If the beginning of 2017 was marked by doubts around whether and how the FDA would act with respect to complex diagnostics, we enter 2018 feeling that slow-moving vessel may finally be turning.

Biomarkers will be key to winning the race to a successful AD drug. Even then, drugmakers must build the infrastructure for getting therapy to the right patients at the right time.

By taking a different slant on synthetic lethality – the therapeutic process behind AstraZeneca's Lynparza –scientists have identified a potential new drug target for use in prostate cancer, the chromatin helicase DNA-binding factor CHD1.

No significant trends emerged in diagnostics M&A or financing this past year, which did see the introduction of several government-funded initiatives, elements of which will bolster diagnostics innovation. As in other sectors of health care, the biggest question is how the incoming Trump administration could change US regulatory and funding policies.

New research offers mechanistic proof of signaling between gut and brain in Parkinson’s disease, showing that introducing an altered microbiome from PD patients into a mouse model can recreate the motor symptoms of the disease.

New research lays out both method and proof of principle for a strategy that combines bioinformatics and synthetic chemistry to enable more expansive development of antibiotics and other drugs derived from natural products.