NONO-targeted small molecules for prostate cancer, innovations in single cell methods and more

Benjamin Cravatt’s Scripps Research lab and collaborators at the Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) presented in Nature Chemical Biology a set of electrophilic small molecules that stereoselectively suppressed prostate cancer cell proliferation, and expression of oncogenic genes including AR and AR-V7, by engaging the RNA-binding protein NONO. The α-chloroacetamide-based NONO ligands acted by trapping NONO in interactions with RNA, promoting its accumulation in nuclear foci.

A University of California San Francisco-led team, including Fluent Biosciences Inc. founder Adam Abate, shared in Nature Biotechnology a single-cell sequencing workflow, dubbed particle-templated instant partition sequencing (PIP-seq), that enabled high-throughput cell profiling via rapid templated cell emulsification and barcoded hydrogel templates without requiring microfluidics, thus facilitating faster and simpler sample processing that could broaden access to single cell transcriptomics...