Calistoga Drug Shrinks Tumors in Lab Studies

Seattle-based Calistoga Pharmaceuticals said that its lead experimental drug, CAL-101, killed cancer cells in lab studies of multiple blood malignancies. The drug is designed to block a marker inside cells called the PI3 kinase pathway, that is thought to play a key role in tumor cell growth, survival, and migration. The findings were delivered in an oral presentation at the American Society of Hematology meeting in San Francisco.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.