Selected issue: 2/2023

The prevalence of eye diseases is rising around the world and, for most of them, there are no effective therapies available. Disorders that impair vision – such as macular degeneration or glaucoma – are a leading cause of disability and loss of an independent lifestyle in aging populations. At the other end of the spectrum, myopia – or short-sightedness – is also on a steep incline, with up to 90 percent of teenagers being affected in some regions. Researchers in Basel are using various cutting-edge tools – including single-cell genomics – to understand the molecular mechanisms behind some of these diseases, with the aim of developing effective therapeutics.

Surface plasmon resonance biosensors have become the go-to technology for drug discovery in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, offering label-free, real-time measurements that characterize the interactions of nearly any molecular system. Carterra is a leader in high throughput biology solutions, and the company’s LSA® platform combines patented microfluidics technology with real-time high throughput surface plasmon resonance to enable 100 times higher throughput for monoclonal antibody screening and characterization.

Transitioning from the world’s current petroleum-based industry to a sustainable bioeconomy depends upon the microbial upcycling of plant-based feedstocks for monomer production. Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) in Germany have introduced automation platforms to enable the rapid engineering of microbial strains that can convert renewable raw materials into value-added compounds.

FantasiaBio, based in the Jinhua region of China’s Zhejiang province, understands the power of imaging live cells, and has created a range of fluorescence-based tools to exploit the power of multiplexed live cell imaging for clinical research and development. In 2020, the company developed an innovative in vitro assay to quantify neutralizing antibodies against SARS- CoV-2, allowing researchers to evaluate an individual’s level of protection after administration of a COVID-19 vaccine. Qin Xiao-Feng, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at FantasiaBio, explained: “The kit uses a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) as a pseudotype vector with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) payload. If the COVID-19 vaccine stimulates effective production of neutralizing antibodies, the VSV pseudovirus is unable to infect human target cells, so the GFP gene is not expressed in these cells. The expression of GFP can normally be seen using a fluorescence microscope, and the number of green ‘dots’ is inversely proportional to the antibody activity. However, imaging in this way requires researchers to be sitting in front of a microscope for long periods of time to manually assess samples, which is time consuming, laborious and leads to inter-operator variability in results. We therefore needed a way to streamline and accelerate whole-well imaging for multiwell plates.”

Diagnosing hormone-based disorders using saliva samples dates back to the 1980s, but it is only the sensitivity improvements over the last decade that have led to saliva-based diagnostics becoming a viable alternative to blood testing. Biovis’ Diagnostik, a medical laboratory based in Limburg, Germany, has been at the forefront of saliva diagnostics since 2012, providing comprehensive testing to improve the analysis of hormone-based disorders.

The European Union’s In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR) replaces the In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Directive (IVDD), completely overhauling the regulations regarding pre- and post- market requirements for IVD devices. This has implications for the entire supply chain, from manufacturers with responsibilities for design, development and commercialization, to agreements between manufacturers and key economic operators, such as importers and distributors. The regulation also introduces specific requirements and limitations on hospitals and labs developing their own diagnostic tests, which must review and, if necessary, replace in-house assays with commercially available CE-marked, IVDR- certified alternatives to ensure compliance for the chosen application.

Large structural variations in the genome are responsible for many diseases and conditions, including cancers and developmental disorders. Gene changes – including insertions or deletions, translocations, inversions and duplications – can lead to alterations in how and when a gene is expressed, impacting on a wide range of in vivo processes. Bionano has developed an optical genome mapping platform offering high speed, high throughput whole genome mapping to support genomic research into human disease.

Tecan recently teamed up with Nature Medicine to host a symposium on the latest ground-breaking research into cancer diagnosis and treatment, from novel biomarkers to personalized vaccines and cell-based therapies. A select group of industry leaders and key experts in oncology came together for a two-day event in Boston, Massachusetts, to accelerate research and clinical discoveries through better partnering between industry and academia. This summit highlighted Tecan’s dedication to assembling leaders in cancer – along with technologists, vendors and solutions providers – so they can share knowledge and expertise, and work collaboratively to battle cancer.

NGS is a vital tool used for studying the structure and function of DNA for multiple applications. However, there are several challenges commonly encountered when using this technique, particularly when working with degraded or trace levels of RNA. These issues motivated research staff at Kazusa DNA Research Institute in Japan to search for library preparation kits that would enable high quality sequencing for its customers when working with low quality samples.