News Roundup: Proteomics for Neuro Diseases, Kidney Transplant Matching, and More

We’re dishing up the news roundup style this week, folks. Hope everyone’s having a great summer so far.

Proteins Get Their Glory (and a Shout Out from Bill Gates)

In all the time I’ve been covering the genomics field, there’s been a common refrain from a different group of scientists: If you think DNA is great, just wait till you see what proteins can do! The proteomics field — “proteome” refers to the complete set of proteins, just as a genome is the collection of all the genes — has always been full of potential but it has struggled to translate that potential into real-world success stories.

In a new series of papers that came out in the journal Nature Medicine, a large group of scientists participating in the Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium reported results of their latest work. The consortium is a public-private partnership that aims to build massive proteomic databases to serve as a foundation for future investigations into neurodegenerative diseases. So far the effort spans more than 35,000 biofluid samples as well as clinical data. These are all important ingredients for the kinds of research projects that can translate into healthcare improvements.

In a letter that accompanied these papers, Bill Gates wrote about the need for efforts like this to tackle thorny health issues such as Alzheimer’s disease. He helped form the consortium in 2023 and said that “the results have exceeded even our wildest expectations. In its first year, GNPC members studied a mind-blowing 250 million protein measurements from blood and spinal fluid.” He added: “It is remarkable how much progress the world makes when scientists work together.” Amen to that.

Better Matching for Kidney Transplants

This advance is still very much in the research stage, and it’ll probably be a long time before it gets translated to clinical use. But still exciting: scientists identified a specific protein linked to the immune system that could help explain why some recipients reject their kidney transplants and others don’t. The protein was previously not known to play a role in this process. In the study, scientists found that when there was a mismatch between the protein in the donor and the protein in the recipient, transplant rejection was more common. In the future, screening for this protein could help improve matches between kidney donors and patients in need of transplants. Very good news, indeed!

Three-Parent Embryos Gaining Traction

In the UK, researchers reported positive results from a study of so-called three-parent embryos. If you’re not familiar, this approach is an advance in reproductive health that was designed to reduce the burden of mitochondrial diseases. It uses the sperm and egg of the parents, plus mitochondrial content from a healthy donor to avoid passing down disease-causing mitochondria. I first covered this approach back in 2016, and nearly a decade later, progress is happening.

Scientists who ran a study using this approach have now reported the successful births of eight three-parent babies in the UK. In a statement, one of the researchers said, “Today’s news offers fresh hope to many more women at risk of passing on this condition, who now have the chance to have children growing up without this terrible disease.”

MIT Technology Review has a good article describing the news, as well as hopes and concerns about this approach.

23andMe Acquisition Update

Awhile ago I mentioned that the DNA testing service 23andMe was in bankruptcy, its assets slated to be acquired by a biotech company called Regeneron. At the last minute, a nonprofit called TTAM Research Institute run by Anne Wojcicki, one of the founders and former CEO of 23andMe, outbid competitors and acquired the company for $305 million.

For anyone who was concerned about what might happen to their 23andMe data if it was acquired by another company, this outcome is probably the best possible option. 23andMe announced that TTAM would maintain all of the customer consents and privacy policies that were in effect prior to the bankruptcy.

If you’re interested in hearing more about this development in Wojcicki’s own words, check out her recent post on LinkedIn.