Genome Editing Helps Cell Lines
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | May 5, 2020
If you want to "clean up" in the recombinant protein business, you might want to start by sweeping away process-related impurities, specifically, host cell proteins (HCPs). Undesirable HCPs are generated by host cells along with desirable biotherapeutic proteins, increasing metabolic demand, degrading product quality, and contaminating the final product. They also necessitate troublesome (and expensive) purification procedures. In other words, you can clean up now, or clean up later. To make "now" an option, researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Full Story
Weighing Protein Expression Levels with Cell Growth
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) | November 1, 2017
After selecting an expression species, cell line, and conducting any organism- or gene-level engineering, manufacturers of therapeutic proteins entrust their productivity to media and feeds--the defining factors that nurture the best in cells. In 2015, world-renowned cell-culture expert Professor Florian Wurm, Dr. rer. nat., of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne) and cofounder of ExcellGene, told the author that media and feed were responsible for most of the improvements in monoclonal antibody yield in CHO cells. Since 2014, Dr. Wurm has doubled down on that message. Full Story
LISTEN: The Chinese hamsters that helped birth biotech
Stat News | August 4, 2016
The Chinese hamster has lead a secret life in science for decades. By one estimate from the Chemical Heritage Foundation, 11 biotech drugs that are made using the ovary cells of these small rodents generated an incredible $57 billion in sales in 2013 alone. That's pretty incredible, given the Chinese hamster's humble beginnings as a pest in the fields. They've come a long way since 1948 when a scientist named Robert Briggs Watson smuggled a case of them out of China just as the Maoists were ousting the Nationalists. Full Story
Tackling Big Pharma's Inconvenient Truth
Pharma Technology Focus | January 21, 2016
Some 100,000 people in the US die from prescription drug side effects every year and 7% of all hospital admissions in the country are due to adverse drug reactions, costing the healthcare system nearly $150 billion. This statistic has inspired a group of scientists at the University of California, San Diego to develop a model that could be used to predict a drug's side effects on different patients. Full Story
Systems Biology Finally CHO-Ready
GEN: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | January 15, 2016
Nathan Lewis, Co-Director of the CHO Systems Biology Center at UC San Diego, describes new and emerging opportunities for applying the tools of systems biology to CHO systems. Full Story
Fat cells change the nutrients they consume as they mature
Science Alert | November 20, 2015
There are plenty of us who want to lose a little (or a lot of) weight, but despite all the research being done into how to trigger this process, there's still a lot we don't know about fat cells. Case in point, researchers in the US have just discovered that fat cells metabolise different nutrients as they mature. The research is limited to the lab for now, but it could help to explain why some people with obesity and diabetes find it so hard to lose weight. Full Story
New Ways to Treat Diabetes and Obesity with Fat Cell Metabolism Research
Nutrition Insight | November 18, 2015
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego report new insights into what nutrients fat cells metabolize to make fatty acids. The findings pave the way for understanding potential irregularities in fat cell metabolism that occur in patients with diabetes and obesity and could lead to new treatments for these conditions. The researchers published their findings online in the Nov. 16 issue of Nature Chemical Biology. Full Story
Study sheds new light on fat cells, amino acids and type 2 diabetes
Diabetes UK | November 18, 2015
A study sheds new light on the way that fatty acids are produced. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California-San Diego, provides fresh information about the way fat cells use different nutrients to produce fatty acids. According to the researchers, understanding the production of fatty acids could lead to new treatments for type 2 diabetes and cancer, among other conditions. Full Story
Image of the Day: Assorted Adipose
The Scientist | November 17, 2015
Differentiated fat cells studied in the Metabolic Systems Biology lab at UC San Diego make The Scientist's Image of the Day Full Story
New diabetes and obesity treatments may arise from study of fat cell metabolism
Medical News Today | November 17, 2015
A lot can be learned by understanding the molecular biology of how our fat cells use nutrients. For instance, it can reveal why people with diabetes and obesity have problems in fat cell metabolism and help develop new treatments for their conditions. Full Story