Volume 20 Issue 6, June 2021

‘Dangling’ accelerated approvals for immuno-oncology antibodies are raising questions about the future of this 30-year-old regulatory programme.

Clinical failures of antisense candidates from two companies highlight the challenges for huntingtin-lowering approaches, but a diverse pipeline could yet provide a disease-modifying therapy.

Antisense technology is now beginning to deliver on its promise to treat diseases by targeting RNA. Here, Crooke and colleagues describe the key technological advances that have enabled this progress and discuss recent clinical trials that illustrate the impact of these advances on the performance of antisense oligonucleotides in a wide range of therapeutic applications.

This Review discusses how recent advances in understanding the activation of the innate immune system are shedding light on the immunological mechanisms of action of adjuvants and highlights how systems-based approaches are beginning to revitalize adjuvant design and development.

Despite the rapid growth of the engineered cell therapy sector, there are challenges to the broader industrialization of cells as medicines, especially in the treatment of solid tumours. This Perspective provides an industry perspective on the progress achieved by engineered T cell therapies and discusses strategies to industrialize their potential.