Biotech & Business

May

2021

COVID-19 Vaccine Storage and Stability

Technology Networks, May 25 2021.

COVID-19 vaccines are here, they are headed out globally and the world is faced with a giant logistical task: keeping these vaccines in their desired storage conditions to ensure stability and efficacy of every dose that goes into an arm. This is an even more complex problem because some of these vaccines have requirements to be kept frozen or refrigerated for optimal safety and efficacy.

While many places in the US have had good success in administering vaccines at local drugstores, community centers or clinics, there are many places within the US and outside of it in which these cold-storage chains are not adequate. Read More >

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Nov

2020

Bringing Embryonic Stem Cells to the Blind: Clinical Test Gets FDA Approval

Discover, January 4 2011.

Embryonic stem cell treatments are edging closer to mainstream medicine. An experimental treatment just approved for clinical trials may provide hope to the 10 to 15 million elderly patients in the United States who suffer from a common form of macular degeneration, which causes gradual blindness.

The biotech company behind the treatment, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., previously won FDA approval to try an embryonic stem cell treatment on patients with a rare, juvenile form of macular degeneration. The new FDA-approved trial will use similar techniques, but targets a much broader patient base. Read More >

Nov

2010

Miniature Human Liver Grown in Lab; Seems to Work Like the Real Thing

Discover, November 1 2010.

Researchers have built miniature human livers in the lab, which could lead to better drug discovery and could even point the way toward implantable artificial organs. The mini-livers seem to act like human livers in the lab, but it remains to be seen how well they’ll survive and perform when transplanted into animals or, maybe one day, humans.

“We are excited about the possibilities this research represents, but must stress that we’re at an early stage and many technical hurdles must be overcome before it could benefit patients,” said Shay Soker, Ph.D., professor of regenerative medicine and project director. “Not only must we learn how to grow billions of liver cells at one time in order to engineer livers large enough for patients, but we must determine whether these organs are safe to use in patients.” Read More >

Oct

2010

Biotech on the Bayou

The Scientist magazine, October 2010.

Running from patient to patient while fielding calls from reporters, investors, biotech CEOs, and medical engineers, William Kethman isn’t your typical medical student. The calls are coming because of his second job: moonlighting as a medical device and biotech inventor in the thick of New Orleans’s burgeoning biotechnology economy.

With a jumpstart from Tulane University’s bioengineering innovation course, which teaches students how to shape their ideas into medical devices that can make a difference, Kethman and his partners have turned their undergraduate school project—an improved umbilical clamp they call the SafeSnip—into a brand new biotech medical devices company, known as NOvate Medical Technologies. Read More >

Sep

2010

FDA Committee Punts on Question of Biotech Fish

Discover, September 21, 2010.

An FDA advisory panel has decided what it thinks about genetically modified salmon, and its decision is to not make a decision. The committee says it doesn’t have enough data to fully support approving the biotech salmon, which would make it the first such animal in the country.

“We are missing data,” said panel member James McKean, a professor at Iowa State University. He said that “leaves a cloud” over the FDA staff’s analysis.

But some other panel members agreed with the FDA’s position that the fish was fine. Read More >

Aug

2010

Nanosensor peers inside cell

The Scientist blog August 12th, 2010.

A new virus-sized probe can look deeper into cells than ever before, and finally allows scientists to monitor intracellular activities without disrupting the cells’ external membranes, according to a study published today in Science.

“This is a paper that can bring breakthrough and revolutionary insight into our understanding of intracellular structures,” said Zhong Lin Wang, who develops nanotechnologies at the Georgia Institute of Technology but was not involved in the work. The new device is a type of sensor known as a transistor, which detects changes in electrical activity when touching or inserted into a cell. Read More >

Jul

2010

Q&A: Do we need a stem cell bank?

The Scientist, July 26, 2010.

Among stem cell policy changes instituted since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made a controversial move to not renew funding of a key stem cell bank established at the WiCell Institute in Wisconsin. Many scientists worry that without a national center to distribute human embryonic stem cell lines to researchers, the availability, cost and quality of cell lines will suffer as a result. But not all feel this way.

The Scientist spoke with Evan Snyder, a stem cell biologist from the Burnham Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Diego, who says he doesn’t believe the community needs a nationally-funded bank.

Snyder, whose research focuses on the basic biology of stem cells and their potential applications, believes that in these tough financial times, researchers should do their academic duty and provide their stem cell lines to others at little or no cost, other than that of supplies and shipping. Read More >

Apr

2010

Sequencing the Video Genome

WIREDScience blog. April 5, 2010.

THINK ORGANISMS ARE the only ones with genomes? Researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology are sequencing the “video genome” to put an end to video piracy on the internet.

The technique works by detecting features that remain basically unchanged by typical color and resolution manipulations. Current methods rely on action recognition algorithms, which match video sequences by the movement they contain. Read More >