NCBiotech News

The Piedmont Triad region’s hottest tech ticket on May 27 was 2026 Triad BioNight, where more than 400 business, academic and community representatives gathered to celebrate outstanding leaders in the region’s thriving life sciences sector. Awards were given for excellence in education, community, service/support, entrepreneurship, and research.

The artificial intelligence revolution has come to North Carolina’s life sciences sector in a big way, as companies from the smallest startups to global drug manufacturers deploy AI across almost all functions.

Whenever Toni Darville, M.D., gives a presentation about one particular topic, she expects bewildered expressions on people’s faces. It’s not what she discusses that stirs confusion, but rather why someone in her role is even talking about the subject. “People often seem surprised when I speak about chlamydia as a pediatric infectious disease physician,” said Darville.

For patients with rare diseases, finding a relevant clinical trial can be a difficult and fragmented process, but a new partnership is creating a more connected pathway for patients and providers.

Shawn Wyatt knows how to make the most of a corporate layoff. Wyatt, a chemist, had worked in progressively bigger roles at two pharmaceutical development and manufacturing companies, Metrics Inc., and its successor company, Mayne Pharma (now Catalent), at the same site in Greenville, N.C., for 16 years.

The University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) received a $2 million award to launch NC BioMISSION, a bioindustrial workforce training and research program. The initiative has been funded by BioMADE, a Manufacturing Innovation Institute sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense to secure U.S. global leadership in industrial biotechnology.

The Innovation Quarter celebrated the opening of its expanded Sparq Labs facility at One Technology Place in Winston-Salem, anchored by BioSpherix, LLC, and the opening of its new Center for Cytocentric Technology (CCT).

A pharmaceutical development startup born from local cancer research will receive a grant to provide a boost for its next phase of growth from the Greater Winston-Salem Inc.’s BioNest Fund.

Bayer AG and Perfuse Therapeutics Inc. have announced an agreement under which Bayer will fully acquire Perfuse Therapeutics, whose R&D facility is based in Research Triangle Park.

R. Jude Samulski, Ph.D., was honored by the American Society of Gene + Cell Therapy (ASGCT) with its Founders Award at the organization’s annual meeting earlier this week in Boston.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will collaborate with another historically Black college and university in the Midwest to apply cutting-edge technologies that could improve the yield and quality of a trendy ancient grain.

For the second year in a row, an Alexandria Real Estate Equities building/campus in Research Triangle Park has won "The Outstanding Building of the Year" (TOBY) Award for Life Sciences from BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) at the U.S. Southern Region level.

Durham-based BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, a global biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing medicines for rare diseases, has signed a European licensing agreement for one of its drug candidates that could bring the company several hundred million dollars in revenue.

The Angel Capital Association (ACA), the world’s largest association of angel investors, has honored Winston-Salem-based BMI OrganBank with its 2026 Luis Villalobos Awards in the life sciences category.

Novartis will add a new North Carolina facility for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing for solid dosage tablets, capsules and RNA therapeutics to its campus in Morrisville.