Radically different
Nature Medicine, Published online: 06 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04282-0
In the phase 3 EMN24 IsKia trial, transplant-eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who received isatuximab with carfilzomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone pretransplant induction and post-transplant consolidation showed higher rates of measurable residual disease negativity after consolidation than patients who received carfilzomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone.
Extracting cytoplasmic material such as proteins, RNA, and mitochondria often relies on cell lysis using detergents or enzymes, which destroy the cells. Ultrasound and other sophisticated physical disruption methods need to be carefully tuned to avoid damaging biomolecules, potentially rendering them too time-consuming.
Delivering material into cells presents further challenges. Lipid-based carriers are limited to small molecules, viral vectors are costly, and microinjection techniques are difficult to scale. To date, no approach allows for controlled and efficient cytoplasmic transfer without compromising cell viability, according to researchers from Waseda University in Japan.
The team published a study “A Nanotube Injector for Cytoplasmic Transfer and Enhanced Mitochondrial Function” in Small Science that reports the development of a nanotube membrane-based injector—a platform that combines nanomaterials and fluid physics to directly transfer cytoplasmic contents between cell populations. The system consists of a thin gold membrane with vertically aligned nanotubes mounted on a glass tube. When this membrane is carefully pressed against cultured cells, the nanotubes penetrate the phospholipid bilayer of the living cells without causing significant damage. By adjusting the internal air pressure of the glass tube, the researchers can “suck up” cytoplasmic material from the source cells, hold it as the tube is repositioned over the target cell culture, and gently flush it into this new population using microliters of a buffer solution.
Through several experiments using fluorescent dyes and protein assays, the researchers say they confirmed that cytoplasmic contents could be extracted in a pressure-dependent manner. They also found that careful selection of nanotube diameter, nanotube density, and applied pressure was key to minimizing cellular damage. Notably, under optimized conditions, cell viability hovered around 95%, with a cytoplasmic transfer efficiency of well over 90%, note the scientists.
To further test the capabilities of their platform, the team investigated whether it could transfer intact mitochondria. To this end, they labeled mitochondria in donor cells with a fluorescent tag and observed them in the recipient cells via confocal microscopy. They found that dozens of mitochondria could be reliably delivered per cell.
Most importantly, according to Takeo Miyake, PhD, team leader, these mitochondria remained functional, as evidenced by markedly higher levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) produced in recipient cells compared to controls.
“This technology establishes a new paradigm for cell manipulation—transforming cells not by genetic modification but by reconstructing intracellular composition itself,” explains Miyake, adding that such controlled cytoplasmic engineering, enabled by the proposed nanotube injector, could support the development of next-generation cell therapies, improved disease models, and more precise drug screening platforms.
“Directly transferring healthy mitochondria or cytoplasmic components into target cells is particularly relevant for regenerative medicine, where therapeutic cells often suffer from reduced metabolic activity or functional heterogeneity after isolation and expansion,” highlights Miyake, “By restoring or augmenting mitochondrial function without genetic modification, the technology offers a new strategy to improve cell quality prior to transplantation.”
Overall, this innovative system paves the way for a new level of control in cell biology research, as well as bioengineering and biomedical applications, points out the research team.
The post Nanotube Injector Boosts Mitochondrial Performance Through Cytoplasmic Transfer appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
Neurocrine Biosciences said Monday that it would buy Soleno Therapeutics and its treatment for Prader-Willi syndrome for $2.9 billion.
Neurocrine is paying $53 a share for Soleno, a 34% premium to its closing price on Thursday.
Soleno’s drug, Vykat, was approved in March 2025 to treat hyperphagia in patients with the rare genetic disease. Hyperphagia is one of the defining features of Prader-Willi syndrome, causing relentless hunger and leading patients to overeat. Vykat is the only approved treatment for hyperphagia in Prader-Willi patients.
For years Mike McClary sold the Guardian LTE Flashlight, a heavy-duty black model, online through his small outdoor brand. The product, designed for brightness and durability, became one of his most popular items ever. Even after he stopped offering it around 2017, customers kept sending him emails asking where they could buy it.
When McClary decided to revisit the Guardian flashlight in 2025, he didn’t begin the way he might have in the past, by combing through supplier listings and sending inquiries to factories. Instead, he opened Accio, an AI sourcing and researching tool on Alibaba.com.
For small entrepreneurs in the US, deciding what to sell and where to make it has traditionally been a slow, labor-intensive process that can take months. Now that work is increasingly being done by AI tools like Accio, which help connect businesses with manufacturers in countries including China and India. Business owners and e-commerce experts told MIT Technology Review that these AI tools are making sourcing more accessible and significantly shortening the time it takes to go from product idea to launch.
McClary, 51, who runs his business from his Illinois living room, has sold products ranging from leather conditioner to camping lights, including one rechargeable lantern that brought in half a million dollars. Like many small online merchants, he built his business by being extremely scrappy—spotting demand for a product, tweaking existing designs, finding a factory, doing modest marketing, and getting the goods in front of customers fast.
This time, though, he began by telling Accio about the flashlight’s original design, production cost, and profit margin. Then Accio suggested several changes, making it smaller and slightly less bright and switching its charging method to battery power. It also identified a manufacturer in Ningbo, China, that McClary said could cut the manufacturing cost from $17 to about $2.50 per unit.
McClary took the process from there, contacting the supplier himself to discuss the revised design. Within a month, the new version of the Guardian flashlight was back up for sale on Amazon and on his brand’s website.
Although Alibaba is better known for owning Taobao, the biggest shopping site in China, its first business was Alibaba.com, the primary website that lists Chinese factories open for bulk orders. Placing an order with a manufacturer usually requires far more than clicking “Buy.” Sellers often spend days or weeks browsing listings, comparing suppliers’ reviews and manufacturing capacities, asking about minimum order quantities, requesting samples, and negotiating timelines and customization options.
But Accio has gained significant momentum by changing how that sourcing gets done. Launched in 2024, Accio exceeded 10 million monthly active users in March 2026, according to the company. That means about one in five Alibaba users consults with AI about product sourcing.
Accio’s interface looks a lot like ChatGPT or Claude: Users type a question into an empty box and choose between “fast” and “thinking” modes. But when asked about products, the tool returns more than text, offering charts, links, and visuals and asking follow-up questions to clarify the buyer’s needs. It then narrows the field to one or a handful of suppliers that appear capable of delivering. After that, the human work begins: Users still have to reach out to suppliers themselves and negotiate the details.
Zhang Kuo, the president of Alibaba.com, told MIT Technology Review that the tool is built on multiple frontier models, including the company’s own Qwen series, a popular family of open-source large language models. The system is able to pull from the site’s millions of supplier profiles and is trained on 26 years of proprietary transaction data.
For tasks like product research and sourcing analysis, the tool “blows it away” compared with general AI tools like ChatGPT, says Richard Kostick, CEO of the beauty brand 100% Pure.
Many websites have tried using AI to assist shopping, but Alibaba has been one of the most aggressive. In March, Eddie Wu, CEO of the site’s parent company Alibaba Group, told managers that integrating the company’s core services with Qwen’s AI capabilities is a top priority. During a Chinese New Year promotion of Qwen’s personal shopping AI agent, where the company gave away cash, customers placed 200 million orders, the firm says.
Vincenzo Toscano, an e-commerce seller and consultant, recommended Accio to his clients before deciding to try it himself for a new sunglasses brand. He came in with a rough vision: a brand shaped by his Italian heritage, his personal style, and a boutique aesthetic. He says the AI helped turn that concept into something more concrete, suggesting materials, refining the look, and pointing to design ideas that felt current.
But the tool has clear limits. McClary, who uses AI tools regularly, says Accio is strongest when it comes to product ideation, but less helpful on marketing questions such as advertising and social media outreach. To use it well, he says, buyers still need to challenge its recommendations, since some can be generic.
As platforms become more AI-driven, manufacturers are adjusting too. Sally Yan, a representative at a makeup packaging company in Wuhan, China, says her firm has started writing more detailed product descriptions and adding information about its equipment and manufacturing experience on Alibaba.com because it suspects those details make its listings more likely to be surfaced by AI.
Yan says manufacturers cannot tell whether an inquiry from a customer was generated or guided by AI, and that her firm is not using AI to negotiate pricing or product details.
“AI agents are increasingly used by people to assist decision making or even directly making transactions, and in certain situations, they can become extremely useful,”
“AI agents are increasingly used by people to assist purchase decisions and even directly making transactions, and with clear data guardrails, they can become extremely useful,” says Jiaxin Pei, a research scientist at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, “but agents need to act transparently, securely, and in the customer’s best interest.” Pei says developers of these tools should disclose the data they collect and the incentives built into them to ensure that the marketplace remains fair.
Zhang, of Alibaba.com, says Accio currently does not include advertising. Suppliers can pay for higher placement in Alibaba.com’s regular search results, but Zhang says Accio is “not integrated” with that system. “We haven’t had a clear answer in terms of how to monetize this tool,” he says. For now, users can pay for additional tokens to continue chatting with the agent after their free queries run out.
Sellers say that while AI tools have made it easier to come up with ideas and get a business off the ground, they do not replace the core skills that make someone good at e-commerce. McClary believes that even when sellers have access to the same market information, some are still better at making decisions, acting quickly, and actually delivering on orders. Those differences, he says, still go a long way.
Toscano, the brand founder and e-commerce consultant, feels good about officially launching his new brand of sunglasses in just a few months: “We [small business owners] always have to bootstrap a lot of decisions. Deciding what to sell often comes down to an educated guess,” he says, “And we’re now in an era when making those decisions is easier than ever.”
Scientists have discovered that metformin, a widely prescribed diabetes drug, can have benefits similar to those of regular exercise in prostate cancer patients, whose movement may be limited by their condition or treatment. Published today in EMBO Molecular Medicine, their findings show that metformin increased levels of N-lactoyl-phenylalanine (Lac-Phe), a molecule naturally produced by the body after intense exercise.
Exercise can significantly benefit prostate cancer patients both during and after treatment. These patients often receive hormone therapy, which can disrupt metabolism, contribute to weight gain, increase insulin resistance, and affect their overall cardiovascular health. While physical activity is key to supporting their recovery and addressing these side effects, fatigue, pain, and other common symptoms can limit the ability of prostate cancer patients to regularly exercise.
“Cancer therapy often affects the body in ways that go beyond the tumor,” said Priyamvada Rai, PhD, professor of radiation oncology and co-leader of the Tumor Biology Program at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “Supporting metabolic health can influence how patients tolerate treatment and how they feel over time, even if it doesn’t directly change tumor growth. This study was an opportunity to investigate molecular pathways that can be therapeutically activated for better outcomes to treatments that induce metabolic stress.”
Rai and colleagues found that metformin raises levels of Lac-Phe in prostate cancer patients, even in the absence of physical activity. Known for its role in regulating energy levels and weight gain, Lac-Phe is formed by combining lactate, a molecule produced during muscle contraction, and the amino acid phenylalanine. Previous preclinical and clinical studies have reported levels of Lac-Phe spiking after intense exercise and linked it to a reduction in appetite and improved weight control.
“Metabolism is involved in everything cells do,” said David B. Lombard, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and co-leader of the Cancer Epigenetics Program at the Miller School. “These findings suggest Lac-Phe may be a very informative signal for understanding how metformin affects metabolism in prostate cancer patients.”
Prostate cancer patients treated with metformin were found to produce similar levels of Lac-Phe compared to levels reported after intense exercise in previous studies of healthy volunteers. The benefits of Lac-Phe persisted even after hormone therapy began.
“From a clinical standpoint, seeing a metabolic signal that mirrors what we associate with intense exercise was striking,” said Marijo Bilusic, MD, PhD, genitourinary medical oncologist and professor of medicine and medical oncology at the Miller School. “The result isn’t a new cancer biomarker, but a clearer understanding of how a widely used drug may support metabolic health during prostate cancer treatment—an outcome that matters to patients and clinicians alike.”
Although a drug like metformin can never fully replace physical activity, these findings offer an alternative approach to accessing some of the benefits of exercise in patients with limited ability to engage in it.
“What’s encouraging about this work is that it reminds us cancer care isn’t only about targeting tumors—it’s also about supporting the whole patient,” said Rai. “By better understanding how treatments affect metabolism, we can begin to identify ways to help patients maintain strength, resilience, and quality of life throughout their care.”
The post Diabetes Drug Mimics Benefits of Exercise in Prostate Cancer Patients appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.
My son is now in high school, but when he was in the second grade, I received a call that changed everything: “We think he had a stroke.”
He had developed a facial droop and couldn’t walk on his own. His teacher carried him to the nurse’s office with the entire class following. He was eventually diagnosed with metabolic strokes due to mitochondrial disease, a genetic disorder that prevents your cells from producing enough energy.
I am sitting in a firm recliner with a wipeable surface during a two-day hospital admission for testing at our local children’s hospital. The chair is designed for durability, not sleep. The pillow beneath my head is flat and smells faintly of disinfectant. A thin hospital blanket scratches against my arms as I shift, unsuccessfully, trying to rest. The room is dim but never quiet. Monitors beep. Machines hum. Footsteps pass the door. Hospital noise does not fade. It embeds itself in the nervous system.
My 13-year-old is finally asleep. His thin body is curled beneath a blanket identical to mine. One shoulder peeks out, bruised from repeated injections of calming medication. A neon orange bandage marks the most recent one, given about an hour ago. I watch his chest rise and fall and allow myself a brief moment of relief.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tends to favor health choices he sees as natural — whether that means eating “real food” like meat and vegetables instead of ultra-processed food or suggesting, falsely, that nutrition and vitamins are a good alternative for fighting off measles instead of vaccines.
But there’s at least one area where the health secretary breaks with his own tradition. He’s among the many influential voices in health and wellness in favor of people injecting themselves with experimental drugs known as peptides — much to the concern of mainstream public health experts, who warn that these drugs haven’t been sufficiently studied for efficacy or potential side effects, including higher cancer risk.
With demand for peptides on the rise and would-be self-optimizers seeking out the drugs on gray and black markets, Kennedy said on Joe Rogan’s podcast in February that he thought the Food and Drug Administration would take action within a couple of weeks to make them more accessible. That means reclassifying around 14 drugs so that compounding pharmacies can once again offer them after a 2023 rule change under the Biden administration. “I’m a big fan of peptides,” Kennedy said, having “used them myself to really good effect on a couple of injuries.”
In February, a small biotech company called Kezar Life Sciences reached a breakthrough with the Food and Drug Administration, agreeing to a plan for a clinical trial it hoped could lead to the approval of its treatment for a rare, debilitating liver disease called autoimmune hepatitis. The problem: The agreement came four months too late.
The meeting to discuss trial design, a critical step in the drug development process, had been scheduled for last October. But the FDA abruptly canceled it without explanation. The company could no longer proceed as planned and, without clarity from regulators, its path forward was unclear. Kezar’s investors wanted out, and the biotech was forced to start the process of winding down.
It laid off most of its staff of about 60 people. Then, it auctioned off its lab equipment and sold much of its office furniture, except for the table and chairs in one conference room it kept in case the company got its meeting with FDA staff.
Last week — after the meeting and the breakthrough happened — the company said it would be sold. Kezar hopes the buyer, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, will take the drug forward, though how quickly that can happen, if at all, is not guaranteed.
It’s also not clear why Kezar’s initial meeting was canceled. But to CEO Chris Kirk, the chain of events fits a pattern over the past year in which volatility at the FDA — including staff departures and decision-making seen as inconsistent — has ricocheted across the industry, impacting drugmakers. Those impacts can fall disproportionately on small companies, which, unlike major drugmakers, often operate on one financing to the next.
“In my career, I’ve often not agreed with what the FDA has said, but I’ve at least relied on their consistency,” said Kirk, who’s worked in biotech for more than two decades. “That doesn’t appear to be what’s happening now. It feels more stochastic and maybe even capricious, what’s going on at the FDA. And this isn’t good for patients. It’s definitely not good for the biotech ecosystem as a whole.”