Aussies Tackle Antibiotic Resistance

June 29, 2019 | 55 views

Antibiotic resistance occurs through the misuse or overuse of antibiotics in humans or animals. The World Health Organization (WHO) explains that it’s the bacteria that become antibiotic-resistant and not the humans or animals. This means that when antibiotics are used, they not only kill the bacteria causing an illness, but they can also kill the beneficial bacteria which protect the body from infection. This leaves room for the resistant microbes which survived the antibiotic treatment to thrive. They are able to re-produce in large numbers and pass on their antibiotic resistance, making it more difficult for the microbiome to recover. The most concerning part is that these antibiotic-resistant bacteria can result in infections that are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria.

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DAV is proudly known as South Africa's longest-standing, most experienced specialist recruitment company and our mission is to continue this 41 year old legacy. We recruit in a manner that influences the lives of our candidates and the bottom line of our clients in a positive, sustainable way. As a recruitment company, we believe that our place in this world is to help others find their perfect place - a career that can influence the course of their future

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MEDTECH

Top 10 biotech IPOs in 2019

Article | July 12, 2022

The big question at the start of 2019 was whether the IPO window would stay open for biotech companies, particularly those seeking to pull off ever-larger IPOs at increasingly earlier stages of development. The short answer is yes—kind of. Here’s the long answer: In the words of Renaissance Capital, the IPO market had “a mostly good year.” The total number of deals fell to 159 from 192 the year before, but technology and healthcare companies were standout performers. The latter—which include biotech, medtech and diagnostics companies—led the pack, making up 43% of all IPOs in 2019. By Renaissance’s count, seven companies went public at valuations exceeding $1 billion, up from five the year before

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MEDTECH

Cell Out? Lysate-Based Expression an Option for Personalized Meds

Article | July 11, 2022

Cell-free expression (CFE) is the practice of making a protein without using a living cell. In contrast with cell line-based methods, production is achieved using a fluid containing biological components extracted from a cell, i.e., a lysate. CFE offers potential advantages for biopharma according to Philip Probert, PhD, a senior scientist at the Centre for Process Innovation in the U.K.

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MEDICAL

Closing bacterial genomes from the human gut microbiome using long-read sequencing

Article | July 14, 2022

In our lab, we focus on the impact of the gut microbiome on human health and disease. To evaluate this relationship, it’s important to understand the particular functions that different bacteria have. As bacteria are able to exchange, duplicate, and rearrange their genes in ways that directly affect their phenotypes, complete bacterial genomes assembled directly from human samples are essential to understand the strain variation and potential functions of the bacteria we host. Advances in the microbiome space have allowed for the de novo assembly of microbial genomes directly from metagenomes via short-read sequencing, assembly of reads into contigs, and binning of contigs into putative genome drafts. This is advantageous because it allows us to discover microbes without culturing them, directly from human samples and without reference databases. In the past year, there have been a number of tour de force efforts to broadly characterize the human gut microbiota through the creation of such metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs)[1–4]. These works have produced hundreds of thousands of microbial genomes that vastly increase our understanding of the human gut. However, challenges in the assembly of short reads has limited our ability to correctly assemble repeated genomic elements and place them into genomic context. Thus, existing MAGs are often fragmented and do not include mobile genetic elements, 16S rRNA sequences, and other elements that are repeated or have high identity within and across bacterial genomes.

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Selexis Cell Line Development Strategies

Article | February 11, 2020

In today’s biotechnology landscape, to be competitive, meet regulations, and achieve market demands, “we must apply Bioprocessing 4.0,” said Igor Fisch, PhD, CEO, Selexis. In fact, in the last decade, “Selexis has evolved from cloning by limiting dilution to automated cell selection to nanofluidic chips and from monoclonality assessment by statistical calculation to proprietary bioinformatic analysis,” he added. Single-use processing systems are an expanding part of the biomanufacturing world; as such, they are a major component of Bioprocessing 4.0. “At Selexis, we use single use throughout our cell line development workflow. Currently, we have incorporated single-use automated bioprocessing systems such as ambr® and the Beacon® optofluidic platform for accelerated cell line development. By using these systems and optimizing our parameters, we were able to achieve high titers in shake flasks. Additionally, the Beacon systems integrate miniaturized cell culture with high-throughput liquid handling automation and cell imaging. This allows us to control, adjust, and monitor programs at the same time,” noted Fisch.

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Spotlight

DAV Professional Placement Group

DAV is proudly known as South Africa's longest-standing, most experienced specialist recruitment company and our mission is to continue this 41 year old legacy. We recruit in a manner that influences the lives of our candidates and the bottom line of our clients in a positive, sustainable way. As a recruitment company, we believe that our place in this world is to help others find their perfect place - a career that can influence the course of their future

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Will Government Incentives Help Boost Antibiotic Development? Some Pharma Companies Think So

biospace | May 09, 2019

Over and over there are reports about the increasing rise of antibiotic-resistant bugs. Even as the number of resistant bacteria increases, the number of companies developing new types of antibiotics is decreasing. Earlier this year, a coalition of healthcare organizations, along with U.S. antibiotic developers, issued a letter to Congress calling for a bundle of economic incentives that would be used to kick start the stagnant pipelines of antibiotic drug developers. In the letter, the 26 signees, which includes companies like Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, express concern over the continued rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “Antibiotics underpin modern medicine, and antibiotic resistance jeopardizes the entire health system… New resistance threats continuously emerge, rendering many existing drugs ineffective and shrinking our treatment arsenal,” the letter says.

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Study Shows How Bacteria Become Antibiotic Resistant

genengnews | April 24, 2019

Scientists from Denmark and Switzerland say they have shown that bacteria produce a stress molecule, divide more slowly, and thus save energy when they are exposed to antibiotics. The new knowledge is expected to form the basis for the development of a new type of antibiotic, according to the researchers. In a paper—“(p)ppGpp Regulates a Bacterial Nucleosidase by an Allosteric Two-Domain Switch”—published in Molecular Cell, a team from Aarhus University, the University of Copenhagen, and the technical university ETH Zürich in Switzerland demonstrated that bacteria quickly reduce their rate of cell division when exposed to antibiotics in order to maintain the highest possible tolerance, but rapidly start growing again when the substances are removed. “The stringent response alarmones pppGpp and ppGpp are essential for rapid adaption of bacterial physiology to changes in the environment. In Escherichia coli, the nucleosidase PpnN (YgdH) regulates purine homeostasis by cleaving nucleoside monophosphates and specifically binds (p)ppGpp. Here, we show that (p)ppGpp stimulates the catalytic activity of PpnN both in vitro and in vivo causing accumulation of several types of nucleobases during stress. The structure of PpnN reveals a tetramer with allosteric (p)ppGpp binding sites located between subunits. pppGpp binding triggers a large conformational change that shifts the two terminal domains to expose the active site, providing a structural rationale for the stimulatory effect. We find that PpnN increases fitness and adjusts cellular tolerance to antibiotics and propose a model in which nucleotide levels can rapidly be adjusted during stress by simultaneous inhibition of biosynthesis and stimulation of degradation, thus achieving a balanced physiological response to constantly changing environments,” the investigators wrote.

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Arming antibiotics with a vaccination-like immune response

Questex LLC | July 05, 2018

Harnessing the power of the body’s immune system has already proven to be effective in treating cancer. Scientists at Lehigh University are now borrowing that idea to power up existing antibiotics’ ability to attack drug-resistant bacteria. A team led by Marcos Pires, Ph.D., a Lehigh associate professor of biochemistry, grafted antigenic epitopes—parts of pathogens that can be recognized by the immune system—onto an old antibiotic called colistin, creating what they call “bacterial immunotherapy” or “immunobiotics.” As described in a paper published in the journal Cell Chemical Biology, the compound killed a large number of E. Coli bacteria in human serum.

Read More

Will Government Incentives Help Boost Antibiotic Development? Some Pharma Companies Think So

biospace | May 09, 2019

Over and over there are reports about the increasing rise of antibiotic-resistant bugs. Even as the number of resistant bacteria increases, the number of companies developing new types of antibiotics is decreasing. Earlier this year, a coalition of healthcare organizations, along with U.S. antibiotic developers, issued a letter to Congress calling for a bundle of economic incentives that would be used to kick start the stagnant pipelines of antibiotic drug developers. In the letter, the 26 signees, which includes companies like Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, express concern over the continued rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “Antibiotics underpin modern medicine, and antibiotic resistance jeopardizes the entire health system… New resistance threats continuously emerge, rendering many existing drugs ineffective and shrinking our treatment arsenal,” the letter says.

Read More

Study Shows How Bacteria Become Antibiotic Resistant

genengnews | April 24, 2019

Scientists from Denmark and Switzerland say they have shown that bacteria produce a stress molecule, divide more slowly, and thus save energy when they are exposed to antibiotics. The new knowledge is expected to form the basis for the development of a new type of antibiotic, according to the researchers. In a paper—“(p)ppGpp Regulates a Bacterial Nucleosidase by an Allosteric Two-Domain Switch”—published in Molecular Cell, a team from Aarhus University, the University of Copenhagen, and the technical university ETH Zürich in Switzerland demonstrated that bacteria quickly reduce their rate of cell division when exposed to antibiotics in order to maintain the highest possible tolerance, but rapidly start growing again when the substances are removed. “The stringent response alarmones pppGpp and ppGpp are essential for rapid adaption of bacterial physiology to changes in the environment. In Escherichia coli, the nucleosidase PpnN (YgdH) regulates purine homeostasis by cleaving nucleoside monophosphates and specifically binds (p)ppGpp. Here, we show that (p)ppGpp stimulates the catalytic activity of PpnN both in vitro and in vivo causing accumulation of several types of nucleobases during stress. The structure of PpnN reveals a tetramer with allosteric (p)ppGpp binding sites located between subunits. pppGpp binding triggers a large conformational change that shifts the two terminal domains to expose the active site, providing a structural rationale for the stimulatory effect. We find that PpnN increases fitness and adjusts cellular tolerance to antibiotics and propose a model in which nucleotide levels can rapidly be adjusted during stress by simultaneous inhibition of biosynthesis and stimulation of degradation, thus achieving a balanced physiological response to constantly changing environments,” the investigators wrote.

Read More

Arming antibiotics with a vaccination-like immune response

Questex LLC | July 05, 2018

Harnessing the power of the body’s immune system has already proven to be effective in treating cancer. Scientists at Lehigh University are now borrowing that idea to power up existing antibiotics’ ability to attack drug-resistant bacteria. A team led by Marcos Pires, Ph.D., a Lehigh associate professor of biochemistry, grafted antigenic epitopes—parts of pathogens that can be recognized by the immune system—onto an old antibiotic called colistin, creating what they call “bacterial immunotherapy” or “immunobiotics.” As described in a paper published in the journal Cell Chemical Biology, the compound killed a large number of E. Coli bacteria in human serum.

Read More

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