a circadian clock modulator – as a candidate for macular degeneration: a connection entirely absent from existing literature. This suggests that the real value of AI may not be speed, but the ability to surface biological links that human researchers would never think to look for.

💸 Daiichi emerges from bruising 2 years with vision for cracking cancer’s big leagues (BioSpace): After a bruising run – a collapsed HER3 candidate, a narrowed Datroway approval, and $850M in manufacturing charges – Daiichi is betting five pivotal ADC readouts in its 2027 financial year will catapult it into the top tier of oncology. The targets range from small cell lung cancer to platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, each forecast at $2-6B in peak sales.

Our take: The ambition is understandable – Enhertu proved Daiichi can build a genuinely transformative ADC, and the pipeline has real candidates in small cell lung cancer and platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The five pivotal readouts due in 2027 carry a $2-6B peak sales forecast apiece – optimistic figures from a company that has had to learn, rather painfully, the distance between projection and outcome.

And finally…

🛰️ How Robinhood cofounder Baiju Bhatt plans to put data centers in space (Forbes): Cowboy Space Corporation, founded by Robinhood cofounder Baiju Bhatt, has raised $275M at a $2B valuation to build orbital data centres – 20,000 of them, per an FCC filing. The pitch rests on constant solar power and housing 1MW of chips inside the rocket’s upper stage, rather than a separate satellite, with a first launch targeted for end-2028.

Our take: Google, SpaceX, Starcloud, Axiom, Lumen Orbit, and now Cowboy – orbital data centres went from concept to stampede in under two years, all fleeing the same terrestrial backlash over power and water that the AI boom keeps feeding. The central unsolved problem is heat: 1MW of chips generates enormous amounts of it, and in space there is no air to dissipate it. Cowboy’s answer: using the rocket fairing as a giant radiator. (Inter)stellar stuff!

Tune in 🎧

🧬 Can we reverse ageing? NYT Magazine’s Susan Dominus unpacks recent breakthroughs in cellular rejuvenation science, including who is funding the research, and what it might mean for the $2 trillion longevity market.

🍄 Can Hue Believe It? Gerit Tolborg’s Quest for Pure Colour at Chromologics: The Chromologics CEO explains how fermentation-derived fungal pigments could replace synthetic food dyes – covering economics, regulatory hurdles, and the case for decentralising supply chains.

🤖 Trump’s Tech Posse in China; Who’s Winning in Musk v. Altman?; Hantavirus Conspiracy Theories: WIRED’s Uncanny Valley team covers Trump’s Silicon Valley-heavy China trip, the OpenAI nonprofit lawsuit, and the conspiracy theories swirling around hantavirus.

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🎯 Commercial Coordinator for Pharma & Biotech, Pharmaron: Fancy being the commercial glue between a CDMO site and its clients? You'll manage RFPs, track revenue milestones, handle invoicing, and keep customer relationships running smoothly from Cramlington.

🧪 GMP Production Scientist, eXmoor: Ready to get hands-on with cell and gene therapies in the cleanroom? You'll carry out GMP manufacture of clinical-grade ATMPs, support tech transfer and scale-up to 200L, and keep production documentation and environments audit-ready.

📊 Senior Data Manager, Transition Bio: Got a talent for bringing order to messy scientific data? You'll own the Dotmatics platform, manage ADMET and DMPK datasets from CROs, and build the data infrastructure that keeps a multidisciplinary discovery team moving.

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🦾 27–28.05 | Digi-Tech Pharma & AI 2026 | London, UK: Pharma leaders and digital innovators converge on Kensington to chew over AI in drug discovery, real-world evidence, quantum computing, and the regulatory tangles that inevitably trail digital transformation.

🖥️ 08–12.06 | London Tech Week | London, UK: Europe's premier tech gathering – drawing innovators, investors and enterprise leaders to hear from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Isomorphic Labs and the UK government on what's next in tech.

🔬 10–12.06 | BioInference 2026 | St Andrews, UK: A three-day academic conference at Scotland’s oldest university, bringing together statisticians and biologists to tackle inference problems across epidemiology, genomics, spatial omics, and mathematical biology.

🩺 15–18.06 | HLTH Europe 2026 | Amsterdam, Netherlands: Europe’s biggest healthcare innovation gathering hauls 5,000+ leaders to Amsterdam, with one in three at C-suite level, to thrash out the continent’s healthcare headaches and opportunities.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow seafarers,

This week has been anything but calm waters: Isomorphic Labs is going full steam ahead on one of the largest funding rounds in biotech history, Roche dropped a quarter‑billion dollar bounty on an AI pathology deal, a Bristol-based biotech is making waves toward a potential hantavirus vaccine, Kyverna is preparing to drop anchor with one of the first CAR-T therapies for autoimmune disease, and jellyfish are emerging as a surprisingly sustainable source of collagen.

Mind the tentacles!

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Treating a new realm of diseases

Beyond traditional limits: explore the drug delivery technology opening new doors in genomic medicine.

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💰 AI-fuelled Isomorphic bags $2.1B, the second largest biotech round ever (BioSpace): Alphabet’s AI-driven biotech has hauled in one of the biggest biotech rounds in history, despite having no disclosed molecules and nothing in the clinic. In a market where investors are fleeing early-stage risk and piling into late-stage assets, Isomorphic is a rather peculiar outlier. Rather than focusing on one target, the company plans to build a broader pipeline, particularly across oncology and immunology.

Our take: Isomorphic is being valued as a multi-programme AI operating system for drug discovery, rather than a pipeline of discrete assets. It has to be said, traditional biotech models – where capital is tied to specific indications and milestones – look rather old-fashioned by comparison. Platform companies spawning dozens of programmes across partners will compress valuation multiples for single-asset peers. The bar for non-platform biotechs just got considerably higher.

🤑 Roche acquires PathAI for $750m upfront to advance AI-powered digital pathology (BioXconomy): Roche is taking its long-standing partnership with PathAI to a rather logical conclusion, hauling the AI pathology specialist in-house in a deal worth $750M, with up to $300M in milestones. The deal tucks PathAI neatly into Roche’s diagnostics division. At the heart of the deal is PathAI’s AI-powered Image Management System, designed to streamline lab workflows and deliver faster, more accurate diagnoses from digital tissue samples.

Our take: With this move, Roche is getting ahead of a scenario where a rival pharma or diagnostics giant secures a scalable computational pathology backbone first. AI-assisted pathology is becoming as routine as sequencing or imaging – whoever controls the underlying software stack gains outsized influence over how cancer trials are designed, how biomarkers are validated, and how “digital” pathology gets defined in everyday clinical practice.

💉 Bristol biotech firm makes strides in developing a vaccine for hantavirus (Bristol 24/7): EnsiliTech is developing an mRNA-LNP vaccine candidate for hantavirus, following the recent outbreak aboard the MV Hondius that claimed three lives. Backed by the Small Business Research Initiative, the University of Bath spinout has produced a candidate showing rather promising results in animal testing. The team is now seeking additional funding to continue preclinical development and move towards IND approval.

Our take: Hantavirus sits in a rather awkward spot commercially: it’s lethal enough to matter, but outbreaks are scattered across regions that don’t exactly scream high-margin markets. That leaves public funding and partnerships doing the heavy lifting, rather than classic pharma pull, with EnsiliTech’s progress contingent on whether enough institutions remain willing to bankroll neglected infectious-disease innovation as the headlines move on.

💊 Kyverna begins rolling submission for autoimmune CAR-T as FDA requests more natural history analysis (Fierce Pharma): Kyverna is inching toward a landmark FDA approval for miv-cel, which could become the first autoimmune CAR-T to reach the market. The company has filed a rolling Biologics License Application after winning FDA backing for the notion that its single-arm KYSA-8 trial can support an application for stiff person syndrome, alongside additional analysis from a 153-patient natural history study.

Our take: After the FDA rejected uniQure’s Huntington’s gene therapy on natural history grounds, the same playbook looked rather shakier for cell and gene therapies. Kyverna securing FDA alignment on that design suggests the agency hasn’t entirely closed the door. If the FDA approves, small, high-need autoimmune indications could become proving grounds for cell therapies that would otherwise struggle to launch in broader, messier patient populations.

And finally…

🪼 How jellyfish bycatch could be valuable collagen source for cosmetics and biotech (Frontiers): Marine scientists Dr Ainara Ballesteros and PhD student Raquel Torres are turning a rather slimy ocean nuisance into biotech feedstock. Jellyfish bycatch from small-scale Spanish fisheries can be transformed into rather impressive collagen – rivalling material from carefully collected specimens. Their work blends fieldwork alongside fishers with lab-bench science, showing that what’s routinely tipped overboard could become a sustainable source of marine collagen for cosmetics, biomedicine, and regenerative medicine.

Our take: Jellyfish bycatch has clear promise on paper as a collagen feedstock, but small-scale fleets lack the onboard kit to turn nuisance into commodity. Fleets will require dedicated handling, chilling, and sorting, which means investing in the entire value chain from deck to lab. Coastal institutions would also need to reconfigure their facilities to treat jellyfish as proper marine-biotech feedstock rather than waste.

Tune in 🎧

🧠 Acadia CEO Catherine Owen Adams on neurodegeneration, AI and building biotech vision: From UK pharmacist to biotech CEO, Catherine Owen Adams shares how storytelling shapes leadership across commercialisation, investor engagement, and enterprise vision.

🦠 Building a new antibody discovery platform with Infinimmune’s Wyatt McDonnell, PhD: Infinimmune’s CEO unpacks how single-cell biology and computation are reshaping antibody discovery – and how that approach landed them a Merck collaboration worth up to $838M.

🤖 AI and the future of healthcare: Dr. Emilia Javorsky explores AI’s realistic potential in cancer research and healthcare, examining the role of high-quality data, patient-level individualisation, and the systemic reforms needed to unlock meaningful impact.

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🥼 Account Manager Pharma, bioMérieux: Interested in bridging science and commercial strategy? You’ll drive sales and marketing across the South of England, combining scientific expertise in advanced therapies with business acumen.

🤝 Meetings Centre of Excellence Manager, GSK: Passionate about high-impact HCP engagement? You’ll lead the UK strategy for healthcare professional meetings and external events, partnering cross-functionally to deliver compliant, customer-centric solutions.

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🔬 19–21.05 | Bio-IT World Conference & Expo | Boston, USA: Twenty-five years in, Bio-IT World remains an event where biopharma, clinical research, and tech genuinely converge – and with this year's focus on informatics, data analytics, and AI-driven tools, the timing could hardly be better.

🧪 22–23.05 | PDA Applied Bioprocess Solutions Forum 2026 | Milan, Italy: This highly interactive, community-shaped forum focuses on the cross-industry bioprocessing challenges that don’t have easy answers – from development and manufacturing, to quality and regulatory compliance.

🧑‍⚕️ 01.06 | HealthTech Integrates 2026 | London, UK: This one‑day conference brings together HealthTech companies (technology, diagnostics, devices), clinicians, regulators and investors to wrestle with the gap between promising technology and real-world clinical practice.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow allergy sufferers,

With pollen counts rising and allergy season well underway, this week’s news arrives just in time: Pfizer has had a nasty reaction to its CD47 bet, Big Pharma gets a whiff of Asia’s ageing wave, Switzerland’s biotech sector is positively blooming, Scarlet Therapeutics raises £3.2M, and McGill researchers zap peanuts with cold plasma – reducing their allergenicity by 69%.

Pass the antihistamines,

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❌ Pfizer’s $2.3B bet ends in failure as CD47 blocker scrapped (Fierce Biotech): The 2021 Trillium acquisition handed Pfizer a pair of CD47 inhibitors – ontorpacept and maplirpacept – built on the rather appealing notion of teaching macrophages to gobble up cancer cells. Ontorpacept made it to a Phase 2 study for soft tissue cancers, but was binned last year. Maplirpacept has now followed suit, after Phase 1 and 2 trials in blood cancers; Pfizer state “these decisions are not due to safety concerns, regulatory requests, or any study conduct issues”.

Our take: CD47 has been a graveyard for acquisition capital. Pfizer's exit is the latest in a string of expensive lessons, and between Trillium and Gilead's Forty Seven, the class has absorbed over $7B in acquisition costs without a single approved drug. Whether this is because the underlying biology is simply too difficult – the receptor's expression on red blood cells causes anaemia, and cancer cells reliably upregulate alternative "don't eat me" signals – or simply because the right molecule hasn't been found yet, remains to be seen.

🧓🏻 Singapore gets Big Pharma rush to invest in plants for ageing region (Nikkei Asia): Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Novartis have collectively committed over $2.5B to expand manufacturing in Singapore. Pfizer has opened a new active pharmaceutical ingredients facility, AstraZeneca is building its first Singapore site dedicated to antibody drug conjugates, and Novartis is expanding an existing biopharmaceutical plant – all targeting a region where age-related disease burden is growing faster than anywhere else in the world.

Our take: Asia accounts for 49.2% of global cancer cases and 56.1% of cancer deaths – figures that will only swell as the region ages. Pharma has clocked a demographic wave that has been rolling in for decades and is scrambling to get its factories in front of it. The choice of Singapore is hardly surprising: tax advantages, political stability, robust IP protection and proximity to emerging markets make it a natural base for companies that need Asian supply chain resilience without geopolitical exposure.

📈 Swiss Biotech Report confirms the sector’s strong performance (Startupticker): Switzerland’s biotech sector posted record revenues of CHF 7.5B in 2025, with private company funding up 38% to a record CHF 1.15B. The sector now counts over 400 companies and 21,000 R&D staff (both records) while immunologicals – including therapeutic proteins, cell therapies, and vaccines – hit a record 20% share of Swiss exports. There was just one IPO, BioVersys, though it completed Europe’s largest listing of the year.

Our take: Globally, the number of biotech companies and R&D staff has fallen, but Switzerland’s have grown. Talent is likely the differentiator: foreign nationals account for 78% of Swiss unicorn founders, the majority of them STEM PhD graduates, resulting in a talent pool that is genuinely difficult to assemble elsewhere – and perhaps explains why selective investors keep returning.

🩸 Scarlet raises £3.2 million to advance lab-grown red blood cell therapies (European Biotechnology News): Unlike predecessors Rubius and Erytech, which relied on donor material, Scarlet Therapeutics grows RBCs from immortalised cell lines, sidestepping scalability and reproducibility constraints. A £3.2M seed round led by Eos Advisory will fund in vivo animal studies across hyperammonemia and hyperoxaluria, with preclinical data already showing its lab-grown cells circulate with a half-life comparable to donated blood.

Our take: The half-life data is interesting for reasons beyond survival duration. Because all of Scarlet’s cells are new, they expire in synchrony, meaning the therapeutic window is more predictable than with donated blood. For indications like hyperammonemia and hyperoxaluria, where RBCs are essentially deployed as circulating detox machines, that synchrony could translate into a considerably more predictable quarterly dosing model than donor-derived cells allow.

And finally…

🥜 Cold plasma could finally crack peanut allergies, making the nuts less allergenic (BioTechniques): McGill University researchers have shown that blasting peanut protein with ionised gas for 25 minutes reduces its immunoreactivity by 69%, without impacting the taste. The cold plasma treatment also improved digestibility and boosted foaming properties, which is handy for food manufacturing. The researchers reckon the approach could extend to eggs, hazelnuts, and other common allergens.

Our take: Peanut allergy has increased 3.5-fold over two decades, affects around 2% of Western populations, and has no cure. Every approved approach manages the patient: oral immunotherapy, omalizumab, strict avoidance. By contrast, cold plasma goes after the allergen itself, before it reaches the plate. The mechanism has already shown promise in soy, cow’s milk, and whey proteins.

Tune in 🎧

🛰️ The $100B Leak: Fixed From Space: AIRMO’s Daria Stepanova explains how a satellite constellation equipped with micro-lidars could detect methane and CO2 leaks in real time, tackling a $100B annual problem from orbit.

📊 UCB’s Candid buy, Grand Rounds and leukodystrophies: UCB has just paid $2B for one of the leading T-cell engager companies. BioCentury’s analysts dig into whether the price was justified, what it signals for the TCE space, and whether the IPO window is finally creaking open.

🫀 Can the CIA detect your heartbeat from 60km away?: Veritasium investigates the CIA’s rumoured “Ghost Murmur” technology, examining the science behind remote cardiac monitoring and whether the claims hold up.

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🔎 Quality Oversight and Compliance Director, Pfizer: Got an eye for regulations? You’ll develop quality plans, drive inspection readiness, investigate process deviations, and keep pan-regulatory compliance shipshape across manufacturing, submissions, and clinical functions globally.

🔬 Senior Computational Biologist, Recursion: Fancy industrialising drug discovery from first principles? You’ll synthesise diverse biological datasets, build robust omics pipelines, and turn exploratory analyses into reusable tools that accelerate programmes.

🍺 Biotechnologist, Celtic Renewables: Keen to ferment something rather more planet-friendly than beer? You’ll run multi-stage ABE fermentation campaigns, collect and analyse plant samples, and keep a century-old process humming at commercial scale.

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🦠11–15.05 | PEGS Boston | Boston, USA: A flagship conference for protein and antibody engineering, immunotherapy, and AI-driven biologics – showcasing the tools and partnerships transforming drug discovery and development.

🚧 13.05 | Cybersecurity and clinical risk management in the era of AI | London, UK: Hosted by Royal Society of Medicine, this half-day event is for clinicians, healthcare leaders, and digital health professionals navigating AI's security and clinical risks – with practical guidance from NHS CCIOs on deploying it safely and compliantly.

👩‍🔬 13.05 | Women in Biotech | Macclesfield, UK: A BIA networking event for women in biotech – and their allies – exploring how leaders are navigating organisational change, building resilience, and driving transformation in a sector still emerging from a difficult few years.

🔬 19–21.05 | Bio-IT World Conference & Expo | Boston, USA: A 25-year-old flagship for biopharma, clinical research, and tech leaders – spotlighting informatics, data analytics, and AI-driven tools accelerating precision medicine and drug discovery.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my entomology enthusiasts,

This week, it’s a bug’s life as a creepy-crawly quarantine facility lands in York to shore up the UK’s biosecurity, saffron makes the leap from spice rack to retinal protection, Chiesi stings the US rare disease market with a $1.9bn acquisition, AstraZeneca warms back up to UK investment after a government sweetener, and a blueberry-sized brain implant buzzes into human trials for treatment-resistant depression.

Don’t let the bedbugs bite!

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🐜 Insect quarantine unit to be launched at York biotech campus (The Press): Our friends up north are boosting the UK’s biosecurity capabilities with a new state-of-the-art Insect Quarantine Unit for Fera Science Ltd. The facility will support research into invasive invertebrate pests – the sort that chew through crops, ecosystems and biosecurity budgets. The 2,500 sq ft unit is designed to handle the kind of regulated work that requires rather more than a sealed jar and good intentions, with serious implications for food systems and environmental protection.

Our take: The UK has made plenty of noise about leading in crop science, from the Precision Breeding Act to post-EU regulatory divergence. Fera Science's work with DEFRA on invasive non-native species is more than mere research curiosity – after all, you can't set policy on pests you haven't properly studied! York's expanded facility is the unglamorous plumbing behind the UK's biosecurity ambitions, and with 10 to 12 invasive species turning up uninvited each year, more capacity is rather overdue.

🥸 Pharmactive Biotech highlights saffron extract’s clinical efficacy in boosting vision health (Nutrition Insight): Pharmactive has launched AffronEye, a saffron-derived ingredient aimed at retinal protection through antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic mechanisms. Preclinical data shows it shields retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma-like models, while delivery formats including liposomal lid mists and eyelid serums are designed to sidestep the compliance problems that plague traditional eye drops.

Our take: Pharmactive is betting that the future of eye wellness lies in ease of application. A natural botanical that feels more like skincare than medicine has clear appeal – in nutraceuticals, poor adherence is the silent killer of otherwise promising interventions, with many users dropping off after just a couple of weeks. Liposomal lid mists and eyelid serums directly address the friction points that make people disengage.

🤑 Chiesi in US$1.9bn deal to buy KalVista and its angioedema drug (European Biotechnology Magazine): Our pasta-loving pals at Chiesi are making their largest acquisition to date, snapping up US biotech KalVista Pharmaceuticals for $1.9bn. The centrepiece is Ekterly (sebetralstat), the first oral on-demand treatment for hereditary angioedema – a condition where existing options are largely injectable. Ekterly has already secured regulatory approval in the US, UK, Japan and EU, generating $49M in its first half-year on market.

Our take: KalVista is Chiesi’s second significant rare disease deal in three years, following the Amryt Pharma buyout in 2023 – with a €430M Milan manufacturing investment and an Arbor gene therapy partnership added for good measure. The methodical deal-making is worth noting: a family-owned company quietly assembling US commercial-stage assets while anchoring its manufacturing base at home, all in service of a €6bn revenue target by 2030.

🇬🇧 AstraZeneca makes surprise U-turn with £300m pharma investment in UK (The Guardian): AstraZeneca has reversed its UK investment freeze, unfreezing a paused £200m Cambridge expansion and committing £100m to a new “lab of the future” in Macclesfield. The U-turn follows months of fractious negotiations over NHS drug pricing and availability. A subsequent UK–US deal, trading tariff-free exports for improved NHS medicine access, appears to have broken the deadlock.

Our take: Since the UK–US pricing deal, £1.4bn in life sciences investment has rolled in from UCB, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim and now AstraZeneca. The terms were straightforward enough: higher NHS drug spending and faster approvals in exchange for investment commitments. Whether this becomes the standard playbook – governments competing for pharma capital by loosening pricing and access conditions – is the rather larger question.

And finally…

🧠 A brain implant for depression is about to be tested in humans (Wired): Motif Neurotech has FDA approval to begin human trials of a blueberry-sized brain implant for treatment-resistant depression. The device targets the central executive network with frequent at-home electrical stimulation, with the company suggesting remission could be achievable within 10 days. Unlike Neuralink’s headline-grabbing communication-restoration work, Motif is aiming squarely at the third of depression patients who don’t respond to existing medication.

Our take: Treatment-resistant depression is a condition that current psychiatry has remarkably little to offer beyond palliation, and a device-based intervention is a meaningful shift. The longer-term implication is that recording-and-stimulating implants could move psychiatric diagnosis from patient self-report to neural telemetry – a significant epistemological change for a field built on subjective accounts, with real consequences for how depression is defined and treated.

Tune in 🎧

🫀 Diagonal Therapeutics’ innovative clustering antibodies for vascular diseases: Diagonal Therapeutics’ CSO Patrick Andre explains how the DIAGONAL platform targets TGF-β signalling, and what a $125M Series B means for rare vasculopathies and beyond.

💡 Implementing a new CEO strategy with NervGen’s Adam Rogers, M.D. and Rich Macary: NervGen's Adam Rogers and Rich Macary discuss NVG-291's path to Phase 3, FDA endpoint strategy, leadership shifts, a Nasdaq move, and the broader potential in neurotrauma.

🥶 The first environmental GE organism release – almost! Dr. Steven Lindow: Dr. Steven Lindow unpacks the pioneering work on ice-minus bacteria, early biotech breakthroughs, regulatory hurdles, and the technology’s evolving role in frost-sensitive agriculture.

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🤖 Business Lead, Life Sciences, OpenAI: Want to turn complex life sciences workflows into transformative partnerships? You'll manage a portfolio of strategic accounts, define market and buyer narratives, and translate deep scientific insight into commercial pathways.

🧑‍🔬 Manager, Life Sciences Strategy Consulting, Kx Advisors: Interested in running multiple client engagements while growing a team of consultants? You'll lead end-to-end project delivery, support business development, serve as a strategic thought partner, and connect teams, clients, and senior leadership.

🌍 Global Change Facilitator, BioPhorum: Passionate about turning cross-industry collaboration into real-world impact? You'll lead workstreams of senior biopharma experts, facilitate complex discussions, drive industry-shaping guidance and benchmarks, and combine structured thinking with project leadership.

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🦠11–15.05 | PEGS Boston | Boston, USA: A flagship conference for protein and antibody engineering, immunotherapy, and AI-driven biologics – showcasing the tools and partnerships transforming drug discovery and development.

🚧 13.05 | Cybersecurity and clinical risk management in the era of AI | Royal Society of Medicine, London, UK: A half-day event for clinicians, healthcare leaders, and digital health professionals navigating AI's security and clinical risks, with practical guidance from NHS CCIOs on deploying it safely and compliantly.

🔬19–21.05 | Bio-IT World Conference & Expo | Boston, USA: A 25-year-old flagship for biopharma, clinical research, and tech leaders – spotlighting informatics, data analytics, and AI-driven tools accelerating precision medicine and drug discovery.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello my fellow mavericks,

This week: Boehringer breaks ranks and builds its AI capabilities rather than buying them, OpenAI debuts a drug discovery model named after the woman who never got the credit she deserved, a Finnish startup defies the odds and pips Harvard and Stanford to a quantum biology prize, Formation Bio tears up the industry playbook to beat the real clinical bottleneck, and a bacterial enzyme goes rogue and writes DNA from its own amino acids.

Vive la révolution,

Dodo

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💂 Boehringer Ingelheim launches AI Accelerator in London (Boehringer Ingelheim): The new King’s Cross hub is the German pharma giant’s fourth computational AI centre and joins a roster of sites in Austria, Germany, and the US under a £150M 10-year investment. Plonked in the Knowledge Quarter alongside the Francis Crick Institute and the Alan Turing Institute, it will focus on patient journey mapping, biological mechanism discovery, and disease driver identification, with a goal of 50 AI experts in place by end of 2027.

Our take: Most pharma is busily snapping up AI capabilities – Novo Nordisk just partnered with OpenAI, Sanofi acquired Exscientia for $1.2B, and Lilly bet $2.75B on Insilico – but Boehringer is having a crack at the rather more patient business of building foundational capability from scratch. Fifty experts by 2027 and £15M a year is a modest opening wager but, if it pays off, the intellectual property and institutional knowledge stay firmly in-house.

🩻 OpenAI debuts AI model GPT-Rosalind to speed up drug discovery (TechTarget): Named after Rosalind Franklin – whose X-ray crystallography helped crack the structure of DNA – the new domain-specific model combines multi-step reasoning across chemistry, genomics, and protein engineering with access to more than 50 scientific tools and databases. Amgen, Moderna, and Thermo Fisher are among the early partners, though access is firmly gated behind a vetted trusted access programme.

Our take: OpenAI’s life sciences research lead Joy Jiao has been rather candid that GPT-Rosalind cannot invent new drugs on its own; it is a reasoning layer for hypothesis generation, literature synthesis, and experimental planning – nothing more. The limited access reflects genuine biosecurity concerns, but also (rather conveniently) positions the model as premium and exclusive at a moment when OpenAI is hungry for enterprise revenue. A fitting name – perhaps this time she'll get the credit she is owed.

⚛️ Helsinki’s Algorithmiq wins €1.7 million prize for quantum-enabled light-sensitive cancer drug discovery (EU-Startups): The sole winner of Wellcome Leap’s 2.5-year Quantum for Bio challenge, pipping finalists from Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford to the post, demonstrated a quantum-classical framework for simulating a photosensitiser drug currently in Phase 2 trials. The framework ran on up to 100 qubits on existing IBM hardware and was validated against state-of-the-art classical methods.

Our take: Quantum advantage in drug discovery has been a theoretical promise for the better part of two decades, consistently done in by hardware that couldn’t deliver it. Algorithmiq’s winning framework had to meet three simultaneous requirements: executable on current hardware, biologically meaningful, and validated against classical methods under realistic constraints. That last condition is the one the field has been dodging – passing it, on machines that actually exist, is no small thing.

🎯 This Sam Altman-backed $1.8 billion startup bets AI can get drugs through clinical trials faster (Forbes): Formation Bio has raised $615M to snap up stalled drug candidates and frogmarch them through clinical trials with AI. The New York startup targets pre-Phase 2 drugs, where only 30% succeed, arguing that clinical development rather than discovery is the industry’s real bottleneck. The company has already licensed one asset to Sanofi for $630M, with four more in trials. Backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

Our take: Formation’s osteoarthritis drug had already been through three trials across 800 patients, without clear clinical evidence of impact, and was quietly gathering dust. AI didn’t discover anything new – it found signals in data that already existed, establishing that increased cartilage growth from the drug did in fact translate into a lower five-year risk of needing a knee replacement. That’s a rather different proposition from drug discovery AI: not generating new therapies, but rescuing value from ones that were close to being written off. If Formation can do that reliably at scale, the pipeline of abandoned post-Phase 1 assets starts to look rather less like a graveyard.

And finally…

🧬 Scientists stunned by ‘fundamentally new way’ life produces DNA (Science): Stanford researchers have discovered DRT3, a bacterial defence system harbouring an enzyme, Drt3b, that synthesises DNA without a nucleic acid template – instead, using its own amino acids as a guide. Widespread among bacteria, DRT3 appears to protect against viral infection, though precisely how it does so remains a mystery. The researchers hope it can be engineered into a tool for custom DNA synthesis.

Our take: Biology’s “central dogma” – that information flows from nucleic acids to protein, never the other way around – has held for decades. Drt3b doesn’t rewrite it exactly, but a protein serving as its own DNA template has no precedent in biology, and the researchers are candid that they don’t yet know how DRT3 actually defeats viruses. The CRISPR parallel is already being drawn. It, too, started as an obscure bacterial defence mechanism, with applications nobody had imagined.

Tune in 🎧

🎰 The medications that can trigger sex and gambling addictions: A BBC investigation into dopamine agonists examines how roughly 1 in 6 patients develop impulse control disorders, and why many were never warned of the risk.

🐺 Ancient Egyptian DNA, Cheddar Man and wolves as pets: Brian Cox and two ancient DNA specialists field listener questions on how far back genomic analysis can reach, and what early human genetic diversity tells us about survival.

☄️ The Hitchhiking Microbe’s Guide to the Galaxy: Researchers test the plausibility of lithopanspermia – the hypothesis that microbes hitchhike between planets on meteorites – by firing them from a gun to simulate the forces involved.

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🛠️ Development Engineer, Bespak: Want to put the device in drug delivery? You’ll support product design from concept to commercialisation, run CAD simulations, conduct NGI testing, and steer precision-moulded parts through performance and regulatory requirements.

💯 (Fixed Term) Analyst, Quality Control, Chemistry & Stability, Moderna: Can you keep mRNA vaccines in good shape? You’ll run HPLC, UPLC, and stability testing across the product lifecycle, manage LIMS workflows, and keep the brand-new Harwell facility audit-ready.

🧪 Research Scientist, Arthur Edward: Think you can coax microbes into industrial submission? You’ll develop and optimise cell culture processes from lab to pilot scale, apply strain engineering techniques, and drive tech transfer through to commercial manufacture.

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🏥 28.04 | The Future of Prevention: Who Pays, Who Delivers, Who Benefits? | London, UK: A closed-door forum bringing together senior NHS, government, healthtech, and employer leaders to tackle the UK’s prevention agenda – from funding models to delivery at scale. Hosted by SomX (that’s us!) and Neko Health.

🇰🇷 29.04 | Bio Korea 2026 | Seoul, South Korea: One of Asia’s leading life sciences gatherings, bringing together biopharma, biotech, and healthtech leaders for partnering, investment, and industry dialogue.

👮13.05 | Cybersecurity and clinical risk management in the era of AI | Royal Society of Medicine, London, UK: A half-day event for clinicians, healthcare leaders, and digital health professionals navigating AI's security and clinical risks with practical guidance from NHS CCIOs on deploying it safely and compliantly.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my nauseous friends,

This week’s roundup has plenty to digest: scientists are taking on “undruggable” disease proteins, pharma backs away from big biotech deals as patent cliffs loom, the UK launches a sovereign AI fund to anchor homegrown biotech talent, Spain eyes Boston for its biotech expansion, and a new study reveals genetic clues to predict severe pregnancy sickness before it strikes.

If that doesn’t settle the stomach, nothing will!

Dodo

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🤑 Biotech startup Neomorph raises $100M to crack the “undruggable” protein problem with molecular glue technology (Tech Startups): For decades, countless disease-driving proteins have been deemed “undruggable”. San Diego biotech Neomorph has raised a $100M Series B to advance molecular glue degraders – compounds that, instead of blocking a protein, bring it into contact with the cell’s natural disposal system to mark it for breakdown. Its lead programme, NEO-811, is now in Phase 1/2 for kidney cancer, with Novo Nordisk, Biogen, and AbbVie among its pharma partners.

Our take: Molecular glue degraders may be scientifically sexy, but nobody’s quite sure where they sit in the regulatory canon. These compounds don’t behave like conventional inhibitors or activators, which means the FDA’s existing frameworks don’t map cleanly onto them – and only a handful have received approval to date. NEO-811’s Phase 1/2 readouts will do more than prove the drug: they’ll help establish what the regulatory bar for this class actually looks like.

🤏 Big pharma is thinking small on deals. That’s a boon for biotech (WSJ): Pharma’s appetite for biotech is stronger than ever, but it’s practising portion control. After an era of megadeals like AbbVie–Allergan and Pfizer–Seagen, pharma is now favouring “bolt-ons”: smaller, strategic acquisitions in the low billions. With nearly half of Big Pharma’s $700B annual revenue facing patent cliffs by 2031, deal sizes may be trimmed – but 2026 is on pace for a record number of them.

Our take: For small and mid-cap biotechs, this is the environment that matters: more acquirers, reasonable valuations, and capital flowing back through the ecosystem rather than pooling in one place. But with a hefty chunk of Big Pharma’s income expiring alongside its patents, it’s clear that its pipelines need refilling. The interesting question is whether pharma will maintain its current discipline as that 2031 deadline approaches, or whether desperation will drive it back to the megadeal.

🤖 AI firms pioneering drug discovery, cheaper supercomputing, and more get first backing through UK’s Sovereign AI (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology): The UK has decided it doesn’t want to just use AI, it wants to own it. Enter Sovereign AI, a £500M state-backed, VC-style unit designed to anchor the country’s most promising AI startups – and their economic value – on British soil. First cheque goes to AI infrastructure startup Callosum, with biotechs Twig Bio and Prima Mente among six further companies receiving supercomputing access, visa fast-tracks, and early access to government procurement.

Our take: This is the state playing venture capitalist – and rather enjoying it! Several of these companies already have US operations, so the question Sovereign AI is really trying to answer isn’t whether founders stay in the UK, but whether the economic value they create does. By bundling capital, compute, talent access, and state leverage (and taking right of first refusal on future funding rounds), the UK is betting it can keep the economic upside – jobs, tax revenue, and strategic capability – here, rather than abroad.

🇪🇸 Spain sets up Boston-focused VC fund with goal of raising $200M for biotechs (Fierce Biotech): Spain is taking its biotech ambitions overseas. Backed by $57M from the Spanish government, the new VC fund will let private investors help Spanish drug developers tap into Boston’s world‑class life sciences ecosystem. The initiative will also establish Spain’s eighth US trade office in Boston and encourage joint R&D and co‑investment projects.

Our take: Boston is sitting on 28% lab vacancy rates and 4,600 job losses, and Spain – whose economy grew 2.8% last year – has clearly been paying attention, moving in precisely when Boston is vulnerable. The deeper ambition (one suspects) is to embed Spanish biotechs into Boston’s infrastructure before they get absorbed by it, reversing the age-old story of promising European companies lost to US acquisition.

And finally…

🫄 Pregnancy sickness study identifies new genetic links (GEN): USC scientists have identified ten genes linked to hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), the severe pregnancy sickness that hospitalises 2% of women – six of them previously unknown. The team previously established that HG is driven by hypersensitivity to GDF15, a hormone that surges in early pregnancy. Their latest multi-ancestry GWAS of over 10,000 cases points to appetite, insulin signalling, and brain plasticity as further mechanisms.

Our take: Zofran, the most effective current treatment, still fails around half of patients – and severe cases can lead to pregnancy termination, depression, and lasting maternal morbidity. Genetic screening before pregnancy could change that calculus entirely, identifying hypersensitive women before symptoms strike rather than after. For a condition dismissed as psychological for decades, prevention (rather than damage control) would be a small mercy.

Tune in 🎧

💊 Biosimilars and complex medicines for all with RNA therapeutics’ Sarfaraz Niazi, PhD: Dr. Niazi unpacks how US biosimilar regulation evolved from early FDA hesitation to citizen petitions and landmark lawsuits.

💩 Tuning, rather than blocking, immunity in IBD: CEO Marc de Garidel traces a drug's unlikely journey – from a shelved HIV candidate to a late-stage IBD treatment offering longer-lasting remission.

🦠 Multi-agent AI delivers reliable and scalable insights for single-cell omics: Parashar Dhapola, co-founder and CEO of Nygen Analytics, on how advanced algorithms are changing the analysis of millions of cells in real time.

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🥼 Department Lead Scientific Communications, BioNTech: Ready to shape how cutting-edge science reaches the world? Build and lead a global team overseeing publications, data strategy, and scientific storytelling across BioNTech’s portfolio – from early development through to commercialisation.

🧑‍⚕️ Manager - Life Sciences and Healthcare, Sia: Deep knowledge of EU and UK grant ecosystems? Lead strategy, capture, and delivery of public and philanthropic funding across programmes including Horizon Europe, HERA, Innovate UK, and Wellcome.

🧬 Territory Account Manager, Illumina: Passionate about genomics and business growth? Expand Illumina’s portfolio across hospitals, universities, and biopharma clients, driving account growth and identifying new opportunities.

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🌱 21.04 | BioSolutions UK | London, UK: Hosted by the BIA, this London event brings together startups, investors, and policymakers to explore how engineering biology is shaping the future bioeconomy.

🏥 28.04 | The Future of Prevention: Who Pays, Who Delivers, Who Benefits? | London, UK: A closed-door forum bringing together senior NHS, government, healthtech, and employer leaders to tackle the UK’s prevention agenda – from funding models to delivery at scale. Hosted by SomX (that’s us!) and Neko Health.

🇰🇷 29.04 | Bio Korea 2026 | Seoul, South Korea: One of Asia’s leading life sciences gatherings, bringing together biopharma, biotech, and healthtech leaders for partnering, investment, and industry dialogue.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Houston, we have a newsletter,

This week, a sugar matrix finally launches vaccines that can bypass the cold chain, MethylScan detects cancer and liver disease for less than the cost of an in-flight meal, Anthropic pays $400M to pull 8 months of stealth biology into its orbit, FebriDx clears for takeoff in 300,000 US outpatient clinics to curb unnecessary antibiotic prescribing, and human cells head to the moon to see how they hold up beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

Mission control, Dodo is over and out.

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💉 New drying technique stabilises vital vaccines at room temperature (News Medical): Oxford engineers have validated MART, a room-temperature drying technique that locks proteins into a stable sugar-based matrix on cellulose fibres, neatly sidestepping the freezing that typically does for sensitive biologics. The process takes as little as 3hrs and requires no specialist equipment. Tested across four targets, including COVID-19 diagnostic reagents and growth factors, dried samples retained over 90% of their activity after 6 months at 25°C.

Our take: Cold chain failures waste billions of dollars’ worth of vaccines annually, with a human cost borne by children in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where cold chain infrastructure simply isn’t up to scratch. The problem has been thoroughly catalogued for decades and thoroughly not cracked. MART takes just a few hours and requires no specialist kit. For low-resource settings, the most useful tech is the one that actually makes it off the lorry.

🩸 Low-cost, single sample blood test detects different cancers, liver disorders, and other diseases (GEN): UCLA scientists have developed MethylScan, a blood test that reads DNA methylation patterns in cell-free DNA to sniff out multiple cancers, liver conditions, and organ abnormalities from a single sample. The method works by enzymatically stripping out background DNA from blood cells before sequencing. Across 1,061 patients, it achieved 63% overall cancer detection and 55% for early-stage disease, with 98% specificity, and a projected cost under $20 per sample.

Our take: Galleri, the market leader in multi-cancer detection, costs $949 and isn’t covered by most insurers. MethylScan’s rather more interesting trick is correctly classifying 85% of liver disease patients by type from the same blood draw, distinguishing viral hepatitis from metabolic disease without so much as a biopsy. At 55% early-stage sensitivity, it isn’t miles ahead of Galleri at 51% – suggesting detection is now the unsolved problem, not affordability.

💰 AI giant Anthropic leans into life sciences with $400M Coefficient Bio catch (BioSpace): The all-stock deal folds fewer than 10 people into Anthropic’s healthcare division, bolstering Claude Life Sciences – its biopharma-focused AI platform already used by Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, and AbbVie. Coefficient was founded just eight months ago by Nathan Frey and Samuel Stanton, both from Genentech’s Prescient Design computational drug discovery unit, and had been operating entirely in stealth.

Our take: That much money for an eight-month-old company with no disclosed product raises an eyebrow until you clock what Frey and Stanton built at Genentech – not AI wrappers bolted onto biology, but biological foundation models and protein design infrastructure from the architecture up. That calibre of talent is scarce, and Anthropic’s head of healthcare wants a meaningful percentage of all life science work running on Claude.

🪄 Lumos to access $1b US market with diagnostic device, raises $20m (The Australian): Australian diagnostics company Lumos has secured a CLIA waiver for FebriDx, its point-of-care test that distinguishes viral from bacterial respiratory infections. Previously confined to hospitals and laboratories, the waiver unlocks more than 300,000 outpatient locations, including physician offices, urgent care clinics, and pharmacy settings. The company has raised $20M to fund the US commercial rollout.

Our take: Antibiotic stewardship has spent decades drilling hospitals – the setting that accounts for a minority of prescribing. The bulk of inappropriate prescribing happens in outpatient settings where a clinician has minutes, no diagnostics, and a patient expecting a prescription. A CLIA waiver means FebriDx can now reach the GP surgeries and the pharmacy, the places unintentionally doing a lot of AMR damage.

And finally…

🚀 How NASA’s moon mission could help transform space medicine (Scientific American): NASA’s Artemis II mission is carrying AVATAR, an experiment using organs-on-a-chip – flash-drive-sized devices lined with living human cells that mimic specific organs. The chips contain bone marrow cells from the four Artemis II astronauts, matched against identical chips on Earth. After the mission, single-cell RNA sequencing will measure gene-level changes caused by deep space radiation and microgravity.

Our take: Organs-on-a-chip already sit in 17 of 25 top biopharma companies’ labs, valued for generating human biological data that animal models routinely get wrong. Deep space radiation and microgravity accelerate bone loss, suppress immunity, and damage DNA in ways that mirror accelerated disease states on Earth. That data, collected from astronauts’ own cells against matched Earth controls, is territory no laboratory has reached before.

Tune in 🎧

💊Novartis Buys Excellergy for $2B, Anthropic Vs. Pentagon, The Mansion Section: A condensed cut of TBPN’s live tech coverage, touching on Novartis’s latest acquisition, Anthropic’s Pentagon tensions, and real estate.

🩸This Startup Wants To Catch Cancer Before It Spreads: BillionToOne’s David Tsao and Oguzhan Atay trace the company’s path from prenatal cfDNA screening to early cancer detection, and what a $4B valuation means for the field.

🌕13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II: Tim Peake and Maggie Aderin-Pocock cover NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years, with updates from Kennedy Space Centre and context on the geopolitics driving the new space race.

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🔬 Entry Level - Clinical Research Associate, Medspace: New to clinical research? You’ll conduct site monitoring visits, verify source data against case report forms, review regulatory documents, and keep adverse event reporting on the right side of GCP.

💼 Head of R&D and Scientific Strategy, Rare Disease, Syneos Health: Keen to shape the scientific direction of a global CRO? Reporting to the CSO, you’ll lead cross-functional initiatives, drive thought leadership strategy, and represent rare disease capabilities in front of customers and C-suite.

🧪 Biotech Application Scientist, Axitan Research UK: Got a nose for formulation science? You’ll translate R&D concepts into scalable feed additive products across poultry, swine, and aquaculture, optimise performance at pilot scale, and feed findings into IP filings.

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🇮🇹 16-17.04 | 16th International Conference on Biotechnology | Rome, Italy: Under the theme “Living Technologies for a Changing World: The Future Begins in Biotechnology,” this global meeting celebrates innovation where biology meets imagination, exploring how living systems can heal, adapt, and drive sustainable transformation across health, energy, and the environment.

💊 16.04 | Frontier Biotech Tables: From Signal to Drug | London, UK: This gathering unites biotech founders, frontier researchers, pharma dealmakers, and investors to dissect what’s really holding back translation, and how to unlock the next generation of ageing therapeutics.

🌱 21.04 | BioSolutions UK | London, UK: Discover how biology is driving real-world solutions to global challenges, and be part of the conversation that’s transforming the future of our planet. Whether you’re a startup, scale-up, investor, industrial leader, or policymaker, there’s something for everyone.

📑 29.04 | The Hardian Health Tech Summit | London, UK: The Hardian team will be joined by representatives from the MHRA, FDA, NICE, NHS leaders, and more across the healthtech world for real-world insight into regulation and market access in medical devices.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow detectives,

This week: Lilly splashes out $7.8bn on a narcolepsy biotech, Blackstone closes the largest life science private fund in history, Amsterdam researchers deliver a patriarchy-smashing anatomical breakthrough, lab gloves have been found to contaminate microplastic samples, and psychedelic startups are under fire for some rather questionable YouTube videos.

Don’t touch anything!

Dodo

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💰Eli Lilly outlays $7.8bn to acquire sleep drug biotech Centessa (Pharmaceutical Technology): Eli Lilly is betting big on neuroscience, with a multi-billion-dollar move to acquire Cambridge-based Centessa Pharmaceuticals. The deal hands Lilly full ownership of cleminorexton, an orexin receptor 2 agonist targeting narcolepsy and other sleep-wake disorders. The drug has already posted strong Phase II results across narcolepsy types 1 and 2 and idiopathic hypersomnia.

Our take: Orexin receptor 2 agonists sit at the top of the sleep-wake hierarchy – addressing the root cause rather than papering over symptoms downstream. Narcolepsy alone is set to exceed 760,000 diagnosed cases across major markets by 2029, and cleminorexton's breadth across sleep-wake indications gives Lilly unusual optionality. For a field that has long struggled to move beyond symptom management, that's worth paying for.

🤑 Blackstone closes $6.3B fund for life sciences investing (BioPharma Dive): Blackstone has closed the largest life sciences private fund in history, roughly 40% bigger than its previous vehicle. With $15 billion in assets under management – and 34 approved medicines and devices – recent investments span gut disease, cancer, and cardiovascular medicine across partners including Teva, Merck, J&J, and Novartis.

Our take: Blackstone’s 86% approval rate for late-stage assets, well above the industry average, suggests a selection discipline that venture capital has struggled to replicate at scale. It’s that track record which makes this shift credible: private equity is now stepping in as the financing layer for late-stage assets that VC finds too capital-intensive, and pharma finds too risky to acquire outright.

♀️Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time (The Guardian): Amsterdam researchers have produced the first-ever 3D map of the clitoral nerve network. The findings could reshape pelvic reconstructive surgery – improving outcomes in FGM repair and vulvar cancer procedures – while raising uncomfortable questions about how one of the body's most complex sensory organs stayed under-researched for so long.

Our take: The clitoral mapping project is a reminder of how thoroughly medical research has neglected female anatomy. The fact that it took nearly three decades after the penile nerve map to achieve equivalent knowledge for the clitoris is a direct reflection of how cultural discomfort and institutional bias have shaped research priorities. It also turns out some of what surgeons have been taught about clitoral anatomy is simply wrong. This new map doesn’t just fill a gap – it corrects the record.

🧤Contamination from lab gloves casts doubt on microplastics crisis (The Times): Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that standard laboratory gloves shed microscopic stearate salts that are virtually indistinguishable from polyethylene under common spectroscopy tests – producing false positives of up to 2,000 particles per square millimetre. It turns out the tools used to detect microplastic contamination have, in fact, been contributing to it!

Our take: Over the past decade, the “microplastics economy” has attracted billions in grants, consulting contracts, and testing technology – all built on data that may have been systematically inflated by the very gloves used to collect it. It's the latest in a series of methodological challenges to the field's most headline-grabbing findings, and the question of which results can still be trusted is becoming harder to avoid. It seems some housekeeping – or rather, lab-keeping – is in order.

And finally…

🧠 Psychedelic biotechs face scrutiny over YouTube promos (STAT): Psychedelic startups Helus Pharma and AtaiBeckley are facing backlash over paid YouTube videos making extraordinary claims about their experimental mental health drugs – including “100% patient improvement,” “rewiring the brain,” and an “FDA golden ticket,” all pinned to Phase 2 data. The videos – paid for by third-party marketing agencies on behalf of both companies – were disclosed, somewhat optimistically, as being for “informational purposes only.”

Our take: Psychedelics have spent years clawing toward mainstream medical acceptance, and both companies are hoping to attract pharma interest. Pinning such bold claims to Phase 2 data – the stage at which trials exist specifically to stress-test such numbers – hands critics exactly the ammunition they’ve been waiting for. Big pharma due diligence teams are not known for their enthusiasm toward targets whose marketing agencies are running ahead of the science.

Tune in 🎧

🦀 Investing in early-stage oncology with Yosemite’s Dan McHugh: Dan discusses how Yosemite backs early oncology science through unrestricted academic grants – and why that model produces better drug discovery than traditional VC.

🧬 HaemaLogiX - precision immunotherapy for multiple myeloma: Dr Rosanne Dunn on the company’s antibody approach to multiple myeloma and plasma cell disorders, and what sets it apart from existing treatments.

🦠 Identity crises, 1 mission: From broken shoulder to biotech career: Dr Nicole Paulk shares her unlikely path from the Pacific Northwest to leading AAV-based immunogene therapy for solid tumours.

Apply ✍️

A trio of account manager roles this week - what a treat!

🧑‍🔬 Account Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific: Got a knack for building relationships in science? Drive growth across CMD products, support customer partnerships, and help deliver solutions across health, environmental protection, and food safety.

🤖 Senior Account Manager, Global AI and Technology, Oxford PharmaGenesis: Keen to shape how AI gets embedded in medical communications? Lead digital and tech projects, develop new tools, and mentor teams across global accounts.

🌍 Global Strategic Account Manager, Cytiva: Ready to work at the intersection of pharma and strategy? Partner with senior account directors to execute complex global strategies, lead governance meetings, and manage cross-functional programmes – with a clear pathway toward account leadership.

RSVP 📆

🇮🇹 16-17.04 | 16th International Conference on Biotechnology | Rome, Italy: Under the theme “Living Technologies for a Changing World: The Future Begins in Biotechnology,” this global meeting celebrates innovation where biology meets imagination, exploring how living systems can heal, adapt, and drive sustainable transformation across health, energy, and the environment.

💊 16.04 | Frontier Biotech Tables: From Signal to Drug | London, UK: This gathering unites biotech founders, frontier researchers, pharma dealmakers, and investors to dissect what’s really holding back translation, and how to unlock the next generation of ageing therapeutics.

🌱 21.04 | BioSolutions UK | London, UK: Discover how biology is driving real-world solutions to global challenges, and be part of the conversation that’s transforming the future of our planet. Whether you’re a startup, scale-up, investor, industrial leader, or policymaker, there’s something for everyone.

📑 29.04 | The Hardian Health Tech Summit | London, UK: The Hardian team will be joined by representatives from the MHRA, FDA, NICE, NHS leaders, and more across the healthtech world for real-world insight into regulation and market access in medical devices.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hi there, my fellow latecomers,

This week, several things that probably should have happened sooner. Data tracking on drug websites lands in court, tumours turn out to have been signalling their location all along, a new antibody goes after amyloid deposits already sitting in the heart, Oryon bets on fully differentiated neurons over the progenitor cells most rivals favour, and a prostate cancer test finally folds ethnicity into the diagnostic equation.

Better late than never,

Dodo

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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⚖️ Patient sues Novartis, claiming data-tracking privacy breach (pharmaphorum): A Vermont cancer patient alleges Novartis’s Kisqali product website used tracking pixels to share her private health information with Google and ContentSquare without her consent. The data – inferred from her site visit and savings card application – promptly landed her targeted adverts related to her condition. The complaint, which names trackers on five Novartis product websites, targets violations of HIPAA and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Our take: Most pixel-tracking litigation has focused on health systems, pharmacies, and prescription platforms – all HIPAA-covered entities. Novartis sits outside that framework, which is jolly convenient (until it isn’t). Its product websites aren’t bound by the same rules, yet a visit to a breast cancer drug page is arguably a key diagnostic tell. Now that a suitably prominent defendant has arrived, it might be time to test state privacy laws and close the federal loophole.

🦠 Immunotherapy for solid tumours enhanced by metabolite-sensing receptors (GEN): Stanford researchers have equipped NK and T cells with tumour-homing G-protein coupled receptors (thGPRs) that recognise metabolites released by proliferating cancer cells – including phospholipids, fatty acids, and cholesterol derivatives – and use them as a homing signal. In mouse models of breast and ovarian cancer, the engineered cells navigated directly to tumours, markedly improving control and survival.

Our take: CAR-T’s exhaustion problem has long dominated the field, but this research reframes solid tumour failure as partly a navigation problem. Cancer cells release metabolites as a byproduct of rapid proliferation, and those same metabolites recruit immunosuppressive cells that shield the tumour from attack. Stanford’s lot have engineered killer cells to follow those metabolites directly into the tumour instead. Maybe the answer to CAR-T exhaustion in solid tumours was never about endurance – just better directions.

🫀 UK biotech co-founded by Nobel laureate secures $86M for antibody program (Endpoints): Cambridge-based Immutrin is having a crack at a gap that no approved therapy has yet managed to fill – clearing amyloid deposits already lodged in the hearts of cardiomyopathy patients. The company was co-founded by Professor Daniel Christ, Sir Mark Pepys, whose research underpins the approach, and Sir Gregory Winter, whose Nobel-winning phage display technique was used to precisely engineer the lead antibody. The Series A will fund proof-of-concept trials.

Our take: Currently, approved treatments for this type of amyloidosis cardiomyopathy – stabilisers like Vyndaqel and Attruby, silencers like vutrisiran – work upstream, preventing new fibrils from forming. None of them touch what's already lodged in the heart. Immutrin's antibody recruits the immune system to clear existing deposits, opening the tantalising possibility of reversing damage rather than merely arresting it. If combined, treatment could become a two-pronged attack.

🧠 Oryon shines out of stealth with $21M to fight Parkinson’s disease (Fierce Biotech): Massachusetts-based biotech has closed its Series A, bringing total funding to $42M, for its stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s. Rather than the progenitor cells favoured by most rivals, Oryon uses the patient’s own stem cells to grow fully differentiated A9 neurons – the dopamine-producing cells whose degeneration drives Parkinson’s motor symptoms. Five patients in an ongoing Phase 1b/2a trial have shown motor score improvements ranging from 29% to 62% above baseline, six to 18 months after treatment.

Our take: Deriving neurons from a patient’s own cells sidesteps immunosuppression entirely – an advantage the allogeneic lot can’t claim. Five patients is a slim cohort, but the unilateral approach quietly does something useful: treating only one side of the brain creates a within-patient control, allowing dopamine restoration and motor recovery to be tracked against the untreated hemisphere. That unilateral treatment is already comparing favourably with bilateral approaches makes the next cohort worth watching.

And finally…

🍑 Trinity Biotech announces successful clinical results for its enhanced EpiCapture™ prostate cancer test (Yahoo): The Dublin-based company has reported an AUC of 85% for an enhanced version of its EpiCapture urine liquid biopsy test for aggressive prostate cancer, validated across 750 patient samples. The upgraded test incorporates a machine learning algorithm that factors in patient ethnicity alongside DNA biomarkers – the first prostate cancer diagnostic to do so. Commercialisation is planned through Trinity's New York reference laboratory.

Our take: Black men die from prostate cancer at twice the rate of white men, in part because prostate-specific antigen (PSA) thresholds in clinical guidelines were calibrated against white populations with naturally lower baseline levels – meaning the same score can mask meaningfully different levels of risk, depending on the patient. Most diagnostics treat ethnicity as a confounding variable to smooth away. Accounting for it meaningfully in clinical decision-making is long overdue.

Tune in 🎧

🎗️ How Evolution is Shaping Cancer Research: Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the science behind some of the most promising projects Cancer Research UK is currently supporting, from early detection to novel therapeutics.

🤖 NHSE’s tough message on tech: Tech sits at the heart of the government's 10-Year Health Plan, but NHS England has warned that a leadership void is slowing delivery across everything from EPR rollouts to AI adoption.

👩🏻‍💻 The Future of Tech Transfer: News roundup with NIH funding shifts, plus insights from Heather Steinman and Carole Burns on the future of tech transfer and commercialising research.

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🤝 Scientific Consultant, Genedata: Like helping scientists make sense of messy data? Guide biopharma teams using the Genedata Screener, blending science, tech, and project work to shape how biological data is analysed and applied.

🎬 Director, Competitive Intelligence, Envision Pharma: Got a sharp eye for pharma strategy? Lead high-value intelligence projects, build senior client relationships, and turn insights into growth across biotech and pharma accounts.

🧪 Chief Scientist – IHC & FISH, Leica Biosystems: Expert in tissue diagnostics? Set scientific direction across IHC and FISH, driving innovation, assay development, and translational strategy in advanced pathology technologies.

RSVP 📆

🇮🇹 16-17.04 | 16th International Conference on Biotechnology | Rome, Italy: A global gathering exploring how living systems can address challenges across health, energy, and the environment, from novel therapeutics to sustainable industrial applications.

🌱 21.04 | BioSolutions UK | London, UK: Hosted by the BIA, this London event brings together startups, investors, and policymakers to explore how engineering biology is shaping the future bioeconomy.

📑 29.04 | The Hardian Health Tech Summit | London, UK: Regulators from the MHRA, FDA, and NICE join NHS leaders and industry professionals for real-world insight into regulation and market access in medical devices.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my bespectacled friends!

This week: AI-powered smart glasses are showing promise in slowing cognitive decline among dementia patients, the era of Chinese biotech bargains appears to be ending, RFK Jr.’s controversial plans to alter childhood vaccine schedules have come to a halt, a multimillion-pound investment is backing a new treatment for rare kidney disease, and experts are calling for the inclusion of pregnant women in clinical trials to avoid repeating the mistakes of the thalidomide era.

See you next week!

Dodo

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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🤓 AI software for smart glasses wins £1m prize for technology to help people with dementia (The Guardian): A UK startup has bagged the Longitude Prize on Dementia for CrossSense: AI-enabled smart glasses with a “chatty” cognitive assistant, ‘Wispy’. Equipped with a camera, mic, and speakers, the glasses offer prompts, floating text, and friendly conversation to guide wearers through everyday life. In trials at the University of Sussex, participants identified 82% of objects correctly with the glasses, versus 46% without. Nifty!

Our take: The fact that memory gains persist once the specs come off suggests CrossSense may lean closer to neuro-rehabilitation than mere assistive tech. But the real test is still to come. A four-week in-home pilot is planned for late 2026, and larger controlled trials are needed to prove meaningful real-world benefit. With a one-hour battery life, subscription costs, and data privacy concerns still unresolved, the challenge now shifts from a clever prototype to something people will actually use day-to-day.

🇨🇳 As Chinese biotechs recognise their value, the bargain era may be over (PharmaVoice): China’s biotechs are exiting the discount aisle and discovering their true value. Licensing deals jumped to 92 in 2025, with average upfront payments soaring from $102M to $141M, signalling global pharma giants like GSK, AstraZeneca, and Lilly now see real value in Chinese pipelines. Blockbuster deals, like GSK’s $500M upfront for Hengrui’s COPD/oncology assets, prove Big Pharma still dominates.

Our take: China isn’t just producing better assets, it’s producing more of them than the market can comfortably absorb. In crowded areas like oncology and cell therapy, global pharma now has a surplus of similar bets to choose from, leaving a growing backlog of unpartnered programmes. For those companies, the choice is stark: build late-stage muscle or shelve viable programmes. But while China’s faster, lower-cost domestic trials offer a clear advantage, without deep experience in late-stage development, many promising assets could still stall before reaching market.

🧑‍⚖️ Judge blocks RFK Jr’s changes to US childhood vaccine schedule (BBC News): A federal judge has slammed the brakes on RFK Jr’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) vaccine overhaul, including blocking changes in regulations which would cut childhood shots from 17 to 11. Medical groups cheered the result as a win for science over politics, with the ruling citing “procedural failures” and “bypassed” expertise. The case was brought by the American Academy of Paediatrics, which argued that RFK JR’s actions violated Federal Law. The Trump admin is expected to appeal amid chaos for parents, insurers, and docs.

Our take: Kennedy’s attempt to cut the schedule and sidestep the usual advisory process has been blocked, returning vaccine guidance to the standard CDC framework. But it’s also exposed the limits of that system. States already hold the legal authority to diverge, and some are signalling they’re willing to use it to counter federal instability. The result isn’t fragmentation (yet!), but the conditions for it are starting to fall into place.

🫘 R1 starts up with $78M, aiming for a better kidney drug (BioPharma Dive): The Series A funding to aims fix hyperphosphatemia, a challenging complication of dialysis where excess phosphorus ravages bones and hearts. The therapy AP306, licensed from China’s Alebund, blocks multiple gut phosphate transporters for steadier control. Current binders such as Renvela and Xphozah demand handfuls of tablets per meal, leaving nephrologists juggling pill fatigue, adherence issues, and frustrated dieticians.

Our take: Phosphate binders like Renvela haven’t just dominated the market, they’ve defined it. Cheap generics, predictable behaviour, and seamless reimbursement have hardwired prescribing habits. And AP306’s “lower pill burden” is less transformative than it sounds, as it still requires three-times-daily dosing. This therefore isn’t a science problem, it’s a switching problem. Unless the therapy delivers a step-change in outcomes, nephrologists have little reason to abandon what already works.

And finally…

🫄‘Test drugs on pregnant women to stop another thalidomide scandal’ (The Times): Pregnant women are shut out of 99% of clinical trials, leaving doctors data-blind on vital medicines like antidepressants and prompting many mums-to-be to stop treatment, risking postnatal depression and suicide. The British Pharmacological Society is calling for more inclusive research, including “pregnancy and breastfeeding investigation plans” within the medicines licensing framework, so decisions about medicines can be evidence-based and better balance maternal benefit with foetal and infant risk.

Our take: MHRA, FDA, and EMA liability frameworks treat pregnancy as a high-risk category, with the threat of post-trial litigation making sponsors understandably cautious. The result is a system that protects foetuses from research, but leaves mothers exposed to guesswork. With most drugs untested in pregnancy, women are forced to choose between untreated illness and uncertain risk. The bigger failure isn’t including pregnant women in trials, it’s excluding them for so long.

Tune in 🎧

💡How to optimise your biotech company for partnering, licensing, and business success: Janita Good shares her expert insights on how biotech leaders can plan commercialisation from day one, and balance investor optimism with deal realism.

🧑‍🔬How bench scientists are getting ahead with AI: RNA biologist and bench scientist Heather Karner reveals how practical AI tools are reshaping lab life.

🦀 Radiotherapeutics for CNS cancers with plus therapeutics’: Dr. Marc Hedrick discusses the company’s strategic pivot to radiotherapeutics for brain cancers, as well as the science behind its lead candidate Reyobiq.

Apply ✍️

🧫 Account Manager, Thermo Fisher: Love building relationships that fuel scientific progress? You’ll lead commercial activities across key accounts, sell and support Thermo Fisher’s full CMD portfolio, and drive strategic growth through collaboration.

💊 Consultant or Senior Consultant, Pharma & Life Sciences, Baringa: Want to help redefine how medicines reach patients? You’ll advise clients from R&D to commercialisation, designing global operating models, launching brands, and enabling data and AI transformation.

🌍 Global Life Sciences Business Developer, Promptly Health: Excited by the rise of real-world data? You’ll scout and qualify new opportunities across RWE, HEOR, Market Access, and Digital teams, shaping early engagement for complex enterprise deals.

RSVP 📆

🧬 26.03 | The CGT Circle | London, UK: A networking event dedicated to the cell and gene therapy community. Designed to spark conversation and new connections, it brings together scientists, founders, and industry professionals working at the forefront of advanced therapies.

🇮🇹 16-17.04 | 16th International Conference on Biotechnology | Rome, Italy: Under the theme “Living Technologies for a Changing World: The Future Begins in Biotechnology,” this global meeting celebrates innovation where biology meets imagination, exploring how living systems can heal, adapt, and drive sustainable transformation across health, energy, and the environment.

📑 29.04 | The Hardian Health Tech Summit | London, UK: The Hardian team will be joined by representatives from the MHRA, FDA, NICE, NHS leaders, and more across the healthtech world for real-world insight into regulation and market access in medical devices.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow scientific sorcerers,

This week: BioNTech’s founders are planning a fresh mRNA venture, MiniMed unveils a new pump and sensor pairing to smooth glucose control, Ipsen’s cancer drug vanishes from the market, Chinese researchers coax CAR-T cells into clearing leukaemia with a fraction of the usual dose, and a Stanford microscope pulls off the neat trick of watching living cells in unprecedented detail.

Keep the magic alive,

Dodo

If you’d like to sponsor a future edition of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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👫 Couple who helped create Covid vaccine to leave BioNTech (The Times): Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, the husband-and-wife duo behind BioNTech’s mRNA Covid vaccine, are “ready to become pioneers again”. The co-founders will step down by year-end to launch their third start-up, where they’ll develop next-generation mRNA therapies. The news sent BioNTech shares tumbling 20% to around $80. Last year, the company posted €1.1B net loss on €2.9B revenue whilst pivoting from Covid to oncology, with 15 Phase 3 cancer trials planned by year-end.

Our take: Sahin and Tureci built BioNTech as a research-led biotech, and now it needs to become a commercial pharma company. Those are rather different beasts. Pioneering new science and managing multi-product oncology portfolios require different skill sets entirely. The founders recognise this – believing they’re better suited to building platforms than overseeing regulatory filings and pricing negotiations. The share drop shows some uncertainty, but it’s a sensible move in the long run.

💉 Newly minted MiniMed nets EU approval for 780G pump and Abbott’s Instinct CGM (Fierce Biotech): Fresh from its Medtronic spinout, MiniMed has secured CE mark approval to connect a new continuous glucose monitor – Abbott’s wearable, ‘Instinct’ – to its insulin pump. The integrated system will cover Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patients, aged 2 and up. The 15-day CGM sensor, built on FreeStyle Libre technology, joins two existing compatible CGMs. A European launch is planned for summer.

Our take: The approval covers Type 2 diabetes, but reimbursement systems were designed for Type 1 patients and haven’t remotely caught up. European health systems already struggle to fund CGMs for all Type 1 patients – expanding access to the considerably larger Type 2 population (where oral meds and GLP-1s cost far less) requires proving pumps prevent expensive complications better than existing therapies. Payers will likely keep access restricted until someone produces convincing health economics data.

🎗️ Ipsen withdraws cancer drug following safety concerns (European Biotechnology Magazine): Ipsen has pulled Tazverik from the market after its confirmatory trial revealed the drug might be causing secondary cancers. The EZH2 inhibitor got accelerated FDA approval in 2020 for two rare cancers – follicular lymphoma and epithelioid sarcoma – based on early data. Six years on, the SYMPHONY 1 trial showed secondary haematological malignancies emerging. Thankfully, all patients are being switched to standard therapy.

Our take: Accelerated approval is meant to get promising therapies to desperate patients faster, but Tazverik demonstrates the gamble. Patients took the drug for six years before confirmatory data revealed it might cause new cancers. If this is mechanism-related rather than molecule-specific, other EZH2 inhibitors could face questions – though that’s speculation. Meanwhile, follicular lymphoma and epithelioid sarcoma patients just lost one of their few treatment options.

🧫 CAR-T cell therapy boosted by biomimetic platform in refractory leukaemia (GEN): Chinese researchers have developed a ferritin aggregation cell engager (FACE) that strengthens the link between CAR-T cells and leukaemia cells without genetic modification. Added as a culture supplement during manufacturing, it binds to CD71 (expressed on both cell types), creating a molecular bridge. FACE-CAR-T cells matched standard efficacy at 20% of the usual cell dose and cleared leukaemia even when antigen levels dropped to 10% of normal.

Our take: Manufacturing costs scale directly with cell numbers. Fewer cells means cheaper production, faster timelines, and less leukapheresis burden, while maintaining similar efficacy. Current pricing (at £400k a dose) is partly justified by horrendously complex manufacturing. However, delivering the same outcomes with far fewer cells changes the cost structure entirely. If this holds, we might get CAR-T therapy that’s economically sustainable rather than a last-resort option.

And finally…

🔬 One-of-a-kind microscope reveals living cells in unprecedented detail (Phys.org): Stanford researchers have developed a new technique called Interferometric Image Scanning Microscopy (iISM), which can image cellular structures at 120-nanometre resolution – the highest achieved label-free. The technique combines interferometric scattering with array detector technology and works by shining a laser on a cell, then amplifying and collecting the scattered light signals. iISM uses substantially lower illumination power than comparable methods, allowing extended observation of living cells. Three Stanford collaborations are already using the microscope to study plant–microbe interactions, cancer drug uptake, and malaria-infected red blood cells in real time.

Our take: Sure, the resolution isn’t as sharp as super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, but while fluorescent labels wear off over time and can change the behaviour of the structures they tag, iISM lets researchers observe many structures inside living cells simultaneously for hours. Most high-resolution techniques blast cells with intense light, meaning you’re watching stressed cells reacting to your microscope rather than normal biology. Here, the lower laser power reduces the risk of photodamage to DNA and proteins, so the delicate living structures can remain undisturbed.

Tune in 🎧

🌱 Nature’s Balance Sheet: Kevin Webb, Managing Director of Superorganism, discusses why biodiversity is the next frontier for venture capital, and why nature has been catastrophically undervalued in our economic systems.

🤖 Why Most Bioprocess Automation Projects Fail Before the Robot Is Even Ordered: Host David Brühlmann and Anthony Catacchio, CEO of Product Insight, explore why rigorous system design and problem definition matter more than any individual technology, and how industrial robotics can lead to smarter lab automation.

📉 The Great Labour Shuffle: Brett, Nick, and Sam dissect how industry giants like Block are slashing 40% of their workforce overnight while accelerating AI adoption – challenging everything you thought you knew about employment, productivity, and economic growth.

Apply ✍️

🧪 Senior Research Scientist, Recursion: Keen to hunt for the next small-molecule contender? You’ll build sharp cell and biochemical assays, probe compound behaviour, test new technologies, and generate the data that pushes drug discovery programmes toward candidate selection.

🦠 Microbiological Technologist, GSK: Got an eye for invisible troublemakers? You’ll test sterile and non-sterile products, analyse results for batch release, investigate odd microbial findings, and keep QC labs audit-ready while working closely with production and quality teams.

🧮 Bioinformatician, Healx: Fancy teaching algorithms new medical tricks? You’ll develop drug-combination prediction models, analyse rare disease datasets, and work with scientists and engineers to generate therapeutic hypotheses for rare neurology and oncology programmes.

RSVP 📆

🇮🇹 23–24.03 | 29th European Biotechnology Congress | Rome, Italy: An international gathering where researchers, clinicians, and industry leaders present discoveries, discuss emerging technologies, and explore collaborations shaping the future of biotechnology.

🧬 26.03 | The CGT Circle | London, UK: A networking event for the cell and gene therapy community, bringing together scientists, founders, and industry professionals to spark new conversations and connections.

🧪 21.04 | BioSolutions UK | London, UK: Hosted by the BIA, this event connects innovators, investors, and industry leaders to explore how engineering biology is shaping the future bioeconomy.

📑 29.04 | The Hardian Health Tech Summit | London, UK: Join regulators, NHS leaders, and industry experts for real-world insight into regulation and market access in medical devices.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Greetings, my brainy pals,

This week, a pioneering Spanish study challenges the baby brain myth, suggesting that tired mums shed grey matter to become even better parents; an experimental drug could offer life-changing benefits for a rare form of childhood epilepsy; Roche is making big moves in South Korea with a half‑billion‑pound investment; relief is on the horizon as a new dwarfism drug gets the FDA nod; and Welsh biotech Antiverse has raised just shy of £10 million to develop next‑gen antibodies targeting cystic fibrosis.

Until next time,

Dodo

If you’d like to sponsor a future edition of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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👶 Pregnant women’s brains shed grey matter to prime them for motherhood, study suggests (BBC News): The long‑held “baby brain” stereotype, that pregnancy makes women forgetful, has been challenged by Spanish researchers. The Be Mother project found that expectant mothers shed about 5% of their grey matter – particularly in regions handling empathy and social connection – with greater brain changes correlating to stronger bonding after birth. It seems pregnancy triggers a neurological spring clean that primes women for the exhausting marathon of keeping tiny humans alive.

Our take: The project’s scale exposes an embarrassing gap in neuroscience: pregnancy has been forgotten as a fundamental biological process. For decades, adult brain models have been built on non-pregnant, often male, samples – effectively sidelining half the population’s most dramatic neurological transition. This blind spot likely skews our entire understanding of typical brain structure and function, which is odd, given that pregnancy and birth are hardly fringe experiences.

🧠 Scientists laud potentially life-changing drug for children with resistant form of epilepsy (The Guardian): A groundbreaking Phase 3 study has found that the experimental drug Zorevunersen could dramatically cut seizures in children with Dravet syndrome – by half after one dose, and by up to 80% after three doses. Published in NEJM, the research also showed improvements in movement, communication, and daily living. Experts hailed it as marking a shift from symptom management to targeting the genetic root of severe childhood epilepsies.

Our take: Antisense oligonucleotide therapies, once confined to rare metabolic and muscular diseases, are expanding into neurological disorders – rather promising, given over 800 genetic epilepsies have been identified. However, it’s not exactly a blockbuster model, with each form of epilepsy requiring its own targeted therapy. That being said, the findings could establish a template for developing precision medicines for rare paediatric conditions, assuming pharma can stomach developing hundreds of drugs for small patient populations.

💰 Roche announces $481m investment in South Korean biotech sector (Investment Monitor): The five-year programme aims to boost South Korea’s biotech and clinical research ecosystem, under a new deal with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The move will expand global clinical trials, foster R&D partnerships, and train local specialists. As global pharma investment in Korea surges – up 74% since 2020 – Roche’s open-innovation push positions the country as a rising hub for next‑gen drug development.

Our take: South Korea has been rather clever about vying for position as Asia’s regulatory innovation leader, with 30-day clinical trial approval timelines that beat most Western markets hands-down. With AstraZeneca also opening a Seoul biotech hub, Korea is becoming an attractive location for companies looking to run efficient trials without the regulatory sluggishness that plagues legacy markets. The country’s advanced infrastructure and government backing make it easier for pharma to test new approaches without fighting entrenched bureaucracy.

💊 Ascendis wins FDA approval of dwarfism drug (BioPharma Dive): Yuviwel, a once‑weekly injection to help spur bone growth in people with achondroplasia, breaks BioMarin’s monopoly on dwarfism drugs. The accelerated approval positions Yuviwel as a more convenient once-weekly alternative to BioMarin’s daily Voxzogo injection. Analysts expect patient switching of up to 40%, projecting $41.5M in sales with EU expansion in 2027. The price of Yuviwel will be announced in the coming weeks.

Our take: Orphan drug markets have thrived on high prices and market exclusivity for years, with little pressure to compete on anything beyond regulatory approval. Competition in rare conditions forces incumbents to justify pricing with clearer clinical differentiation, which Voxzogo will now need to demonstrate. Another contender, BridgeBio’s pill therapy, adds yet another layer of pressure. When patients have sustainable choices, convenience starts mattering as much as efficacy.

And finally…

🫁 Antiverse raises $9.3m Series A and partners with Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (BioXconomy): The AI antibody developer’s latest funding round was led by Soulmates Ventures, bringing total investment to over $20m. The Welsh biotech is expanding its AI antibody design platform and advancing its lead programmes toward the clinic by 2027. It’s also partnering with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to design breakthrough antibodies targeting the notoriously hard-to-treat CFTR protein, opening new frontiers in cystic fibrosis therapy.

Our take: The Cardiff success story shows that deep-tech biotech can thrive outside the golden triangle. Lower operational costs and untapped talent pools make regional hubs look rather sensible. Wales’ emerging biotech scene, backed by university partnerships and targeted investment funds, offers a model for regional growth where proximity to Oxford or Cambridge matters far less than having the right infrastructure and support networks in place.

Tune in 🎧

👄 Making biologics orally available with Vivtex’s Thomas von Erlach, PhD: Thomas shares the company’s journey through stealth development, strategic partnerships,  and the mission to unlock next‑gen oral therapies for obesity and diabetes.

🐉 Why Asia is the emerging epicentre for global biopharmaceutical progress: As China, Japan, and India each build distinct strengths across the drug development spectrum, McKinsey’s Fangning Zhang explores how Asia is reshaping the global biopharma landscape.

🧑‍⚖️ Where life science meets litigation: Patent litigator Tim Dabrowski discusses his pivot from medicine to law, the value of scientific expertise in IP battles, and the challenges of translating complex biotech concepts for legal wins.

Apply ✍️

🧑‍🔬 Manager (Consulting), Life Sciences, Gate One: Want to shape how life sciences leaders bring breakthrough therapies to market? You’ll lead transformative, high‑value programmes across global commercial and cross‑functional teams, drive account growth and business development, and mentor consultants to excel.

🇪🇺 Industry Director BioPharma Europe, Thermo Fisher Scientific: Ready to drive impact at the intersection of science and strategy? You’ll manage and grow relationships with top-tier customers, developing multi‑year account plans and coordinating cross‑divisional teams to deliver end‑to‑end solutions.

📋 Phorum Engagement Manager - Quality, BioPhorum: Interested in working at the centre of global pharma quality leadership? You’ll build trusted relationships with Chief Quality Officers and senior leaders, translating insights from strategic conversations into programme development.

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🍺 11.03 | Biotech & Beers | Newcastle, UK: An informal evening for the North East life sciences community to meet, swap ideas, and expand their networks. Expect relaxed conversations and plenty of opportunities to connect with fellow scientists, founders, and industry professionals over a drink.

🇮🇹 23-24.03 | 29th European Biotechnology Congress | Rome, Italy: A major international gathering where researchers, clinicians, and industry leaders come together to present discoveries, discuss emerging technologies, and explore collaborations shaping the future of biotechnology.

🧬 26.03 | The CGT Circle | London, UK: A networking event dedicated to the cell and gene therapy community. Designed to spark conversation and new connections, it brings together scientists, founders, and industry professionals working at the forefront of advanced therapies.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow forward thinkers,

This week, pride and progress share the stage. Nominations open for Endpoints’ LGBTQ+ leaders in biopharma, AI tools edge closer to everyday bench science, Dupixent collects yet another inflammatory indication, camel-derived peptides take a swing at antibiotic resistance, and in Oxford, a transplanted womb delivers a baby and a quiet redefinition of what transplantation can be.

Thanks for reading,

Dodo

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Discover 🔍

🌈 Who’s leading LGBTQ+ inclusion in biopharma? Nominate them for Endpoints’ annual report (Endpoints): Nominations are open for the fifth edition of the LGBTQ+ Leaders in Biopharma report, which profiles around a dozen scientists, executives, investors and other figures each year. The 2026 edition arrives at an important moment, as anti-LGBTQ bills in the US continue to climb, federal health research has been scaled back, and several large companies have retreated from DEI commitments. Nominations close 25 March, with the report due in June.

Our take: With major companies pulling back from DEI surveys, agreeing to be publicly profiled carries more weight than it did in 2022, making reports like this one all the more worthwhile. Biopharma benefits from people who think differently and live differently, and young people considering science careers jolly well deserve to see that reflected. Endpoints has built the closest thing the sector has to a longitudinal record of LGBTQ+ leadership.

👩🏻‍💻 Tamarind Bio secures $13.6M Series A to make AI more accessible for biology (GEN):The Stanford-founded company offers a library of 200+ AI models covering antibodies, peptides, small molecules and more – removing the need for bench scientists to code or wrangle cloud infrastructure. Around 100 biotech companies now use the platform, including eight of the top 20 pharma players, which caught the eye of Dimension Capital, who led the round. Apparently, wet lab biologists were forever emailing computational colleagues to run AlphaFold jobs on their behalf; Tamarind made that email unnecessary.

Our take: AlphaFold won a Nobel Prize, but most bench biologists still couldn’t use it without emailing a colleague. That gap between model capability and practical usability has been wildly underestimated. The industry spent years optimising model performance while the actual bottleneck – getting non-computational scientists to run them independently – went largely unaddressed. Tamarind is essentially selling smart access to something that already exists.

🤧 FDA approves Dupixent as first treatment for AFRS (The Pharmaletter): The approval covers adults and children aged six and older with a history of sinus surgery for allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS), a chronic condition driven by allergic hypersensitivity to fungi. Developed by Regeneron and licensed to Sanofi, Dupixent generated a rather handsome $18.5 billion in sales last year and is now approved across nine distinct type 2 inflammatory diseases in the US. One does get around.

Our take: Nine indications and counting. Each approval cements Dupixent as the default type 2 inflammation drug, a position that competitors will find very difficult to displace. Worth noting, though, that the surgery prerequisite may exclude patients who would benefit, simply because they haven’t had the chance to fail surgery first.

🐫 Camel antimicrobials could get us over the hump of antibiotic resistance (BioTechniques): Researchers at Sultan Qaboos University have identified three antimicrobial peptides from dromedary camels, two of which showed jolly impressive activity against multidrug-resistant bacteria including MRSA and E. coli. The peptides kill bacteria by damaging cell membranes, rather than through site-specific binding which conventional antibiotics relies on. Both showed low toxicity at therapeutic concentrations. Terribly well-mannered, as far as antimicrobials go.

Our take: Camels already gave us nanobodies, the single-domain antibodies now used across diagnostics and therapeutics. These new antimicrobial peptides suggest camel immunology has rather more to offer. Their immune systems evolved under frightfully harsh conditions: desert heat, scarce water, relentless pathogen load. That sort of evolutionary pressure tends to produce defence molecules that temperate-climate lab animals simply never needed to develop. One does wonder what else is in there.

And finally…

🍼 ‘Miracle’ baby born to first UK womb transplant from dead donor (BBC News): Grace Bell, born without a functioning womb due to MRKH syndrome, has given birth to a rather splendid baby boy at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford. Hugo, now 10 weeks old, is the first UK baby born through deceased donor uterine transplantation. The transplant is the third of ten in a UK clinical trial, but the first baby born. More than 100 womb transplants have been performed worldwide, resulting in over 70 healthy births.

Our take: Unlike most transplants, the womb is removed after one or two pregnancies to spare lifelong immunosuppression. A temporary organ with a planned exit point is a rather novel concept in transplantation and it changes the risk-benefit arithmetic considerably, particularly for conditions where quality of life is the goal. MRKH affects 1 in 5,000 women, and until very recently, transplantation simply wasn’t on the table.

Tune in 🎧

🤖 Did AI researchers let AI hallucinations into scientific papers?: A top AI conference accepted papers with 100 fabricated citations. GPTZero’s Alex Cui explains how it happened, and what it reveals about researchers’ AI habits.

🦟 Titans of Science: Jane Carlton: She stole her brother’s genetics textbook at 8, then went on to sequence the malaria parasite genome. Jane now directs Johns Hopkins’ Malaria Research Institute.

🌧️ The world is running out of water; Why some people get stuck in grief; Is our black hole a clump of dark matter?: Can artificially seeding clouds solve global water shortages? Is prolonged grief a real brain condition? And is Sagittarius A* actually dark matter? A busy week for science.

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🧭 Technical Programme Manager, Latent Labs: Thrive where code meets pipettes? This hire will orchestrate ML research, wet lab teams, and partners, bringing structure to ambitious programmes and keeping bold, science-heavy projects moving from plan to impact.

🫀 SVP Head of Cardio-Renal Research, Evotec: Ready to steer a therapeutic empire? You’ll set cardio-renal R&D strategy, back high-value targets, manage budget and partnerships, and guide programmes from discovery through preclinical build-out.

📊 Laboratory Manager, Imperial College London: Fancy running a start-up playground for deep science? You’ll keep shared labs humming, manage safety and kit from gas lines to LN2, support founders, and become the go-to on-site lab fixer.

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🦾 05.03 | Women in Biotech - BIA | Cambridge, UK: Celebrate International Women’s Day with a full day of thought-leading panels and discussions, inspirational talks as well as exciting keynote speakers.

🍺 11.03 | Biotech & Beers | Newcastle, UK: Join Bionow for an networking evening which provides opportunities for people from companies working in or with the life sciences sector to network and socialise with their peers in an informal setting.

📑 29.04 | The Hardian Health Tech Summit | London, UK: The Hardian team will be joined by representatives from the MHRA, FDA, NICE, NHS leaders, and more across the healthtech world for real-world insight into regulation and market access in medical devices.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Good morning, my selfish simians,

This week, China’s biotech boom has gone full Planet of the Apes, electric brain shocks could curb our selfish streak and boost empathy, and new findings reveal consciousness lingering for hours after cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has announced a bumper multibillion-pound investment in China, and market optimism is returning to UK biotech despite a tricky 2025.

Until next week,

Dodo

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

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🐒 China’s biotech boom sends price of lab monkeys for drug tests climbing (SCMP): China’s biotech gold rush is monkeying with primate prices. Lab monkeys now fetch 140,000 yuan ($20k) each – more than the average annual salary – doubling in five years amid blockbuster licensing deals and revived funding. However, with 70% of drug-development costs associated with late-stage trials, costly animal models should not make medicine bills go bananas.

Our take: High demand and limited supplies through 2026 have prompted CROs, like WuXi AppTec and Joinn Laboratories, to acquire monkey farms and land in Florida for quarantine facilities – creating resilient, self-sufficient primate supply chains. These structural changes hedge against price volatility and shortages, positioning them as dominant players in global preclinical services. Another upside: owned supply chains could potentially lock in cost advantages and enable faster trial timelines for domestic biotechs.

⚡ Can a pulse of electricity to the brain make us less selfish? (BBC News): University of Zurich scientists zapped 44 volunteers’ frontal and parietal brain zones with mild electric pulses, coaxing them to share more with strangers in a split‑the‑cash game. Syncing empathy and decision circuits delivered consistent, if modest, altruism boosts. The findings highlight a neural mechanism behind generosity and point to potential targets relevant to social dysfunction. However, whether repeated sessions could produce lasting effects remains an open question.

Our take: While the behavioural shift was subtle and short-lived, the study does something more interesting than simply making people “nicer”. By enhancing gamma synchronisation between frontal and parietal regions, the researchers increased how much others’ outcomes influenced participants’ decisions. That makes this less about flicking an “empathy switch” and more about modulating the neural circuitry that integrates self and other interests in real time.

🇨🇳 AstraZeneca to invest US$15bn in China manufacturing and R&D (The Chemical Engineer): AstraZeneca’s expansion dovetails with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s China visit, forging deeper UK-China trade ties through partnerships with Cambridge, Oxford, and King’s College London universities. This structural linkage funnels Chinese manufacturing scale and clinical trial speed into British-led R&D, creating a trans-national pipeline for cell therapies and oncology drugs that bolsters AstraZeneca’s global portfolio, while supporting thousands of UK jobs in life sciences.

Our take: The investment amplifies synergies between China’s CAR-T/stem cell trial dominance and AstraZeneca’s radioconjugates expertise, fostering hybrid modalities like radiolabeled cell therapies for precision oncology. This partnership could yield breakthrough therapy combos unfeasible elsewhere, helping the company diversify beyond traditional small molecules and fortifying their edge in a crowded next-gen cancer market, while aligning with China’s push for indigenous innovation leadership.

🧠 Consciousness could last hours after ‘death’ (The Times): It seems that death is more a dimmer switch than an off button, with brain activity and awareness lingering “minutes to hours” after cardiac arrest, according to research from Arizona State University. Lingering brain activity makes exact time of death difficult to declare, with ramifications for transplantation led by the dead-donor rule. This, and near-death survivors’ experiences, is prompting calls to reconsider CPR duration, adopt “stages of death” protocols, and rethink organ harvest timing.

Our take: Shifting death from a binary “off switch” to staged phases risks complicating transplant practice, consent frameworks and hospital end-of-life structures. And extended CPR, driven by evidence of “elements of consciousness” and electrical signals post-arrest, could impose resource strains on emergency medicine. This persistent consciousness demands rethinking sedation, analgesia, and bedside dignity to ensure humane care in vulnerable final moments.

And finally….

📈 Number of UK biotech companies rising, says report (pharmaphorum): Analysis from Knight Frank reveals the biotech sector has expanded by 22% since 2019, with the UK now home to over 15,000 companies. While growth cooled in 2025 amid economic uncertainty and a drop in venture funding, optimism is rebounding as investor confidence improves. The golden triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge remains the powerhouse for innovation – boasting record-high lab construction – yet the North West is now outpacing the South East for new start-ups.

Our take: Ey ‘Up! Government incentives tailored specifically for regions outside the Golden Triangle, such as targeted tax breaks and R&D grants in the North West, appear to be accelerating the development of new companies. This decentralised approach is narrowing the traditional north-south divide in life sciences, which could go on to foster a more balanced UK biotech ecosystem that leverages local economic strengths.

Tune in 🎧

🔬 Company turnarounds and AI for infectious diseases with Seek Labs’ Jared Bauer: Cofounder and CEO Jared Bauer shares his journey through biotech turnarounds and how Seek Labs is merging AI, diagnostics and CRISPR-based therapeutics to tackle infectious diseases.

🦀 A strategic turn from obesity to cancer: CEO Amy Burroughs discusses leading Terns Pharmaceuticals through a pivotal transformation, from metabolic disease to oncology, with a novel allosteric BCR‑ABL inhibitor for chronic myeloid leukaemia.

🩸 A Plasmid-Based Cancer Therapy – Dr Alexander Schneider: Founder and CEO Dr Alex Schneider joins Dr Kevin Folta to unpack the evolution from chemotherapy to immunotherapy, spotlighting CureLab’s plasmid‑based therapy, Elanogen, for refractory cancers.

Apply ✍️

📋 Validation Specialist, Kedrion Biopharma UK: Looking to build your career in a GMP‑regulated lab? In this role, you’ll perform analytical testing, maintain documentation to quality standards, and help ensure smooth daily lab operations.

💊 Director of AI/ML Drug Development, Quotient Sciences: Ready to drive digital innovation in Translational Pharmaceutics? You’ll lead the creation of an AI/ML‑enabled drug development function, implementing advanced tools to enhance decision‑making, scientific excellence, and the design and delivery of future medicines.

🧑‍🔬 Bio Processing Associate - Manufacturing, Leica Biosystems: Want to help advance cancer diagnostics from lab to life? You’ll support manufacturing through scientific expertise, ensuring high‑quality product production and smooth transfer of new innovations.

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🧫 23.02 | 5th Crick Rare Diseases Conference 2026 | London, UK: An annual meeting uniting clinicians, scientists, and industry experts to share insights, advance understanding, and explore new approaches to diagnosing and treating rare diseases.

🤝 23-27.02 | Biotech Digital Partnering | Online: Five days of global online partnering for pharma, biotech, medtech, and digital health companies – featuring pre‑arranged one‑on‑one Zoom meetings to drive business development and licensing opportunities.

👩🏻‍💻 27.02 | Innovation in Women’s Health and Femtech | London, UK: Explore breakthroughs in women’s health technology, digital tools, and data strategies to improve patient outcomes and integrate innovative solutions into clinical practice.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.

Hello, my fellow pioneers,

This week, the immune system takes centre stage. Tumours are being prodded in human tissue, CAR-T makes an in vivo pivot into autoimmune disease, a troublesome bacterial sugar finds itself implicated in ALS and dementia, the FDA gives Moderna’s flu ambitions a chilly reception, and the Royal Society turns its attention to the women whose scientific contributions never quite made it onto the map for Women and Girls in STEM day this week.

Mind the cytokines,

Dodo

Discover 🔍

🎗️ Physiological human in vitro models to study and evaluate tumor immunology (GEN): Three studies nudge tumour immunology further into the human lane. A UPenn vascularised chip lets researchers watch CAR-T cells slip through vessels and into solid tumours in real time, exposing endothelial choke points. A patient-derived lymphoma organoid traces post-chemo immune faltering to germinal centre B-cell failure. And in Singapore, hyaluronic acid hydrogels kept tumour explants alive for 12 days, preserving immune diversity for drug testing.

Our take: Mouse xenografts were serviceable stand-ins, but solid tumours are fussy, territorial things. These chips and organoids let researchers watch the whole skirmish unfold in human tissue, from CAR-T extravasation to stromal obstruction and immune exhaustion after chemotherapy. Instead of waiting for tumour shrinkage curves, teams can now observe where therapies stall and why, and refine strategy before patients even enter the frame.

🛡️ Eli Lilly enters CAR T realm with $2.4B orna buy, starting with autoimmune (BioSpace): The deal gives Lilly access to in vivo CAR-T tech that uses circular RNA delivered via lipid nanoparticles to generate CAR-T cells inside the body, sidestepping the traditional ex vivo manufacturing process. Lead asset Orna-252 targets CD19 for B cell-driven autoimmune diseases and is clinical trial-ready, though still preclinical. CEO David Ricks previously dismissed CAR-T over accessibility concerns, making this a notable about-face.

Our take: Ricks told Reuters in 2019 the data was “amazing” but CAR-T simply couldn’t reach enough people. Now, in vivo delivery has removed the manufacturing bottleneck, Lilly has gone straight for autoimmune, where eligible patients number in the millions rather than the thousands currently receiving CAR-T for cancer. That’s a bet on CAR-T as a mass-market modality, and the other large pharma holdouts will likely follow suit.

🍭 Gut-brain discovery identifies harmful bacterial sugar as potential therapeutic target for ALS and dementia (MedicalXpress): A whopping 70% of the 23 patients examined had dangerous levels of inflammatory glycogen produced by gut bacteria, vs 1/3 of those without. For C9ORF72 mutation carriers, the most common genetic cause of both conditions, it may explain why only some people develop disease. Reducing the harmful sugars in mice improved brain health and lifespan. Clinical trials are potentially a year away.

Our take: If degrading a bacterial sugar in the gut can slow progression, the resulting therapy could be mechanistically straightforward - a gut-targeted enzyme or sugar-degrading agent. That’s a simple intervention aimed at diseases where current options are ruinously expensive and largely palliative. How pharma prices a cheap mechanism against a desperate, high-value patient population will be rather revealing.

❌ FDA declines to review Moderna application for new flu vaccine (The Guardian): The agency argues Moderna’s clinical trials didn’t stand up against the best available standard of care. The trials compared the new shot to standard flu vaccines in under-65s and high-dose vaccines in over-65s, a design previously agreed with the FDA. The refusal letter, unusually signed by CBER director Vinay Prasad, identified no safety or efficacy concerns. The application is already under review in the EU, Canada and Australia.

Our take: If a foreign regulator licenses an mRNA flu vaccine that the FDA wouldn’t review, it puts the agency in a rather awkward spot. This is the same agency that fast-tracked mRNA authorisation during COVID. Stalling on the same platform five years later, on a trial design it previously agreed to, sends a peculiar message to every vaccine developer weighing US-first filing strategies. Moderna may simply build its flu franchise elsewhere.

And finally…

👭 Royal Society calls for public’s help to build Women in STEM history map of the UK (The Royal Society): The project currently covers sites around the Society’s London headquarters, drawn from a rather industrious year of archival digging. Now the public is being enlisted to submit locations from across the UK tied to women from science history. It marks 80 years since women were first elected to the Society’s Fellowship, a jolly good milestone given they were kept out for the previous 285.

Our take: A year of dedicated archival research and the Royal Society still needs the public to fill in the blanks. Sounds… familar… The map makes visible just how thoroughly women’s contributions went unrecorded by the very institutions that benefited from them. Crowdsourcing here amounts to retrospective cataloguing that ought to have happened decades ago. Splendid project, mind you, for this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Tune in 🎧

🏆 Why AI, obesity and breast cancer will dominate 2026: DDW editors discuss how artificial intelligence, obesity treatments, and breast cancer research will attract significant investor attention and fundamentally reshape the drug discovery landscape throughout 2026.

📈 Biotech Beat NVIDIA in 2025. Can It Do It Again?: Analysts discuss whether biotech can repeat its 2025 outperformance of NVIDIA, focusing on Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk earnings, FDA regulatory challenges, and managing investment risk in 2026.

🧠 Mini human brains, termination shock, and ancient fossils: Guests discuss lab-grown brain organoids with blood vessels, the catastrophic risks of geoengineering “termination shock,” and a massive discovery of 512-million-year-old fossils in a Chinese quarry.

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🧪 Scientist I/II, Bioconjugation, Abzena: Expert in molecular matchmaking? Master the art of bioconjugation by linking cytotoxic drugs and oligonucleotides to proteins, using next-generation platforms like ThioBridge® to develop life-changing ADCs.

💊 Project Manager I Drug Development, Quotient Sciences: Ready to transition from the lab to leadership? Use your analytical or R&D background to act as the primary bridge between clients and scientists, managing complex drug development timelines and budgets.

🍺 Fermentation Scientist I, Bactobio: Think you can outsmart superbugs? Use your expertise in bioreactors and non-model microbes to scale production of novel compounds, turning deeptech insights into life-saving medical and agricultural solutions.

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🤖 18.02 | Startup Lab: AI Compliance | London, UK: Join experts to find out how to master the UK’s AI regulatory landscape, clinical safety, and data protection obligations to build secure, compliant healthtech products.

🌎 20.02 | Biocom Global Partnering and Investor Conference | California, USA: California’s premier life science partnering event, uniting 500+ investors, CEOs, and execs from pharma, biotech, and research for deal-making, small company showcases, and insights on the latest industry trends and innovation.

👩🏻‍💻 27.02 | Innovation in Women’s Health and Femtech | London, UK: Explore breakthroughs in women’s health technology, digital tools, and data strategies to improve patient outcomes and integrate innovative solutions into clinical practice.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.