#80- Boozy bacteria, anti-ageing vaccines, and predicting dementia

The coffee break biotech roundup, by SomX.

Hello, my fellow readers,

Dry January may be drawing to a close, but biology clearly didn’t get the memo. This week, gut bacteria explain how carbs can turn into alcohol, shingles vaccines show anti-ageing benefits, and finger-prick blood tests edge closer to predicting dementia years in advance. Elsewhere, GSK splashes out on food allergy control, while in the UK a regulatory shift quietly rewrites what’s possible for ultra-rare disease treatment.

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👆Alzheimer’s finger-prick test could help diagnosis (BBC News):  An international trial is testing whether a finger-prick blood test can flag Alzheimer’s risk up to 15 years before symptoms show. The Bio-Hermes-002 study is enrolling more than 1,000 volunteers aged 60+, comparing blood markers linked to amyloid and tau against PET scans and lumbar punctures. Samples can be posted to labs without refrigeration, neatly sidestepping invasive tests that only two in every 100 patients currently receive.

Our take: Earlier diagnosis is clearly the right ambition, but it only works if treatment timelines move with it. Finger-prick testing makes sampling easy, but it risks opening a long, uncomfortable gap between knowing and doing. With most Alzheimer’s drugs aimed at symptomatic disease, people could sit with a warning for years and few routes to therapeutic action. The real win is not just earlier diagnostics, but earlier access to therapy, reimbursement, and care pathways that close the gap rather than widen it.

💉 Shingles vaccine may help keep older people biologically younger (The Times): A study of nearly 4,000 Americans aged 70+ found that vaccinated folks clocked lower chronic inflammation, slower epigenetic and transcriptomic ageing, and better overall biological ageing scores. The effects stuck around in people vaccinated four or more years earlier. The study is observational, so the healthy user effect may be doing some heavy lifting; however, separate research also pegged shingles vaccination to a 24% drop in dementia risk.

Our take: This won’t be replacing your night cream any time soon, but it does blur the line between infection control and long-term health. The signals suggest immune modulation may dampen the low-grade inflammation that drives many diseases of ageing. That reframes vaccines as system-level intervention, rather than one-off protection, and gives ageing research something it rarely enjoys: biological markers that move early enough to be studied properly.

🤑 GSK reaches $2.2bn deal to buy food allergy biotech RAPT (pharmaphorum): New CEO Luke Miels hasn’t wasted time stamping his authority, stumping up $2.2bn for global rights to ozureprubart, an anti-IgE antibody for food allergy prevention. Currently in Phase 2b trials, ozureprubart could allow 12-week dosing, a sharp shift from the biweekly injections required with Xolair, and may work for around 25% of patients who cannot use existing treatments. Phase 2b results are due in 2027.

Our take: No EpiPens here, just fewer injections and less daily friction. Miels’ bet is that adherence, especially in children, decides outcomes long before marginal gains on efficacy curves do. Food allergy management runs on school timetables, clinic slots, and exhausted parents. In paediatric prophylaxis, convenience often determines whether protection exists only on paper or actually holds.

🍺 Study confirms why some people get drunk without touching alcohol (Science Alert): Scientists have confirmed bacteria, not fungi, are the booze-mongers behind auto-brewery syndrome (ABS). In a study of 22 people with the condition, researchers found higher levels of ethanol-producing K. pneumoniae and E. coli in affected people, compared to household controls, with E. coli surging during symptomatic flare-ups. But resetting the microbiome showed promise, with one patient remaining symptom-free for over 16 months after two faecal transplants.

Our take: More than a gut feeling, ethanol production only kicks in under specific conditions, pointing to ABS as a conditional dysbiosis shaped by diet or pH. K. pneumoniae and E. coli are common residents that are not constantly active, which changes the treatment logic. Instead of wiping the microbiome clean, introducing ethanol-gobbling rivals could keep symptoms in check by control rather than eradication.

And finally…

💡 Treatment of a teenager with an ultra-rare condition is a medical milestone (The Economist): After years of campaigning by a mother who lost her daughter to an ultra-rare disorder, a teenage girl with Niemann-Pick disease type C has become the first patient treated under a new UK regulatory framework at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The bespoke antisense oligonucleotide therapy was administered on January 13th, marking the first time a custom-made drug of this kind has been delivered within a formal clinical setting in Britain.

Our take: The word “breakthrough” is used ad nauseam in biotech, but this story earns it. Britain’s MHRA has approved a master protocol for bespoke antisense oligonucleotide drugs targeting fatal genetic brain disorders, effectively regulating the drug-making process, rather than each individual therapy. That flips the economics of ultra-rare diseases: by bundling single-patient tragedies into a shared framework, “ultra-rare” stops meaning commercially unviable and more like something industry can actually build around.

Tune in 🎧

👀 Labiotech’s 15 biopharma companies to watch in 2026: Labiotech journalists Jules Adam, Roohi Peter, and Willow Shah‑Neville reveal their picks for the most exciting biotech players shaping the year ahead.

💭 Christophe Bourdon, LEO Pharma CEO, on dermatology innovation, rare disease and scalable growth: Bourdon shares how LEO Pharma is building durable growth, balancing first-in-class dermatology programmes with rare disease focus and AI-enabled innovation.

🫁 BoB@JPM: Marc Salzberg, M.D., Airway Therapeutics: Salzberg unpacks why bronchopulmonary dysplasia remains overlooked, what he learned from building and selling a CRO, and how Airway is funding late-stage trials.

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