The Pistoia Alliance, a global, not-for-profit alliance that advocates for greater collaboration in life sciences R&D, is announcing the launch of a new project on the microbiome, which could help speed up the advancement of new, precision medicines and treatments. The project – funded by Bayer, BMS, Eagle Genomics, Pfizer, Roche and Takeda – aims to incorporate microbiome data into the drug development pipeline by gathering all existing microbiome data to create a global standardized ‘atlas’ that scientists can refer to when choosing new drug candidates...
INTEGRA Biosciences’ ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot is helping the Arbovirus Testing Lab at the New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories in Concord, USA, to streamline sample pooling for West Nile and Eastern equine encephalitis virus testing. Laboratory supervisor Denise Bolton explained: “We adopted pooled testing in summer 2020, initially constructing the sample pools manually....
Gibco cell culture at 60. As part of our anniversary celebrations, we’re revisiting pivotal moments from the past 60 years of cell culture. From the first time a budding scientist looked down the microscope, to one young professional’s career-defining conversation, our round-up of industry leaders, product designers and cell culturists have spoken and shared their stories and poignant snapshots....
Scientists at Rejuveron Vascular Therapeutics AG, a company specializing in the development of therapies to tackle neurodegeneration, are using INTEGRA’s VIAFLO 384 handheld electronic pipette to accelerate their research. Combining this convenient benchtop system with endothelial cells cultured in Corning® HTS Transwell® 96 well plates allows the team to investigate the ability of drugs to penetrate the blood brain barrier...
Scientists at Aston University have found a way to significantly increase the antimicrobial properties of a material used in many medical devices and clinical surfaces: bioactive glass. The Aston University team had already developed bacteria-killing bioactive glass laced with a single metal oxide of either zinc, cobalt or copper. Their latest research combined pairs of metal oxides in the material - and found that some combinations were more than 100 times better at killing bacteria than using single oxides alone.
Agilent Technologies 
The first Pharma User Club meeting organized by Granutools was successfully held on January 26th, 2022. More than 200 attendees joined this virtual meeting, which was the perfect occasion to hear renowned speakers, join a large and diverse community, and network. The talks covered a wide range of subjects and aspects of the pharmaceutical industry and academy: from lactose excipients to APIs, from flowability to electrostatics, from feedstock to production lines, from process simulation to model calibration...
INTEGRA Biosciences’ VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipettes save time and improve lab productivity, and the company has created a testimonial video showcasing the pipette’s many useful features. The video shows how the VOYAGER increases productivity using a real-life situation, portraying how researchers at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Montpellier, France, are using it to study the dynamics of the latent HIV reservoir and investigate drug-resistant mutations...
Simplified calculation model for tissue properties developed at Karl Landsteiner University for Health Sciences Krems (Austria). Viscous mechanical properties of biological tissues can now be described more easily than before. This is shown by a recently published paper of a team of the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences Krems. The team demonstrates that an established mathematical model for soft biological tissues can be greatly simplified, allowing extensive time and cost savings...
EVONETIX LTD the synthetic biology company bringing semiconductor technology to DNA synthesis, has announced it has achieved enzymatic DNA synthesis capability with its proprietary, thermally controlled synthesis chemistry. The culmination of a three-year development program, supported by Innovate UK and in collaboration with Durham University, the results demonstrate that Evonetix’s unique, semiconductor array-based platform is compatible with both chemical and enzymatic DNA synthesis...
BioChromato has published a technical note that compares using Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) and Thermal Desorption (DART) sample preparation methods for Mass Spectrometry analysis of Nylon 6,6. Synthesized by polycondensation of hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid – Nylon 6,6 is a polyamide or nylon that is commonly used in the textile and plastic industries. Nylon 6,6 is a polymer of choice when high mechanical strength, rigidity, good stability under heat and/or chemical resistance are required....
“Automation and industrialization of COVID-19 PCR-testing will facilitate an immense scale-up of the global PCR-testing capacity. It will allow for a new approach to keep society open: preventive, regular testing (twice per week), which will create green bubbles and get us ahead of the curve” - Niels Kruize, CCO, MolGen. To get ahead of the curve, we will need to change our methodology of COVID-19 testing...
Microbiome DX company Genetic Analysis AS (“GA”) and Institut für Medizinische Diagnostik (“IMD”), a part of the Medicover Group, announces that IMD has launched the GA-map® Dysbiosis Test in Germany. IMD will activate its new Microbiome laboratory in February 2022 and add standardized microbiota testing to its existing test portfolio of products. This new Microbiota test offering will be marketed to customers in Germany and Europe...
A 'waste collection' tidies up our cells. If something does not go according to plan, serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson's may develop. Molecular biologist Sascha Martens from the University of Vienna together with international partners – researchers of the University of Pennsylvania, Monash University, the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt and the UC Berkeley – investigate the associated process: autophagy...
NHS guidelines for gene testing miss half of people carrying inherited genetic changes linked to cancer, a new study reports. Scientists assessed patients who received testing in the private sector to see who would have been eligible for a genetic test under the NHS – and what the consequences would have been of missing testing. The team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, found that applying NHS guidelines for gene testing would have excluded many people...
Agilent Technologies Inc. announce that researchers from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia, collaborated with Agilent experts on a proof-of-concept FTIR-based saliva COVID-19 testing workflow using the Agilent Cary 630 FTIR Spectrometer. The study investigated the pathophysiological response to a COVID-19 infection through ATR-FTIR spectroscopy....
Reduced transfer steps and fast pipetting for bacteriocin testing. Researchers at NOMAD Bioscience GmbH, a German R&D company specializing in plant biotechnology, are taking advantage of the remarkable liquid handling capabilities of INTEGRA’s VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipette for the preparation and dispensing of media and gels. Research scientist Birgit Koch explained how she uses the VOYAGER in her work...
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, and Symphogen, an affiliate of and the antibody center of excellence within the international pharmaceutical company Servier, announce the continuation of their collaboration to provide biopharmaceutical discovery and development laboratories with innovative tools and streamlined workflows for efficient characterization of complex therapeutic proteins...
As part of its continuing commitment to laboratory informatics education for laboratory personnel worldwide, Autoscribe Informatics has made available a recent webinar entitled “Justifying the Purchase of a LIMS.” Ideal for laboratory professionals purchasing or upgrading a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) it is especially useful for those about to embark for the first time on the journey of selecting a LIMS for their laboratory.
World first: Human Cell Design has developed maturation process to obtain unlimited quantity of functional human cellssimilar in every respect to native human cells. Human Cell Design (formerly Univercell-Biosolutions), a biotechnology company focused on generating translational human cellular models, announces the launch of Endoc-BH5®, the fifth version of its model of ready-to-use, > 99% pure population of functional human pancreatic beta cells available in unlimited quantities...
ZEISS recently caught up with the team from the Mostowy Lab at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. Watch the video below to hear how their ZEISS Celldiscoverer 7 has transformed the way they carry out research across the entire lab - from streamlining workflows to standardising results. ZEISS Celldiscoverer 7 is your automated microscope for live cell imaging, combining the ease-of-use of an automated high-end imaging system with the image quality and flexibility of a classic inverted research microscope...
The research neutron source Hein Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is playing an important role in the investigation of mRNA nanoparticles similar to the ones used in the Covid-19 vaccines from vendors BioNTech and Pfizer. Researchers at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) used the high neutron flux available in Garching to characterize various formulations for the mRNA vaccine and thus to lay the groundwork for improving the vaccine's efficacy...