Life Sciences Insights from Industry

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"Insights from Industry" is a dynamic series of interviews at the cutting edge of the life sciences industry. Every interviewee is a leader in their particular field and is handpicked to give an informative and accessible insight into their chosen field. These interviews are guaranteed to keep you in the know in a rapidly changing industry.

Centrifugal concentrators for biological applications

In life science labs around the world the task of concentration of a solute in a solution is commonly achieved using evaporator technology. Such technologies are also widely used in the concentration of pharmaceutical / natural product preparations using an extraction, precipitation and drying of the crude active agent protocol.

From Genevac Ltd 16 Mar 2017

Bacterial cell counting and sizing using the Multisizer

Two application areas seeing a major surge for the Multisizer are in environmental research and for optimization of recombinant protein expression in the lab. An example of the former is work published last year by researchers at the University of Aalborg in Denmark. They used the Multisizer 4e instrument to count and size pathogenic E. coli and to study the ability of another environmental organism D. magna to reduce this pathogenic E. coli strain in the environment.

From Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - Particle Counting and Characterization 15 Mar 2017

Losing Energy vs. Losing Samples, Trade-offs in Sample Storage

The global biopreservation market was valued at $2 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $3.7B US by 2020. Z-SC1 is operating in the biopreservation equipment segment of this market, especially dealing with mechanical freezers.

From Z-SC1 Biomedical Corp 6 Mar 2017

NMR and metabolic phenotyping: an interview with Dr Hartmut Schäfer

The Phenome Center Birmingham is a large, state-of-the-art, £8M metabolic phenotyping facility that has been established as part of a stratified medicine initiative led by the Medical Research Council. It is mainly located in the School of Biosciences

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 31 Jan 2017

Selecting the correct microscope camera in digital pathology

Recent advances in technology have allowed camera systems take advantage of faster protocols, and to use sensor chips with greater light sensitivity and reduced output noise to deliver better image quality, detail, and response to the pathologist.

From Lumenera Corporation 7 Dec 2016

Honey profiling for impurities and falsifications

Without testing commercially available honey, it is impossible to guarantee that is safe, natural and authentic. This is because bees are free agents, they cannot be restricted to a specific region, or to a type of plant that you would like them to pollinate.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 6 Dec 2016

Applying quantitative microscopy to live cells

Microscopy's got a long history. It was developed about 350 years ago for scientists to visualize things they could discern, but not describe. The two pioneers of microscopy were Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, who developed the first microscope and soon after the renowned scientist, Robert Hooke.

From BioTek 2 Dec 2016

Spinal cord rehabilitation and repair: an interview with Quentin Barraud

There are many grades of spinal cord injuries, in terms of range of movement, from small disabilities to becoming wheelchair bound for the rest of your life, the range is very broad.

From Logos Biosystems 15 Nov 2016

dsDNA quantification for next generation sequencing quality control: an interview with Andrew Jones

Quantity and quality of input samples are two key considerations in successful library preparation for next generation sequencing. The ultimate success or failure of a library preparation is often...

From DeNovix Inc. 10 Nov 2016

Latest advances in micro-CT for preclinical imaging: an interview with Phil Salmon

I work in Bruker micro-CT as a life science applications scientist. Essentially, my role is to serve as an interface between the community of users and the designers, engineers and programmers that make our products.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 3 Oct 2016

Super-resolution imaging of biological specimens: an interview with Dr. Manasa Gudheti

Traditional light microscopy techniques such as confocal and wide-field are diffraction-limited in resolution, which is about 200 nm laterally (in xy) and 500 to 600 nm axially (in z). Features that are closer than the diffraction limit will appear blurred in the image.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 27 Sep 2016

Advances in human genotyping arrays: an interview with Rob Brainin

Illumina sees a widespread demand for genotyping products and a continued relevance of arrays in human disease and translational research.

From Illumina, Inc. 6 Sep 2016

Specialty pharmaceuticals: an interview with David Moran, Clinigen SP

Specialty pharmaceuticals as a category has its origins in the 1970s with complex treatments being developed for disease areas such as cancer, HIV and haemophilia and what characterises a specialty pharmaceutical product is that it will be high touch, high complexity or high cost and is often associated with the treatment of rare or orphan conditions. These products require a considerable amount of expertise, innovation and technology and can be expensive as a result.

From Clinigen Group plc 29 Aug 2016

Automated liquid handling in pharmaceutical research: an interview with Dr Alfred Chappell

In developing antisense therapeutics, scientists at Ionis evaluate thousands of oligonucleotides. One of my responsibilities is to oversee the QC and management of oligonucleotides used in target screening.

From Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - Automation and Genomics 26 May 2016

Advances in BioAFM: an interview with Dr. Thomas Mueller

BioScope Resolve has enabled the first AFM images resolving individual microvilli on live cells. This is remarkable in that atomic force microscopy has been widely used to image live cells, and microvilli are often present. Yet the surface of those cells had remained featureless in AFM images.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 3 May 2016

Spectral imaging technologies in microscopy

Alex Cooper from Sutter Instrument discusses how spectral imaging technologies can be used in a wide range of microscopy applications.

From Sutter Instrument 29 Apr 2016

Versatile automated microplate sample screening applications: an interview with Tobias Pusterla

Microplate readers are divided into single-mode and multi-mode readers. A single mode reader is mainly a reader dedicated to the detection of absorbance, luminescence or fluorescence.

From BMG LABTECH GmbH 30 Mar 2016

Extracellular vesicle isolation and characterization: an interview with Dr Carley Ross

Extracellular vesicles are membrane surrounded structures released by cells in an evolutionally conserved manner. There are three main types of EVs, Exosomes (50-100 nm), Microparticles (200 nm-1 um) and Apoptotic bodies.

From Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - Flow Cytometry 23 Mar 2016

Advances in medicinal chemistry evaporators: an interview with Alison Wake, Genevac

The Genevac Series 1 System, which was launched in the mid 1990s, had no programming as such. It was a very basic system – it had basic vacuum control and a timer of sorts. It was very similar to the current myVac evaporator system we use for molecular biology and biological applications.

From Genevac Ltd 8 Mar 2016

Future of drug information: via a mobile app? An interview with Dr Salvatore Volpe

Whether prescribing or dispensing drugs to patients, or providing care to patients who are taking medications, drug information plays an essential role in every health professional’s busy day.

From Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR) 18 Jan 2016