The biosimilars market is expanding rapidly as the patents expire for an increasing number of high profile biopharmaceutical agents. The complex nature of biologics requires extensive characterization of the production techniques and in vivo effects of new biosimilars before they can be released onto the market. Coherus Biosciences is using advanced laboratory automation to help screen chromatography conditions as part of its downstream purification processes for new biosimilars.
Mass spectrometry is rapidly becoming the method of choice for quantitative analysis of micronutrients such as vitamins B1, B6, B12 and D, as well as for steroids, hormones and many other drugs. For clinical laboratories, the bottleneck of MS-based techniques is not the analysis, but the pre-processing of the samples to remove proteins and other biological molecules that could interfere with the results.
Multidisciplinary research calls for multifunctional laboratory equipment capable of rapidly switching between applications. Staff in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the TU Eindhoven understand that having the right instruments for your workflow can allow more users to benefit and help to accelerate research.
Synthetic biology is, quite literally, the creation of new genetic constructs and novel micro-organisms with innovative functions. Together with systems biology, it provides a platform for translating advances in genomics, proteomics and molecular biology into real-world applications.
The industrialization of biology has become possible thanks to the automation of repetitive tasks – such as liquid handling – making 24/7 operation feasible. This cost-saving automation addresses several major concerns for biology workflows.
SPEware is the latest member of the Tecan Group, providing advanced sample preparation solutions for laboratories performing mass spectrometry analysis.
Biomolecular interaction analysis plays an important role in the pharmaceutical industry. SensiQ Technologies has optimized surface plasmon resonance technology for drug discovery applications, developing an automated system that can provide rapid affinity data for prompt identification of candidate fragment activities.
Genetic modification of mammalian cells is now a routine daily activity in academic and industrial R&D laboratories around the world, with viral vectors – such as lentivirus – commonly used to create new cellular models for a wide range of applications.
Testosterone levels are typically determined using automated immunoassay analyzers, but this has limitations. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MSMS) offers a selective and accurate alternative, and the Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine at the University of California San Diego is using a novel extraction technology to automate sample preparation for this technique.
Milk testing plays an essential role in the dairy industry, ensuring the quality and safety of the end product. RAUDSZUS Electronic in Bavaria provides customized front-end sample preparation solutions to help laboratories cope with the high throughput demands of this work, enabling complete automation of the testing process, and has also recently introduced automated ELISA testing of milk for disease and pregnancy.
The success of hematopoietic stem cell donation is highly dependent on a close match between the donor and recipient human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles. DKMS Life Science Lab performs HLA typing of over a million potential donors a year, relying on automation to provide a cost-effective, high quality solution that delivers reliable high sample throughput.
Specialist laboratories engaged in molecular genetics and cytogenetics are turning to automation to cope with ever-increasing sample numbers, implementing tailored solutions designed to handle a range of materials and meet specific testing needs.
Drug development pipelines are under ever-increasing pressure to deliver more comprehensive data in a shorter timeframe, while reducing costs and making in vitro assay results more relevant to in vivo drug behavior. Assay automation and miniaturization has become essential for the oncology research team in Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division.
Receptor binding assays form an integral part of the preclinical screening service provided by Eurofins Pharma Discovery Services division. The first stage of the protocol is the transfer of tissue samples to a 96-well plate, a process that must be carefully performed to avoid any cross-contamination.