Evening Brief: 1-Liter Bottled Water Contains Hundreds of Thousands of Plastic Particles; Chinese Scientists Build Largest-Ever Porcine Multi-Tissue Gene Expression Atlas

Jan 09, 2024 19:58 CST Updated 19:58

Harpoon Therapeutics

Developer of Immuno-Oncology Therapeutics

Johnson & Johnson

Medical Device R&D and Manufacturer

1. Magnesium睿 Chemical Completes $26 Million Series A Financing, Led by Qiming Venture Partners and LYFE Capital

Shanghai Meirui Technology Co., Ltd. ("Meirui Chemistry") has recently completed a US$26 million Series A financing round, led by Qiming Venture Partners and LYFE Capital, with participation from Innovation Works and Megarobo Technologies. The proceeds will be used to further refine product development, expand the commercial market, and support international expansion. Meirui Chemistry was established in January 2022, incubated by Megarobo and having received angel round investment. Founded by a team with an international and interdisciplinary background, the company is committed to providing next-generation chemical synthesis CRO services for new drug R&D customers using automated and intelligent platforms. This significantly shortens the delivery cycle of the chemical synthesis phase in the new drug R&D process and reduces the related costs of chemical synthesis, moving away from the current heavy reliance on manual operations in pharmaceutical chemistry synthesis.

2. Merck Agrees to Acquire Harpoon Therapeutics for $680 Million

January 9 News: Merck agrees to acquire Harpoon Therapeutics for a deal worth $680 million to strengthen its oncology portfolio. Merck will pay $23 in cash for each issued share of Harpoon, which is 118% higher than its closing price of $10.55 last Friday. Dean Li, President of Merck Research Laboratories, stated: "We will continue to expand our oncology portfolio through strategic acquisitions that complement our current portfolio and drive the development of breakthrough science to help meet the needs of cancer patients worldwide."

$2 Billion! Johnson & Johnson Acquires Ambrx with 100% Premium All-Cash Deal

As a popular field in the pharmaceutical industry for mergers and acquisitions, another large deal emerged in the ADC (Antibody-Drug Conjugates) sector on Monday: Johnson & Johnson announced a $2 billion all-cash acquisition of Ambrx Biopharma. According to announcements from both companies, Johnson & Johnson will acquire Ambrx’s shares at $28 per share, compared to Ambrx's closing price of $13.63 last Friday. The company expects the transaction to be completed in the first half of 2024. Affected by this news, Ambrx's stock price surged 98% at Monday's opening.

4. 1 liter bottled water contains hundreds of thousands of plastic particles

Numerous studies have confirmed that microplastics are almost everywhere, from polar ice layers to soil, drinking water, and food. Humans and other living organisms are ingesting and consuming these microplastics (less than 5mm in length), raising concerns about the impact on human health and ecosystems. According to research published on January 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists used the most advanced instruments available to conduct a detailed count and identification of microplastic particles and nanoplastics (<1 μm) in bottled water, achieving detection accuracy covering nanoplastic particles with diameters below 100 nanometers for the first time. They found that each liter of water contains an average of approximately 240,000 detectable plastic particles — 10 to 100 times more than previous estimates.0 times. In the experiment, researchers tested three popular bottled water brands sold in the United States, analyzing plastic particles as small as 100 nanometers in size. They foundThere are 110,000 to 370,000 particles per liter of water, 90% of which are nanoplastic particles and the remaining are microplastic particles.。

5. Chinese Scientists Build the Largest Pig Multi-Tissue Gene Expression Atlas to Date

On January 8, it was reported from South China Agricultural University that the research team led by Professors Zhe Zhang and Jiaqi Li of the National Key Laboratory of Pig and Poultry Breeding Industry at the university, in collaboration with multiple teams both domestically and internationally, achieved significant progress in the field of pig genomics. The researchers compiled the largest pig transcriptome dataset to date and constructed a multi-tissue gene expression atlas, providing an extremely rich data resource for improving the functional annotation of the pig genome. The related study was recently published online in *Nature Genetics*.

6. Latest International Research: Population Decline of Apex Predators May Impact Genetic Traits of Mesopredators

A genetics research paper newly published in "Nature Ecology & Evolution," a professional academic journal under Springer Nature, points out that the population decline of Tasmanian devils (a top predator) caused by a contagious cancer may be impacting the evolutionary genetic characteristics of a secondary predator species, the spotted-tailed quoll.The paper introduces that the population decline of top predators has cascading effects in ecology, one of which is reduced competition and increased activity of secondary mid-level predators (also known as intermediate predators) in the ecosystem.The population of Tasmanian devils has declined due to the contagious Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD, a rare type of transmissible cancer), which has altered the resource utilization and activity patterns of the spotted-tailed quoll (a mid-level predator). However, it remains unclear whether the evolutionary process of the quoll will also be affected.

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