GoKawiil
Tech News
Anthropic has acquired Mithril Medicine, a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech with a single full-time employee that used an AI assistant to help design two antibody candidates for a rare form of muscular dystrophy. The company relied on part-time consultants and at least five contract research organizations to carry out lab work, as part of Anthropic's expansion into biomedical science.
A Cell publication details results from HuidaGene's first-in-human trial of a CRISPR base-editing gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, confirming that one boy died after receiving a high dose. The study found the treatment edited some target genes in the four participants but produced only limited therapeutic effect, while the boy who died suffered a severe immune reaction beginning with abdominal pain and fever within 24 hours of dosing.
Robert Williamson, a geneticist who used DNA markers to locate disease-linked genes on human chromosomes, has died. His research mapped the locations of the genes associated with cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, work that enabled carrier testing and expanded genetic counselling for affected families. He also studied globin genes and thalassaemia, helping develop prenatal diagnosis methods, and later advised governments in the UK and Australia on science policy and bioethics.