Organelle

Accelerator Life Science Partners Launches Biotechnology Startup Company in Singapore with $16M in Series A Commitments

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP), an early-stage life science accelerator and investment firm that creates and builds next-generation biotechnology companies centered on innovative science, today announced the Series A financing of Automera, a new biotechnology company that focuses on the development of autophagy-targeting chimera small molecules (AUTACs).

Key Points: 
  • Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP), an early-stage life science accelerator and investment firm that creates and builds next-generation biotechnology companies centered on innovative science, today announced the Series A financing of Automera, a new biotechnology company that focuses on the development of autophagy-targeting chimera small molecules (AUTACs).
  • The company was established by co-founders Associate Professor Michael Lazarou, Loong Wang, and Taiyang Zhang at Talo Labs Pte Ltd. in collaboration with ALSP.
  • Automera has secured $16M in Series A funding, a co-led endeavor by ALSP and ClavystBio, with participation from Singapore-based global investor EDBI, Xora Innovation, and other undisclosed investors.
  • “As our first investment in Singapore, Automera exemplifies the innovative scientific and translational research ongoing in the region.

The FNIH Awards 2023 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences to Navdeep S. Chandel, Ph.D. and Vamsi Mootha, M.D.

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, August 10, 2023

“Each of this year’s Lurie Prize recipients are breaking new ground in mitochondrial research,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, President and CEO of the FNIH.

Key Points: 
  • “Each of this year’s Lurie Prize recipients are breaking new ground in mitochondrial research,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, President and CEO of the FNIH.
  • Chandel and Mootha as this year’s Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences recipients.
  • The 2023 Lurie Prize will be awarded to both recipients at the FNIH 11th Annual Awards Ceremony on the evening of October 18, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
  • For more information about the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences and a list of previous winners, please visit fnih.org/LuriePrize .

Global Thawing Systems Market on a Rapid Growth Trajectory: Unlocking the Potential of Cryopreservation - ResearchAndMarkets.com

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Cryopreservation relies on thawing systems to achieve the best possible results in terms of cell viability and recovery.

Key Points: 
  • Cryopreservation relies on thawing systems to achieve the best possible results in terms of cell viability and recovery.
  • The global thawing systems market encompasses four primary sample types: blood, embryos and ovum, semen, and stem cells.
  • The thawing systems market is witnessing significant technological advancements, enhancing the efficacy and scope of these systems.
  • The global thawing systems market is poised for substantial growth, offering invaluable solutions for cryopreservation in various fields, including medicine and research.

Aging is complicated – a biologist explains why no two people or cells age the same way, and what this means for anti-aging interventions

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, July 6, 2023

And you likely have seen the opposite – someone whose body and mind seem much more ravaged by time than others.

Key Points: 
  • And you likely have seen the opposite – someone whose body and mind seem much more ravaged by time than others.
  • Aging research doesn’t tend to be about finding the one cure that fixes all that may ail you in old age.

What is aging?

    • This process is both intrinsic, when your own body causes new problems, and extrinsic, when environmental insults damage your tissues.
    • This includes metabolizing nutrients, getting rid of waste, exchanging signals with other cells and adapting to stress.
    • The trouble is that every single process and component in each of your cells can be interrupted or damaged.

Repairing DNA and recycling proteins

    • One of the cell’s chief jobs is to maintain its DNA – the instruction manual a cell’s machinery reads to produce specific proteins.
    • DNA maintenance involves protecting against, and accurately repairing, damage to genetic material and the molecules binding to it.
    • If the protein is damaged, the cell uses mechanisms involving special proteins that either attempt to fix the broken protein or send it off for recycling.

Aging disrupts a delicate biological network

    • The cross-talk between the components inside cells, cells as a whole, organs and the environment is a complex and ever-changing network of information.
    • For an organ to work well, the majority of the cells that make it up need to function well.
    • Aging can lead to dysfunction at any of these levels, from the sub-cellular to the organismal.

Anti-aging interventions

    • In fact, this is how the most successful anti-aging interventions work.
    • There is no silver bullet to stop aging, but certain interventions do seem to slow aging in the laboratory.
    • One of the best studied interventions is caloric restriction, which involves reducing the amount of calories an animal would normally eat without depriving them of necessary nutrients.
    • However, researching interventions that target multiple important cellular processes simultaneously could help improve and maintain health for a greater portion of life.

Intermittent fasting could help protect the brain from age-related diseases like Alzheimer's

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, June 29, 2023

Dementia is a term used to describe a range of symptoms linked to the decline in brain function with age.

Key Points: 
  • Dementia is a term used to describe a range of symptoms linked to the decline in brain function with age.
  • The World Health Organization predicts that the number of people with the condition will triple by 2050.
  • In recent years, one of the most promising areas of research on age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, has been the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain.
  • We therefore sought to find out if dietary interventions, particularly intermittent fasting, would counteract the accumulation of amyloid-ß in the brain and potentially safeguard against age-related brain cell death.
  • This process can therefore reduce the risk of amyloid-ß build-up and associated brain cell death.

How it works

    • Intermittent fasting is a dietary approach that involves regulating food intake by alternating periods of fasting and eating.
    • This dietary regimen comprises periods of restricted food consumption, followed by periods of normal eating.
    • There are different types of intermittent fasting.

What we did

    • Mice cells are frequently used as a model for human cells in scientific research.
    • We found that 24 to 48 hours of intermittent fasting by mice provided protection against cell death in specific regions of their brain.
    • Even in the presence of a high amyloid-ß protein load in brain cells, intermittent fasting maintained autophagy activity.
    • The findings of this study suggest that interventions such as intermittent fasting could potentially protect against the development of age-related diseases.

Drilling down on treatment-resistant fungi with molecular machines

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, May 27, 2023

Fungi are present on the skin of around 70% of the population, without causing harm or benefit.

Key Points: 
  • Fungi are present on the skin of around 70% of the population, without causing harm or benefit.
  • Others, like Candida albicans, can be deadly – especially for individuals with weakened immune systems.
  • Fungal infections are on the rise because of an aging population and an increased prevalence of chronic diseases.

Molecular machines as alternative antifungals

    • Molecular machines are synthetic compounds that rapidly rotate their components at about 3 million times per second when exposed to light.
    • Doctors can use a light-tipped probe to activate these molecular machines to treat internal infections, or a lamp for skin infections.
    • These properties make molecular machines an enticing candidate technology to address the growing fungal threat.

Testing antifungal molecular machines

    • Compared with conventional drugs, molecular machines killed C. albicans much faster.
    • Unlike conventional antifungals, which target the fungal cell membrane or cell wall, molecular machines localize to the fungal mitochondria.
    • At the same time, molecular machines also disrupt the tiny pumps that remove antifungal agents from the cell, thus preventing the cell from fighting back.
    • In lab experiments, combining light-activated molecular machines with conventional antifungal drugs also reduced the amount of fungi in C. albicans-infected worms and in pig nails infected with Trichophyton rubrum, the most common cause of athlete’s foot.

New frontiers for fighting fungal infections

    • These results suggest that combining molecular machines with conventional antifungals can improve existing therapies and provide new options for treating resistant fungal strains.
    • This strategy could also help reduce the side effects of traditional antifungals, such as gastrointestinal upset and skin reactions.
    • Fungal infection rates will likely continue to rise.
    • However, continuing research gives hope that these machines could one day provide better treatments for fungal infections and other infectious diseases.

From Seattle to Space: Science that Began at the Allen Institute Blasts off to International Space Station

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, May 18, 2023

SEATTLE, May 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --This Sunday (May 21) at 2:37 p.m. PDT1, astronauts from Axiom Space in partnership with Cedars-Sinai will blast off to the International Space Station carrying cells from the Allen Institute for Cell Science, a division of the Allen Institute. There, Axiom Space astronauts will perform experiments and send real-time data back to researchers at Cedars-Sinai as part of their study on the effects of microgravity on human cells.

Key Points: 
  • For the first time astronauts will transport Allen Institute cells into space where Cedars-Sinai researchers will study the effects of microgravity.
  • SEATTLE, May 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --This Sunday (May 21) at 2:37 p.m. PDT1, astronauts from Axiom Space in partnership with Cedars-Sinai will blast off to the International Space Station carrying cells from the Allen Institute for Cell Science , a division of the Allen Institute.
  • The experiments are part of the Ax-2 mission , funded by NASA and Axiom Space, and represent a major milestone: It will be the first time Allen Institute-generated cells are flown to space.
  • These cells are part of the publicly available Allen Cell Collection , a suite of human induced pluripotent stem cells gene-edited to illuminate different parts of the cell.

NeuroSense Therapeutics Reports Positive Preliminary Results in Parkinson's Biomarker Study

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, May 2, 2023

This study compared blood samples from 30 healthy individuals to 30 people living with PD by utilizing neuronal derived exosomes to identify modulations in PD-associated biomarkers, including AG02.

Key Points: 
  • This study compared blood samples from 30 healthy individuals to 30 people living with PD by utilizing neuronal derived exosomes to identify modulations in PD-associated biomarkers, including AG02.
  • In the PD biomarker study, NeuroSense observed a statistically significant (p= 0.002) decrease in levels of AGO2 in newly diagnosed PD patients (n=15) when compared to the healthy control group.
  • In the PD biomarker study NeuroSense observed a change in levels of LC3, which decreased in newly diagnosed PD patients (p= 0.034), suggesting an impairment in cellular recycling processes.
  • "Based on these encouraging results, we are now looking to co-develop our PD asset with collaborators that have a core focus on Parkinson's."

Dewpoint Therapeutics partners with Novo Nordisk to explore the field of biomolecular condensates to treat insulin resistance and diabetes progression

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, March 22, 2023

The partnership brings together Novo Nordisk's global leadership in treating diabetes and metabolic diseases with Dewpoint's groundbreaking discovery and AI technology platform to identify modulators of biomolecular condensates.

Key Points: 
  • The partnership brings together Novo Nordisk's global leadership in treating diabetes and metabolic diseases with Dewpoint's groundbreaking discovery and AI technology platform to identify modulators of biomolecular condensates.
  • Novo Nordisk can also choose to discover non-small molecule drugs against the identified condensates using internal Novo Nordisk capabilities and gains rights to further develop and commercialize such potential drugs.
  • "Our partnership with Novo Nordisk brings together Dewpoint's cutting-edge condensate science with deep expertise from a global leader in diabetes.
  • "We are excited to explore with Dewpoint the possibilities for novel therapeutics for the treatment of diabetes.

Results from the first clinical pilot study using maternal spindle transfer indicate that the technique may have value as a treatment for challenging types of infertility and reveal potential limitations when the method is used for avoidance of mitochondr

Retrieved on: 
Friday, March 17, 2023

The exploratory study provides the first insights into safety and efficacy of maternal spindle transfer in humans, when applied in a context of infertility treatment.

Key Points: 
  • The exploratory study provides the first insights into safety and efficacy of maternal spindle transfer in humans, when applied in a context of infertility treatment.
  • Maternal spindle transfer is an advanced laboratory technique that belongs to the family of methods known collectively as mitochondrial replacement therapies (MRTs).
  • The research team aimed to explore, for the first time, the clinical feasibility of the maternal spindle transfer technique in a context of infertility treatment.
  • A definitive assessment of the clinical value of the technique must await future larger, controlled and randomized trials.