Blogging about biotech, AI, technology and anything else that interests me.
Reasoning alone cannot predict the chaotic physical world. Without a continuous sensory and motor interface to reality, non-physical AI will not deliver the scientific and technological breakthroughs we expect.
Verastem reported a greater than 50% reduction of CA19-9 in 13 of 14 pretreated patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer treated with 900 mg of its oral KRAS G12D inhibitor VS-7375. Whether CA19-9 reliably tracks tumor burden and can predict survival is another question.
An organization can sense and act on its own, but it has always had to borrow its reasoning from the humans it employs. Palantir's ontology hands it a living model of itself, AI supplies the capacity to reason over it, and together they might give the enterprise a functional intelligence of its own.
At her 250th birthday, America is still opening frontiers. Boosters settle into the arms of launch towers, machines think at scale, and drugs reach targets once thought undruggable. The rational position is an almost delusional optimism about what Americans build next.
Rezpegaldesleukin selectively expands regulatory T cells to restore peripheral immune balance. Phase 2b trials showed impressive, deepening efficacy in atopic dermatitis and meaningful hair regrowth in alopecia areata.
Cue Biopharma licensed CUE-221, a dual-mechanism anti-IgE antibody combining picomolar free IgE neutralization with CD23-mediated suppression of new IgE synthesis. Controlled Phase 2 in CSU in mainland China is expected to read out in H2 2026, after which Cue plans a global Phase 2b in food allergy.
Hemay’s Phase 2 mufemilast data suggest that oral PDE4 inhibition can drive biologic-range remission rates in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis. This class-level evidence may partially de-risk Palisade Bio’s PALI-2108.
Maas et al. link picloram to early-onset colorectal cancer in the United States. Yet the incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer rose in parallel in Germany, where publicly available national herbicide sales data report zero picloram sales for 16 consecutive years (1990–2005).
Computational simulation of KRAS G12D conformational cycling across VS-7375, BBO-11818, HRS-4642, and INCB161734 under within-cycle and multi-day dosing suggests VS-7375 may reach 90% suppression at the lowest free drug concentration.
Median OS 13.2 vs 6.7 months, HR 0.40, in pretreated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma against standard chemotherapy. The era of targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer has finally arrived.
My reaction-diffusion model tried to answer whether the active metabolite of PALI-2108 could penetrate Crohn's strictures but rested on untested assumptions. Phase 1b ileal pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and endoscopic data from five fibrostenotic Crohn's patients update the priors.
A computational five-compartment pharmacokinetic model built on published parameters suggests that daily oral levosimendan delivers higher and substantially more stable free drug exposure than the weekly IV infusions behind the significant 6MWD improvement in Phase 2.
A Johns Hopkins Phase 1 trial of a pooled mKRAS vaccine with dual checkpoint blockade strengthens the case that mKRAS peptides generate durable, cross-reactive T cell immunity correlating with disease-free survival in resected pancreatic cancer, consistent with Elicio's AMPLIFY-201 data.
The readout of AMPLIFY-7P for ELI-002 7P in pancreatic cancer was expected by late 2025. Fewer events than projected pushed it to H1 2026. Monte Carlo simulation maps this delay onto control-arm survival and hazard ratio, with efficacy scenarios fitting 2–3× better.
PALI-2108's Phase 1b data for ulcerative colitis are promising, but UC is mucosal while FSCD is transmural. A computational reaction-diffusion model explores whether PALI-2108 can penetrate Crohn's strictures deeply enough to intercept fibrosis early.