InnovationRx: Zombie Mushrooms, Europe’s Covid Wave And Soft Brain Implants

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Cordyceps are a type of mushroom often called “zombie mushrooms” because, when they infect insects, they can actually take control of their behavior in a way that ensures other insects get infected by the fungus. That’s cool enough to serve as something to study, but these mushrooms are also interesting to scientists for another reason: they produce a class of chemical called cordycepin, which is of interest in treating a variety of diseases. The challenge is that Cordyceps is hard to find and it’s been difficult to cultivate.

But on Wednesday, a team of international scientists published a study showing a better way to grow zombie mushrooms, which could pave the way for large scale production of cordycepin. If the method pans out for scale, it could lead to more clinical studies of cordycepin or drugs that include it as a component, paving the way for medicines down the road. The key, it turns out, is fat. Insects species with more fat, when infected by Cordyceps, seem to produce more cordycepin than other species. The researchers caution that this doesn’t quite pave the way for industrial production yet, but could help lead to better methods of making this potentially valuable chemical.

Move Over, Elon: This Under 30 CEO Just Raised $8 Million To Build A Next-Generation Brain Implant

Paul Le Floch’s company, Axoft, is developing brain implants made from soft, flexible materials that reduce injury and could treat disorders such as cerebral palsy.

Read more here.

Deals Of The Week

Billing: New York-based company Adonis raised a $5.6 million seed round to accelerate development of its automated medical billing platform.

A-Eye Screening: Eyenuk announced that it raised a $26 million series A round to expand its AI-powered eye screening platform to check for more optical disorders.

Gene Therapy For Hearing Loss: Lilly announced this week that it’s acquiring Akouos, a precision-medicine company focused on hearing loss, for $487 million.

Cancer Targeting: Jazz Pharmaceuticals announced it’s entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Zymeworks to develop and commercialize its HER2-receptor targeting antibody, which has the potential to treat several cancers. The deal is potentially worth up to $1.76 billion, plus royalties.

Noteworthy

Elevance Health reported $1.6 billion in third quarter profits as the health insurer formerly known as Anthem continued to grow its national portfolio of medical and prescription drug benefits.

UnitedHealth Group’s profits eclipsed $5.2 billion in the third quarter on a strong performance by its Optum health services and UnitedHealthcare health plans.

Walgreens reported a $415 million quarterly loss thanks to higher expenses from a major global “cost management program” and charges related to its United Kingdom operation.

Maternity company Birth Detroit is deploying an army of midwives to equitably reduce health issues–and costs–related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Coronavirus Updates

A team of researchers from Boston University posted a preprint about their research, which involved creating their own hybrid of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. When the researchers infected mice, the virus killed 80% of the population that had been infected. That sounds scary and the research made some headlines, but is there a reason to worry? It’s probably no surprise that many people have spoken out against this research. Senator Roger Marshall from Kansas called for putting it to a halt, claiming that it’s “unconscionable that NIH sponsors this lethal gain of function virus… creating potential to kill more people than a singular nuclear weapon.” Due to the backlash, Boston University responded, saying that the research will lead to discovering better methods to fight the virus. But the controversy continues.

Europe’s Covid Wave Suggests U.S. Outbreak Looms Around The Corner

Though cases, hospitalizations and deaths are down across the U.S., mutated omicron variants are gaining ground and high levels of coronavirus have been found in wastewater.

Read more here.

Other Coronavirus News

Children with post-Covid breathing problems are advised to use an inhaler and a doctor recommended workout routine to help alleviate the issue.

Starting in 2023, all vaccines will be covered under Medicare. This includes the flu shot, pneumonia vaccines and Covid vaccines.

Although some experts believe that this year’s flu season will be pretty bad, others are more skeptical. One of their reasons is an expected plateau in transmission to pre-Covid numbers due to protective measures like masks.

Across Forbes

Andreessen Horowitz’s Crypto Lobbying Blitz Is Paying Off

These Are The Richest Americans Who Never Went To College

From ‘Tinder Swindler’ To Elon Musk, A Brief History Of Billionaire Impersonation Scams

What Else We are Reading

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the new generation of weight loss pills (Popular Science)

AI in Medicine Is Overhyped (Scientific American)

Bubonic plague left lingering scars on the human genome (Nature)