Category Archives: Cell Biology

McGill researchers awarded $1.5 million in NRC collaborative funding – McGill – McGill Reporter

On November 2, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced the results of its collaborative funding program, with a total of over $44 million awarded to institutions across the country. McGill researchers were among the cohort with more than $1.5 million in project funds awarded. In all, 19 McGill projects were supported through these initiatives. The NRC collaborative funding program is organized into three separate themes:

The support of the NRC through this collaborative funding program partners the creativity and talent of our researchers with those at the NRC, said Martha Crago, Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation. Each of these projects has the potential to make a real impact on peoples lives.

One such example is the work of Bioengineering Professor Amine Kamen, who received support for two projects. The first leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the production of biological agents such as vaccines through the pairing of virtual and physical bioreactors. The second examines at the genomic level the production of Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) vectors. This could lead to dramatically reduced costs for the targeted delivery of gene therapy treatments.

Funding from the NRC is helping us develop these platform technologies, explained Kamen. They will help ensure our preparedness in the situation of emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases.

Another researcher to have two projects funded was Professor Odile Liboiron-Ladouceur. She has been working on methods to incorporate AI into the design of photonic components, which not only accelerates the design cycles but also pushes the performance of photonic integrated circuits a step further. These circuits have multiple applications, including fiber optic networks, satellite communications, medical diagnostics, and other areas.

Funding from NRC enables a fruitful collaboration with NRC world-class scientists who take part in the training of graduate students as next-generation leaders, said Liboiron-Ladouceur, citing another major benefit of the NRC program.

Professor Amine A. Kamen, Bioengineering, for Digital-twin of bioreactor for accelerated design and optimal operations in production of complex biologics and, Genome-wide CRISPR screen to identify genes that increase the yield and functionality of AAV vectors

Professor Odile Liboiron-Ladouceur, Electrical & Computer Engineering, for AI-assisted miniaturization of integrated photonic components and, Silicon Photonics multiplexer design with machine learning methods

Professor Yelena Simine, Science, for AI-Enabled Design of Aptamers

Professor Lawrence R. Chen, Electrical & Computer Engineering, for Terabit optical networks based on quantum dot lasers and photonic integration

Professor Sylvain Coulombe, Chemical Engineering, for Functionalized BNNTs for Energy Applications

Professor Sasha Omanovic, Chemical Engineering for Development of new composite/ functionalized cathodes for bio-electrochemical conversion of CO2 and CH4

Professor Parisa Ariya, Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, for Microcosm studies for improved detection, physicochemical process characterization and modelling of the transport, degradation and fate of microplastics in Canadian waters (COVID-19)

Professor Michael Strauss, Anatomy & Cell Biology, for Tracking the mechanism of antibody trafficking across the blood brain barrier with advanced 3D-structure

Professor Sylvain Coulombe, Chemical Engineering, for developing a scalable solvent-free process for functionalization of Boron Nitride Nanotubes

Professor Audrey Helene Moores-Franois, Chemistry, for functionalized chitosan nanocrystals as catalysts for organic transformation reactions

Professor Mark Driscoll, Mechanical Engineering, for full body medical image segmentation for simulation-ready finite element models

Professor Abdolhamid Shafaroud Akbarzadeh, Bioresource Engineering, for bio-inspired Architected Ceramics for High Temperature Applications

Professor Victoria Kaspi, Physics, for a time-domain digital signal processing backend for fast radio burst follow up

Professor Maryam Tabrizian, Biomedical Engineering, for one step multiplex aptamer selection and validation using magnetic nanoparticle aptamer library (aptaMAG) coupled to microfluidic surface plasmon resonance imaging biosensor

Professor Lyle Whyte, Natural Resources Sciences, for an improved bio-inorganic system to couple solar energy to microbial carbon dioxide fixation

Professor Donald Smith, Plant Science, for Core microbes for field pea farming

Professor Jeffrey Bergthorson, Mechanical Engineering, for Optimized configuration of metal energy carrier for renewable energy sources

Read the NRC press release

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McGill researchers awarded $1.5 million in NRC collaborative funding - McGill - McGill Reporter

Bruker Corporation to Participate in the Jefferies Virtual London Healthcare Conference – Business Wire

BILLERICA, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bruker Corporation (Nasdaq: BRKR) announced today it will participate in the Jefferies Virtual London Healthcare Conference. Gerald Herman, Chief Financial Officer, will participate in an analyst moderated question and answer session on behalf of the company on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at 2:05 PM Greenwich Mean Time (9:05 AM Eastern Standard Time).

A live audio webcast of the question and answer session will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at https://ir.bruker.com . A replay will be posted in the Events & Presentations section of the Bruker Corporation Investor Relations website after the event and will be available for 30 days following the event.

About Bruker Corporation (Nasdaq: BRKR)

Bruker is enabling scientists to make breakthrough discoveries and develop new applications that improve the quality of human life. Brukers high-performance scientific instruments and high-value analytical and diagnostic solutions enable scientists to explore life and materials at molecular, cellular and microscopic levels. In close cooperation with our customers, Bruker is enabling innovation, improved productivity and customer success in life science molecular research, in applied and pharma applications, in microscopy and nanoanalysis, and in industrial applications, as well as in cell biology, preclinical imaging, clinical phenomics and proteomics research and clinical microbiology. For more information, please visit: http://www.bruker.com.

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Bruker Corporation to Participate in the Jefferies Virtual London Healthcare Conference - Business Wire

UNC researchers believe a mutation may make COVID-19 more vulnerable to a vaccine – WRAL Tech Wire

CHAPEL HILL A new study published inScienceconfirms that SARS-CoV-2 has mutated in a way thats enabled it to spread quickly around the world, but the spike mutation may also make the virus more susceptible to a vaccine.

The new strain of coronavirus, called D614G, emerged in Europe and has become the most common in the world. Research at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hilland theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madisonshows the D614G strain replicates faster and is more transmissible than the virus, originating in China, that spread in the beginning of the pandemic.

There were bright spots in the study findings: While the D614G strain spreads faster, in animal studies it was not associated with more severe disease, and the strain is slightly more sensitive to neutralization by antibody drugs.

The study provides some of the first concrete findings about how SARS-CoV-2 is evolving.

The D614G virus outcompetes and outgrows the ancestral strain by about 10-fold and replicates extremely efficiently in primary nasal epithelial cells, which are a potentially important site for person-to-person transmission, saidRalph Baric, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the UNC-Chapel HillGillings School of Global Public Healthand professor of microbiology and immunology at theUNC School of Medicine.

PPD lands praise from partner Moderna which reports strong results for COVID-19 vaccine

Baric has studied coronaviruses for more than three decades and was integral in the development ofremdesivir, the first FDA-approved treatment for COVID-19.

Researchers believe the D614G strain of coronavirus dominates because it increases the spike proteins ability to open cells for the virus to enter. These crown-like spikes give the coronavirus its name.

The D614G mutation causes a flap on the tip of one spike to pop open, allowing the virus to infect cells more efficiently but also creating a pathway to the virus vulnerable core.

With one flap open, its easier for antibodies like the ones in the vaccines currently being tested to infiltrate and disable the virus.

For the recent study, Baric Lab researchers including first author Yixuan J. Hou, PhD worked in collaboration withYoshihiro Kawaoka, PhD, and Peter Halfmann, PhD, both virologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UNC School of Medicine authors are Richard Boucher, MD, director of the UNC Marsico Lung Institute; Rhianna E. Lee, a graduate student in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology; Teresa M. Mascenik, a research specialist; and Scott Randell, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and physiology and Marsico member.

The original spike protein had a D at this position, and it was replaced by a G, Kawaoka said. Several papers had already described that this mutation makes the protein more functional and more efficient at getting into cells.

That earlier work, however, relied on a pseudotyped virus that included the receptor-binding protein but was not authentic. Using reverse genetics, Barics team replicated a matched pair of mutant SARS-CoV-2 viruses that encoded D or G at position 614 and compared basic property analysis using cell lines, primary human respiratory cells, and mouse and hamster cells.

Kawaoka and Halfmann contributed their unique coronavirus study model, which uses hamsters. The University of Wisconsin-Madison team including Shiho Chiba, who ran the hamster experiments performed replication and airborne transmission studies with both the original virus and the mutated version created by Baric and Hou.

They found that the mutated virus not only replicates about 10 times faster its also much more infectious.

Hamsters were inoculated with one virus or the other. The next day, eight uninfected hamsters were placed into cages next to infected hamsters. There was a divider between them so they could not touch, but air could pass between the cages.

Researchers began looking for replication of the virus in the uninfected animals on day two. Both viruses passed between animals via airborne transmission, but the timing was different.

With the mutant virus, the researchers saw transmission to six out of eight hamsters within two days, and to all the hamsters by day four. With the original virus, they saw no transmission on day two, though all of the exposed animals were infected by day four.

We saw that the mutant virus transmits better airborne than the [original] virus, which may explain why this virus dominated in humans, Kawaoka said.

The researchers also examined the pathology of the two coronavirus strains. Once hamsters were infected, they presented essentially the same viral load and symptoms. (The hamsters with the mutated strain lost slightly more weight while sick.) This suggests that while the mutant virus is much better at infecting hosts, it doesnt cause significantly worse illness.

Researchers caution that the pathology results may not hold true in human studies.

SARS-CoV-2 is an entirely new human pathogen and its evolution in human populations is hard to predict, Baric said. New variants are continually emerging, like the recently discovered mink SARS-CoV-2 cluster 5 variant in Denmark that also encodes D614G.

To maximally protect public health, we must continue to track and understand the consequences of these new mutations on disease severity, transmission, host range and vulnerability to vaccine-induced immunity.

(C) UNC

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UNC researchers believe a mutation may make COVID-19 more vulnerable to a vaccine - WRAL Tech Wire

I want to give my child the best: the race to grow human breast milk in a lab – The Guardian

Dr Leila Strickland became a mother when she was a few months away from completing her postdoctorate fellowship in cell biology at Stanford University. She spent the first three months of her sons life at home on maternity leave, relentlessly struggling to breastfeed. I was having a hard time producing enough milk. She never expected to find feeding her baby a greater challenge than advanced cytology.

My mom breastfed me and my sister until we were over two years old. All my life, Id fully embraced the proposition that breast milk is the best nutrition for a baby, and that this is what I would feed my baby. Lactation consultants, paediatricians and well-meaning friends told her to just keep trying. Because I was so unprepared for it, I found it really isolating. I felt like there was something wrong with me.

Eventually reluctantly Strickland decided to bottle-feed her baby with formula. It was convenient and practical, and made it possible for me to get more sleep, and for my husband to participate. In some ways I was able to be a better mom, and I was a lot happier, but I knew I was making a trade-off. I knew the product my child was getting was optimal for raising cows, that it didnt have the ideal nutrient composition. It was good enough but what mom is happy with good enough?

Eleven years later, Strickland has combined her experiences as both a stressed mother and a cell biologist in a way that could change how we feed our babies for ever: she has worked out how to make human breast milk without the human breast. Her startup, Biomilq, cultures breast cells in a lab farming them outside the body and collects the milk they secrete. The company calls it the mother of all patented technology and it has caught the eye of Bill Gates, who bought a $3.5m (2.7m) stake in Biomilq in June. Potentially, it could end the infant formula industry as we know it.

While the science shows breast is best helping cement the emotional connection between mother and child; providing optimal nutrition, antibodies and bacteria; reducing the risk of obesity and diabetes in adulthood breastfeeding can be a lottery. Many women find it straightforward and rewarding, but for others it is painful and demoralising. Sometimes babies have tongue-tie and wont latch on, or the mother has mastitis, or doesnt produce enough milk for the baby to put on the weight required to satisfy ever-watchful midwives and health visitors. Sometimes the baby is premature, or ill, and needs to be fed through a tube, or the mother is embarrassed about feeding in public, or needs to go back to work. Faced with these challenges, the most determined mothers might express milk with a pump; but pumping can be a time-consuming and often wretched experience.

The other alternative is formula. But, as Strickland says, it is a trade-off. Although their composition has improved, infant formulas are generally made from cows milk and therefore have sugars, proteins and fats best suited to calves. Human milk contains hormones, antibodies and friendly bacteria, as well as unique proteins and sugars. Formula also has a substantial carbon footprint; it is made from products that depend on dairy farming, or the cultivation of palm oil or soy. Theres also the shame many mothers feel after they turn to the bottle: women who use formula after struggling with breastfeeding have been shown to experience greater levels of guilt than mothers who chose not to breastfeed from the start.

Founded in January 2020, Biomilq boasts that it is women-owned, science-led and mother-centred. Strickland is juggling running the lab with homeschooling her two children through lockdown; in our video call from her house in North Carolina, she is casually dressed in a sweatshirt, and I can hear the sound of plates being knocked off tables in far-off rooms as we speak.

Growing food in a lab is called cellular agriculture and Strickland describes her work as if it were a kind of farming. We start with these amazing cells that line a womans mammary gland, she explains. Using the same techniques that weve used for decades to grow cells outside the body, were able to reproduce the behaviour these cells have evolved over millions of years, to produce components in quantities that match the babys needs.

Scientists have long been culturing cells for biomedical research, but it was in 2013, when Maastricht Universitys Mark Post served up a lab-grown hamburger to food critics on live TV, that the idea of making food from cells entered the public consciousness. Since then, dozens of startups worldwide have begun to make meat in the same way. No animal has to suffer and there are seemingly endless possibilities, from cruelty-free foie gras to kosher bacon.

Seeing Posts burger consumed live was a pivotal moment for Strickland. It was obvious to her that milk had to be next, though it poses a different technical challenge. Those guys have to harvest every single cell they grow and turn it into a product, she says. Her product is the secretion rather than the cell. Just as dairy farmers have different priorities to beef farmers, Stricklands product demands that she keeps her cells alive and producing for as long as possible, instead of selling them off as soon as they mature.

She started to do homespun experiments with her husband, who has a background in chemistry and engineering: he designed the scaffold on which the cells are grown and kept separate from their secretions. They rented a small lab space and spent about $5,000 (3,827) on used equipment from eBay, but the experiments were expensive. We were choosing between feeding cells and feeding our children. We had to choose our children, Strickland laughs. They used the cheapest source of mammary cells they could find: cow udders bought for $20 (15) a piece from the bewildered manager of the nearest slaughterhouse, taken to the lab and minced up.

Strickland monitored their growth in different conditions, and when she thought shed come up with the optimal technique, started experimenting with human breast cells, bought from commercial suppliers who normally provide them for breast cancer research. But she had no budget to test if her cells were actually producing human milk. For the most part, between 2013 and 2016, I just had a really expensive science hobby that most people in my life thought was extremely weird.

Burnt out, she gave up her lab in 2016. But no one else seemed to be pursuing her idea and it nagged away. In 2019, Strickland decided to make one more serious stab at this experiment. A mutual friend introduced her to Michelle Egger, who would eventually become Biomilqs CEO. Egger has a background in food science and had been working at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I know how to grow cells but I dont know anything about how to grow a company, so Michelle brought that crucial expertise, Strickland says.

Egger and Strickland got a commercial lab to run a proof-of-concept experiment, growing cells for a month and collecting samples every day. In February 2020, the results were in: the cells were producing the unique proteins and sugars found in human breast milk. The breakthrough led to the $3.5m investment from Gates, which will allow them to scale up the process, and which has changed Stricklands life. Im really doing my dream, she says. I get emotional in our meetings, because its really personal for me.

The breast milk Strickland produces in her lab is different from the milk that comes out of a human breast. It cant change in response to a babys needs, as milk from a breast can (for example, being diluted on hotter days when the baby needs more fluids); it contains no hormones or bacteria from the mothers biome. Most significantly, it has no antibodies, because these are imported into the milk from the mothers blood, which disembodied cells cant do. Thats a part of breast milk we wont be able to replicate, Strickland says, matter-of-factly.

She can afford to be relaxed about this, because Biomilqs market research suggests babies who drink their product will be getting breastfed anyway, and given Biomilq as a supplement. Those babies will be getting the antibodies from their own mother, then they will be getting a breast milk with a very similar composition when shes not able to breastfeed if she wants to go back to work, say, or sleep through the night. Their mission statement says their product is for women who need a little boost. Their target consumer is someone who is determined to breastfeed, but cant. Just like Strickland was.

But how liberating will lab-produced breast milk be? Its easy to imagine a scenario in which employers might be less willing to give women the space and time to breastfeed if a product like this exists. I do think we want to be careful and conscientious about things like that, Strickland says. We certainly wouldnt want to compromise any womans ability to breastfeed. She pauses. Any women who are at work and still trying to feed their babies breast milk are spending a good part of their day pumping. Thats what wed be targeting the pumping. Saving you from having to do that.

For Strickland, its about addressing the gulf between the expectations put on mothers and the reality. We want to celebrate breastfeeding, and encourage women to do it. Theres just not a great conversation going on about the challenges, she says. Most babies are not exclusively breastfed for six months [as recommended by the World Health Organization] and its not because women dont know or care about the benefits. Its because modern life really offers women no solution to achieve it.

***

The pressure not to accept the good enough provided by infant formula weighs heavily on mothers who want to breastfeed but are prevented from doing so by biology or circumstance. Its enough to have fuelled the growth of the underground online breast milk market. The invention of formula should have put an end to the practice of wet nursing; rather, the stigma attached to it has given rise to a new digital wet-nursing economy.

Services such as onlythebreast.com link up breast milk sellers with buyers, leaving it up to buyers to do their own screening. Searches can be narrowed down according to location, the age of the baby the milk has been produced for and whether the seller is following a specific diet: vegan, gluten-free or even paleo. The website advises that frozen expressed milk should be doubled bagged, wrapped in newspaper and put in a cooler with dry ice before being couriered to the recipient. It would set you back around 36 a day to feed the average month-old baby with milk bought here, priced at 1-1.50 an ounce, not including postage and packaging.

Of course, many women are happy to give their breast milk away for free. There are 15 hospital milk banks in the UK, providing screened, pasteurised donor milk, but it is destined for sick and premature babies in neonatal units. Mothers of healthy babies in search of breast milk often join one of Facebooks dozens of milk-sharing networks in hope of finding a nearby donor. The Human Milk 4 Human Babies UK Facebook group has more than 27,000 members. A new request for milk is posted every hour or so, often accompanied by photographs of tiny babies, wide-eyed with hunger.

The women posting on these forums have turned to social media out of desperation. One mother, who asked for donor milk to tide her four-week-old over while she works on topping up her supply, told me her failure to produce enough milk for him was an extremely painful experience. Everybody agrees that breast milk is a better option than formula.

Another mother began the search for breast milk a month before her second child was born. It was, she said, the best decision. She had tried everything to breastfeed her first baby, from renting a hospital-grade breast pump to taking drugs that might help boost lactation, but nothing worked. She now drives for at least an hour and a half every other week to collect frozen donor milk for her five-month-old son.

Human breast milk has nutritional ingredients formula simply doesnt, she said. I think of it as eating quality organic foods versus taking a synthetic supplement. It is the best thing I can give my child. When I sent a link to the Biomilq site, she replied, Wow. Finally. Shame [its] not available yet as I struggle to keep up with my sons demand. Will be forced to move on to formula.

Breast milk has become a symbol of optimal nutrition and optimal motherhood. But Joan Wolf, associate professor of womens and gender studies at Texas A&M University and author of Is Breast Best?, says women have been grossly misled about the extent of the advantages, because its impossible to disentangle the benefits of breast milk from the benefits of having a mother who wants to breastfeed.

You look at the sociology of breastfeeding, and the beliefs of women who breastfeed: they are determined to do everything they possibly can for their baby, she says. They are middle class; they feel theyve got to keep up with each other. Wolf argues that we increasingly feel we have a duty to reduce risk to ourselves or our families. Mothers must reduce any risk to an infant, no matter how small, and no matter the cost to the mother herself. Breast milk gets fetishised because of the risk element because its natural, and because it gives women a feeling of absolute power over their babies.

The availability of lab-grown milk wont assuage that desire to minimise all risks to your baby, Wolf says. One day we will have 15 different breast milks to pick from, each with different qualities. [Mothers] wont know which to pick. Theyll say, If I take this one the baby will get a gastrointestinal infection, or if I pick this one will they get cancer later. And this lab-grown breast milk could be very dangerous, because it could reinforce the idea that it really matters to breastfeed.

***

Stricklands work in the US may be groundbreaking, but she is not alone. She has an equally well-funded rival across the Pacific Ocean, backed by investors as diverse as British vegan private equity titan Jeremy Coller and Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.

We are the first biotech company in the world that is using cell-based methods to create milk, says Fengru Lin, founder and CEO of Singapores TurtleTree Labs, with the steely confidence of someone who is sure her company is not only first, but will be the best.

I speak to Lin and TurtleTrees chief strategist, Max Rye, in a video call to their respective homes in Lins native Singapore (Rye moved here from the US when they launched the company). Shes in an emerald blouse, her hair scraped back into a neat ponytail. He is every inch the relaxed American, leaning back on his sofa in a blue polo shirt. Before I even ask my first question, Rye tells me they want mothers to breastfeed. I always like to say, right at the beginning, we think its wonderful. We dont ever want that to stop. Theres nothing else like it, he says. Even though we can make human breast milk as a product, we are still far from the real thing.

Breast milk was an afterthought for TurtleTree Labs. The company began by culturing cows milk without the cow, and can now produce everything from sheeps and goats to camels milk, taking stem cells from freshly expressed milk and culturing them, instead of farming mammary cells as Biomilq does.

It started a few years ago when I was learning to make cheese as a hobby, Lin explains. It was difficult to find milk in Asia. There arent many cows in Singapore. She travelled around Indonesia and Thailand, and saw the problems of intensive dairy farming first-hand. Hormones and antibiotics are being pumped into the cows. As a result, the milk quality really suffers. They are impregnating the cow just to get her milk, again and again, every year. And the amount of methane cows create 37% of global emissions.

Lin was working as an account manager at Google at the time, and Rye, a tech executive, came to give a talk on new sustainable technologies. When he mentioned the startups growing meat from cells in a lab, Lins mind turned immediately to milk. Afterwards Fengru came up to me asking about milk, Rye says. And I thought, theres got to be someone working on this. There has to be. He holds his palms up in disbelief. But no, nobody was doing this.

They founded the company together in early 2019, and say it was feedback from dairy companies that prompted them to branch out into breast milk. The folks who provide milk in the stores are the same people who provide the raw ingredients for infant formula, Rye says. They approached us and said, Listen, youve got something really interesting: if you can make human milk, you can transform the way infant formula is done. We realised, this is where the demand is. Its also where the big money is: customers are used to paying a lot more for infant formula than they are for cows milk.

Instead of producing and bottling its own breast milk, TurtleTree Labs plans to licence its technology to existing formula companies. Rye wont tell me the names, only that they are four of the five biggest in the world.

There are huge regulatory hurdles to be crossed before lab-grown breast milk can go on sale, but Rye and Lin say getting approval for its individual components will be more straightforward. And they are thinking very broadly about possible consumers: elderly people and cancer patients may one day drink their breast milk or parts of it.

Early indications show certain bioactive proteins or complex sugars in human milk could be good for senior care and adult health, Lin says. Geriatric patients can have similar issues with their digestive system as infants, and early studies have shown certain compounds in breast milk may impede the growth of some cancers. But the benefits are under-researched: there isnt enough spare human milk to be giving it to adults on a clinically significant scale, and convincing them to try it is a challenge.

As soon as those sugars and proteins get regulatory approval, though, they can be added to existing infant formulas bringing them closer to breast milk than ever. TurtleTree expect that to happen as early as next year.

***

Strickland balks at the idea of working with the formula industry. Theres already distrust of these companies, the Nestls and Abbotts of the world, she says. We think its important to bring this product to market with as much credibility and authenticity as possible, as women and mothers and scientists ourselves. Our customers will appreciate seeing it come from us, rather than them.

Biomilqs initial plan is as eye-catching as the product itself: they are going to produce customised breast milk for early adopters, grown from the customers own cells. Moms would go through a fine needle biopsy procedure during their pregnancy, Strickland explains. That cell sample would be sent to us so we could start growing it up and producing milk. And then when shes ready, we can start shipping it to her.

I wasnt expecting to hear this: taking cells from pregnant women suggests that Biomilq is not solely for women who are having trouble breastfeeding but is also geared to those who assume they will need help before their baby even arrives. And its going to be very expensive, Strickland says: That would go at a pretty high price point, as a custom service.

But the initiative is more about demonstrating the potential of the product than the beginning of a business model, she says. We aim to generate an evangelised group of moms, parents and caregivers, who are excited enough to make that initial level of commitment.

It is difficult to envisage a way that breast milk grown in a lab can be anything other than an elite product. TurtleTree Labs estimates their milk costs $30 (23) a litre to produce, and even if that figure comes down dramatically (as they expect it to), the technology involved will always be more expensive than dairy-based formula. While breastfeeding is free, it is rarely compatible with full-time employment. A product like this will give those who can afford it either a nutritional edge, or a professional one.

Isnt this just going to be for very wealthy women? And wont it give them even greater advantages than they already enjoy?

We do not want this to be a product that perpetuates inequalities, Strickland replies, firmly. Thats something we think a lot about. Making this widely accessible is very much a part of our long-term plan. For instance, Biomilq is exploring ways employers might be able to subsidise the product for their staff although this raises further concerns that employers might expect nursing mothers to return to work earlier. Its a bit like a game of whack-a-mole: you push down on one problem and something pops up on the other side, Strickland concedes.

It may be many years before we can go to the supermarket and buy a bottle of breast milk. But the existence of companies such as TurtleTree Labs and Biomilq could well be a symptom of a problem, rather than a solution. In the wrong circumstances, their products could be used to stop women from breastfeeding in public, or to make formula feeding even more taboo. If women were more supported in breastfeeding, less ashamed of using the good enough dairy-based formula and less judged in general, then breast milk grown in a lab might not be necessary.

Strickland thinks once her product is on the market, it will be less easy to judge women for how they feed their babies. A mom sitting there feeding a bottle of our milk will look the same as a mother with a bottle of formula or her pumped milk. It would be indistinguishable, she says. Plus lab-grown milk is already provoking much-needed discussions about what we think is natural. If nothing else, I consider Biomilq already a success because we get to participate in these conversations.

Its hard to argue with that. But whether lab-grown breast milk changes the conversation for the better depends on who is making it, and who gets to use it. This invention may be Stricklands baby, but she cant control what it will grow into.

Jenny Kleeman is the author of Sex Robots & Vegan Meat: Adventures At The Frontier Of Birth, Food, Sex & Death (Picador).

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I want to give my child the best: the race to grow human breast milk in a lab - The Guardian

Insights on the Glycobiology Global Market to 2025 – Featuring Shimadzu, Takara Bio & Waters Among Others – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Global Glycobiology Market By Type of Enzyme (Glycosidases & Neuramidases, Glycosyltransferases & Sialytransferases, Carbohydrate kinases, Carbohydrate Sulfotransferases, Others), By Type of Kit, By Application, By End User, By Region, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Glycobiology Market is expected to grow at a formidable rate during the forecast period. The Global Glycobiology Market is driven by the growing prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetics, renal diseases, among others, which has increased the demand for personalized medicines.

This in turn has increased the drug discovery process around the globe, which is anticipated to positively impact growth of the market during the forecast period. Also, increasing grants by different governments especially in the developing nations for R&D activities is further expected to bolster the growth of the market over the next few years.

The Global Glycobiology Market is segmented based on type of enzyme, type of kit, application, end-user, company and region. Based on type of enzyme, the market can be categorized into glycosidases & neuramidases, glycosyltransferases & sialytransferases, carbohydrate kinases, carbohydrate sulfotransferases, protein sulfotransferases and others. The glycosidases & neuramidases segment is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. This can be ascribed to their pivotal role in metabolism, antibacterial defense & pathogenesis, glycosidase probe design for ABPP represents an important task in chemical proteomic & glycomic research.

Regionally, the glycobiology market has been segmented into Asia-Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. Among these, North America is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period in the overall glycobiology market owing to the presence of many research laboratories and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the region.

Companies Mentioned

Objective of the Study:

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview

2. Research Methodology

3. Impact of COVID-19 on Global Glycobiology Market

4. Executive Summary

5. Voice of Customer

5.1. Brand Awareness (Aided/Unaided)

5.2. Product Awareness

5.3. Customer Satisfaction Analysis

5.4. Unmet Needs/Challenges

6. Global Glycobiology Market Outlook

6.1. Market Size & Forecast

6.1.1. By Value

6.2. Market Share & Forecast

6.2.1. By Type of Enzyme (Glycosidases & Neuramidases, Glycosyltransferases & Sialytransferases, Carbohydrate Kinases, Carbohydrate Sulfotransferases, Protein Sulfotransferases, Others)

6.2.2. By Type of Kit (Glycan Releasing Kit, Glycan Labelling Kit, Glycan Purification Kit, Others)

6.2.3. By Application (Drug Discovery, Disease Diagnostics, Virology, Cell Biology, Oncology, Others)

6.2.4. By End User (Research Institutes, Diagnostic Centers, Hospitals, Clinical Laboratories, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies, Others)

6.2.5. By Company (2019)

6.2.6. By Region

6.3. Product Market Map

7. Asia-Pacific Glycobiology Market Outlook

8. Europe Glycobiology Market Outlook

9. North America Glycobiology Market Outlook

10. South America Glycobiology Market Outlook

11. Middle East and Africa Glycobiology Market Outlook

12. Market Dynamics

12.1. Drivers

12.2. Challenges

13. Market Trends & Developments

14. Competitive Landscape

15. Strategic Recommendations

16. About Us & Disclaimer

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vjs9ex

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Insights on the Glycobiology Global Market to 2025 - Featuring Shimadzu, Takara Bio & Waters Among Others - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Astrocytes Identified as Master ‘Conductors’ of the Brain – Duke Today

DURHAM, N.C. -- In the orchestra of the brain, the firing of each neuron is controlled by two notesexcitatory and inhibitory that come from two distinct forms of a cellular structure called synapses. Synapses are essentially the connections between neurons, transmitting information from one cell to the other. The synaptic harmonies come together to create the most exquisite musicat least most of the time.

When the music becomes discordant and a person is diagnosed with a brain disease, scientists typically look to the synapses between neurons to determine what went wrong. But a new study from Duke University neuroscientists suggests that it would be more useful to look at the white-gloved conductor of the orchestra the astrocyte.

Astrocytes are star-shaped cells that form the glue-like framework of the brain. They are one kind of cell called glia, which is Greek for glue. Previously found to be involved in controlling excitatory synapses, a team of Duke scientists also found that astrocytes are involved in regulating inhibitory synapses by binding to neurons through an adhesion molecule called NrCAM. The astrocytes reach out thin, fine tentacles to the inhibitory synapse, and when they touch, the adhesion is formed by NrCAM. Their findings were published in Nature on November 11.

We really discovered that the astrocytes are the conductors that orchestrate the notes that make up the music of the brain, said Scott Soderling, PhD, chair of the Department of Cell Biology in the School of Medicine and senior author on the paper.

Excitatory synapses the brains accelerator and inhibitory synapses the brains brakes were previously thought to be the most important instruments in the brain. Too much excitation can lead to epilepsy, too much inhibition can lead to schizophrenia, and an imbalance either way can lead to autism.

However, this study shows that astrocytes are running the show in overall brain function, and could be important targets for brain therapies, said co-senior author Cagla Eroglu, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and neurobiology in the School of Medicine. Eroglu is a world expert in astrocytes and her lab discovered how astrocytes send their tentacles and connect to synapses in 2017.

A lot of the time, studies that investigate molecular aspects of brain development and disease study gene function or molecular function in neurons, or they only consider neurons to be the primary cells that are affected, said Eroglu. However, here we were able to show that by simply changing the interaction between astrocytes and neurons specifically by manipulating the astrocytes we were able to dramatically alter the wiring of the neurons as well.

Soderling and Eroglu collaborate often scientifically, and they hashed out the plan for the project over coffee and pastries. The plan was to apply a proteomic method developed in Soderlings lab that was further developed by his postdoctoral associate Tetsuya Takano, who is the papers lead author.

Takano designed a new method that allowed scientists to use a virus to insert an enzyme into the brain of a mouse that labeled the proteins connecting astrocytes and neurons. Once tagged with this label, the scientists could pluck the tagged proteins from the brain tissue and use Dukes mass spectrometry facility to identify the adhesion molecule NrCAM.

Then, Takano teamed up with Katie Baldwin, a postdoctoral associate in Eroglus lab, to run assays to determine how the adhesion molecule NrCAM plays a role in the connection between astrocyte and inhibitory synapses. Together the labs discovered NrCAM was a missing link that controlled how astrocytes influence inhibitory synapses, demonstrating they influence all of the notes of the brain.

We were very lucky that we had really cooperative team members, said Eroglu. They worked very hard and they were open to crazy ideas. I would call this a crazy idea.

The project was funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Kahn Neurotechnology Award, Uehara Memorial Foundation, and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

CITATION: Chemico-Genetic Discovery of Astrocytic Control of Inhibition In Vivo, Tetsuya Takano, John T. Wallace, Katherine T. Baldwin, Alicia Purkey, Akiyoshi Uezu, Jamie L. Courtland, Erik J. Soderblom, Tomomi Shimogori, Patricia F. Maness, Cagla Eroglu, Scott H. Soderling. Nature, Nov. 11, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2926-0.

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Astrocytes Identified as Master 'Conductors' of the Brain - Duke Today

T cell factor 1: A master regulator of the T cell response in disease – Science

Recent advances have redefined a role for T cell factor 1 (TCF1) that goes beyond T cell development and T memory formation and encompasses new functions in the regulation of T cell biology. Here, we discuss the multifaceted and context-dependent role of TCF1 in peripheral T cells, particularly during disease-induced inflammatory states such as autoimmunity, cancer, and chronic infections. Understanding how TCF1 fine-tunes peripheral T cell biology holds the potential to tailor improved immune-targeted therapies.

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T cell factor 1: A master regulator of the T cell response in disease - Science

UB researcher narrows time window for administering specific treatment to infants with Krabbe disease – UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and…

A team of UB researchers has published a paper in Nature Communications that is helping to define the best time to give a specific treatment to infants born with Krabbe disease (KD). This treatment has been found to prolong life for these infants for as long as a few years.

The paper was published online in Nature Communication Oct. 23.

Daesung Shin, assistant professor in the Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences and the Neuroscience Program, both in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, is the lead investigator. He also conducts research at UBs Hunter James Kelly Research Institute.

KD is an inherited disorder that destroys myelin, the protective coating of nerve cells in the brain and throughout the nervous system. In most cases, signs and symptoms of Krabbe disease develop in babies before 6 months of age, and the disease usually results in death by age 2. When it develops in older children and adults, the course of the disease can vary greatly.

The progressive neurologic disorder is caused by a deficiency of galactosylceramidase (GALC). GALC is an enzyme that breaks down galactosylceramide, an important component of myelin, which ensures the rapid transmission of nerve impulses.

Although there is no cure for KD, hematopoietic stem cell therapy (HSCT), a therapy that makes blood cells, reduces neurologic deterioration and improves developmental advances. These benefits are dependent on the severity of the disease at the time the stem cells are transplanted, and are only beneficial if delivered at a clinically defined pre-symptomatic time point before symptoms appear.

Even though it is widely accepted that early treatment is essential for the most positive outcome, the precise therapeutic window for treatment and what happens during this early time have never been elucidated, Shin says.

To address that issue, his team used mutations to create a novel mouse model of KD.

We engineered an inducible knockout mouse for the GALC gene deletion in specific cells at specific times, which provided us with the opportunity to directly ask when and where GALC enzyme is required for brain development, Shin explains.

We were particularly interested in the role of early developmental GALC function, he says. Our study not only revealed a key developmental process that requires GALC in the perinatal period, but also demonstrated that temporal GALC expression is likely a major contributor to brainstem development.

The researchers found that by increasing GALC levels at or before this newly defined perinatal period they could improve the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for KD.

For the first time, our work showed the mechanistic evidence to explain why treatment must occur so early, with the defined critical postnatal period at days 4-6 in mice, and demonstrated that temporal GALC expression during this time is a major contributor to brainstem development, Shin says. Augmenting GALC levels at or prior to this newly defined period would likely improve the efficacy of therapeutic interventions for Krabbe patients.

While the time scale between mice and humans is considerably different, the sequence of key events in brain maturation between the two is consistent, he notes. It was estimated that the mouse nervous system at postnatal days 4-6 corresponds to a gestational age of 32 weeks in humans. Therefore, we anticipate that if our result is correct, then in utero treatments at, or prior to, 32 weeks should have better outcomes than conventional postnatal treatment for Krabbe babies.

Shin says his team will further identify which cell type needs to be targeted with therapy.

This work will directly impact the design of novel treatment options for KD patients, he says, noting that KD studies are at the basis of research on other, more common neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinsons disease. Therefore, the teams work will have implications beyond KD.

Co-authors on the research were Nadav I. Weinstock, MD-PhD student, and Conlan Kreher, former masters student, both of the HJKRI and the Department of Biochemistry in the Jacobs School; Jacob Favret, research technician in the Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences; Lawrence Wrabetz and M. Laura Feltri, both co-directors of the HJKRI and members of the departments of Biochemistry and Neurology, as well as the Neuroscience Program.

Duc Nguyen and Ernesto R. Bongarzone of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago also participated in the research.

The project was initiated with the support from Empire State development fund for HJKRI, and further developed and finalized by the R01, R56 and R03 grants from National Institutes for Health-National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded to Shin.

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UB researcher narrows time window for administering specific treatment to infants with Krabbe disease - UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and...

Prenatal CRISPR therapy blocks Angelman syndrome traits in mice – Spectrum

Tour guide: A short strand of RNA shuttles the CRISPR enzyme to the best spot to activate UBE3A.

Courtesy of Mark Zylka / University of North Carolina

Editing DNA in embryonic and newborn mice by using CRISPR technology can override mutations underlying Angelman syndrome and prevent many of the conditions traits, according to a new study1. The effects last for at least 17 months and may be permanent, the researchers say.

Its very exciting, says Steven Kushner, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, who was not involved in the study.

Angelman syndrome usually stems from a mutation in or deletion of the UBE3A gene. People have two copies of the gene one from each parent but typically only the one passed down from the mother is active in neurons. Mutations that stymie that copy can lead to a lack of UBE3A protein in the brain, causing the syndromes core traits: developmental delays, motor dysfunction, speech impairments, seizures and, often, autism.

These traits improve in response to treatments that activate the silent yet intact paternal copy of UBE3A and boost production of the protein in Angelman syndrome model mice2,3. But these treatments wear off over time, requiring repeated injections into the spinal fluid or brain.

The new therapy is effective after only two doses, says lead researcher Mark Zylka, professor of cell biology and physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The strategy uses the enzyme CRISPR-Cas9 to cut and edit DNA encoding an antisense RNA molecule that ordinarily serves to block production of UBE3A protein from the paternal copy of the gene. The technique also rouses the silent paternal copy of the gene in cultured human neurons, suggesting that it might work in people.

Treated mice did not show any negative side effects or unintended mutations. But other researchers warn the approach may still have rare off-target effects that could lead to birth defects or cancer.

Thats one of the big reasons why the use of CRISPR in humans is still something that is being taken very, very cautiously, Kushner says.

Zylka and his colleagues used a modified virus to carry the gene-editing enzyme into mouse cortical neurons. They tested 260 different guide RNAs to find one that could escort the enzyme to the intended region of the genome without damaging other genes.

The team injected the therapy into the brains of Angelman mice first when the mice were in the womb and again when they were a day old.

The double dose delivered the treatment to all layers of developing cortex, the researchers found. And it activated the paternal copy of UBE3A in every brain region they checked, aside from the cerebellum, until the mice were 17 months old. The effects likely last even longer, they say.

Mounting data show that a virus like the one they used can insert itself into the genome, resulting in permanent changes to an animals DNA, Zylka says. When that happens, the viral genome can affect nearby genes.

In this case, the viral genome contains instructions to tack extra nucleotides the building blocks of the genetic code on to messenger RNA. These additions render ineffective the antisense RNA that normally silences paternal UBE3A.

The injections prevented behaviors typically seen in Angelman mice, the researchers reported in Nature in October. Treated mice showed less hind-limb clasping, considered akin to repetitive behaviors seen in autistic people. They also spent more time in the center of an open field, suggesting they are less anxious than untreated mice, and performed better on a test of motor coordination.

Mice that model Angelman syndrome tend to have smaller brains than typical mice, but this trait, too, was at least partially averted in the treated animals.

The approach did not block all Angelman traits, however: The mice still engaged in marble-burying, another repetitive behavior; and only female mice showed improvements in obesity.

The treatment may not have worked in enough cells to correct all traits: The researchers found UBE3A protein expressed in 58 percent of the model animals cortical neurons, whereas typical mice have it in all neurons.

It is also possible that different traits have unique critical windows for treatment, says Stormy Chamberlain, associate professor of genetics and genome sciences at the University of Connecticut in Farmington, who was not involved in the study. Studies have shown that the earlier UBE3A is reinstated, the more Angelman traits are ameliorated.

Further research may improve the treatments effectiveness in mice, but its utility for people could be limited by its reliance on active CRISPR enzyme, which can introduce unpredictable cuts and mutations in DNA, Chamberlain says.

Even so, its important to keep an open mind and try some of these the skys the limit approaches, she says.

Other gene-based therapies for Angelman syndrome also pose safety concerns. An ongoing trial of a different treatment, which activates paternal UBE3A using strands of modified RNA, had to be halted because it causes temporary leg weakness in children with Angelman syndrome. Researchers hope to resume that trial with a different dosing plan.

Zylka and his colleagues plan to try their approach with an alternate version of CRISPR one that cannot cut DNA but can still activate paternal UBE3A which may be safer for use in people.

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Prenatal CRISPR therapy blocks Angelman syndrome traits in mice - Spectrum

Hamilton Thorne to Announce Q3 2020 Financial Results and Hold Conference Call on November 19, 2020 – Stockhouse

BEVERLY, Mass. and TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hamilton Thorne Ltd. (TSX-V: HTL), a leading provider of precision instruments, consumables, software and services to the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), research, and cell biology markets, today announced that it will release its financial results for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2020 before market open on Thursday, November 19, 2020. The press release, with accompanying financial information, will be posted on the Company’s website at http://www.hamiltonthorne.ltd and on http://www.sedar.com .

The Company will follow with a conference call on the same day at 11:00 a.m. EST to review highlights of the results. All interested parties are welcome to join the conference call by dialing toll free 1-855-223-7309 in North America, or 647-788-4929 from other locations, and requesting Conference ID 6491864. A recording of the call will be available on Hamilton Thorne’s website shortly after the call.

About Hamilton Thorne Ltd. ( http://www.hamiltonthorne.ltd )

Hamilton Thorne is a leading global provider of precision instruments, consumables, software and services that reduce cost, increase productivity, improve results and enable breakthroughs in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), research, and cell biology markets. Hamilton Thorne markets its products and services under the Hamilton Thorne, Gynemed, Planer, and Embryotech Laboratories brands, through its growing sales force and distributors worldwide. Hamilton Thorne’s customer base consists of fertility clinics, university research centers, animal breeding facilities, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and other commercial and academic research establishments.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the exchange), accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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Hamilton Thorne to Announce Q3 2020 Financial Results and Hold Conference Call on November 19, 2020 - Stockhouse