Microbiology

Destiny Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel medicines that can prevent life threatening infections, has released data from its recent Phase IIb clinical trial. In March 2021, the company announced that this study had met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a reduction of 2.5 log (>99%) in nasal Staphylococcus aureus […]

Genetic Analysis (GA) has announced that the Norwegian Research Council has approved its grant application of NOK 16 million (€1.6 million) for its project developing new innovative microbiome-based diagnostics to be used to aid selection and treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients. In this project, GA will develop an easy to use, in vitro […]

An electron microscope, reported to break new ground in biological imaging, is being installed at the Franklin’s new building on Harwel Campus. The machine can image biological samples at up to a million frames per second, which is one thousand times faster than the current standard. It is the first of three instruments being developed […]

The latest episode of the free DDW podcast is out, “Precision medicine in the era of artificial intelligence”. It covers one narrated article of the same title written for DDW and read aloud by Megan Thomas. It was written by Dr Lofti Chouchane and Dr Javaid Sheikh. Dr Chouchane is a professor in the departments […]

By Dr Karin Bottcher High content screening (HCS) has played a significant role in infectious disease research and drug discovery to date and can be a strong tool in the age of COVID-19 and beyond. With a focus on viral diseases, this article will describe how HCS has been used by laboratories around the world […]

Image: Pille-Riin Priske Avacta has begun work with the UK government’s CONDOR programme to evaluate and clinically validate the high throughput COVID-19 bead-assisted mass spectrometry (BAMS) laboratory assay developed with Adeptrix. The COVID-19 National Diagnostic Research and Evaluation Platform (CONDOR), recently funded by the National Institute for Health Research, UK Research and Innovation, Asthma UK […]

9 July 2020 Image: Science in HD So far there are no approved drugs for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease In an effort to combat a growing worldwide epidemic of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), scientists have discovered a new target and a new therapy that has shown promising results in preclinical mouse models, according to […]

30 June 2020 Image: Glen Carrie In lab tests, virus-like DNA structures coated with viral proteins provoke a strong immune response in human B cells, by Ann Trafton, MIT News Office By folding DNA into a virus-like structure, MIT researchers have designed HIV-like particles that provoke a strong immune response from human immune cells grown in a […]

Taconic Biosciences has announced an exclusive agreement with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) to distribute humanised ACE2 mice for coronavirus research. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, uses the ACE2 receptor to enter cells, causing infection. Due to differences between the mouse and human ACE2 receptors, normal laboratory mice cannot be […]

13 May, 2020 The UK headquartered clinical development organisation, specialised in topical and transdermal drug delivery, has expanded its testing models to support pharmaceutical development programmes targeting coronavirus treatments. MedPharm said these models allow companies to assess therapeutic effectiveness in nasal, airway (bronchial) and deep lung (alveolar) epithelia against members of the coronaviridae family. The work is […]