Category Archives: Cell Biology

Cell Biology

Cytovia Therapeutics, Inc appoints Dr. Wei Li as Chief Scientific Officer to accelerate the development of iPSC CAR-NK Cell Therapy for Cancer -…

NEW YORK, June 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cytovia Therapeutics, Inc (Cytovia), an emerging biopharmaceutical company developing Natural Killer (NK) immunotherapies for cancer, today announces the appointment of Dr. Wei Li as acting Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), effective June 1, 2020.

During her biotech career, Dr. Li co-founded two companies and built up extensive expertise in all aspects of drug research and development, including preclinical development and pharmacology, clinical development and operations, regulatory affairs, biomarker development and biomanufacturing.

Most recently, Dr. Li was Chief Development Officer at OliX Pharmaceuticals, a leading public South Korean biotech company developing siRNA therapeutics for multiple indications. She also served as Executive Vice President, Product Development at Boston Biomedical, Inc (BBI) from 2007-2018, playing a key role in growing it from a start-up in 2007 to an industry leader in cancer stem cell research, including through the acquisition by Sumitomo Dainippon in 2012. Dr. Li led the development of napabucasin (BBI608), a first-in-class drug selected as one of the worlds top ten cancer drugs in late stage clinical development by Fierce Biotech. Dr. Li started her career at ArQule, a public biotech company developing targeted therapies for hematological malignancies and acquired by Merck &Co in 2019.

Wei Li holds a PhD in Molecular Virology from Georgia State University and completed her Postdoctoral Training at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Wei Li said: I am thrilled to be joining the great team of scientists and entrepreneurs at Cytovia Therapeutics. NK-cell based therapeutics are at an inflection point. Initial clinical trials have shown promising safety and efficacy. Off-the-shelf manufacturing promises broader and faster patient access. Cytovia Therapeutics has an excellent iPSC CAR-NK platform and a strong pipeline in both hematological and solid tumors. It is tremendously exciting to be involved in this stage of the companys development.

Dr Daniel Teper, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Cytovia Therapeutics, Inc said: We are delighted to welcome Dr. Wei Li to Cytovia Therapeutics as Chief Scientific Officer. Wei has a stellar track record of bringing innovative oncology drugs from discovery to clinical development. Her operational excellence and entrepreneurial drive will be critical to help bring multiple iPSC CAR NK therapeutics to initial clinical trials starting in 2021.

ABOUT CYTOVIA THERAPEUTICS, INCCytovia Therapeutics is an emerging biotechnology company that aims to accelerate patient access to transformational immunotherapies, addressing several of the most challenging unmet medical needs in cancer and severe acute infectious diseases. Cytovia focuses on Natural Killer (NK) cell biology and is leveraging multiple advanced patented technologies, including an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) platform for CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptors) NK cell therapy, next-generation precision gene-editing to enhance targeting of NK cells, and NK engager multi-functional antibodies. Our initial product portfolio focuses on both hematological malignancies such as multiple myeloma and solid tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma and glioblastoma. The company partners with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Macromoltek.

Learn more at http://www.cytoviatx.com

Contact for media enquiries at Cytovia Therapeutics, IncSophie BadrVP corporate AffairsSophie.badre@cytoviatx.com1(929) 317 1565

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Cytovia Therapeutics, Inc appoints Dr. Wei Li as Chief Scientific Officer to accelerate the development of iPSC CAR-NK Cell Therapy for Cancer -...

Cell Biology

NASA-SpaceX launches will boost science research on the space station – wreg.com

When NASA astronaut Dr. Serena Aun-Chancellor arrived on the International Space Station for her six-month stay in June 2018, she was in awe of the vast array of science experiments on board. Before they launch, astronauts are only trained on about 20% of the science they see on the station.

I was stunned, in a good way, at the high quality of the science, she told CNN. During her time on the space station, Aun-Chancellor worked on hundreds of experiments across a variety of sciences, includingbiology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.

As a practicing physician, as well as clinical associate professor of medicine at Louisiana State University Health New Orleans School of Medicines branch campus in Baton Rouge, she could see the real-world applications of the medical experiments on the station.

Some of these included researching a protein that contributes toParkinsons disease, improving age-related macular degeneration and theAngiex Cancer Therapy study. The Angiex research was used to test a safer, more effective treatment targeting tumor cells and blood vessels.

I could picture a patient with each of these experiments, she said. Its tremendously enlightening and heartwarming because a good portion of the life sciences research on the space station is for people on Earth, not for astronauts who will go to Mars.

She and her fellow astronauts also installed a new Life Sciences Glovebox suited for biological research, which also allows two astronauts to simultaneously interact with the experiment inside.

Aun-Chancellor said that astronauts tend to have an eight-hour workday on the space station, and much of that is dominated by science experiments. She could spend as much as four hours on one experiment alone while the other astronauts worked on different experiments, she said.

From the time construction began on the space station in 1998 until now, nearly 3,000 different experiments have been conducted on the station.

More than 4,000 scientists have had their work represented on the station, with those scientists and research stemming from 108 countries globally, according to NASA.

Now, NASAs Commercial Crew program can expand the amount of astronauts on the space station which means that more science, and even new types of experiments, can happen in the unique microgravity environment.

SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft launched Saturday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. Its the first time in history that a commercial aerospace company has carried humans into Earths orbit.

The United States hasnt launched its own astronauts into space since the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011. Since then, NASAs astronauts have had to travel to Russia and train on the countrys Soyuz spacecraft.

This mission, called Demo-2, is just the beginning of launching astronauts from American soil for stays of varying lengths on the space station. That means more scientific experiments in space that can help us out on Earth, as well as astronauts who may be going to the moon or eventually, to Mars.

The majority of the science that has occurred on the space station has taken place over the last 10 years the 10 years prior were spent building and outfitting it to be a laboratory orbiting the Earth.

While the astronauts also work on maintaining the space station, exercising, working with robotics and preparing for and executing spacewalks outside the station, the majority of each day is spent on science, Aun-Chancellor said.

National labs on Earth tend to focus on one kind of science.

We focus on what we can offer that is unique, which is withholding gravity as a variable, said NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who returned to Earth in February. The space environment affords a wide spectrum of discovery.

One of the many experiments Koch worked on during her record-breaking stay of 328 days on the space station involved protein crystal growth. Understanding those proteins could lead to pharmaceuticals that can fight cancer.

Some of these crystallized proteins cant form on Earth, while others dont form as well. However, they grow well in the stationsmicrogravity environment, often larger and more well-ordered than crystals grown on Earth, which allows them to be studied more in depth. Crystals grown on the space station have avariety of applicationsacross different sciences and technologies.

Two decades of research on the space station has allowed scientists to realize the potential of eliminating gravity as a factor from their experiments.

For example, 3D structures form better in the absence of gravity because Earths gravity can pull on those structures and flatten them out, said Jennifer Buchli, the space stations deputy chief scientist. This includes 3D bioprinting on the space station. In recent years, the US National Institutes of Health has partnered with the ISS National Lab to flytissue chip experimentson the station.

Theyre physiological systems on something the size of a USB stick that can be used to test drug efficiency and model patients, Buchli said.

Other experiments in recent years include investigations about growing plants in space, slowing down atoms so they can be studied in theCold Atom Lab, testingbuilding supplies for the moonand studying howfire reacts in space.

The experiments vary in how much interaction they require from the crew on the space station. Some are self sufficient, only requiring occasional interaction by an astronaut, while others are much more hands on.

Science is a time-intensive task and the crew members are our hands, eyes and ears to complete a lot of science, Buchli said.

But the basic fact remains that more people on the space station means more science can be achieved because the amount of crew has been a limiting factor. With Commercial Crew, four NASA astronauts can go up at one time, rather than the three astronauts and Russian cosmonauts that can fit in the Soyuz.

Commercial Crew can also launch more frequently and bring the woman and manpower to get it done, Aun-Chancellor said. The science is up there, its just waiting for us to complete it.

When we have four US crew members, we can double the number of hours devoted to science each week and accomplish science that wasnt previously feasible in a crew day, Buchli said. That means more than 100 hours per week can be spent on science in the future.

This means that astronauts could either double up on experiments by working together or split into shift teams where they stagger when the astronauts are awake and asleep, so crews could hand off an experiment that requires 13 hours rather than six especially an issue in life sciences, cell biology and rodent research.

Commercial Crew also expands the flexibility for transporting things to and from the station, she said. The Soyuz launches occur about every six months, while Commercial Crew vehicles will allow them to launch and land with varying lengths of time on station.

That means more live refrigerated samples and cells grown and tested on the space station can be returned exactly when they need to be for scientists to study them on the ground and detail how they changed in space.

More repeats of science experiments can also occur. If a research team is granted a second flight of an experiment, they can repeat it to gather additional data.

You dont just run an experiment once on the ground, Buchli said. You refine things as you go. This is exciting because the space station is starting to function more like a ground lab, allowing repetition and the chance to optimize and tweak science.

More frequent flights means that astronauts can also experience missions of shorter duration, which can fill a crucial gap when it comes to monitoring astronaut health. These missions would last between two to three months.

Current astronaut health data has been taken from those who went up on shuttle flights, which lasted between 10 and 18 days, average space station missions lasting six months, and a few extended missions that were closer to a year, like astronautsScott Kelly,Peggy WhitsonandChristina Koch.

It also means that extended stays are possible to prepare for the long flight to Mars.

This will allow NASA and their Human Research Program to better study the effects of space on human health and develop countermeasures to mitigate them especially as they prepare to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars.

Non-NASA research is managed by the ISS National Laboratory, which utilizes the space stations unique microgravity environment to send up experiments from commercial businesses, academic institutions and government agencies that can benefit Earth.

During his time with the ISS National Lab, Chief Operating Officer Ken Shields has enjoyed watching the variety of both experiments and their investigators as they push the envelope of existing technologies.

Were breaking barriers in the world of research development and technology, Shields told CNN. And were entering a new era in space research and development.

The space station is like a test kitchen to experiment and prove out concepts, he said.

A small scale of success on the space station may mean that an investigation could later be moved to another low-Earth orbit vehicle. Multiple commercial research and development partners have been running a portion of their business in space through installations on the space station, and the technology advancements gained in space can help Earth.

The International Space Station is an unmatched tool of inspiration and engagement, he said.

Some of the science conducted on the space station actually stems from student experiments. Seeing their research happen in space will inspire future generations, he said. Going forward, the ISS National Lab wants to make sure that all students, especially those in underrepresented demographics, have the opportunity.

The last 20 years saw the building and completion of the space station, as well as research and development of science and technology experiments in space to provide people with applicable innovationson Earth.

Shields saw nothing but opportunities ahead.

Im hopeful that we can continue to enable and facilitate more groundbreaking efforts that have importance not only to individual academic institutions or companies, but are more broadly felt to create solutions to problems that are important to us as a nation, Shields said.

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NASA-SpaceX launches will boost science research on the space station - wreg.com

Cell Biology

Ervaxx rebrands as Enara Bio to reflect a broader emphasis on the discovery and development of novel TCR-based cancer immunotherapies – PharmiWeb.com

Oxford and London, UK 3rd June 2020. Enara Bio (formerly Ervaxx), a biotechnology company leveraging its proprietary T-cell/T-cell receptor (TCR) discovery and Dark Antigen platforms to deliver targeted cancer immunotherapies, announces its new name Enara Bio Limited. This new name reflects the companys expanded product discovery and development strategy beyond its initial focus on endogenous retroviral (ERV) antigens for the development of cancer vaccines (hence Ervaxx).

Enara is derived from an Arabic word that means illumination, enlightenment and bringing light into darkness. The company believes this new name more closely illustrates Enara Bios mission as a science-led organization exploring the genomic dark matter as a source of novel cancer-specific T-cell antigens. The rebrand also recognizes the companys new TCR research capabilities, including programs that could enable immune recognition of a broad range of tumor cell types in an HLA-independent fashion, and thus offer broadly applicable T-cell therapies. By building discovery efforts on both sides of the T-cell/cancer-cell interface (the immune synapse), Enara Bio is building a pipeline of cancer immunotherapies for broad patient populations.

The company was founded as Ervaxx Ltd. in late 2016 with an initial focus on the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines utilizing novel antigens derived from endogenous retroviral (ERV) DNA sequences. Since then, and based on breakthrough science coming from both internally-generated and in-licensed insights, Enara Bio has broadened its horizons to include TCR-based immunotherapies targeting an extended cancer-associated antigenic repertoire derived from the entire genomic dark matter, termed Dark Antigens.

To accelerate this evolution, Enara Bio in-licensed patents covering T cells and TCRs reactive to cancer-specific antigens and ligands from Cardiff University in January 2020. These exciting new technologies, while early research-stage, present compelling opportunities to develop immunotherapies with the potential to address a broad range of tumor types independent of the patients genetic background.

Kevin Pojasek, President and CEO of Enara Bio commented:

Our new name Enara Bio reflects the progression of our strategy and capabilities to align more broadly with our purpose of delivering impactful immunotherapies to all cancer patients. Our ground-breaking work in identifying and characterizing Dark Antigens is now joined by other exciting new programs focused on pan-cancer, pan-HLA targets, which greatly expand our opportunities for the development of novel immunotherapies with broad utility across patients with diverse cancers. While we continue to press ahead with these exciting programs internally, we are increasingly seeking partnerships to advance the full diversity of our science and product opportunities.

***

About Enara Bio

Enara Bio (formerly Ervaxx) is a science-led company targeting the T-cell/cancer-cell interface (the immune synapse) to develop new targeted cancer immunotherapies designed to treat a broad patient population.

Enara Bio is exploring the hidden depths of cancer and T-cell biology to discover and characterize novel immunotherapy targets, such as Dark Antigens and MR1-presented ligands. We are pioneering approaches to exploit these targets with TCR-directed T-cell immunotherapy and therapeutic vaccines.

To achieve our mission, we are leveraging our differentiated Dark Antigen and TCR discovery platforms that integrate bioinformatics, immunopeptidomics, metabolomics and immunology in our Oxford, UK-based research lab.

Enara Bio is backed by leading life science investors, including SV Health Investors. We have partnerships with world-class academic institutions, including the Francis Crick Institute, Cardiff University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Oxford, to help drive the leading edge of these new areas of science.

For more information visit: http://www.enarabio.com

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Ervaxx rebrands as Enara Bio to reflect a broader emphasis on the discovery and development of novel TCR-based cancer immunotherapies - PharmiWeb.com

Cell Biology

New Biosensor Visualizes Stress in Living Plant Cells in Real Time – Newswise

Newswise Plant biologists have long sought a deeper understanding of foundational processes involving kinases, enzymes that catalyze key biological activities in proteins. Analyzing the processes underlying kinases in plants takes on greater urgency in todays environment increasingly altered by climate warming.

Certain SnRK2 kinases (sucrose-non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase-2s) are essential since they are known to be activated in response to drought conditions, triggering the protective closure of small pores on leaf surfaces known as stoma. These pores allow carbon dioxide to enter leaves, but plants also lose more than 90 percent of their water by evaporation through them. Pore opening and closing functions help optimize growth and drought tolerance in response to changes in the environment.

Now, plant biologists at the University of California San Diego have developed a new nanosensor that allows researchers to monitor SnRK2 protein kinase activity in live plant cells. The SnRK2 activity sensor, or SNACS, is described in the journal eLife.

Prior efforts to dissect protein kinase activities involved a tedious process of grinding up plant tissues and measuring kinase activities through cell extracts. More than 100 leaves were required per experiment for analyses of the stomatal pore forming guard cells. SNACS now allows researchers to analyze changes in real time as they happen.

Previously, it was not possible to investigate time-resolved SnRK2 activity in living plant cells, said Biological Sciences Distinguished Professor Julian Schroeder, a member of the Section of Cell and Developmental Biology and senior author of the new paper. The SNACS sensor reports direct real-time visualization of SnRK2 kinase activity in single live plant cells or tissues.

The new biosensor is already paying dividends. The researchers describe using SNACS to provide new evidence about longstanding questions about SnRK2 and foundational interactions with carbon dioxide. The researchers show that abscisic acid, a drought stress hormone in plants, activates the kinases, but that elevated carbon dioxide does not, resolving a recently debated question.

Our findings could benefit researchers investigating environmental stress responses in plants and analyzing how different signaling pathways interact with one another in plant cells, said Yohei Takahashi, a UC San Diego project scientist and co-corresponding author of the study. The ability to investigate time-resolved SnRK2 kinase regulation in live plants is of particular importance for understanding environmental stress responses of plant cells.

The new nanosensor was developed using an approach pioneered by the late UC San Diego Professor Roger Tsien, in part for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize.

The research team included Li Zhang, Yohei Takahashi, Po-Kai Hsu, Kollist Hannes, Ebe Merilo, Patrick Krysan and Julian Schroeder.

Funding for the research was provided by the National Institutes of Health (GM060396), the National Science Foundation (MCB-1900567 and MCB-1137950), a China Scholarship Council fellowship and a Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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New Biosensor Visualizes Stress in Living Plant Cells in Real Time - Newswise

Cell Biology

What are Proteoforms (Protein Variation)? – News-Medical.net

Protein variation, which accounts for large amounts of the complexity in biological systems and our bodies, can come in many different forms. The different types of variation, namely variations in the molecular form of protein products, are united by the term proteoform (previously also known as protein forms, protein isoforms, protein species, and protein variants).

Image Credits: StudioMolekuul / Shutterstock.com

Endeavors into understanding genetic variation led to the discovery that much of the variation and complexity in biology is due to proteins, rather than only genes. Different proteoforms can arise due to genetic variation, manipulation or splicing of RNA transcripts, and modifications occurring after translation.

There are a few exceptions to protein variations that are not covered by the term proteoforms. These include post-translational modifications that are known as reagent-derivatized or isotope-labeled residues. Otherwise, proteoforms are used to understand the full complexity of proteins and how the different sources of variation can interact to give rise to differences.

Genetic variation giving rise to proteoforms can largely be attributed to coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (cSNPs) and mutations. Variation at the RNA level can be mainly attributed to alternative splicing.

For example, it is estimated that around 93% of human genes are subject to alternative splicing. These can have implications for function and localization. Variation at the RNA level can also be due to RNA editing, with the most common editing being where adenosine is edited to inosine.

Translation is not a perfect process, and errors in translation are another source by which unique proteoforms can arise. Estimated error frequencies are at around 0.01-0.1% per amino acid, which may increase in aging or stressed cells, meaning errors can make up a sizable portion of variation in cells with many proteins.

Post-translational modifications are also a sizable source of proteoforms, as they can increase proteoform numbers exponentially. Post-translational modifications can be divided into categories based on structure or function.

For example, structural categories can look at if modifications are simple (e.g. phosphor or acetyl) or complex (e.g. glycosylation) and how this increases proteoform numbers. Functional categories focus on the effects of post-translational modifications on phenotypes, thereby focusing on how proteoforms can give rise to different forms.

The size of the proteome is subject to a lot of debate, with values ranging from 20,000 to several million. While the human genome can be estimated to be around 20,000 protein-coding genes, the size of the proteome can be several magnitudes larger due to the great variation of proteoforms.

The presence and function of proteoforms can be critical for normal body functioning. In humans, there are 23 known proteoforms in the amyloid- system in Alzheimers disease, where the different proteoforms are not detectable through traditional ELISA assays. There are also around 75 known proteoforms for the histone H4 system, which is associated with gene repression and activation.

Understanding the full extent of the human proteoform will be challenging. Not only is it necessary to understand how many proteoforms exist, but the way proteoform diversity varies between cell types, their role in disease, and their role in human diversity will be complex and difficult to decipher. Projects such as the Human Protein Atlas and the Human Cell Atlas have been launched in the past 10 years to help understand human diversity, and will likely include proteoforms.

While proteomics platforms have been massively improved in recent decades, there are still discrepancies in proteoform detection. For example, alternative transcripts that are discovered via RNA sequencing are not always found using proteomics methods.

The low detection of proteoforms of this type is due to limited sensitivity and coverage of the currently used proteomics platforms. Even methods where most gene expression can be detected, called deep proteomic analyses, the sequence coverage for many proteins is low. This is especially true for low abundance genes.

Another complication to detecting proteoforms is that they cannot be detected by the currently dominant strategy. The bottom-up approach most widely used involves digestion of proteins to detect peptides with LC-MS/MS, but most proteoforms share peptides with each other and thus this method is often inappropriate. The top-down approach is often seen as better, where proteins are not digested and instead the entire proteoform is analyzed by LC-MS/MS.

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What are Proteoforms (Protein Variation)? - News-Medical.net

Cell Biology

Tip Sheet: HIV and COVID-19, antibody interactions, immune responses to colorectal cancer and how Fred Hutch is getting back to work – Fred Hutch News…

____________________________________________________________________COVID-19

Vaccinating the world: Two global experts explain what it will take to succeedDr. Larry Corey and Dr. John Mascola join Fred Hutch President and Director Dr. Tom Lynch to discuss the challenges and opportunities in accelerating development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for our integrated world in this webinar on Friday, June 5, 2020 at 11 am PST/ 2 pm EST.Media contact: Claire Hudson, crhudson@fredhutch.org

What happens when cancer patients get COVID-19?A large new study of cancer patients with COVID-19 clearly shows patients with active cancer or who suffer from additional comorbidities such as diabetes or heart disease have worse outcomes.Media contact: Claire Hudson, crhudson@fredhutch.org

When COVID-19 crosses paths with HIVResearchers at Fred Hutch are trying to assess whether HIV puts people at higher risk COVID-19 through a new epidemiological study of over 35,000 people living with HIV across the US. The study aims to identify risk factors for those with HIV who also had COVID-19 and understand if they are at risk of more severe infection. Media contact: Claire Hudson, crhudson@fredhutch.org

How Fred Hutch is using science to get back to doing scienceFred Hutch is tapping its decades of scientific expertise to move forward in finding ways to safely dial back up its employees on campus while supporting others working remotely. See steps being taken, plus a video of Fred Hutchs facilities director on how his team is managing during the pandemic.Media contact: Molly McElroy, mwmcelro@fredhutch.org

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HIV

Injectable HIV drug prevents infectionsIn a real win for HIV prevention, an international trial of an injectable drug designed to prevent HIV showed those who received it had fewer new HIV infections than those who received the once-a-day HIV prevention pill Truvada.Media contact: Claire Hudson, crhudson@fredhutch.org

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Healthcare economics

NIH grant to fund new financial-toxicity interventionA new collaboration between Fred Hutch and the SWOG Cancer Research Network will road-test a program designed to curb financial toxicity related to cancer treatment. The intervention will give cancer patients access to proactive financial counseling and financial navigators as part of their treatment plan.Media contact: Claire Hudson, crhudson@fredhutch.org

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Precision medicine

Immune response in colorectal cancer: What helps, what hurts?A new $3.66 million grant from the National Cancer Institute will help Fred Hutch researchers, part of the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium, better understand the bodys natural immune response to colorectal cancer and what, exactly, drives it.Media contact: Tom Kim, tomkim@fredhutch.org

$3.5M grant to develop safer treatment for inherited blood disordersDrs. Hans-Peter Kiem and Roland Walter will explore ways to precisely deliver powerful radioactive particles to blood and marrow cells while sparing other nonblood cells and tissues.Media contact: Molly McElroy, mwmcelro@fredhutch.org

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Pediatric Oncology

Cancers toll on the heart decades down the roadDr. Eric Chow and colleagues explore two key questions related to child cancer survivorship: Is there anything doctors can do during a childs treatment to protect their heart? And for adult survivors, what can we do to monitor and reduce the risk of heart disease?Media contact: Molly McElroy, mwmcelro@fredhutch.org

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Basic sciences

Studying the complex interactions between antibodies and viral targetsDr. Tal Einav was named a Damon Runyon Quantitative Biology Fellow, which supports cancer-related computation research. He will create maps that model how complex mixes of antibodies interact.Media contact: Molly McElroy, mwmcelro@fredhutch.org

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Other notable news

Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem elected vice president of American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy

Health equity trailblazers recognized

# # #

AtFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,home to three Nobel laureates, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Fred Hutchs pioneering work inbone marrow transplantationled to the development ofimmunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system to treat cancer. An independent, nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, Fred Hutch houses the nations first National Cancer Institute-funded cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Womens Health Initiative and the international headquarters of theHIV Vaccine Trials Network.

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Tip Sheet: HIV and COVID-19, antibody interactions, immune responses to colorectal cancer and how Fred Hutch is getting back to work - Fred Hutch News...

Cell Biology

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market to Witness a Ravishing Growth with International Players BD, Takara Bio Inc., Geron, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.,…

The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market research added by the insight partners, offers a comprehensive analysis of growth trends prevailing in the global business domain. This report also provides definitive data concerning market, size, commercialization aspects and revenue forecast of the industry. In addition, the study explicitly highlights the competitive status of key players within the projection timeline while focusing on their portfolio and regional expansion endeavors.

What is Human Embryonic Stem Cell?

The human embryonic stem cells are obtained from the undifferentiated inner mass cell of the human embryo and human fetal tissue. The human embryonic stem cell can replicate indefinitely and produce non-regenerative tissue such as myocardial and neural cells. This potential of human embryonic stem cell allows them to provide an unlimited amount of tissue for transplantation therapies to treat a wide range of degenerative diseases. Hence, human embryonic stem cells are used in the treatment of various diseases such as Alzheimers disease, cancer, blood and genetic disorders related to the immune system and others.

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Major Players Included in this report are as follows:1. BD2. Takara Bio Inc.3. Geron4. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.5. ViaCyte, Inc.6. R&D Systems, Inc.7. QIAGEN8. CellGenix GmbH9. Vitrolife10. Lonza

The global human embryonic stem cell market is expected to grow in upcoming years, factors driving the growth of market are rise in incidences of neurological disorders, increase in investment by government and other organization for research activities, awareness among people about stem cell therapeutic potency for disease treatment. On the other hand emerging stem cell banking services is expected to offer lucrative opportunities in growth of human embryonic stem cell market.

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The global human embryonic stem cell market is segmented on the basis of product type, application and end user. Based on product type, the market is segmented as totipotent stem cell, pluripotent stem cell and unipotent stem cell. On the basis of application, the global human embryonic stem cell market is segmented into regenerative medicine, stem cell biology research, tissue engineering and toxicology testing. Based on end users, the market is segmented as therapeutics companies, cell & tissue banks, tools & reagents companies and others.

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o Asia-Pacific(Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia)o Europe(Turkey, Germany, Russia UK, Italy, France, etc.)o North America(the United States, Mexico, and Canada.)o South America(Brazil etc.)o The Middle East and Africa(GCC Countries and Egypt.)

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1. Introduction2. Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market Key Takeaways3. Research Methodology4. Human Embryonic Stem Cell- Market Landscape5. Global Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market Key Industry Dynamics6. Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market Global Analysis7. Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market Revenue And Forecasts To 2027 Product Type8. Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market Revenue And Forecasts To 2027 Application9. Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market Revenue And Forecasts To 2027 End User10. Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market Revenue And Forecasts To 2027 Geographical Analysis

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Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market to Witness a Ravishing Growth with International Players BD, Takara Bio Inc., Geron, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.,...

Cell Biology

NAU scientist collaborating on vault-based vaccine to prevent and treat COVID-19 – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jun 1 2020

C. Todd French, assistant professor of biology and leader of Northern Arizona University's new COVID-19 Testing Service Center (CTSC), is working with scientists at Vault Pharma, an emerging biotechnology company, to test candidate vaccines against the novel coronavirus. Through a multi-institutional public-private partnership linking the company with UCLA, NAU and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, French is part of a collaborative team advancing a vaccine that has the potential to treat the virus in addition to protecting against it.

Vault Pharma creates genetically modified versions of vaults--naturally occurring nanoparticles found inside every cell of the human body--that can be bioengineered and used as drug delivery devices. So small that they are measured in nanometers (one nanometer equals one billionth of a meter), vaults were first discovered in 1986 by a lab group led by Vault Pharma co-founder Leonard H. Rome, distinguished professor of biological chemistry and associate director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA. Vault Pharma is designing its vault vaccine with the Rome Lab and the research team led by Jeff F. Miller, UCLA's Fred Kavli Professor of NanoSystems Sciences and the director of CNSI.

Vaults are unique, hollow, natural protein nanoparticles, named for their barrel-like structure. They have tremendous potential as a vaccine delivery platform when loaded with vaccine antigens. I've been a proponent of the vault vaccine platform for a long time, and I'm excited that UCLA and Vault Pharma want to work with us at NAU."

C. Todd French, assistant professor of biology and leader of Northern Arizona University's new COVID-19 Testing Service Center (CTSC)

As with typical vaccines, the team's vault-based strategy is intended to stop infection before it starts by activating the antibodies in the immune system, which neutralize foreign microbes floating around in bodily fluids and tag them for elimination by immune cells. The researchers are choosing which coronavirus proteins to package inside vaults to stimulate the immune response.

Although it would not provide a frontline defense, the vault-based coronavirus vaccine in development is intended to be used against the disease after an initial vaccine has been developed and distributed, and could represent a step toward blocking the outbreak of a similar virus in the future.

The team at Vault Pharma has evidence suggesting that a vault-based vaccine could also work as a therapeutic. While the vault platform hasn't yet been tested in humans, proof-of-concept studies indicate that vaults themselves don't set off an immune attack but are readily internalized by multiple cells of the immune system.

French was recently recruited by NAU's Pathogen and Microbiome Institute from UCLA for his expertise. A veteran of Select Agent and high-containment pathogen science, French brings unique capabilities to PMI. The French Lab focuses on pathogen virulence mechanisms, pathogen ecology and developing new therapeutics.

"We established the CTSC at NAU to aid in the search for potential therapeutics that can inhibit the coronavirus in vitro. This summer, we will be bringing online the ability to test potential treatments and vaccines in COVID models, as well," French said.

Plans for manufacturing the vault-based vaccine are in progress. As the project moves toward trials in humans, production of vaccine-laden vaults will be scaled up at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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NAU scientist collaborating on vault-based vaccine to prevent and treat COVID-19 - News-Medical.Net

Cell Biology

SARS-CoV-2 can adversely affect cardiac cells and heart function – News-Medical.Net

A research group from Germany demonstrated a direct toxic effect of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on cardiac cells in their paper published on the bioRxiv* preprint server. The finding warrants an in-depth analysis of cardiac tissue in certain coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, as well as close monitoring for any direct cardiomyocyte injury.

COVID-19 pandemic has spread around the globe, putting billions of people into lockdown as health services try to cope with gravely ill individuals. Elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions appear to be in jeopardy of serious disease outcomes.

Patients with underlying cardiovascular diseases present with an increased risk of death after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Moreover, clinical deterioration during COVID-19 is accompanied by left ventricular dysfunction in approximately 20% of patients, which is a striking number.

Nonetheless, it is not clear whether biomarkers of cardiac injury and long-term adverse effects on the cardiovascular system are caused directly by viral infection of the heart tissue, or they arise secondary to hypoxia (i.e., oxygen deprivation) and systemic inflammation during complicated COVID-19.

Previous research has hinted that human cardiomyocytes (heart cells) express the recognized SARS-CoV-2 receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), most notably in patients with cardiovascular diseases, suggesting that they could be targeted by the novel coronavirus.

SARS-CoV-2 virus binding to ACE2 receptors on a human cell. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock

This is why researchers from Frankfurt University, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, German Center for Cardiovascular Research, Max Planck Institute Heart and Lung Research, Cardiopulmonary Institute, Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, German Centre for Infection Research, and several specialty clinics decided to investigate whether human cardiomyocytes are actually permissive for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The researchers induced the infection by two control strains of SARS-CoV-2 (previously propagated in Caco-2 cell lines) in human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPS-CM), as well as in two models of human cardiac tissue.

By using human cardiospheres (i.e., a cluster of endogenous heart stem cells that arises when they are cloned in suspension) generated by hiPS-cells, they aimed to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 infects cardiomyocytes in a three-dimensional tissue environment.

Finally, these scientists also addressed whether SARS-CoV-2 can infect human heart tissue by using living human cardiac tissue slices obtained from explanted hearts. All cytopathogenic effects were appraised visually 48 hours following the infection.

The study has shown that SARS-CoV-2 can readily infect human cardiomyocytes in culture, as well as in two different models of heart tissue. The infection was demonstrated by an assortment of readouts including the expression of intracellular viral RNA and its spike glycoprotein.

"Increasing concentrations of virus RNA are detected in supernatants of infected cardiomyocytes, which induced infections in CaCo-2 cell lines documenting productive infections", explain study authors.

The virus was further detected by in cells of the infected human heart slices by using electron microscopy, and it was also shown that it undergoes a full replication cycle. Of note, pro-apoptotic effects were also generated by SARS-CoV-2, which means it induces programmed cell death in cardiomyocytes.

In a nutshell, SARS-CoV-2 infection in this study was linked to cytotoxic changes and lower beating rate of heart cells in laboratory cultures and cardiospheres, suggesting a purported detrimental effect of the virus on the human heart.

"SARS-CoV-2 time-dependently affected beating frequency of cardiospheres with a profound inhibition at 5 days post-infection", further elucidate study authors. "At five days post-infection, cardiospheres showed a reduced size consistent with the induction of cell death," they add.

Although there was evidence that patients with COVID-19 had elevated cardiac injury biomarkers, as well as certain problems with left and right ventricular cardiac function, this is the first time a direct viral infection of cardiomyocytes by SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated convincingly.

"The used three-dimensional tissue models may serve as an experimental model for testing the effects of coronavirus infection and biology in the heart and developing therapeutic strategies," study authors explain implications of their research findings.

In any case, the significant adverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 on human cardiomyocytes as described in this study definitely warrants additional, continuous, and comprehensive monitoring of direct cardiac changes in COVID-19 patients.

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

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SARS-CoV-2 can adversely affect cardiac cells and heart function - News-Medical.Net

Cell Biology

Nanodevices Track Cells From the Inside, Show How They Develop With Time – SciTechDaily

At this point in development, the embryo chromosomes (which appear red in the center) are preparing to separate during the first cell division. The device prongs can be seen fluorescing green, with green-fluorescing actin around the periphery. Credit: Professor Tony Perry

For the first time, scientists have added microscopic tracking devices into the interior of cells, giving a peek into how development starts.

For the first time, scientists have introduced minuscule tracking devices directly into the interior of mammalian cells, giving an unprecedented peek into the processes that govern the beginning of development. This work on one-cell embryos is set to shift our understanding of the mechanisms that underpin cellular behavior in general, and may ultimately provide insights into what goes wrong in aging and disease.The research, led by Professor Tony Perry from the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath, involved injecting a silicon-based nanodevice together with sperm into the egg cell of a mouse. The result was a healthy, fertilized egg containing a tracking device.The tiny devices are a little like spiders, complete with eight highly flexible legs. The legs measure the pulling and pushing forces exerted in the cell interior to a very high level of precision, thereby revealing the cellular forces at play and showing how intracellular matter rearranged itself over time.

Five mouse embryos, each containing a nanodevice that is 22-millionths of a meter long. The film begins when the embryos are 2-hours old and continues for 5 hours. Each embryo is about 100-millionths of a meter in diameter. Credit: Professor Tony Perry

The nanodevices are incredibly thin similar to some of the cells structural components, and measuring 22 nanometres, making them approximately 100,000 times thinner than a pound coin. This means they have the flexibility to register the movement of the cells cytoplasm as the one-cell embryo embarks on its voyage towards becoming a two-cell embryo.

This is the first glimpse of the physics of any cell on this scale from within, said Professor Perry. Its the first time anyone has seen from the inside how cell material moves around and organizes itself.

The activity within a cell determines how that cell functions, explains Professor Perry. The behavior of intracellular matter is probably as influential to cell behavior as gene expression, he said. Until now, however, this complex dance of cellular material has remained largely unstudied. As a result, scientists have been able to identify the elements that make up a cell, but not how the cell interior behaves as a whole.

From studies in biology and embryology, we know about certain molecules and cellular phenomena, and we have woven this information into a reductionist narrative of how things work, but now this narrative is changing, said Professor Perry. The narrative was written largely by biologists, who brought with them the questions and tools of biology. What was missing was physics. Physics asks about the forces driving a cells behavior, and provides a top-down approach to finding the answer.

We can now look at the cell as a whole, not just the nuts and bolts that make it.

Mouse embryos were chosen for the study because of their relatively large size (they measure 100 microns, or 100-millionths of a meter, in diameter, compared to a regular cell which is only 10 microns [10-millionths of a meter] in diameter). This meant that inside each embryo, there was space for a tracking device.

The researchers made their measurements by examining video recordings taken through a microscope as the embryos developed. Sometimes the devices were pitched and twisted by forces that were even greater than those inside muscle cells, said Professor Perry. At other times, the devices moved very little, showing the cell interior had become calm. There was nothing random about these processes from the moment you have a one-cell embryo, everything is done in a predictable way. The physics is programmed.

The results add to an emerging picture of biology that suggests material inside a living cell is not static, but instead changes its properties in a pre-ordained way as the cell performs its function or responds to the environment. The work may one day have implications for our understanding of how cells age or stop working as they should, which is what happens in disease.

The study is published this week in Nature Materials and involved a trans-disciplinary partnership between biologists, materials scientists and physicists based in the UK, Spain, and the USA.

Reference: Tracking intracellular forces and mechanical property changes in mouse one-cell embryo development by Marta Duch, Nria Torras, Maki Asami, Toru Suzuki, Mara Isabel Arjona, Rodrigo Gmez-Martnez, Matthew D. VerMilyea, Robert Castilla, Jos Antonio Plaza and Anthony C. F. Perry, 25 May 2020, Nature Materials.DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-0685-9

The study is published this week in Nature Materials and involved a trans-disciplinary partnership between embryologists in Bath and the USA led by Professor Perry, and materials scientists and physicists led by Professor Jos Antonio Plaza at the Instituto de Microelectrnica de Barcelona (IMB-CNM) in Spain.

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Nanodevices Track Cells From the Inside, Show How They Develop With Time - SciTechDaily