Biotech Punching Bags: It’s been a rocky few days for a pair of companies. Analysts pounded on AB Science over clinical trial compliance failings. One analyst slashed the company’s price target from €48E to €5. ( https://is.gd/BK7E73)
The Other Bag: In a classic example of how finance can influence science, the diagnostics company, Exact Science, came under pressure after a short-selling analyst report questioned the utility of their technology, specifically “poop in a box” tests. The stock dropped, meaning money was lost. But other analysts aren’t convinced. (https://is.gd/gboX1E)
The Protein Professor: On a more positive note, when a Harvard professor interested in designing antibodies for extracellular discovered that little funding existed for that field, he took matters into his own hands. Thus, the Institute for Protein Innovation was born. (https://is.gd/9JXsWL)
Gotta be in it to win it: Researchers note some interesting but logical quorum sensing findings. While studying Sodalis praecaptivus, the weevil symbiont, they noticed that the molecule responsible for calling over other bacteria also represses virulence genes. This makes sense. Killing your host is a dead end. Literally. (https://is.gd/jwIFsj)
If They Can Make It There: Can New York City join the biotech party? The will seems to be there but the way is less certain. An article in exome looks at the bumps the Big Apple’s road to success. Right now, Boston has nothing to worry about. (https://is.gd/OPqho)