Moffitt Cancer Center announced a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca that aims to accelerate the development of cell therapies, specifically chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) and T cell receptor (TCR T) therapies. Under this collaboration, AstraZeneca will have priority access to Moffitt's leading clinical environment and forge strong connections between physician-scientists to accelerate the investigation of novel cell therapies. The collaboration aims to address cell therapy development challenges and expand cell therapies' reach to more patients in the United States and beyond. A key focus will be on advancing clinical studies to investigate cell therapies in solid tumors and further optimizing clinical operations to streamline and expedite the delivery of autologous cell therapies to patients. Press release. 

Investigators from the SWOG Cancer Research Network have developed and validated a risk prediction model for identifying which patients with advanced cancer who are enrolled to clinical trials are at highest risk for unplanned emergency room (ER) visits and hospital stays. Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS and her team linked Medicare claims data to data from six SWOG advanced cancer clinical trials to identify hospital stays or ER visits by enrolled patients. They found that more than two-thirds (67.5%) of the 1,397 patients whose data they analyzed had made at least one such visit within one year of their trial enrollment. Researchers used the test data set to validate their model's performance. Results were similar to those seen with the training data set, confirming the validity of the risk prediction model. Press release. 

Launched by UC San Francisco and the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury Network, an innovative drug development trial will be available in emergency departments of 18 level 1 trauma sites nationwide. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in close to 70,000 deaths in the U.S. every year, and it is the cause of long-term physical, cognitive and mental disability in 5 million Americans. But despite three decades of work, treatments are sorely lacking. The clinical trial is enrolling participants who have conditions that range from moderate TBI to mild TBI, also known as concussion, to see if drugs that are already on the market for other disorders may be effective for TBI. The first three drugs in the trial, which were developed to treat blood pressure, infection and high cholesterol, have shown promise for treatment of TBI in small studies. Press release. 

A new therapeutic agent discovered and developed at The Ohio State University will soon be used for cancer treatment at the patient’s bedside as part of a clinical trial. The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James)-led trial represents the first human testing of a new, best-in-class DHODH inhibitor discovered then fully developed and moved toward commercialization at Ohio State. Jabez Biosciences is the industrial development partner for the single-center clinical trial to test this new drug, known only as HOSU-53 while in testing. The oral drug targets cancer by stopping a key enzyme, dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), which is involved in important cellular metabolic processes that enable cancer to grow and spread. This includes the development of precursors for new DNA and RNA molecules, which cancer cells depend on heavily. The trial is expected to open at the OSUCCC - James in the winter of 2024. Press release. 

UTHealth Houston and OpenAI have announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration in the United States, marking the integration of AI technology into health care and education while protecting privacy. UTHealth Houston will be giving students, faculty, and staff access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Education tool, leveraging the platform to build custom solutions that are compliant with both the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Compliance with HIPAA and FERPA ensures the protection of sensitive health and educational information. The collaboration leverages OpenAI’s expertise in developing AI models and UTHealth Houston’s position as one of the nation’s most comprehensive academic health centers. Press release. 

Rice University and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced the launch of the Center for Operations Research in Cancer, a joint initiative to solve complex challenges in cancer care using data science to make better operational decisions. Leveraging the expertise within Rice’s computational applied mathematics, operations research and statistics and MD Anderson’s Institute for Data Science in Oncology (IDSO), the new center will harness mathematical modeling and data science to optimize treatment delivery, improve therapy outcomes, and streamline operations at the nation’s leading cancer center and beyond. Center activities will rely on a steering group from each institution to help guide strategy, plan activities and measure outcomes. The joint center will serve as a hub, supporting collaborative research projects, pilot project seed funding and exchange of trainees, fellows and interns across various levels of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education. Press release. 

Komodo Health introduced two new products within its MapLab platform. MapAI is designed to optimize multi-user collaboration for healthcare and Life Sciences analyses and enhances the MapLab user experience using natural language processing-based generative AI to initiate an analysis of Komodo’s Healthcare Map. MapExplorer is designed to empower users with rapid, high-level insights across patient populations, healthcare providers, and payers. Press release. 

Splash Clinical and Cambridge Cognition announced a partnership to accelerate recruitment for central nervous system (CNS) clinical trials. The collaboration between Splash Clinical and Cambridge Cognition integrates CANTAB (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery), Cambridge Cognition's proprietary assessment tool, into Splash's patient recruitment platform, facilitating the pre-screening process for clinical trial candidates for studies focusing on CNS indications. By integrating CANTAB early in the recruitment process, the partnership will significantly improve patient qualification. At the same time, it reduces screening failures and increases the quality of patients entering the trial. Press release. 

Veeva Systems released Veeva Site Connect, adding powerful new capabilities and a streamlined site-centric experience to simplify and standardize sponsor-site collaboration. With Veeva Site Connect, sponsors reduce the time and effort of site start-up, study conduct, and closeout for higher-quality trials at a significantly lower cost. Major application and implementation advances include new capabilities expand Site Connect beyond document exchange and safety distribution; optimized site user interface that's the same for all trials; open for use by any site, anywhere; and simple fixed price implementation to get up and running in two to four months. Press release. 

Clinical ink announced the launch of EDCXtra, an innovative Electronic Data Capture (EDC) system. EDCXtra is based on the company’s best-in-class direct data capture (DDC)/eSource platform. EDCXtra incorporates all existing DDC functionality into a single web-based application which includes Clinical ink’s industry leading electronic Clinical Outcome Assessments (eCOAs) and eConsent solutions, providing a comprehensive, all-in-one GCP compliant platform. EDCXtra is designed to operate in hybrid mode, allowing sites the flexibility of entering Case Report Form (CRF) data in real-time along with complex eCOAs in a single interface or to use paper CRF transcription methods and enter data into the EDC later. EDCXtra also offers electronic consent (eConsent) and integration via API with other eClinical systems including interactive response technology (IRT) and Laboratory Data. Press release.