The biotech bi-weekly: mpox PCR test assays, synthetic DNA for Zika vaccine development and space agency collaboration to address diseases on Earth
Hello and welcome to this edition of the Biotech bi-weekly, a fortnightly listicle bringing you a rapid review of the latest happenings and developments in the biotech industry! As ever with a new feature, we would love to hear your thoughts on how we could update it to be as useful as possible, so if you have any feedback, please contact Senior Editor Tristan Free at [email protected].
Now, on with the update!
Products
Seegene develop mpox PCR test assays
Seegene (Seoul, South Korea) have developed PCR test assays in response to the WHO declaring mpox, previously known as monkeypox, a public health emergency of international concern. The products, which are intended for research use only, include Novaplex™ MPXV/OPXV Assay (RUO) and Novaplex™ HSV-1&2/VZV/MPXV Assay (RUO); they have been designed to detect four viruses including mpox virus and other key STI-causing pathogens.
Read the full press release here >>>
Touchlight’s dbDNA™ helps research and development of Zika vaccine
Touchlight (London, UK), a CDMO specializing in enzymatic DNA production, is supplying the University of Nottingham (UK) with its novel, synthetic DNA vector (dbDNA™) for research and development of a next-generation DNA vaccine targeting Zika virus. The system enables synthetic manufacturing of the vaccine rather than bacterial fermentation, cutting the development time from 6 months to 6 weeks.
Read the full press release here >>>
NADMED develop accurate test for measuring vitamin B3 levels
Biotech company NADMED (Helsinki, Finland) has closed a €3.5 million series A round to fund its entry into international markets with its nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) measurement technology. The technology is the first test to measure all four bodily forms of vitamin B3 (NADs) and glutathiones directly from blood samples in a matter of hours, providing crucial information on vitamin B3 deficiencies. B3 deficiencies have been linked to age-related diseases such as metabolic diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative and heart diseases, and accurate tests can lead to improved diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of these conditions.
Read the full press release here >>>
Optimizing drug development with novel liver models and a sustainable preservation technology
We talk to DefiniGEN and Atelerix about how they combined their technologies to ship in vitro liver models from the UK to the USA without freezing or cryopreserving.
Partnerships
New sequencing partnership to advance precision medicine in Singapore
PacBio (CA, USA) has partnered with Singapore’s National Precision Medicine (NPM) Program, an initiative that aims to improve patient outcomes in Singapore through new insights into the Asian genome. NPM will harness PacBio’s Revio HiFi sequencing system for its long-read sequencing flagship project to generate the largest long-read sequencing dataset in Southeast Asia, marking a significant advancement for precision medicine in Singapore.
Read the full press release here >>>
International Space Station and NASA collaborate to offer funding to address diseases
The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory (FL, USA) has partnered with NASA (DC, USA) to offer up to US$4 million of funding for projects that address some of the most significant diseases of our time, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease. The projects will leverage the space environment, like using accelerated disease models in microgravity, to improve existing or develop new technologies that help solve health problems on Earth.
Find out more about the collaboration here >>>
Business of BioTechniques 2024
This feature highlights the latest news and industry collaborations, from products and services to important upcoming events and key information in the biotech industry.
People and publications
Nobel laureate James Rothman joins Noscendo board
Noscendo GmbH (Duisburg, Germany), a provider of NGS-based diagnostics for infectious diseases, announced that James Rothman has agreed to join its board as an independent director. Rothman is the Sterling Professor of Cell Biology at Yale University (CT, USA) and has received numerous awards and honors for his work on vesicle trafficking and membrane fusion, including the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Rothman will help advance Noscendo’s strategic goals and address unmet needs in infectious disease diagnosis and treatment.
