April 2017

Viewing posts from April , 2017

13 Apr 2017

Farming the Sea for Biotech Discoveries

By Jay Goth

The sea covers around 70% of the earth, and contains around 97% of the world’s water. It’s also home to almost 240,000 species (that have been identified so far), from mammals and fish, down to bacteria and viruses. However, as a biotech resource, it is still untapped.

“There are still many societal challenges that the marine environment could help us to meet, such as antibiotic resistance. It is a source of chemical diversity, with novel targets and novel modes of action.”

— Jeanette Hammer Andersen, professor in marine bioprospecting at UiT-The Arctic University of Norway

Check out what some companies are doing in this area here.

11 Apr 2017

Growing Personalized Blood Cells

By Jay Goth


An everyday problem in the medical community is a lack of blood donations which are needed for transfusions worldwide. Now researchers are looking to “brew blood.”

Using a small sample of a patient’s own blood, scientists can reprogram red blood cells back into master stem cells and then coax them back into red blood cells that are unique to that patient. They can then grow the red blood cells over and over again in the lab.

Check this new report from CBS here.

06 Apr 2017

The Cancer Ecosystem

By Jay Goth

Cancer is increasingly being viewed as an ecosystem, a community in which tumor cells cooperate with other tumor cells and host cells in their microenvironment. As conditions change, the ecosystem evolves and adapts to ensure the survival and growth of cancer.

Successful treatment and prevention of cancer require an ecosystem, too—a coordinated unit of researchers, patients, health care professionals, health care systems, regulatory agencies, government, and industry. How can these partners work together as one interconnected community?

Sandra J. Horning, the Chief Medical Officer and Global Head of Product Development at Genentech and Roche has some ideas. Check them out here.

“Importantly, basic scientific research that unlocks the mysteries of cancer and discovers targets for therapy, early detection, and prevention is the core of a healthy ecosystem to tame the disease.”

03 Apr 2017

Cancer subtypes could be distinguished using metabolomic analysis

By Jay Goth

The emerging field of metabolomics has the potential to contribute significantly to biomarker discovery and cancer. While other techniques, such as DNA sequencing, have led to significant advances in precision oncology, metabolomics has yet to make its mark on the field.

New methods of using metabolomics as a tool for clinical cancer research and care were presented at the 2nd Annual Biomarker Conference by CureMatch, developer of a decision support platform for combination therapy in cancer.
See the full story at Oncology Central.

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