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Dr. Fred Grossman — Coya Therapeutics — Multi-Modality Treg Therapies For Neurodegenerative Diseases

Multi-Modality Treg Therapies For Neurodegenerative Diseases — Dr. Fred Grossman, D.O., FAPA — President and Chief Medical Officer — Coya Therapeutics, Inc.

Dr. Fred Grossman, D.O., FAPA is President and Chief Medical Officer of Coya Therapeutics (https://coyatherapeutics.com/), a clinical-stage company focused on developing multi-modality, Regulatory T Cell (Treg) therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Coya has already developed strong proof of concept data in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s, and is also active in the autoimmune and metabolic disease domains.

Dr. Grossman brings over 20 years of drug development expertise having held senior executive leadership positions in large and small pharmaceutical companies, leading the development and FDA approval of numerous multi-billion dollar blockbuster drugs addressing significant unmet medical needs particularly across CNS disorders. He has close relationships with thought leaders worldwide and has negotiated directly with the FDA and Global Health Authorities for approval of many drugs across therapeutic areas.

Dr. Grossman held executive positions at Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Sunovion. He served as President and Chief Medical Officer at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, a $1.5 Billion per annum global pharmaceutical company based in India, overseeing development of an entire pipeline including generics, complex generics including 505(b) candidates, and next-generation biologics (including bi-specific antibodies).

Dr. Grossman also previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Mesoblast, Inc., developing allogeneic cellular therapies for inflammatory diseases.

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Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs

The study, titled “,” was conducted by a large research team that included UC Berkeley Psychology Postdoctoral Researcher Emily Sanford, UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Jan Engelmann and Utrecht University Psychology Professor Hanna Schleihauf. Their findings showed that chimpanzees — like humans — can change their minds based on the strength of available evidence, a key feature of rational thought.

Working at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda, the researchers presented chimps with two boxes, one containing food. Initially, the animals received a clue suggesting which box held the reward. Later, they were given stronger evidence pointing to the other box. The chimps frequently switched their choices in response to the new clues.

“Chimpanzees were able to revise their beliefs when better evidence became available,” said Sanford, who is a researcher in the UC Berkeley Social Origins Lab. “This kind of flexible reasoning is something we often associate with 4-year-old children. It was exciting to show that chimps can do this too.”

To ensure the findings reflected genuine reasoning rather than instinct, the team incorporated tightly controlled experiments and computational modeling. These analyses ruled out simpler explanations, such as the chimps favoring the latest signal (recency bias) or reacting to the most obvious cue. The models confirmed that the chimps’ decision-making aligned with rational strategies of belief revision.

“We recorded their first choice, then their second, and compared whether they revised their beliefs,” Sanford said. “We also used computational models to test how their choices matched up with various reasoning strategies.”

The study challenges the traditional view that rationality — the ability to form and revise beliefs based on evidence — is exclusive to humans.

“The difference between humans and chimpanzees isn’t a categorical leap. It’s more like a continuum,” Sanford said.

Continue reading “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” | >

Targeting Latent HIV Reservoirs: Effectiveness of Combination Therapy with HDAC and PARP Inhibitors

The “Kick and Kill” strategy, which aims to reactivate latent HIV reservoirs and facilitate the clearance of reactivated HIV-infected cells, has yet to achieve a functional cure due to the limited efficacy of current latency reversal agents. This study evaluates the combination efficacy of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor with poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor in latency reversal and immune-mediated clearance. Latently infected J-Lat cells and dual-fluorescent HIV-infected primary CD4 T cells were treated with the HDAC inhibitor (vorinostat) and one of four PARP inhibitors (olaparib, rucaparib, niraparib, or talazoparib). PARP inhibitors, when administered alone, showed no latency reversal activity. However, when combined with vorinostat, their efficacy increased threefold compared to vorinostat alone.

“Immortal” flatworm rewrites the science of healing

Flatworms can rebuild themselves from just a small fragment, and now scientists know why. Their stem cells ignore nearby instructions and respond to long-distance signals from other tissues. This discovery turns old stem cell theories upside down and could lead to new ways to repair or regrow human tissue. It also reveals a hidden complexity in one of nature’s simplest creatures.

Engineered Immune Cells Improves Anti-Cancer Response

Scientists have developed a way to engineer immune cells that specifically target tumors. The application of engineering cells first appeared in the 1980s, but the concept has significantly progressed over the last few decades. This approach of engineering a patient’s cells as a form of therapy allow the immune system to specifically target the tumor and limit off-target affects.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells is an immunotherapy that takes patient T cells and edits them to target the tumor. The cells are then reinfused to accurately and effectively eliminate tumor growth. Immunotherapy is a general classification of cancer treatments that refers to the redirection of the immune system toward a disease or infection. T cells are responsible for the identification and elimination of infected cells and other diseases. Therefore, they are the optimal cell to engineer for robust and durable antitumor immunity. While scientists are working to engineer other cell types, CAR T cell therapy have been shown to have improved efficacy in multiple types of blood or hematological malignancies.

CAR T cell therapy in solid tumors is less effective. Unfortunately, the environment around the tumor has a complex network of various cell types combined with proteins and other molecules that inhibit CAR T cell efficacy. As a result, these CAR T cells cannot function and contribute to tumor progression. Scientists are currently working to improve CAR T cell therapy and develop stronger anti-cancer treatments.

Strong magnetic field helps answer a question about the ‘new duality’ in materials physics

As someone who studies materials, Lu Li knows people want to hear about the exciting new applications and technologies his discoveries could enable. Sometimes, though, what he finds is just too weird or extreme to have any immediate use.

Working with an international team of researchers, Li has made one of those latter types of discoveries, detailed in Physical Review Letters.

“I would love to claim that there’s a great application, but my work keeps pushing that dream further away,” said Li, professor of physics at the University of Michigan. “But what we’ve found is still really bizarre and exciting.”

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