Chemotherapy, using chemicals that are particularly toxic to rapidly dividing cancer cells, is the most commonly used cancer treatment, often in combination with surgery and/or radiotherapy. However, the side effects of chemotherapy are severe. Exosomes may offer a way of better targeting chemotherapy to cancer cells.
Biological discovery and crisis can both give rise to entirely new fields of study. In this article, we assess the impact of Covid on research output in 2020 and the rise of technologies such as CRISPR and cell reprogramming that have shaped the last 20 years.
Many cancers have developed an efficient way of blocking the body’s natural immune response by overexpressing a protein called programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1). Antibodies that neutralize PD-L1 are highly effective in some patients. Exosome-based diagnostics can predict responders.
Times of crisis can precipitate rapid technological development and the Covid-19 crisis is presenting an opportunity for new therapeutic modalities. Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s Covid vaccines which both rely on RNA have been ground-breaking. Could Covid-19 also clear the path for the first exosome therapeutics?
Despite iPSCs having potential in many biomedical applications, there are currently major challenges that need to be addressed to unleash the full potential of iPSCs for disease modelling, both in clinical settings and their use for safety pharmacology to provide more effective and safer regenerative therapy.
Cell Guidance Systems Ltd, a specialist in the control, manipulation and monitoring of cells, both in vitro and in vivo, today announced its POlyhedrin Delivery System (PODS) technology has been shown to modulate macrophage secretion profiles with therapeutic potential. The results of this research are available as an unpublished preprint in bioRxiv1.
The growth of 3D cell printing over the last decade has been remarkable with 41% compound annual growth. In this mini-report, we look at key players with offerings targeted at the burgeoning 3D cell bioprinting market.
What if we could reliably build cell-based structures resembling meat step-by-step in a lab, bypassing the need for livestock altogether? Advances in cellular biology, including identifying the signals that cause stem cells to turn into other cell types such as muscle or fat cells, have given us the key to unlock this possibility, with many companies founded in recent years to develop this technology.
Resident cytokines (released from cells in the body) are potent proteins that function at vanishingly low levels (measured in ng/kg). In contrast, therapeutic recombinant cytokines are typically dosed in mg/kg. Similarly, high mg/L concentrations are required for cytokines used in lab-based cell culture or in biomanufacturing. How do almost non-existent resident cytokines manage to achieve their effects?
Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) is fast becoming the purification method of choice for extracellular vesicles including exosomes. However, the technique has been confined to relatively low throughput, single-column formats. Continued improvementsas led to a new high-throughput isolation product that has overcome this limitation.
