The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology (Alliance) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted for review Genentech’s supplemental Biologic License Application for their immunotherapy drug atezolizumab (Tecentriq^®) for the treatment of patients with stage III colon cancer with deficient deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) mismatch repair (dMMR). The application is supported by findings from the phase III Alliance ATOMIC (A021502) trial, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and conducted in partnership with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and the German group Arbeitsgemeinschaft Internistische Onkologie (AIO). The study demonstrated that patients experienced significantly improved outcomes when atezolizumab was added to standard chemotherapy following surgery.

Critical Path Institute today announced the appointment of Milad Alucozai, DrPH, MPH, M.Sc., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Alucozai is a longtime leader in the U.S. biotechnology and startup community who has worked as a founder, investor, operator, and community builder, and is the creator of the Bio-Industrial Technology Stack framework, which reframes biology as a geopolitical and industrial asset. A neuroscientist and startup investor, he bridges computational biology, machine learning, and AI-driven drug development. His appointment reflects the organization’s commitment to integrating emerging biotechnology and human-relevant research models into its global mission of accelerating safer, more effective treatments. 

A study led by researchers at UC Riverside, the University of Connecticut, Brown University, UCLA, and Fordham University highlights the importance of rigorous participant verification procedures in online health research, particularly when studies recruit hardly reached populations and offer compensation for participation.

Temple Health has been awarded a $700,000 three‑year grant from the William Penn Foundation to develop the Temple Family Thriving Program, a trauma‑informed initiative that integrates caregiver and early childhood support directly into prenatal and postpartum care.

Dr. Jimmy Holder, associate professor in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and Principal investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, and his team have received a grant for up to $17.25 million from Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) to become a part of the Innovative Medicine and Precision Approaches to Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Network.

A new study finds that employer points systems, which penalize workers for absences regardless of the reason, are strongly associated with presenteeism, the practice of showing up to work while sick, and that these systems undermine the public health benefits of paid sick leave laws even in jurisdictions where such protections are on the books.