Agilent Technologies Inc., has announced the availability of an optimized and verified eMethod for PFAS Analysis in Water by LC/TQ for testing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking and surface water using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.  PFAS—known as ‘Forever Chemicals’—are a group of man-made chemicals that include PFOA, PFOS, GenX, and many others....

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast are using microfluidics to fabricate particles for the encapsulation of drugs and biologics for imaging, treatment and cell targeting. Dr Dimitrios Lamprou, a Reader in Pharmaceutical Engineering at the School of Pharmacy, explained: “Our work involves the microfluidic preparation of lipid (liposome) and polymer-based (PLGA) nanoparticles that can efficiently encapsulate cancer drugs...

Severe COVID-19 and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) share some common pathogenic mechanisms, according to a new study. The observations from the study – published in JCI Insight and led by the University of Glasgow’s Research into Inflammatory Arthritis Centre (RACE) in collaboration with the Fondazione A.Gemelli IRCCS in Italy –could help development of new treatment strategies for severe COVID-19...

Excellims Corporation (Excellims), a leading provider of high performance ion mobility spectrometers (High Performance IMS) and Compact Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry (MS), signals its commitment to the pharmaceutical industry with the introduction of GMP-compliant at-line PAT (process analytical technology) and an increasing body of literature demonstrating its value in pharmaceutical applications...

Cutting-edge SP i-Dositecno robotic filling and capping equipment to be installed in NIBRT’s global center of excellence for bioprocessing training and research. SP Scientific Products (SP) announces a collaboration with the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) in Dublin, Ireland, to install a modular multi-container filling line and isolation system...

Aptamer Group, the developer of Optimer™ therapeutics and diagnostics, has secured a contract with a top five global pharmaceutical company to develop Optimers to support the development of a novel vaccine candidate for neurodegenerative disease. The agreement includes an initial upfront payment to Aptamer Group with long term recurring licensing fees for over 10 years...

SpeeDx Pty, Ltd. and MolGen announced the signing of an agreement to collaborate on supply and distribution of clinical diagnostics products and instrumentation across Europe and Asia Pacific. The partnership links specimen handling, nucleic acid extraction, assay set-up, amplification, and results reporting in a seamless integration of the companies technologies...

In the pharmaceutical industry, the trend is to move from conventional batch manufacturing to continuous manufacturing processes. The challenges for such change are numerous, but many papers are published to solve those issues and improve production. This is the case of the paper published by Carl Allenspach from Bristol-Myers Squibb (International Journal of Pharmaceutics 596 (2021)....

Owlstone Medical (or the “Company”), the global leader in Breath Biopsy® for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, has announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study in Nature Scientific Reports. The paper investigates the performance of filters embedded in face masks for supporting the detection of SARS-CoV-2 as an alternative to nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS)...

Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced the winners of this year’s Future Insight Prize. The € 1 million prize in the category of “Food Generation” was awarded during the Future Insight Days in Darmstadt, Germany, to Ting Lu, Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, and Stephen Techtmann, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Michigan Technological University, USA....

The race is on in the diagnostics industry to develop a device that instantly detects coronavirus for use in large public spaces and airports, according to one of the UK’s top medical technology recruiters. Ivor Campbell, chief executive of Snedden Campbell, said the biggest companies are chasing the ‘holy grail’ of a rapid-test, biosensing device – similar to that used to test blood sugar levels in diabetic patients – that will identify whether a patient has Covid within a matter of seconds...

Cerno Bioscience, in collaboration with XenoBiotic Labs^*, has recently published an article in the peer reviewed journal "Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry" which demonstrates reliable and accurate quantitation of both cold and hot labeled compounds down to 0.5%. This robust method was tested on both simple and complex systems containing as many as 6 separate labeling sites and is capable of quantifying from...

MIMETAS, a leader in organ-on-chip-based disease models and technology, and Roche, a world-leading pharmaceutical company, announce that they have entered into a collaboration to develop human disease models to characterize novel compounds in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and hepatitis B virus infections (HBV). Under the terms of the agreement, MIMETAS is eligible to receive an upfront payment and milestone payments from Roche...

The Center of Excellence in Clinical Metabolomics, based on the UC Davis Sacramento campus, will enable targeted and untargeted metabolic profiling for large-scale population-based cohorts across translational research and precision medicine. The Center will develop standardized processes for the research community, including end-to-end metabolic profiling workflows; optimized liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods, protocols...

Tumor fragments in the lab are able to predict whether the corresponding real-life patients will benefit from immunotherapy. “We’ve solved a major problem many scientists had been facing: preserving a tumors original composition and structure outside of the patient in the lab”, says cancer researcher Daniela Thommen from the Netherlands Cancer Institute. On 8 July, the results of her study are published in Nature Medicine....

VectorBuilder – a global leader in vector design, optimization and GMP manufacturing – has formed a worldwide strategic partnership with Univercells Technologies, a provider of novel biomanufacturing technologies for flexible and scalable viral vector production. VectorBuilder’s manufacturing center in Guangzhou, China, will work with Univercells Technologies to develop and optimize platform processes for the production of custom viral vectors for cell and gene therapies, as well as vaccine applications....

Illumina, Inc. has announced an agreement with the Belgian Genetic Centers to evaluate whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for the diagnosis of patients with intellectual disabilities (ID) and/or developmental disorders (DD) in routine care. The study, run by the Belgian Resolve Rare Diseases group (BeSolveRD), will also assess the health economic impact of WGS versus current standards of care....

Sinocompound Catalysts Co., Ltd has launched a new video series sharing its specialist catalyst expertise adding to its bank of educational materials. Titled ‘The essentials in a synthetic chemist’s toolbox’, the series was the idea and work of technical advisor, Dr Carin Seechurn. As a global provider of advanced homogeneous catalysts and ligands for pharmaceutical and fine chemical applications, Sinocompound is ideally placed to guide scientists through some of the challenges they may need to navigate...

A new study could lead to improved decision making in assigning treatments for children with the aggressive cancer rhabdomyosarcoma after revealing key genetic changes underlying development of the disease. In the largest and most comprehensive study of rhabdomyosarcoma to date, scientists found that specific genetic changes in tumours are linked to aggressiveness, early age of onset and location in the body....