Tag Archives: production

World’s first method for continuous purification of valuable antibodies

Without antibodies we would be at the mercy of pathogens or cancer cells. Therapeutic antibodies are used as passive vaccines, for cancer therapy or for controlling autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. According to “bccresearch.com” the global market for antibody drugs was worth nearly 70 billion USD in 2014 and should rise to 122 billion USD until 2019. Two thirds of those molecules are produced biotechnologically using Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO)…

Study details microRNA’s role as double agent during Hep C infection

Led jointly by Charles Rice, the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor in Virology and head of the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease and Robert Darnell, Senior Attending Physician, Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Professor, and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-oncology, the research is described in Cell. …

New approach to fighting chronic myeloid leukemia

Abl-kinase and leukemia Abl-kinase can turn “on” molecules that are involved in many cell functions including cell growth. In chronic myeloid leukemia, the chromosome that contains the gene for Abl-kinase swaps a section with another chromosome, causing what is known as the “Philadelphia chromosome.” When this mutation takes place in the blood stem cells in the bone marrow, Abl-kinase fuses with another protein, turning into a deregulated, hyperactive enzyme. This causes large numbers of blood-forming stem cells to grow into an abnormal type of white blood cell, which gives rise to chronic myeloid leukemia. To treat this type of leukemia we use drugs that specifically bind and block a part of Abl-kinase called the “active site.” As the name suggests, this is the part of the enzyme that binds molecules to turn them on. …

Hot flashes going unrecognized, leaving women vulnerable — ScienceDaily

More than 70 per cent of women who have had breast cancer experience menopausal problems, and hot flashes in particular, which are among the most prevalent and potentially distressing problems following breast cancer treatment. These can also be long lasting, persisting for more than five years once cancer treatment has ended and affecting all aspects of life, including sleep, social situations, intimate relationships and ability to work…

Researchers engineer ‘smart bomb’ to attack childhood leukemia

In a November study in the new peer-reviewed, open-access journal EBioMedicine, they describe how this approach could eventually prove lifesaving for children who have relapsed after initial chemotherapy and face a less than 20 percent chance of long-term survival. “We knew that we could kill chemotherapy-resistant leukemia cells if we only knew what made them so resistant…

Prostate cancer risk reduced by sleeping with many women, but increased with many men, study finds

Marie-Elise Parent and Marie-Claude Rousseau, professors at university’s School of Public Health, and their colleague Andrea Spence, published their findings in the journal Cancer Epidemiology. The results were obtained as part of the Montreal study PROtEuS (Prostate Cancer & Environment Study), in which 3,208 men responded to a questionnaire on, amongst other things, their sex lives…

Cryptic clues drive new theory of bowel cancer development

The researchers produced evidence that stem cells are responsible for maintaining and regenerating the ‘crypts’ that are a feature of the bowel lining, and believe these stem cells are involved in bowel cancer development, a controversial finding as scientists are still divided on the stem cells’ existence. Using 3D imaging technologies, Dr Chin Wee Tan and Professor Tony Burgess from the Structural Biology division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute showed for the first time the bowel generates new intestinal crypts by a process called ‘budding’. The finding overturns the existing theory of how intestinal crypts form, with significant implications for our understanding of bowel cancer development. Intestinal ‘crypts’ are pocket-like wells in the bowel wall that produce mucous and absorb nutrients and water…

new role for estrogen in pathology of breast cancer discovered — ScienceDaily

The University of Illinois team reports its findings in the journal Oncogene. Estrogen pre-activates the unfolded-protein response (UPR), a pathway that normally protects cells from stress, the researchers report. The UPR spurs the production of molecular chaperones that prepare cells to divide and grow. Without chaperone proteins to do the work of folding and packaging other proteins, cells — including cancer cells — cannot divide. …