Biologics
mAbs: The Rory Story
My family’s dog, Rory, has always been weird. He will start screaming if, while running around the house like a maniac, he accidentally stubs his toe. He loves eating carrots. He gets jealous if two people are hugging and he isn’t included. He will only lie down on the softest pillow on the couch. He likes to sit on our laps after we’ve eaten dinner and flops over with wild abandon, confident that someone will catch him before he falls. He has been known to collect items such as books, shoes, and pencils in a particular corner of the living room. He is exceptionally food motivated and sometimes obnoxious in his relentless pursuit of affection.
Super-antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 show promising results in animals
If you’ve been following biomedical news on the novel coronavirus over the last several months, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about the potential for antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients (convalescent antibodies) to help fight the virus and provide temporary immunity to healthcare workers and other persons at high risk of contracting the virus.
Antibodies may prove useful for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease
Researchers at the University of Cambridge, as well as University College London and Lund University, have proposed a method for developing antibodies that can identify the elusive amyloid beta oligomers implicated in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid...
CRISPRing out Host Cell Proteins
In a recent Nature Communications paper titled "Multiplex secretive engineering enhances recombinant protein production and purity", scientists from the Technical University of Denmark and the University of California, San Diego, describe their work to create a...
Specificity and Sensitivity of tests for COVID-19 antibodies
We read a really interesting article on the current state of COVIS-19 antibody testing that is also a very lucid introduction to the principles behind ELISAs and lateral flow immunoassays. The article titled “Why the Accuracy of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Tests Varies So...
The infinite Monkey Cage
To provide some diversion during these trying times, a colleague recommended ‘The infinite Monkey Cage’. Extremely funny British science podcast. There are more than 10 seasons for your pleasure. You will learn and you will laugh. If you like Monty Python you are on...
COVID-19 vaccines
Hope for containing the COVI-19 pandemic rests on the develop of an effective vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Recently we found an interesting list of 16 ongoing efforts to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the magazine The Scientist. These vaccines vary considerably in their...
HAPPY FRIDAY April 2020: Bunnies & face masks
Photo credit: Eva M.
Phage to prevent virus infection
Another potential application for phage that could not be more timely: phage-based particles engineered to envelop virus and prevent virus entry into mammalian cells. A team in Germany and Norway developed modified phage capsid that display sugar moieties to bind...
Another success story for phage to treat resistant infection
A collaboration between HHMI's SEA PHAGES program and physicians at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital result in the successful compassionate use of engineered bacteriophage to treat a drug resistant mycobacterium infection in a teenager who received a double lung...