2016 Press Releases
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