Agentic AI, Virtual Cell, LNP Vaccine Boosters, Engineered Organs, and Mergers

About this episode

The episode discusses advancements in agentic AI, regenerative medicine, and recent mergers in the biotech industry.

This week, agentic AI steps into the limelight buoyed by the momentum from generative AI. And there’s a new virtual cell model in town courtesy of AI-drug developer Xaira Therapeutics. From the frontiers of AI, our discussion turned to feats of engineering in regenerative medicine and lipid nanoparticles. In one study, scientists redesigned LNPs to avoid the liver and accumulate in the lymph nodes. In the other, efforts to develop and implant a lab grown esophagus from donor pigs bear fruit. Finally, Novartis plans to spend up to $3 billion to expand its cancer pipeline with the acquisition of Pikavation Therapeutics. And Merck is acquiring Terns Pharmaceuticals for approximately $6.7 billion also with an eye towards boosting its cancer portfolio.    Join GEN editors Corinna Singleman, PhD, Fay Lin, PhD, Uduak Thomas and Alex Philippidis for a discussion of the latest biotech and biopharma news.    Listed below are links to the GEN stories referenced in this episode of Touching Base :    NVIDIA GTC 2026: Agentic AI Inflection Hits…

People in this episode

Hosts: Corinna Singleman, PhD, Fay Lin, PhD, Uduak Thomas, Alex Philippidis

Topics covered

• agentic AI
• regenerative medicine
• lipid nanoparticles
• cancer pipeline
• biotech news

Keywords

• agentic AI
• Xaira Therapeutics
• LNP vaccine
• engineered organs
• Novartis
• Merck
• biopharma news

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Xaira Therapeutics, Novartis, Pikavation Therapeutics, Merck, Terns Pharmaceuticals, GEN

Products: LNPs, mRNA Vaccine, lab grown esophagus

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