Scientists at the University of Glasgow have found a new paradigm in the understanding of bacterial evolution – an important element in the wider context of antibiotic resistance. The ability of most bacterial pathogens to cause disease depends on the presence of a class of genetic elements called “pathogenicity islands”. This new research – published in Molecular Cell – reveals how these pathogenicity islands hijack viruses to spread in nature, transforming non-pathogenic bacteria into virulent....
Postnova Analytics reports on a new method for the accurate molecular weight determination of complex polysaccharides (Chitosans) using asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AF4) coupled with multi-angle light scattering (MALS) and differential refractive index (RI) detectors. Historically the technique of choice for characterization of polysaccharides has been Size Exclusion Chromatography...
As part of its commitment to advocate for the genomics age, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) aims to lower the barriers to access the latest NGS technologies. In line with this mission, the company has launched a preferred sequencing provider program with McDonnell Genome Institute (MGI) at Washington University....
A2LA is pleased to announce the accreditation of Fouser Environmental Services LTD to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 for cannabis testing. Fouser Environmental Services LTD is based in Versailles, Kentucky, and is the first cannabis testing laboratory accredited in the state. “Fouser Environmental Services is extremely proud of this monumental achievement in the company’s history....
According to a report, worldwide sales of nucleic acid isolation and purification kits were valued at ~US$ 830 million in 2018, and are estimated to register a Y-o-Y growth of ~4% in 2019. As the consistency and reliability of molecular diagnostic results relies heavily on the quality of genetic material i.e. DNA and RNA, manufacturers are focusing on offering high-quality products....
Merck, a leading science and technology company, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Boston, Massachusetts) have announced an agreement to offer non-exclusive licenses to CRISPR intellectual property (IP) under their respective control for use in commercial research and product development....
PhoreMost Limited, the UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to drugging ‘undruggable’ disease targets, and C4X Discovery Holdings plc, a pioneering drug discovery company, have announced they have signed a neurodegeneration drug discovery collaboration agreement. Combining the two companies’ technology platforms to validate novel targets, the initial focus will be on Parkinson’s....
A2LA is pleased to announce the accreditation of GEL Laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025 for cannabis testing, specifically for hemp plant material, oils, and solids. GEL Laboratories is based in Charleston, South Carolina, and is the first hemp testing laboratory accredited in the state. GEL Laboratories is also the first laboratory in the field of environmental testing to expand their scope to include hemp testing....
PhoreMost, the UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to drugging ‘undruggable’ disease targets, has announced it has entered into a structural biology focussed collaboration with the Centre for Chemical Biology and Therapeutics (CCBT), Bangalore, India. CCBT at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) is funded by the Department of Biotechnology....
Evotec has announced that the Company has acquired assets from the stem cell specialist Ncardia AG to advance Evotec's iPSC platform, one of the leading iPSC-based discovery platforms in the industry. The acquired assets include intellectual property relevant for iPSC-based phenotypic drug discovery, an existing cellular product business around iPSC-derived cells, as well as 17 strong team of stem cell biology experts...
ImaginAb Inc., a clinical stage immuno-oncology imaging company, announced today that it has entered into a non-exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Roche. Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will use ImaginAb's novel minibody CD8 T cell imaging agent in immuno-oncology clinical trials for multiple types of cancers....
Extraction of RNA is well-known to be a difficult process due to the low stability of the RNA molecules and the abundance of RNases.MicroGEM’s RNAGEM solves this with extremely fast, temperature-driven RNA extractions that simultaneously lyse cells and strip protein complexes from nucleic acids, thereby allowing higher processivity of polymerases....
Water-resistant glass containers are a prerequisite for countless industries, from chemicals to food production. The European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) determines how water resistance can be determined with the so-called glass test. Ph. Eur. Version 9.6., which came into force a few months ago, has further tightened the requirements for this test....
Hollywood movies and television shows have introduced audiences to all kinds of cutting-edge, crime-solving forensic tools and techniques over the years. We've seen everything from DNA detection methods that can instantly identify a probable suspect to finding the culprit based on evidence gathered with a cotton swab. While these fictional crime scene investigation (CSI) technologies....
Berkeley Lights, Inc. (BLI), the leader in digital cell biology, has announced the launch of the Lightning™ optofluidic platform, which directly visualizes phenotype and function of 1000s of T cells in days to help scientists address challenges in developing cancer immunotherapies. The product was showcased at the upcoming 34th Congress of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry....
Despite being the second most common element in the universe helium has an annoying habit of escaping into space. If this didn’t make things challenging enough, in 1996, the US government started selling off its holding of helium at low prices as it was no longer considered a strategic material. The knock-on effect was a high level of cheap helium on the market.....
A Netherlands Cancer Institute team, co-led by Thijn Brummelkamp and Anastassis (Tassos) Perrakis, reported independently, but almost simultaneously with three more groups from all over the world, on the crystal structure and mechanism of a peculiar molecular end-tail of the microtubules that constitute the cell skeleton....
One of the biggest players from the aerospace industry has replaced chromium in their anodizing process of aircraft parts by a mix of sulfuric and tartaric acid (TSA, Tartaric Sulfuric Anodizing). Metrohm developed a new method allowing this customer to determine both acids quickly and reliably using the same sensor, a highly sensitive, fast responding thermometer. An Application Note is available free of charge....
Led by our highly experienced scientists, between them possessing over a century of experience - the participants benefit from lectures and analytical instrumentation sessions. Designed to be informative, educational and non-vendor specific, QA, QC, Analysts, Technicians, Researchers, Academics, Post Doc’s & Students have all benefited from attending....
AMSBIO reports on the pioneering research published in a collaborative effort between researchers in the School of Engineering, University of Newcastle and Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, UK that has cited Biotinylated Hyaluronan Binding Protein (biotin-HABP) supplied by the company in its investigation into the cancer resistance of the naked mole-rat (NMR)....
A drug with three active ingredients that are released in sequence at specific times: Thanks to the work of a team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), what was once a pharmacologist's dream is now much closer to reality. With a combination of hydrogels and artificial DNA, nanoparticles can be released in sequence under conditions similar to those in the human body...
The DNA of two people differs in millions of places. But which of those variants also have an actual effect on how our bodies function? Researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute have developed a technique that allows them to see which changes in the genetic code affect the activity of genes and, therefore, how we function. They publish their findings in the Nature Genetics journal...