In what has become a near-annual tradition for Freenome, the developer of a liquid biopsy platform for early cancer detection closed yet another venture capital megaround, sending its total fundraising tally surging to more than $800 million in just seven years.

Are the foundations of Merck’s broad HIV development program crumbling? Having already paused combination work in response to a red flag, Merck has now temporarily stopped enrollment in phase 3 studies that are testing the backbone of its HIV strategy as a monotherapy.

Aslan Pharmaceuticals is ready to hit go on decentralized clinical trials after the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic forced it into pausing one of its trials for about four months. Now, three months after reporting data from the restarted phase 1 trial for its Dupixent rival hopeful, the biotech is partnering with IQVIA Biotech to handle logistics related to decentralized trials.

As fast as COVID-19’s omicron variant is predicted to spread, diagnostics companies hope to be faster by quickly developing new tests to detect the coronavirus’ newest mutations.

As scientists and biopharma companies like Biogen pursue novel approaches to Alzheimer’s disease, other research teams are seeking to repurpose existing drugs to treat the disease—and using cutting-edge computational tools to uncover promising candidates. Now, one of those teams, from the Cleveland Clinic, is reporting it has found a potential Alzheimer’s treatment in one of the world’s most famous drugs: Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra (sildenafil).

RefleXion Medical is aiming to develop radiation therapy capable of destroying metastatic tumors—by using the cancer itself as a tour guide through the areas of the body where it has already spread.

Scientists have known about rare and common genetic variants that influence cardiovascular disease, but few gene mutations have been found to impact more than one risk for coronary artery disease. That gap in knowledge has limited the development of new treatments targeted to individual risk factors.

Smartphones grow smarter by the minute. For their latest feat, they’re taking cues not from humans, but from bats, dolphins, whales and other echolocation-reliant animals.

CAR-T cell therapy, which modifies a patient’s own T cells to recognize specific antigens on tumors, has proven effective in treating blood cancers. But the engineered immune cells have precious little time to proliferate in the body, which often limits their anti-tumor efficacy. Now, scientists at the Curie Institute in France have identified a potential mechanism that could be targeted to improve T-cell therapies.

While Insightec has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in VC funding in recent years based largely on the strength of its Exablate Neuro platform, the company continues to expand its focused ultrasound technology beyond the brain.