Researchers Explore Use Of New Materials To Create More Efficient Solar Cells

June 28, 2019 | 133 views

A team of Florida State University researchers is pioneering innovative ways for solar cells to absorb and use infrared light, a portion of the solar spectrum that is typically unavailable for solar cell technology. Typically, these devices have used metal-organic molecules or semiconductor nanocrystals to sensitize photon upconversion, but Nienhaus and Wieghold used a thin-film of lead-halide perovskites, a promising solar cell material. The perovskite is coupled with a hydrocarbon called rubrene, which emits the upconverted light.

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Metabolomic Diagnostics Ltd

Metabolomic Diagnostics Ltd. is an innovative biotechnology company developing groundbreaking pregnancy risk stratification tests, through the use of metabolomic profiling. The company is currently developing an early pregnancy test to identify a woman's risk of developing pre-eclampsia later in her pregnancy.

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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 20, 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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MedTech

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

Article | September 22, 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

Metabolomic Diagnostics Ltd

Metabolomic Diagnostics Ltd. is an innovative biotechnology company developing groundbreaking pregnancy risk stratification tests, through the use of metabolomic profiling. The company is currently developing an early pregnancy test to identify a woman's risk of developing pre-eclampsia later in her pregnancy.

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Biophysicist works toward bio-inspired solar cell

Phys.org | May 22, 2018

Even the best human-engineered solar cell is essentially a clunky dial-up modem compared to the sleek high-speed efficiency of the humble leaf. After all, plants have had about a billion years to perfect the process of photosynthesis, which uses energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose (used by the plant as fuel) and oxygen (used by all of us)."If you shine light on a man-made solar cell, only about 10 percent of that light can be turned into electricity," says Gary Hastings, a biophysicist in Georgia State's Department of Physics & Astronomy. "In plants, nearly all of the light absorbed will be turned into chemical energy. The question is, how do plants get to that level of efficiency?"

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Biophysicist works toward bio-inspired solar cell

Phys.org | May 22, 2018

Even the best human-engineered solar cell is essentially a clunky dial-up modem compared to the sleek high-speed efficiency of the humble leaf. After all, plants have had about a billion years to perfect the process of photosynthesis, which uses energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose (used by the plant as fuel) and oxygen (used by all of us)."If you shine light on a man-made solar cell, only about 10 percent of that light can be turned into electricity," says Gary Hastings, a biophysicist in Georgia State's Department of Physics & Astronomy. "In plants, nearly all of the light absorbed will be turned into chemical energy. The question is, how do plants get to that level of efficiency?"

Read More

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