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The lungs that Dr. Ankit Bharat took out of Tadd Crosslin, a 49-year-old father of twins, were marred with billions of cancer cells. They were “perhaps the most diseased that we’ve ever seen,” said Bharat, a thoracic surgeon and director of Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute. A technology the institute adopted just months ago was a game changer for Crosslin, whose lungs were fused so tightly to his chest cavity that doctors needed extra time to delicately remove them. (Breen, 2/11)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug to treat a disorder causing the growth of noncancerous tumors on nerves throughout the body. The federal agency said on Tuesday it greenlighted SpringWorks Therapeutics’s drug Gomekli for patients dealing with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) “who have symptomatic plexiform neurofibromas (PN) not amenable to complete resection.” (Timotija, 2/11)

Until recently, doctors could only hope to intervene by suggesting diet and lifestyle changes, or by helping patients manage related conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol. But those efforts often haven’t been enough. Now a promising new study shows that weight-loss surgery could reduce the chances of severe complications, even in some patients with cirrhosis. (Agrawal, 2/11)

Today the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced an award of $5 million funding award to Ethris, a German biotechnology firm working on next-generation RNA vaccines. The award will help Ethris develop spray-dried RNA vaccines that remain stable at room temperature and are suitable for nasal delivery, CEPI said in a press release. (Soucheray, 2/11)