Here’s a look at some of the top life sciences and health news in the Pacific Northwest this week.
Read on for these headlines and more life sciences news from the Pacific Northwest.
– Sana Biotechnology will build a manufacturing plant in the Seattle area, leaving California
– Allen Institute and Google team up to create a platform exploring the immune system
— Gates Foundation-backed Seattle biotech startup launches trial for snail fever vaccine
– Seattle’s Cambia Grove Healthcare Innovation Center Changes Name to Health Policy Center
– ProfoundBio, Led by Seagen Veterans, Raises $70M
Offers and financing:
- Jubilant HollisterStier signed a $149.6 million contract with the U.S. government to expand capacity at its Spokane-based facility, which supports manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and therapies.
- Immatics, a German-Houstonian cell therapy company signed an agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb, which founded its cell therapy and immuno-oncology center in Seattle. The two companies will partner to develop two “off the shelf” cell therapies.
- Washington Research Foundation reward Seattle Children’s researcher Shannon Oda a $250,000 marketing grant to improve T-cell therapies. FRM also promised $1 million to the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at UW.
- Amazon Web Services donated over a million dollars server time at UW’s Institute for Protein Design to train the institution’s RoseTTAFold software, which predicts the three-dimensional shape of proteins.
Technical movements:
Podcasts and posts:
- The Brain Electrophysiology Laboratory in Eugene, Oregon was featured by Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Washington Post. The lab is developing a headband to improve sleep, previously also highlighted by GeekWire.
- Lea Starita, researcher at the Brotman Baty Institute has been presented in a podcast featuring his work on human genetic variation.
- Short documentary by Seattle-area high school student Pinyu Liao about antibiotic resistance was accepted at the World Health Organization Film Festival.
- The Institute for Health Metrics highlighted its international data on gun violence, showing how the United States is an outlier.
- Computational science of nature speak with Sean Gibbons, a researcher at the Institute for Systems Biology, talks about his three undergraduate degrees, his work on the microbiome, and his advice to young LGBTQIA+ scientists.
- Arna Ionescu, CEO of Wavely Diagnostics explained how advances in smartphone technology and changes in healthcare delivery models have enabled his business, which “couldn’t have existed two years ago.” Wavely develops an application to detect ear infections.