Whilst commonly used air displacement pipettes are highly accurate for most pipetting applications, their performance is adversely affected by the physical properties of the solutions handled, such as viscosity, volatility, surface tension and temperature. However, positive displacement pipettes like Gilson's ergonomic MICROMAN® E and Capillary Pistons (CPs) work differently, and volume delivery is unaffected by the nature of the sample...
Binding Site is pleased to announce that the ground-breaking iStopMM (Iceland Screens, Treats or Prevents Multiple Myeloma) study has reached an important milestone, with the publication of a paper outlining the design and recruitment of this population-based screening study. The large-scale study – which includes over 80,000 individuals, more than half of the eligible population of Iceland...
Leading Drug Discovery Contract Research Organisation Sygnature Discovery has announced the set-up of a state-of-the-art Early Candidate Developability Screening Group. Located at its headquarters in Nottingham, UK, the new service line will expand on the company’s offerings to customers by bridging into formal preclinical drug development and paving the way for clinical trials...
Scientists have identified a new class of targeted cancer drugs that offer the potential to treat patients whose tumours have faulty copies of the BRCA cancer genes. The drugs, known as POLQ inhibitors, specifically kill cancer cells with mutations in the BRCA genes while leaving healthy cells unharmed. And crucially, they can kill cancer cells that have become resistant to PARP inhibitors – an existing treatment for patients with BRCA mutations....
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the worldwide search for an effective treatment is still ongoing. Remdesivir and GS-441524 are antiviral drugs that have been examined for the treatment of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). Remdesivir is a nucleotide analogue inhibitor that can inhibit the replication of animal and human coronaviruses...
Australian National Phenome Centre Integrates Quantitative NMR and MS Assay Platform for Risk Assessment and Longitudinal Monitoring of Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome (PACS). A clinical research collaboration on COVID-19 pheno-conversion and subsequent pheno-reversion has discovered transient and persistent systemic changes of the molecular signatures in patient blood samples three months after the acute COVID-19 disease phase...
A new white paper, written by scientists at Liverpool ChiroChem (LCC), describes how the Asynt Illumin8 parallel photoreactor is being used to synthesise a range of new 2-Aryl N-Heterocycles. The discovery of a novel enantioselective synthetic pathway for reduction of pyridines to the corresponding chiral piperidines led to the formation of LCC in 2014. Since inception, LCC have enhanced their expertise enabling them to provide leading scientific organisations with access to chirally-pure compounds that play their part in small molecule drug discovery....
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, and the University of Sheffield, a leading institution with a global reputation for research excellence, have joined forces to develop advanced end-to-end workflows for the characterization and monitoring of complex oligonucleotide and mRNA products. This collaboration brings together the University of Sheffield’s extensive research expertise and Thermo Fisher’s cutting-edge sample preparation, liquid chromatography....
In this article, the characterization of lactose powders for use in DPI applications is discussed. We present new results obtained from state-of-the-art characterization methods allowing us to gather insightful information on the powder behavior. Moreover, electrostatic properties which are of great interest for DPI applications in particular with respect to drug release from the lactose carrier are investigated....
AMSBIO reports upon a publication that cites how its STEM-CELLBANKER® animal-free cryopreservation media has played a role in the development of a cell therapy for Parkinson’s Disease that will soon be going into clinical trials. Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases worldwide. Its main features include motor symptoms such as bradykinesia, rigidity, resting tremor, and postural instability, though non-motor symptoms are often also present....
The very high use of antibiotics in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 is often not necessary, and risks worsening global antimicrobial resistance. New research led by the University of Glasgow as part of the ISARIC (International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium) WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK), found that antibiotic use was very high in hospitalised COVID-19 patients in the UK during the first wave despite confirmed bacterial infection being uncommon....
A unique electron microscope, set to break new ground in biological imaging, is being installed at the Franklin’s new building on the Harwell campus. The machine is able to image biological samples at up to a million frames a second, a thousand times faster than the current standard. It is the first of three instruments being developed jointly with electron microscope manufacturer, JEOL Ltd, and has been shipped to the UK from the company’s headquarters in Japan....
While the cultured meat industry is gaining momentum, scaling up the production process and reducing the cost remain key challenges. The primary focus of the collaboration between Merck and the two universities will be the development of next generation, scalable bioreactor designs that can support meat and seafood manufacture on a commercial scale....
The first study of its kind reports on the enhancement of skin permeability of risperidone (RIS) using eutectic systems. A recent study undertaken at the University of Petra in Jordan describes for the first time the formation of room temperature therapeutic deep eutectic solvent (THEDES) of RIS, an antipsychotic drug that is used in the treatment of schizophrenia, mixed and manic states associated with bipolar disorder and irritability in children and adolescents with autism....
A new eBook from Freeman Technology, a Micromeritics company and global leader in powder characterisation, explores the application of powder flow measurements for monitoring and optimising granulation processes. Granulation is a vital unit operation for many industries, notably the pharmaceutical sector, but endpoint detection and scale-up remain a challenge. ‘Powder Flow Testing for Granulation Processes’ focuses on the value of bulk powder characterisation...
The Archaeology Department of the University of Liverpool has carried out two ground-breaking projects that have improved our understanding of how human culture developed in ancient times. Playing a key role in that research has been the Keyence VHX-7000 Series Digital Microscope, the world's first 4K ultra high accuracy microscope. Elizabeth Thomas, an Archaeology PhD student at the university, had the opportunity to use the Keyence digital microscope when conducting research...
Due to the corona crisis hand sanitizer became part of our daily routine. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers with at least 60 to 95% alcohol is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), with the main components being ethanol, isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and/or n-propanol. To determine the effectiveness and impurities of the hand sanitizer a GC analysis can be performed. This analysis faces many challenges since hand sanitizer is made in a water matrix, which is a difficult matrix for Gas Chromatography....
A team of international scientists have identified key cellular factors that are crucial for the infection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The study – led by the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford and the Rosalind Franklin Institute and published in Molecular Cell – provides crucial new insights into the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle, revealing new pathways to target the virus within host cells and leading the way for potential new treatment options as we move into the next phase of the pandemic....
Collaboration between scientists and technologists helps to advance cryo-electron microscopy and life sciences research. TESCAN ORSAY HOLDING a.s. announces a joint research collaboration agreement between the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (IMG AS CR) and leading scientific instrumentation companies in Europe. Observing viruses or proteins in detail has been the dream of scientists world-wide for years....
Method of choice: The combination of size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and light scattering detection (LS) determines molecular weight, especially for higher molecular species such as aggregates or oligomers. As an additional plus sample size and topology can also be revealed. Special attention needs to be turned to the quality of SEC columns in order to provide signals unaffected by spikes. YMC’s SEC columns support LS-detection perfectly due to a high level of inertness...
The addition of the new NovaSeq 6000 to Macrogen Europe’s range of industry-leading NGS and Sanger sequencing platforms comes at time of growing demand for its DNA sequencing services, for example from biomarker and drug discovery applications in oncology, immunology and metagenomics. The increased sequencing capacity helps clients in industry, academia and research institutes keep their projects on track....
BioChromato Inc. has published a report describing how their ionRocket sample preparation device, used in combination with Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) and Kendrick Mass Defect (KMD) analysis, provides a valuable new tool for chain analysis of fluoroelastomers. Because of their excellent heat, chemical and abrasion resistance - fluoropolymers are widely used in automotive parts and many other industrial products....