Right here’s a rundown of the highest life sciences and well being information throughout the Pacific Northwest this week.
Invoice Gates helps open new vaccine manufacturing facility: Seattle-area biotech firm Inventprise constructed the facility with assist from the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis. “For the Gates Basis, Inventprise is an excellent essential companion,” mentioned Gates, who attended a ribbon-cutting occasion and tested positive for COVID-19 the following day.
Former Athira Pharma exec weighs in: Xue Hua, the corporate’s former head of scientific improvement and analysis, revealed a blog post criticizing the corporate’s dealing with of an investigation that led to the resignation of longtime CEO Leen Kawas in October.
Seagen CEO on go away amid home violence allegations: Police data element the evening that Seagen CEO Clay Siegall was arrested at his residence final month and charged with a fourth diploma home violence gross misdemeanor. Seagen introduced Monday that Siegall is on a leave of absence and the corporate has initiated its personal investigation.
GeekWire Awards winners: The GeekWire Awards have been held dwell and in individual for the primary time in three years on Thursday. Learn extra concerning the winners here, together with well being knowledge firm Truveta, which took residence the Well being Innovation of the 12 months award. Other finalists within the class have been: A-Alpha Bio, Parse Biosciences, Tasso, and the College of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design.
Extra life sciences information:
Recognition: 4 College of Washington school members have been elected to the Nationwide Academy of Sciences: Elizabeth Buffalo, Joseph Mougous, Jay Shendure and emeritus professor Jim Truman.
Ambassador: Sister Dr. Jenna, a self-described “religious mentor,” joined Paris Hilton as an envoy for Seattl-area microbiome firm Viome. After utilizing the corporate’s “precision dietary supplements,” the host of the America Meditating radio present “started feeling such a change in my power and emotions,” she mentioned in a press release.
Research:
- After she lays her eggs and tends to them, the feminine octopus dies in a course of recognized to be mediated by glands between her eyes. The animals typically even hurt themselves or eat their very own limbs within the course of. A new study led by College of Washington assistant professor of psychology and biology Z. Yan Wang outlines the chemical pathways that management the occasion.
- The composition of intestine microbes could affect the physique’s response to statins, medication generally prescribed for heart problems. Analysis led by the Institute for Methods Biology discovered that sure courses of micro organism have been related to stronger response to the medication. The findings may lead to new methods to foretell who’s more likely to reply and extra exact calibration of drug dosing.
- Scientists have lengthy speculated that people may need completely different susceptibility to accumulating mutations of their DNA. College of Washington assistant professor Kelley Harris and her colleagues have now identified a gene in mice that impacts the speed at which mutations accumulate in the remainder of the genome. The findings have implications for understanding heredity and susceptibility to most cancers.
- Fred Hutch and College of Washington researchers have identified a few of the distinctive immune cells which can be discovered within the neighborhood of human stable tumors, offering potential targets for brand new therapies.
Occasion: The UW’s Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Drugs is hosting 5 audio system at its Stem Cell Symposium on Thursday, Could 19. The occasion is in individual and digital.
