BioMed X, Novo Nordisk Collaboration, 10x Genomics Launches Platform Addition, More
By Bio-IT World Staff
August 26, 2025 | BioMed X announced the launch of a new collaboration with Novo Nordisk; 10x Genomics launched Xenium Protein, a new addition to its Xenium Spatial platform; and more.
Andelyn Biosciences has partnered with Amplo Biotechnology. The partnership will provide scalable manufacturing of clinical-grade AAV material, leveraging Andelyn's suspension AAV Curator platform. Diseases of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) typically result in muscle weakness with severe cases requiring the use of respiratory support, the use of wheelchair for ambulation, and/or tube feeding. Andelyn Biosciences’ suspension AAV Curator platform is a highly characterized, scalable, suspension AAV platform that leverages a data-driven approach to adapt and optimize customer processes while providing a pathway to cGMP and commercial manufacturing. By adopting this platform, Amplo Biotechnology aims to advance its AAV gene therapy programs toward clinical evaluation, focusing on the safety and efficacy required for upcoming trials. Press release.
Parexel has appointed Jim Anthony to the expanded role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and President, Parexel Biotech. He has served as the global leader for Parexel Biotech since its inception in 2019. Mr. Anthony will oversee both biotech and pharmaceutical customer strategy and relationships globally, leveraging the company’s comprehensive suite of solutions and industry-leading therapeutic expertise across Phase I-IV clinical development to accelerate and advance their life-changing therapies to market. Press release.
Immunai announced a new academic initiative to support human immunology research: the Immunai Grand Collaboration Initiative for Single-Cell Immune Profiling. As cuts to the NIH and other agencies limit labs’ access to critical research infrastructure, Immunai is stepping up to help fill that gap. Through the program, academic researchers can apply for free access to Immunai’s single-cell sequencing platform, including full single-cell transcriptomic, surface proteomic, and TCR profiling, for studies involving up to 1,000 human samples. The company is accepting proposals from labs studying cancer, autoimmunity, or other immune-related areas, especially in patients treated with immunotherapy. Press release.
KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co. has adopted Elix Discovery, Elix’s proprietary AI-powered drug discovery platform. Elix Discovery features an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that enables users to automatically build predictive models for optimal compound profiling. Leveraging Elix’s proprietary structure generation models, users can optimize predictive models and parameters directly within the GUI, which accelerates compound design. Press release.
10x Genomics launched Xenium Protein, a new addition to its Xenium Spatial platform that enables simultaneous RNA and protein detection in the same cell, on the same tissue section, all in a single automated run. As the first fully integrated spatial multiomic workflow for the Xenium platform from 10x Genomics, Xenium Protein empowers researchers to generate deeper biological insights and without the need to stitch together data from multiple technologies. By reducing the need for separate workflows, technologies, or sample sections, Xenium Protein simplifies experimental design and shortens time to results. Press release.
BioMed X announced the launch of a new collaboration with Novo Nordisk. This partnership aims to address one of the most critical challenges in modern drug development: the efficient oral delivery of therapeutic peptides. A research team will be formed to work on this challenge with support from BioMed X and Novo Nordisk. The new project, “Prolonged Retention of Oral Peptide Formulations in the Gut,” will be hosted at BioMed X in Heidelberg, Germany. It aims to develop novel oral formulation technologies that achieve site-specific, prolonged retention of tablets or capsules within the lower small intestine. The key objective is to significantly improve the absorption and bioavailability of peptide-based therapeutics. Press release.
Twist Bioscience launched the Twist Oncology DNA Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (CGP) Panel, a customizable, research-use-only solution designed to empower users to identify genomic alterations for a broad set of tumors, guide targeted therapy development, and support clinical and translational oncology research. The Twist Oncology DNA CGP Panel was designed to serve a wide range of research groups including regional clinical labs, academic medical centers, and biopharma partners. The panel composition incorporates clinical research and includes a comprehensive and updated biomarker list covering 562 genes that incorporate all major tumor types. Press release.
The International Progressive MS Alliance launched its MS Clinical and Imaging Data Resource (CIDR), which provides the academic and research community access to anonymized and harmonized MRI and clinical data from thousands of people living with MS who participated in one of many clinical trials. The Alliance, in conjunction with McGill University in Montréal, Canada, and four industry partners—Biogen, Novartis, Roche, and Sanofi—is making this resource available exclusively to the MS research community to help accelerate the understanding of MS progression and speed up clinical trials aiming to find solutions for progressive MS. Press release.
Southwest Research Institute scientists and engineers have developed a custom large language model (LLM) to accelerate drug design and discovery. A multidisciplinary team developed the Generative Approaches for Molecular Encodings (GAMES) LLM to generate Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System (SMILES) strings. SMILES is an industry standard system that represents the structure of molecules using a short series of text characters to facilitate storage, retrieval, and modeling. Funded by SwRI’s LAMP initiative, an internal research program to advance LLMs, researchers trained GAMES to understand and generate valid new SMILES combinations. Press release.
KAIST researchers have developed an AI model that, using only information about the target protein, can design optimal drug candidates without any prior molecular data. The model also predicts the binding mechanism (non-covalent interactions) between the drug and the target protein. Press release.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and TOPPAN Holdings announced a strategic alliance to advance the development of TOPPAN Holdings’ invivoid 3D cell culture technology as a tool for personalized cancer treatments and drug screening efforts. This collaboration brings together TOPPAN Holdings’ innovative organoid culture technology and MD Anderson’s clinical and research expertise to accelerate the development of new clinical tools to better inform physicians about expected outcomes from a given therapy. Under the agreement, researchers from TOPPAN Holdings and MD Anderson will work collaboratively toward obtaining College of American Pathologists (CAP)/Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certification of an organoid-based assay that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of various cancer therapies on patient-derived samples. The collaborators also will work together on clinical validation studies to evaluate the utility of this tool across several cancer types. Press release.