INSIGHTS ON CELL & GENE THERAPY DISCOVERY

• Mind The Gaps: A Perspective From The World Of Academic Spinouts

  Depending upon your perspective, “emerging” biotech could mean any number of things, ranging all the way from the recent spinout of an academic lab to a publicly held company developing a therapeutic that has not yet reached the marketplace. Read more about what current situations may cause anxiety for a company in the emerging biotech space.

• Key Considerations For Laboratory Facility Design Planning And Optimization

  Laboratories are an integral part of the pharmaceutical industry. They are used at each stage of the product development. See how this solution allows you to plan projects without having to build new labs and gain the ability to plan projects better, inventory management, being nimble in responding to demand fluctuations, avoidance of under and/or over utilization of talent and reliable capital project planning that is based on actual utilization tracking.

• Droplet Digital PCR Applications Guide

  Droplet Digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR™) was developed to provide high-precision, absolute quantification of nucleic acid target sequences with wide-ranging applications for both research and clinical diagnostic applications. ddPCR measures absolute quantities by counting nucleic acid molecules encapsulated in discrete, volumetrically defined water-in-oil droplet partitions. Droplet Digital PCR using Bio-Rad’s QX100™ or QX200™ Droplet Digital PCR system overcomes the previous lack of scalable and practical technologies for digital PCR implementation.

• Viral Quantification - Adeno-Associated Virus Vector Genome Titer Assay

  Recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) is rapidly becoming the vector of choice for human gene therapy applications due to the ability to achieve prolonged gene expression in a variety of tissues without a significant immune response or toxicity. Large-scale manufacture of AAV vector for clinical trials requires a high degree of sophistication in both process design and lot release assays. Read how ddPCR represents a highly precise method to determine AAV vector genome titers and is not unduly influenced by inefficient amplification or standard curve issues.

• Counting DNA Molecule By Molecule

  Digital PCR is an established nucleic acid (NA) quantification technology, which enhances the broad use of PCR across molecular biology laboratories globally through improved precision and accuracy. Organizations that impact the quality of nucleic acid measurement and testing, adopted digital PCR early on and have since been pioneering its use for improved accuracy and precision in NA measurement. Ultimately, this will positively impact the quality of NA measurements generally and, more specifically, clinical NA testing. Molecular counting of nucleic acid molecules is the next measurement paradigm.

• A Novel CAR-T Cell Therapy Approach Using Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting And Stem Cell Transplantation

  Successful chimeric antigen receptor- (CAR-) T cell therapy requires a target antigen that is unique to cancer cells. But what happens when there are no unique antigens? Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center addressed this problem by replacing healthy non-target cells with genetically modified versions lacking the CAR-T cell target (Borot et al., 2019). Their results, published in PNAS, may provide a new avenue for treatment of some types of cancer.

• A New International Standard To Measure DNA?

  The breadth of digital PCR (dPCR) applications continues to grow and fulfill critical scientific needs. One of the major advantages the technology confers is the ability to count nucleic acid molecules directly, rather than extrapolating quantity based on standard curves as with many other methods. By harmonizing diagnostic procedures on dPCR platforms, the scientific and medical communities can become more coordinated and efficient than ever before.

• 10 Tips For Setting Up A Successful Cell Sorting Experiment

  Presented here are some tips to keep in mind when starting a cell sorting experiment. They will help you to maximize cell viability, separation, and isolation, and set you up for successful downstream applications.

• Sorting An Old Problem: Are Cells Stressed By Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting?

  Fluorescence-activated cell sorting is a valuable tool for research, allowing separation of a mixture of cells into distinct populations for analysis. But could the physical forces of sorting stress the cells, altering their behavior and confounding experimental results? Andrä et al. (2020) found that although cell sorting activated p38 MAPK stress signaling, no functional or structural changes were observable. The results indicate that jet-in-air systems such as the Bio‑Rad S3e Cell Sorter do not alter cell behavior.

• 7 Tips For Purchasing Your Next Cell Sorter

  This article shares some tips to help you avoid buyer’s remorse and make an educated decision about which instrument to purchase. These tips provide you with the tools to make an informed decision when purchasing a cell sorter.