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Optogenetics: A cool tool may have found medical use
Optogenetics is a biological technique that uses light to control neurons that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. As such, it is a neuromodulation method that controls the activities of individual neurons in living tissue — even...
A New Type of Antibody –
For a long time 5 antibody types have been known in mammals, IgG, IgM, IgA, IgE, and IgD, with IgG being the work horse in biotechnology. So it drew our attention that a group at Duke University has described a new type of anti-glycan antibody that binds to a patch of...
Monoclonal for Alzheimer’s
On Monday FDA approved Biogen’s aducanumab, brand name Aduhelm, through a program called accelerated approval. Aduhelm is the first new medication for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly two decades. FDA’s decision was welcomed by patients and their families as a...
RNA therapeutics
To those developing treatments for oncology, in the gene therapy space and many other fields it seemed for a long time that RNA-based therapies have many attractive properties but somehow just too many obstacles to overcome. Enter recent break-throughs in vaccine...
Blood Clot Risk from COVID-19 Higher than After Vaccines?
It has been well covered in the news media that some COVID-19 vaccines have recently faced headwinds as severe thrombotic complications have been observed in some people that received the vaccine. However, one fact that is not discussed much is that thrombotic...
Molecule(s) of the year
Inspired by Time's Man of the Year the AAAS journal Science used to give out an annual Molecule of the Year award. The award was renamed Breakthrough of the Year in 1996. Last December AAAS announced that for 2020 Breakthrough of the Year was “vaccines against...
San Diego #5 US Biopharma Cluster in 2020
A list of the ten top ranking biopharmaceutical clusters in the US was recently compiled by Genetic Engineering News. The list is based on available 2020 data for NIH funding, venture capital funding, patents, lab space and jobs. San Diego made #5 of the list. Yay!...
Honoring our friend and mentor, Ralph Reisfeld
Our dear friend and mentor, Ralph, passed in December after a long and fruitful life in science. Ralph leaves an important legacy as a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy and as a valued mentor, colleague and friend to many. We will miss him very much and want to share an...
Status of COVID vaccine approvals and trials
Wanted to share this interesting compilation of the updated status of COVID vaccines world-wide. Published and updated February 5 by Jef Akst in The Scientist.
Somatek looks back at 2020
It goes without saying, 2020 was a year with major challenges and disruptions. However, it was also a year of growth and new opportunities for the biotechnology industry and for Somatek. In the summer of 2020, Somatek moved into newly renovated laboratory facilities...