Probing New Targets for Treating the Most Lethal Form of Pancreatic Cancer
September 10, 2019
By Neozene

This article originally appeared in FierceBiotech and was written by Arlene Weintraub Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer and also one of the most difficult cancers to treat, because the tumors evolve to evade chemotherapy, and they often spread rapidly throughout the body. Two new studies are reporting progress in the ongoing effort to find new targets for treating PDAC. One seeks to disrupt the metabolism of cancer cells, while the other blocks a key protein that PDAC cells need to grow. Monday, Tyme Technologies

Is Gene Therapy the Solution to Obesity and Diabetes?
September 3, 2019
By Neozene

This article originally appeared in FierceBiotech and was written by Arlene Weintraub The gene FABP4 is highly active in adipose tissue and known to be a major contributor to obesity and related diseases like type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Hanyang University in Seoul have developed a way to silence the gene using a type of gene-editing technology called CRISPR interference. When the researchers inhibited FABP4 in white adipose tissue—commonly known as the unhealthy white fat—they observed a reduction in lipid storage. Then they tried it in mice that had been fed a