Biospecimens

At next week’s National Biotechnology Conference, Berlin-based clinical research firm CheckImmune GmbH will showcase how layering single-cell multi-omics provides insights into drug action and immune responses that bulk readouts (averaged measurements from a large population of cells) often miss. In rapid-fire talks on May 6, the Berlin startup will show how single-cell multiomics and spatial…

A novel gene editing tool named STITCHR, developed at Mass General Brigham and collaborating institutions, overcomes central limitations of current technologies by enabling the scarless insertion of entire genes or large DNA fragments up to 12.7 kb. Based on reprogrammed retrotransposon activity guided by a Cas9 nickase and using RNA templates, STITCHR shows potential for…

Peptides are currently experiencing a surge of interest in drug discovery and development. With more than 170 peptides currently in active clinical development1 and many more in preclinical studies2, the global market for peptide-based therapeutics is expected to grow to approximately $80 billion by 2032.3 But while the use of peptides within pharmaceuticals has been…

Spatial biology is revolutionizing our understanding of how cells interact with their natural environments. Although that may sound like an overstatement, it isn’t.  Spatial biology involves the use of advanced imaging and molecular techniques to visualize and map the location of cells, transcripts, proteins and their interactions within tissues. Traditional biological studies have long focused…

The understanding that there is a connection between breath and diseases can date back to over two thousand years ago, when Hippocrates described fetor oris and fetor hepaticus in his report on breath aroma (1). Since then, research into volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exhaled in breath and their involvement in disease physiology has led to…

Nucleai, founded in 2018 and based in Chicago and Tel Aviv, is pioneering new ground in spatial biology. Its AI-powered technology provides crucial context for tumor analysis, moving beyond traditional, static biopsy images to highlight cellular interactions that influence disease progression and treatment response. Innovation, in many cases, happens at the overlap of different domains,…

The bioinformatics startup Culmination Bio had received financial backing from Merck’s venture arm. Now, the Utah-based company is collaborating directly with the pharmaceutical giant on an autoimmune disease research project. According to Culmination Bio‘s CEO Dr. Lincoln Nadauld, the collaboration highlights the value of the startup’s ability to provide rapid access to high-quality longitudinal patient…

The startup Karius aims to help establish a world where infectious disease is no longer a major threat to human health. “It’s an audacious vision,” said Dr. Brad Perkins, chief medical officer at Karius. “But I think it’s commensurate with the platform we’ve developed and continue to evolve.” The Redwood City, California-based company has developed…

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) has launched a line of antibodies specific to cemiplimab (Libtayo). The antibodies inhibit the binding of the drug to its target, human programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1). Hercules, California–based Bio-Rad Lab, said the ready-made antibodies could be used to develop selective and sensitive assays for bioanalysis and drug monitoring of cemiplimab. Cemiplimab,…

Spatial biology specialist Lunaphore (Tolochenaz, Switzerland) recently announced a collaboration with the pathology department at Massachusetts General Hospital to develop an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) that assesses the sensitivity of solid tumors to poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. “Lunaphore is based on a technology that I developed for my Ph.D. at the Swiss Federal Institute…

Digital cell biology firm Berkeley Lights (NSDQ:BLI) has named Dr. Siddhartha Kadia to lead the company. Founded in 2011, Berkeley Lights has developed a platform that supports the rapid functional characterization of single cells. To date, the company has raised $272.6t million in funding over nine rounds, according to Crunchbase. Kadia replaced outgoing CEO Eric…

Privately-held Ambys Medicines has announced that it has opened a 52,000-ft² facility dedicated to hepatocyte manufacturing. The facility is certified to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) regulations. The company, based in South San Francisco, California, also presented data on its novel bioreactor manufacturing at the Joint Congress of the International Xenotransplantation Association, IXA-CTRMS-2021. Focused on…

Recombinant vector specialist VectorBuilder and Landau Biotechnology, which develops nonhuman primate models for clinical research, have entered into a strategic partnership. The two companies will collaborate on establishing a primate gene therapy R&D center. VectorBuilder is based in Chicago and has facilities in Germany, Japan and China. Landau Biotechnology is headquartered in China. The center…

Live cell shipping specialist Cellbox Solutions GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) has now formally entered the North American market after setting up an office in Rockville, Maryland. The company is the developer of patented Cellbox technology, a transportable CO2 incubator that hit the European market in 2019. The company has also developed packaging compliant with UN3373 standards…

When it comes to using biospecimens for research, the saying “garbage in, garbage out” applies (Compton, 2018). This maxim has been a driving force in biospecimen science: a field in which the focus is pre-analytical factors affecting biospecimen quality. It has also been a driving force in the professionalization of biobanking. As a result, the…