News

SOMERSET, N.J. – November 23, 2020 — Catalent, the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies, development, and manufacturing solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, and consumer health products, today announced that it had entered into a commercial supply agreement with Blueprint Medicines following FDA approval of GAVRETO™ (pralsetinib). Developed by Blueprint Medicines, GAVRETO is a new therapy indicated for the treatment of adults with metastatic RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as detected by an FDA approved test.

CAMBRIDGE UK, 16 November 2020:


Start Codon, a life science and healthcare business accelerator based in Cambridge, UK, today announced that it has closed Start Codon Fund I LP (the “Fund”) at £15 million. The Fund will be used to support Start Codon’s offering to start-ups, which includes a minimum of £250K seed funding, business support services, expert guidance, and access to cutting-edge office and lab facilities. Limited Partner ("LP") investors in the Fund include Novartis International AG and Cambridge Innovation Capital.


  • Decentralised model to allow remote participation in trial among patients

  • Trial design adapted to further investigate potential link between COVID-19 and hypertension


London, UK, 18 November 2020: Closed Loop Medicine (‘CLM’) a clinical stage therapeutics company developing drug + digital combination products, announces that the first patient has been recruited into its pivotal clinical trial investigating CLM’s integrated precision care solution for patients with hypertension.

ARU's annual magazine Research and Innovation Highlights 2020 magazine is now live.


Stories from across ARU, shining a spotlight on our world-leading and impactful research, as well as case studies that explore how we're working with industry to support economic growth, nurturing our talented students into experienced graduates of the future and improving the skillset of the community from as close to home as Essex to as far away as India.

Research Triangle Park, NC, USA and Cambridge, UK, 16 November 2020 – Inivata, a leader in liquid biopsy, today announces the appointment of Dr. Alan Schafer as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective immediately. Alan will lead the development of Inivata’s leading InVision® liquid biopsy technology platform and new product development.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, public health orders and advisories have forced many scientists to freeze down their experiments, to keep them safe while they are kept away from their laboratories.

The announcement that a vaccine might be available before the end of the month that works and is safe changed everything - and nothing. The optimists in markets decided that the news would be confirmed and get better. The vaccine they think will complete its trials, it will pass its safety test and the Regulators will wave it through into use many months short of the normal trial periods. It would they hope be followed by one or two more vaccines that could similarly be fast tracked, as if one company can find a way to stop the disease, so surely must others be able to do the same. 

The journal CrystEngComm has published a special issue to mark the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) reaching 1 million structures, with 33 papers that highlight the breadth of applications made possible with this data.


The Royal Society of Chemistry journal CrystEngComm has published new research on all aspects in the design and understanding of solid-state and crystalline materials since 1999. They publish work covering a wide range of chemistries, but all involve the use of a design or optimisation strategy to develop a deeper understanding of the structures.

Under RIDDOR (a health and safety regulation) employers now have a duty to report cases where employees have contracted COVID as a result of direct exposure due to work activities. Three specific circumstances have been identified: 1) “An accident or incident at work has, or could have, led to the release or escape of coronavirus”, 2) “A worker has been diagnosed with COVID-19 attributed to an occupational exposure to coronavirus.” 3) A worker dies as a result of occupational exposure to coronavirus.

Prof Dell’ Accio and Dr Suzanne Eldridge from Queen Mary University of London have discovered a new therapeutic treatment for osteochondral defects shown to regenerate the cartilage and provide rapid, long-term pain relief.


These findings have been published in Science of Translational Medicine https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/12/559/eaax9086 and featured widely in the media https://sciencetm.altmetric.com/details/89347825#score.

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