A new neuroscience biotech is in the works, and it’s already in the clinic with an epilepsy drug born out of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen.

Coming out of the work of chief scientific officer and former Janssen neuro leader David Bredt, Rapport Therapeutics unveiled itself Tuesday with a Phase I study for drug-resistant epilepsy. The $100 million Series A financing should take RAP-219 to multiple mid-stage studies in various indications and shuttle two discovery-stage programs toward the clinic, Third Rock Ventures partner and Rapport director Reid Huber told Endpoints News.

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Editor’s note: This is a live story and will be updated.

GSK is dishing out $90 million cash to add an antifungal drug to its commercial portfolio, in a deal spotlighting the pharma giant’s growing focus on infectious diseases.

The upfront will lock in an exclusive license to Scynexis’ Brexafemme, which was approved in 2021 to treat a yeast infection known as vulvovaginal candidiasis, except in China and certain other countries where Scynexis already out-licensed the drug.

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In the early 1990s, Mathai Mammen was a teaching assistant in Greg Verdine’s Science B46 course at Harvard. In June, the former R&D head at Johnson & Johnson will succeed Verdine as CEO, president and chair of FogPharma, the same month the seven-year-old biotech kickstarts its first clinical trial.

After leading R&D at one of the largest drugmakers in the world, taking the company through more than half a dozen drug approvals in the past few years, not to mention a Covid-19 vaccine race, Mammen departed J&J last month and will take the helm of a Cambridge, MA biotech attempting to go after what Verdine calls the “true emperor of all oncogenes” — beta-catenin.

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Bug bacteria are ruthless.

Some soil bacteria have evolved tiny, but deadly injection systems that attach to insect cells, perforate them and release toxins inside — killing a bug in just a few days’ time. Scientists, on the other hand, want to leverage that system to deliver medicines.

In a paper published Wednesday in Nature, MIT CRISPR researcher Feng Zhang and his lab describe how they engineered these syringes made by bacteria to deliver potential therapies like toxins that kill cancer cells and gene editors. With the help of an AI program, they developed syringes that can load proteins of their choice and selectively target human cells.

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A month after revealing plans to concentrate on its late-stage immuno-neurology pipeline, Alector is trimming its headcount by 11%.

The layoffs will impact around 30 employees across the organization, the company disclosed in an SEC filing, adding that the plan will “better align the company’s resources” with the new strategy. With $712.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments as of the end of 2022, Alector believes the reserves will now get it through 2025.

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Life sciences investor and lab operator Portal Innovations is taking the blueprint it set in Chicago and expanding to Massachusetts, where it will deploy $25 million, and help house new startups in the former Boston Globe headquarters.

Portal CEO and founder John Flavin told Endpoints News the company will open its Boston-area operations in the coming weeks, and its first lab occupant will be Syntis Bio, an early-stage biotech out of Moderna co-founder Bob Langer, MIT professor Giovanni Traverso and Sherlock Biosciences co-founder Rahul Dhanda.

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