Category Archives: Cell Biology

Cell Biology

Nano-sized vesicles with ACE2 receptor could prevent, treat infection from current and future strains of SARS-CoV-2 – EurekAlert

image:Raghu Kalluri, M.D., Ph.D. view more

Credit: MD Anderson Cancer Center

HOUSTON and CHICAGO Scientists at The University of Texas MDAnderson Cancer Center and Northwestern Medicine have identified natural extracellular vesicles containing the ACE2 protein (evACE2) in the blood of COVID-19 patients that can block infection from broad strains of SARS-CoV-2 virus in preclinical studies. The study was published today in Nature Communications.

The evACE2 act as decoys in the body and can serve as a therapeutic to be developed for prevention and treatment for current and future strains of SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent coronaviruses, the scientists report. Once developed as a therapeutic product, evACE2 have the potential to benefit humans as a biological treatment with minimal toxicities.

The study is the first to show evACE2 are capable of fighting the new SARS-CoV-2 variants with an equal or better efficacy than blocking the original strain. The researchers found that evACE2 exist in human blood as a natural anti-viral response. The more severe, the higher the levels of evACE2 detected in the patients blood.

Whenever a new mutant strain of SARS-CoV-2 surges, the original vaccine and therapeutic antibodies may lose power against alpha, beta, delta and the most recent, omicron, said co-senior author Huiping Liu, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. However, the beauty of evACE2 is its superpower in blocking broad strains of coronaviruses, including current SARS-CoV-2 and even future SARS coronaviruses from infecting humans. Our mouse studies demonstrate the therapeutic potential of evACE2 in preventing or blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection when it is delivered to the airway via droplets.

The evACE2 are tiny lipid bubbles in nanoparticle size that express the ACE2 protein, like handles for the virus to grab. These vesicles act as decoys to lure the SARS-CoV-2 virus away from the ACE2 protein on cells, which is how the virus infects cells. The virus spike protein grabs evACE2 instead of cellular ACE2, preventing it from entering the cell. Once captured, the virus will either float harmlessly around or be cleared by a macrophage immune cell. It can no longer cause infection.

"The key takeaway from this study is the identification of naturally occurring extracellular vesicles in the body that express the ACE2 receptor on their surface and serve as part of the normal adaptive defense against COVID-19-causing viruses," said co-senior author Raghu Kalluri, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Cancer Biology at MD Anderson. "Building upon this, we've discovered a way to harness this natural defense as a new potential therapy against this devastating virus."

The COVID-19 pandemic has been extended and challenged by a constantly changing SARS-CoV-2 virus. One of the biggest challenges is the moving target of pathogenic coronavirus that constantly evolves into new virus strains (variants) with mutations. These new viral strains harbor various changes in the viral protein spike with high infection rates and increased breakthroughs due to vaccine inefficiencies and resistance to therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Our studies demonstrate that extracellular vesicles act to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 infection and highlight the potential for extracellular vesicles to play a broader role in defense against other types of infection which could be exploited therapeutically, said co-lead author Kathleen McAndrews, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in Cancer Biology at MD Anderson.

Northwestern and MD Anderson have a pending patent on evACE2. The goal is to collaborate with industry partners and develop evACE2 as a biological therapeutic product (nasal spray or injected therapeutics) for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Liu and another co-senior author, Deyu Fang from pathology at Northwestern, have formed a startup company, Exomira, to take this patent and develop evACE2 as a therapeutic.

It remains urgent to identify novel therapeutics, Liu said. We think evACE2 can meet the challenges and fight against broad strains of SARS-CoV-2 and future emerging coronaviruses to protect the immunocompromised (at least 2.7% of U.S. adults), the unvaccinated (94% in low-income countries and more than 30% in the U.S.) and even the vaccinated from breakthrough infections.

The work was supported by the Chicago Biomedical Consortium Accelerator Award, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens Program, the National Cancer Institute (IF32CA257345-01, CA060553), the Blood Biobank fund and Lyda Hill Philanthropies (to MD Anderson). Northwesterns pharmacology and pathology departments, Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University also supported the work.

A team of more than 30 authors collaborated on this work. They include four lead co-first authors Lamiaa El-Shennawy, Andrew Hoffmann and Nurmaa Dashzeveg, all from the Liu lab at Northwestern, and McAndrews from the Kalluri Lab of MDAnderson. A full list of collaborating authors and their disclosures can be found here.

The collaboration between Northwestern and MD Anderson was initiated and fostered by co-author Valerie LeBleu, now an MD/MBA student at Feinberg and Kellogg School of Management and formerly an assistant professor of Cancer Biology at MD Anderson.

- 30 -

Nature Communications

20-Jan-2022

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Nano-sized vesicles with ACE2 receptor could prevent, treat infection from current and future strains of SARS-CoV-2 - EurekAlert

Cell Biology

Human Skin Cell Biology and Disease Research at UCI Expands for The Human Cell Atlas Project – New University

In connection with UCIs Skin Biology Resource Center, a UCI interdisciplinary research team received a three-year, $2 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in November of last year.

According to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative website, the research team is using this grant to work towards constructing a skin cell atlas that will help explain ancestral differences in skin biology and pathology. The initiative, which was founded in 2015, aims to alleviate some of the toughest challenges presented in society, including science and education. With its contribution to this skin cell atlas, knowledge of all types of cells on human skin will be collected in a revolutionary new way.

Like many of the current cell atlas projects underway, the teams goal is part of a larger initiative: The Human Cell Atlas.

Cells are important to every system that allows the human body to function, they are the basic building blocks of life. According to the Human Cell Atlas goals outlined here, cell biologists hope to expand and transform our current understanding of cells.

As a global project, this initiative aims to map every single cell type in the human body. Cell mapping refers to the process of finding a cells location within tissue or an organ. In this way, molecular information about the cell can be gathered and its functions and behavior with neighboring cells can be described.

With over two thousand members, one thousand institutes and over 75 countries involved, this project will serve as a valuable source of information for health and disease, aiding disease diagnosis and treatment.

In collaboration with professors from the University of Michigan, UCI professors Maksim Plikus and Qing Nie who teach development and cell biology, Bogi Andersen who teaches biological chemistry, Natasha Mesinkovska who specializes in dermatology, and Dara Sorkin who specializes in psychology and social behavior are working on the creation of the skin cell atlas at an ancestral level. This ancestral level, referring to the ancestors in ones family, allows for the analysis of biological characteristics that have been inherited throughout a familial linaeage.

Through a study including 72 adults of ages 18 and above, the principal investigators from both institutions will generate a skin cell atlas with networks composed of gene expression and gene regulatory state data.

Gene expression is an important process that instructs DNA to create functional products in the human body, such as proteins. Gene regulation states allow for the control of gene expression. Here, both processes are fundamental in the functions of particular skin cell types, where these skin cell types will vary based on each individuals ancestry.

Researchers will be collecting samples from individuals of African American, Latinx, Middle Eastern and Asian backgrounds on developmental, anatomical and physiological distinct sites of the human body.

While skin disease today can arise from factors such as skin pigmentation, the color of a persons skin, skin thickness and hair texture, these factors vary among individuals who encompass different ancestries as well. Since these skin and hair characteristics have yet to be known, the skin cell atlas will also be useful in understanding new information about these particular body characteristics.

To learn more about this study and the five UCI and University of Michigan professors that are involved, visit the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative website.

Korintia Espinoza is a STEM Staff Writer for the winter 2022 quarter. She can be reached at korintie@uci.edu.

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Cell Biology

Undergrad’s Extensive Research Experience Was Supported by Several Key Programs | | SBU News – Stony Brook News

Samuel Escobar

Samuel Escobar the URECA researcher of the month for January 2022 was in the University Scholars program at Stony Brook University and recently graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Biology from the College of Arts and Sciences. His substantive involvement in research as an undergraduate was supported by several key programs. Escobar participated in a four-week pre-freshman program in the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP), and in his freshman year, he participated in the INSPIRE/Include New Students through a Peer Introduction to Research Experience program. In spring semester of his freshman year, Escobar arranged to do research with Assistant Professor Benjamin Martin from the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology during Summer 2019 as a participant in the PSEG-Explorations in STEM program, a 10-week summer research program co-administered by the Career Center and URECA.

Escobar continued doing research in the Martin Lab for the rest of his undergraduate years, and was one of two 2021 URECA summer program applicants to be awarded the Chhabra-URECA Fellowship, an award that provides funding for summer research and recognizes students with a passion for research. His work on Cell Cycle Regulation Modulates Tail-Bud Morphogenesis in Zebrafish involves using an R software script to design hybridization chain reaction probes for genes of interest. Escobar will be presenting this research at the Spring 22 URECA poster symposium.

When asked about his research experience, Escobar said, if youre considering doing research, just try it out! You might regret not doing it. Thats why I picked Stony Brook. I always tell people, the price for what youre getting here is insane. I was able to get this awesome research experience, which has been super valuable to me, and to have great mentors.

On campus, Escobar has served as a teaching assistant, vice president of the Latino Medical Student Association Plus+, and a Center for Prevention and Outreach Red Watch Band intern. He volunteers with Good Samaritan Hospital, the NOSH Soup Kitchen and the Eastern Farm Workers Association. During May 2020 to May 2021, Escobar was employed as a contact tracer with the New York Department of Health and is currently employed as a medical scribe with Long Island Urgent Care in West Babylon and Manorville, NY, where he aids in performing intake questions, as well as translation of medical explanations for Spanish-speaking patients. Escobar plans to apply to medical school programs in the next year. He is a first-generation college student from Deer Park, NY.

Read the interview with URECA Director Karen Kernan

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Undergrad's Extensive Research Experience Was Supported by Several Key Programs | | SBU News - Stony Brook News

Cell Biology

LUMICKS Announces Adoption of z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer by Two Major Centres for Cancer Immunology – PRNewswire

AMSTERDAM, Jan. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LUMICKS, a next generation life science tools provider, today announced that two major centers of excellence in cancer immunology have adopted LUMICKS' z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer instrument.

The first placement is at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center ("Fred Hutch") in Seattle, Washington, USA, a leading research institute dedicated to the eradication of cancer. The instrument is housed at the Immune Monitoring Core Facility and serves multiple immuno-oncology and cell therapy research groups from the Center to accelerate immunotherapy development for cancer treatments.

The second z-Movi is placed at the University of Oxford, in Oxford, UK, in the lab of Prof. Tim Elliott, a world leader in the field of antigen presentation and T cell biology. The teams of Prof. Elliott and Prof. Persephone Borrow are using the instrument to investigate a broad range of T celltarget interactions including the potency and longevity of T cells in solid tumors.

"The z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer provides an excellent platform for quantitating the avidity of interactions occurring between T cells and cognate antigen-presenting target cells during the induction and effector phases of an immune response," said Prof. Elliott and Prof. Borrow. "This enables dissection of attributes of both T cells and their interaction partners that influence the response to viral infections and cancer."

"We are delighted that our z-Movi instrument will be adopted into the workflows at Fred Hutch and University of Oxford, two institutions devoted to the development of promising immunotherapeutic strategies," said LUMICKS CSO Dr. Andrea Candelli. "At LUMICKS, we are focused on developing new technologies that help cancer researchers discover new therapies. We believe that cell avidity measurements provide unique insights into the mechanism of action of cell therapy products, ultimately leading to higher success rates for novel cancer immunotherapies."

About LUMICKS

LUMICKS is a leading life science tools company that develops equipment for Dynamic Single-Molecule and Cell Avidity analysis, two rapidly emerging areas in biology research and immuno-oncology. LUMICKS' tools allow researchers to build the crucial and as yet unfinished bridge between structure and function at both a molecular and a cellular level. This is achieved by applying and measuring forces around biological interactions, enabling the detailed real-time analysis of underlying biological mechanisms. LUMICKS' C-Trap Optical Tweezers Fluorescence & Label-free Microscopy, allows scientists to analyze complex biological processes in real-time. Similarly, the z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer enables the measurement and selection of immune cells based on their real-time interactions with target cells.

For more information contact:

Kassandra Barbetsea, media contact+31 (0) 63 482 09 48[emailprotected]

Joshua Young, investor contact[emailprotected]

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LUMICKS Announces Adoption of z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer by Two Major Centres for Cancer Immunology - PRNewswire

Cell Biology

Berkeley Lights and Aanika Biosciences Announce Partnership – GlobeNewswire

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Jan. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Berkeley Lights, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLI), a leader in digital cell biology, and Aanika Biosciences, a growing biotech start-up using edible microbial tags to improve food safety, today announced a strategic partnership that will enable faster identification of outbreak sources, reduce incidents of fresh produce contamination and minimize the impact of food borne illness related recalls.

In this partnership, Aanika will use Berkeley Lights' high-throughput, functional screening service to rapidly identify and optimize functional, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) capable of killing harmful bacteria, including those that cause outbreaks of foodborne illness. In addition, the Beacon Optofluidic Platform will be leveraged to find peptides that are toxic to bacteria to create a new antibacterial tag that will then be applied to their bacterial spore-based barcoding technology to protect the food supply chain.

Berkeley Lights high-throughput, functional screening service, based on our proprietary cell-free expression technology, is accelerating novel discoveries to develop solutions and products in the agricultural space, said Eric Hobbs, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Berkeley Lights. Specifically, applying the Berkeley Lights platform to AMPs allows us to rapidly map and identify the top mutational sites to further optimize AMP performance.

AMPs are gaining popularity as antibacterial agents across a wide range of applications, particularly as microbes are becoming more resistant to antibiotics, and are a growing focus for both companies.

Tracking, tracing and identifying the origin of food borne illnesses is just the beginning of what Aanikas watermark technology can do to help improve and protect our global food system, said Aanika co-founder and CEO Vishaal Bhuyan. The partnership with Berkley Lights will enable us to move faster, and go deeper, into uncovering and unlocking the opportunities to have greater economic, environmental and human health impact.

Berkeley Lights will participate in the downstream economics created by its enabling technology through a royalty arrangement as part of this strategic partnership. Additional terms of the agreement are not disclosed. This is Berkeley Lights second announced high-throughput, functional screening partnership following theBayer Partnership announced in 2021.

About Berkeley Lights

Berkeley Lights is a leading digital cell biology company focused on enabling and accelerating the rapid development and commercialization of biotherapeutics and other cell-based products for our customers. The Berkeley Lights Platform captures deep phenotypic, functional and genotypic information for thousands of single cells in parallel and can also deliver the live biology customers desire in the form of the best cells. Our platform is a fully integrated, end-to-end solution, comprising proprietary consumables, including our OptoSelect chips and reagent kits, advanced automation systems, and application software. We developed the Berkeley Lights Platform to provide the most advanced environment for rapid functional characterization of single cells at scale, the goal of which is to establish an industry standard for our customers throughout their cell-based product value chain.

Berkeley Lights Beacon and Lightning systems and Culture Station instrument are FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

About Aanika Biosciences

Aanika Biosciences was co-founded in 2018 by Vishaal Bhuyan after he personally experienced the consequences of ordering fresh seeds and receiving stale, contaminated products instead. He made it is his mission to create a safer food supply by finding a way to track, trace and authenticate products. Aanikas customized microbial-based tags help companies gain valuable insights about their supply chains, help their customers make better consumption choices, and create a more sustainable world.

Forward-Looking Statements

To the extent that statements contained in this press release are not descriptions of historical facts regarding Berkeley Lights or its products, they are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties that relate to future events, and actual results and product performance could differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Berkeley Lights undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties relating to the Companys growth and continual evolution see the statements in the "Risk Factors" sections, and elsewhere, in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Media ContactsMedia @berkeleylights.comLaura.shulman@foodfuturestrategies.com

Investor ContactIR@berkeleylights.com

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Berkeley Lights and Aanika Biosciences Announce Partnership - GlobeNewswire

Cell Biology

Magenta Therapeutics Highlights Recent Pipeline Progress and Milestone Expectations for 2022 – BioSpace

-- MGTA-117 Phase 1/2 clinical trial is open for enrollment for patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes; clinical data expected in 2022 -

-- CD45 antibody drug conjugate is Magentas second conditioning program; dose range toxicology results expected in second half of 2022 --

-- MGTA-145 stem cell mobilization program focused on dose and administration optimization and sickle cell disease clinical trial with initial data expected in second half of 2022 -

-- Focused program spending allows for extended cash runway; ended 2021 with approximately $162 million in cash reserves with expectation to fund operating plan into Q4 2023 --

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Magenta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MGTA), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel medicines designed to bring the curative power of stem cell transplant to more patients, today highlighted progress across its portfolio of targeted conditioning and stem cell mobilization programs and set out its milestone expectations for both clinical and preclinical data in 2022. These updates will also be discussed during a webcast presentation at the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Thursday, January 13 at 9:45 a.m. EST.

2022 will be an important year for the Magenta portfolio said Jason Gardner, D. Phil., President and Chief Executive Officer, Magenta Therapeutics. We believe we will clinically demonstrate that MGTA-117 targets and binds selectively to CD117-expressing cells, potently depletes those cells and the product profile will be well-tolerated in our Phase 1/2 clinical study. We have developed biomarker assays that we believe will provide early insights into the biologic activity of MGTA-117. We are also thrilled to introduce our second targeted conditioning program in the development pipeline, an antibody drug conjugate targeting CD45 which has the potential to deplete both stem cells and immune cells without chemotherapy. Finally, with our MGTA-145 program, we are focused on optimizing the collection yield of mobilized stem cells. We believe MGTA-145 can offer a faster and more reliable mobilization regimen for stem cell transplantation as well as ex vivo and in vivo gene therapies.

Targeted Conditioning

MGTA-117 Program:

2022 Clinical Data from Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial: Evaluating Target Selectivity, Potency and Tolerability. The MGTA-117 Phase 1/2 clinical trial is open for enrollment. This dose escalation clinical trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of MGTA-117 as a single dose in patients with relapsed/refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Myelodysplasia-Excess Blasts (MDS-EB).

Specifically, dosing cohorts expected to enroll in 2022 will allow for evaluation of MGTA-117s ability to:

Magentas preclinical evidence supports the MGTA-117 target selectivity, potency and tolerability profile. In GLP toxicology studies, MGTA-117 potently depleted stem cells at a dose level where there were no drug-related findings in hepatic, reproductive, neurologic, cardiovascular, or respiratory organs.

Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial Design for MGTA-117. MGTA-117 will be assessed in patients with relapsed/refractory AML and MDS-EB in a multi-center, open-label, single-ascending-dose trial. Patients in the first cohort will receive 0.02 mg/kg administered intravenously (IV), and subsequent cohort doses will be determined in accordance with a modified Fibonacci sequence.

Magenta will assess data from each cohort and, after collection of adequate safety, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data, Magenta intends to engage with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to transition to the primary target population of patients eligible for stem cell transplantation. In addition, Magenta plans to explore MGTA-117 as a targeted conditioning agent for stem cell gene therapies.

CD45-Antibody Drug Conjugate Program:

Magenta has initiated investigational new drug application-enabling studies on its second targeted conditioning program, an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) targeting CD45. Due to the expression of CD45 on stem cells and immune cells, Magentas CD45-ADC is designed to selectively target and deplete stem cells and lymphocytes, which could allow patients with blood cancers and autoimmune diseases to avoid use of chemotherapy prior to stem cell transplant. Magenta expects to have preclinical data from a dose ranging toxicology study in the second half of 2022.

Stem Cell Mobilization and Collection

MGTA-145 Dosing and Administration Optimization Clinical Trial. As previously disclosed, Magenta intends to initiate a dosing and administration optimization clinical trial with MGTA-145 in combination with plerixafor. Clinical data from a Phase 2 investigator-initiated clinical trial with 25 multiple myeloma patients showed that MGTA-145, in combination with plerixafor, mobilized a sufficient number of stem cells for transplantation in 88% of patients (22/25). In addition, all patients transplanted with cells mobilized by MGTA-145 plus plerixafor as of the data cut-off date had successful engraftment (18/18 patients) with prolonged durability through the 100-day follow-up period (13/13 patients). The regimen was generally well-tolerated. Magenta believes there are specific opportunities to further improve cell collection yield by adjustments to the regimen dosing, and administration timing. Magenta expects to generate data from this healthy subjects clinical trial in the second half of 2022.

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Stem Cell Mobilization Phase 2 Clinical Trial. Magenta is advancing trial initiation activities. The trial is designed to evaluate mobilization and collection of stem cells in adults and adolescents with SCD. Magenta and its clinical collaboration partner, bluebird bio, will each characterize the collected cells. Magenta plans to gene-modify the cells and transplant them into established preclinical models to evaluate graft quality and engraftment. Data from this clinical trial could provide proof-of-concept for MGTA-145, in combination with plerixafor, as a first-line mobilization regimen for patients with SCD and, more broadly, across other gene therapy applications. Magenta expects to generate data from this clinical trial in the second half of 2022.

Cash Guidance

With focused allocation of capital and resources on both clinical stage programs and CD45-ADC, Magenta now expects its cash reserves to fund its operating plan into the fourth quarter of 2023. Magenta ended 2021 with approximately $162 million of cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities (unaudited).

About Magenta Therapeutics

Magenta Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing medicines designed to bring the curative power of stem cell transplant to more patients with blood cancer, genetic diseases and autoimmune diseases. Magenta is combining leadership in stem cell biology and biotherapeutics development with clinical and regulatory expertise to revolutionize immune and blood reset to allow more patients to take advantage of the curative potential of stem cell transplant as well as potentially improve eligibility for future gene therapies.

Magenta is based in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit http://www.magentatx.com.

Follow Magenta on Twitter: @magentatx.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws, including express or implied statements regarding Magentas future expectations, plans and prospects, including, without limitation, statements regarding expectations, plans and timing for preclinical activities, clinical trials and related results, the development of product candidates and advancement of preclinical and clinical programs, the potential benefits and expected performance of product candidates, projections regarding long-term growth, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, as well as other statements containing words such as anticipate, believe, continue, could, designed, endeavor, estimate, expect, intend, may, might, plan, potential, predict, project, seek, should, target, will or would and similar expressions that constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The express or implied forward-looking statements included in this press release are only predictions and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation: uncertainties inherent in preclinical and clinical studies and in the availability and timing of data from ongoing and planned clinical and preclinical studies; the ability to initiate, enroll, conduct or complete ongoing and planned preclinical and clinical studies; whether results from preclinical or earlier clinical studies will be predictive of the results of future studies; discussions with governmental agencies such as the FDA; the expected timing of submissions for regulatory approval to conduct or continue trials or to market products; whether Magenta's cash resources will be sufficient to fund Magenta's foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements; risks, uncertainties and assumptions regarding the impact of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic on Magentas business, operations, strategy, goals and anticipated timelines, and other risks concerning Magenta's programs and operations are described in additional detail in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 3, 2021, as updated by Magentas most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and its other filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Although Magenta's forward-looking statements reflect the good faith judgment of its management, these statements are based only on facts and factors currently known by Magenta. As a result, you are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Magenta undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

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Magenta Therapeutics Highlights Recent Pipeline Progress and Milestone Expectations for 2022 - BioSpace

Cell Biology

Crew Starts Week with Space Agriculture, Human Cells and Spacesuits – NASA

Pictured from left, are the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship and the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module with the Prichal docking module attached.

The Expedition 66 crew kicked off Monday promoting space agriculture and observing how the human cell adapts to weightlessness. Two cosmonauts are also gearing up for the first spacewalk of 2022 set to begin next week at the International Space Station.

Growing plants in space is critical to keeping crews healthy as NASA and its international partners plan human missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Just like humans living in space, microgravity affects plants and scientists want to learn how to successfully grow crops in space to sustain crews with less support from Earth.

Today, NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei harvested the shoots and roots of Arabidopsis plants grown on petri plates inside the Veggie facility. Fellow NASA Flight Engineer Raja Chari collected the harvested samples and stowed them in a science freezer for later analysis. The APEX-07, or Advanced Plant Experiment-07, study is looking at how microgravity affects genetic expression in plants.

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer worked throughout Monday on the Cytoskeleton space biology study. That study takes place in the Kibo laboratory module and uses the Life Science Glovebox to explore how the internal machinery of the human cell is impacted by long-term space missions.

NASA Flight Engineer Kayla Barron also worked in Kibo and set up the new Mochii electron-scanning microscope to identify trace particles aboard the station. NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn fed mice and cleaned their habitats throughout Monday before inspecting and cleaning hatch seals in the stations U.S. segment.

Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov partnered together during the morning on a pair of Russian studies looking at how space affects heart activity and arm muscles. The duo later spent the rest of the day setting up Russian Orlan spacesuits for a spacewalk set to begin on Jan. 19. The two cosmonauts will spend about seven hours in the vacuum of space outfitting the stations newest modules, Nauka and Prichal.

Learn more about station activities by following thespace station blog,@space_stationand@ISS_Researchon Twitter, as well as theISS FacebookandISS Instagramaccounts.

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Crew Starts Week with Space Agriculture, Human Cells and Spacesuits - NASA

Cell Biology

Study uncovers how cancers resist targeted treatment – The Institute of Cancer Research, London – The Institute of Cancer Research

Scientists have revealed how cancer can resist PARP inhibitors, a precision medicine used to treat thousands of patients worldwide.

Their study found that some cancer cells could dodge the effects of PARP inhibitors, by removing the PARP proteins that get trapped onto their DNA.

The researchers believe that existing drugs including a medicine used to treat alcohol addiction could potentially be used to make PARP inhibitors more effective by preventing the cancer cells from removing PARP.

In the future, the findings could also help predict what patients are more likely to respond to PARP inhibitors.

The study, led by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is published in Nature Cell Biology andwas funded by Cancer Research UK, with additional support from Breast Cancer Now.

PARP inhibitors, which include olaparib and rucaparib, are used to treat some patients with ovarian, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers usually patients who have inherited a faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.

So far, more than 30,000 patients have been treated with olaparib worldwide.

PARP inhibitors target PARP1, one of the DNA repair tools rendering it inactive and locking it in place, trapped on the DNA. Not only does this stop DNA repair, but the trapping of PARP1 onto DNA will eventually cause cancer cells to die. But PARP inhibitors dont work for everyone, and its estimated that over 40 per cent of patients with a faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene dont respond to them.

To understand this better, Professor Chris Lord and his team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) used cell lines and protein analysis techniques find out how cancer cells become resistant.

They looked for proteins that attached to PARP1 only when it was trapped, and that might play a role in detaching it from DNA. The team found that a small molecule called p97 could play a crucial role in prizing PARP1 from the DNA, saving cancer cells from destruction.

The researchers wanted to see what happened if this last stage was blocked. They used a human organoid, a mini tumour built with tissue from patients with triple negative breast cancer and a BRCA1 mutation; someone who might have qualified for PARP inhibitor treatment.

Blocking p97 made the cancer cells much more vulnerable to the PARP inhibitor talazoparib, suggesting a potential route to tackle treatment resistance. For instance, a 1nM dose of talazoparib killed about 30 per cent of the cancerous organoid, but that went up to 90 per cent when coupled with a p97 inhibitor called disulfiram. This finding suggests that disulfiram, a drug commonly used to treat people with alcohol addiction, could be combined with PARP inhibitors to improve the chances of successful treatment.

For Professor Lord and his team, the next challenge is to translate their new understanding of PARP inhibitor resistance into a way to predict which patients should be treated with PARP inhibitors, and who would be better off getting a different cancer treatment.

Professor Chris Lord, Professor of Cancer Genomicsat The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

PARP inhibitors are one of the most exciting classes of precision medicine in cancer treatment today, but we are only now gaining a fuller understanding of why they work in some patients but not in others.

Now that we have uncovered p97s role in controlling PARP inhibitor resistance, we could, in future offer treatments that could save many more lives.

We believe our findings will help us predict which patients should get a PARP inhibitor, which patients might need to combine a PARP inhibitor with other drugs to stand the best chance of successful treatment, or which patients might be better off on a different treatment altogether.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said:

Our scientists helped to discover the BRCA gene over 25 years ago. Now we have drugs that target this mutation, which have saved many lives.

But we know that cancer can quickly outwit even the best treatments. Its important to understand the mechanisms behind resistance so that we can make the drugs we already have work better and for more people.

Using new combinations of drugs that are already available is a smart way to get one step ahead of cancer, and we will need more research to know how effective this approach might be for PARP inhibitors. But the findings from this study are a promising new way to stack the odds in the patients favour, by offering treatment which works best for them.

Dr Simon Vincent, Director of Research, Support and Influencing at Breast Cancer Now, said:

People who have inherited an altered gene will have a higher risk of developing breast cancer and every year thousands of people in the UK with an altered BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are diagnosed with the disease.

PARP inhibitor drugs work well against cancer cells with an altered BRCA gene, however, they dont work for everyone and some cancers become resistant to this targeted treatment, making it important we continue to fund research into understanding drug resistance. Excitingly, this research suggests that a medicine currently used to treat alcohol addiction could be used in combination with PARP inhibitors to make treatment for breast cancer, caused by an altered BRCA gene, more effective. We hope this research will lead to new treatment options and better ways to tailor therapy to each individual patient, so that everyone can receive treatment that works best for them.

This breakthrough is testament to the tireless efforts of world-class researchers - including many Breast Cancer Now funded UK researchers who, over the last 20 years, have helped develop PARP inhibitor drugs and laid the foundations for this promising discovery.

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Study uncovers how cancers resist targeted treatment - The Institute of Cancer Research, London - The Institute of Cancer Research

Cell Biology

BTIG Initiates Coverage of Ginkgo Bioworks With Buy Rating – GenomeWeb

NEW YORK Investment bank BTIG on Friday initiated coverage of synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks with a Buy rating and a price target of $12 on its shares.

BTIG believes that Ginkgo's cell programming platform will enable less expensive and more sustainable nucleic acid vaccines, antibiotics, and cell and gene therapies. Beyond pharma, BTIG expects Ginkgo to be able to increase global food availability and crop yields, help grow fermented cannabis, and produce materials and chemicals more sustainably.

Ginkgo's revenues come from usage fees for its Foundry lab and from royalties paid on sales of its customers' products, milestones, or equity stakes used to capture downstream value.

Foundry is a biology lab with custom software, robotic automation, data science, and analytics. In addition to Foundry, Ginkgo maintains a proprietary genetic database called Codebase, which contains 440 million proprietary gene sequences and over 3.4 billion unique gene sequences pulled from public databases.

BTIG estimates that by spreading its services across diverse industries, Ginkgo will have access to a total addressable market for bioengineered products that global consultancy McKinsey expects to grow to $2 trillion-$4 trillion annually by 2040.

Ginkgo currently runs over 70 major cell programs, including a novel antibiotic discovery cell program with Roche, a cell-based nitrogen fertilizers production program with Bayer Crop Science, a cannabinoid production partnership with Cronos Group, and an animal-free protein food products cell program with Motif FoodWorks.

Ginkgo was founded by five MIT scientists including Tom Knight in 2009, following Knight's earlier work on BioBricks, a standardized way to combine interchangeable segments of DNA.

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BTIG Initiates Coverage of Ginkgo Bioworks With Buy Rating - GenomeWeb

Cell Biology

Lung Cancer Research Advocacy Driven by Heart – Curetoday.com

Upal Basu Roy is currently the senior director of LUNGevity Research at the LUNGevity Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Arizona in Tucson and an M.P.H. in global health policy and management from New York University.

In his official capacity, he spearheads LUNGevitys Translational Science Research Programs and its Patient-Focused Research Center. The research programs he develops and manages, such as Project Transform and Project PEER, focus on capturing the experience and perspective of patients with lung cancer in a way that will improve treatment and patient care for all lung cancer types. His LUNGevity work also includes overseeing its research awards program, participating in the Health Equity Council, guiding the scientific program of its International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference, tracking developments in lung cancer care and translating new research into patient-friendly materials. He also provides patient perspective to government agencies, academia and industry, such as exploring ways to make clinical trials more accessible to a wider variety of patients.

In addition to an in-depth understanding of lung cancer science and research, Upal has a real heart for patients. He has generously given his personal as well as professional time to serve on an institutional review board, address disparities in cancer care, educate individual patients and help them navigate cancer drug access issues in other countries, and facilitate several patient-driven initiatives. For example, he helped create Project PRIORITY a collaboration between LUNGevity Foundation and EGFR Resisters to capture the lived experience of patients who have EGFR-positive lung cancer and analyzed data for presentations. Another example is helping the patient group ALK Positive develop their research grant awards process. Additionally, he served as a volunteer mentor for the new International Association for the Study of Lung Cancers Supportive Training for Advocates on Research and Science (STARS) program, which helps lung cancer advocates evolve into research advocates, and he developed a STARS training module for small cell lung cancer.

Most of Upals work happens behind the scenes and does not get the same visibility as aware- ness campaigns and policy advocacy. However, his work is essential for improving outcomes for all patients with lung cancer. He deserves the highest appreciation and recognition from the entire lung cancer community.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, dont forget tosubscribe to CUREs newsletters here.

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Lung Cancer Research Advocacy Driven by Heart - Curetoday.com