Featured Stories

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet the drug discovery process to develop new biotherapeutic antibodies remains arduous. However, significant advances in antibody technology such as phage display have enabled fully human antibodies to be developed from animal-free libraries for just about any antigen.

Most scientists, no matter where they are at in their career, remember the moments of wonder as they navigated lab work for the first time. Whether it’s a band on a gel, a colony on a plate, or a piece of data, those first tangible results come with a feeling of having accomplished something incredible. More than ten years later, we caught up with two scientists who immortalized that feeling in the form of matching protein ladder tattoos, and discussed how their time as undergraduate researchers led them where they are today.

We asked core facilities staff and research scientists from the U.S. and Europe for their top tips for securing funding for large instrumentation, such as a cell analyzer or cell sorter. Here are the key questions you should consider while preparing your grant application to increase your chances of a successful outcome.

The ability to characterize the target of cell-mediated immune response is crucial during vaccine development. In studying the characterization of SARS-CoV-2 infection pathogenesis in humans, a research team identified neutralizing antibodies that provided context for vaccine antigen design. Discover how the ZE5 Cell Analyzer was used to detect activation-induced markers, measure intracellular cytokines, and identify spike protein–specific antibodies in a rapid, high-throughput manner.

The COVID-19 pandemic has captured the attention of the world and won’t let go. And that has sparked efforts for creative solutions in some surprising places. Wastewater is not where most peoples’ minds go first when they think of airborne diseases, but it holds much promise for tracing and predicting SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks.

From quantifying a patient’s tumor DNA to counting the viral load of an individual infected with COVID-19, the breadth of digital PCR (dPCR) applications continues to grow and fulfill critical scientific needs. dPCR offers the ability to count nucleic acid molecules directly, rather than extrapolating the quantity from standard curves as with many other methods. By harmonizing diagnostic procedures on dPCR platforms, the scientific and medical communities can become more coordinated and efficient.

Incorporating fluorescence-based cell sorting into your lab grants you powerful access to new research areas and rarer cell types without sacrificing efficiency or results. New, powerful techniques like CRISPR and single-cell analysis are enhanced by the isolation of specific cells. But isolating cell populations of the right quality and quantity is both challenging and time consuming. We offer some tips to set yourself up for success and get the most out of your sorts.

A recent publication showed that expression of a protein involved in homology-directed repair (HDR) can improve efficiency of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. Learn how manipulation of DNA repair pathways and improvements to gene editing workflows, such as the addition of cell sorting, can facilitate applications of CRISPR-Cas9 technology.

Drug discovery and development are both time and resource intensive since a lot of different compounds need to be screened across a lot of different targets. See how machine learning models can be used to predict screening results and how active learning algorithms can be used to efficiently select which experiments to perform in order to build those models.

Many patients with treatment-resistant blood cancers have found new hope in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy. But generation of CAR-T cells at clinical scale can be challenging. Find out how the Gene Pulser Xcell Electroporation System can be used to reduce costs and risks associated with clinical-scale CAR-T cell production, while maintaining GMP compliance.