MEDICAL, INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
PRNewswire | May 16, 2023
PhenomeX Inc. the functional cell biology company, announced the launch of Beacon Select™ optofluidic system with Opto® B Discovery workflows for antibody discovery.
The Opto B Discovery workflows, with their cutting-edge technologies and features, enable scientists to find lead candidate antibodies tailored to their specific challenges and changing needs. Combined with the value-matched Beacon Select system, more customers may access these propriety antibody discovery applications, but with the optimum level of features that meet their research and budgetary needs. PhenomeX's optofluidic platform is now a standard to deliver optimal antibodies with speed, as highlighted recently in the high-impact journal Cell, where antibodies against COVID-19 variants were discovered on the Beacon system six months before Omicron emergence.
Beacon Select for Antibody Discovery Workflow Feature
Opto B Discovery workflows on the Beacon Select system enable scientists to accelerate antibody screening and hit generation to find lead candidate antibodies and are ideally suited for small- to mid-sized biopharma and CDMOs/CROs. This contrasts with the flagship four-chip Beacon system enabled for antibody discovery, optimized for the highest screening throughputs demanded by large biopharma and established CDMOs/CROs.
The Beacon Select system enables rapid function-first selection of single B cells with the best characteristics for any antibody application, including antibody therapeutics, diagnostics, and reagents. In addition, the Opto B Discovery workflows offer users highly customizable assays to assess antigen and epitope specificity, species or variant cross-reactivity, and functional properties, all in a single-day workflow. By selecting and recovering sequences of only the most desirable antibodies with favorable attributes, users can reduce overall bioprocessing costs, improve the probability of campaign success, and shorten timelines to lead candidates. When combined with PhenomeX's catalog of best-in-class reagents and consumables for mouse, human, and rabbit B cell repertoires, customers can do all this against even the hardest antigen targets, including G coupled-protein receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels, to accelerate antibody discovery beyond traditional methods available today.
PhenomeX participation at 19th Annual PEGS Boston Conference & Expo
PhenomeX is participating at the 19th annual Protein Engineering & Cell Therapy Summit (PEGS) conference and expo being held from May 15-19 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass. At the conference, the Company will feature its optofluidic and proteomic platform technologies, including the new Beacon Select system, in booth #517 and present two posters and podium presentations. Attendees can explore demonstrations of the technology and learn more about how PhenomeX's products can advance and accelerate our understanding of cellular function along the continuum of scientific discovery, bioprocessing, clinical research, and immunotherapy development.
About PhenomeX Inc.
PhenomeX is empowering scientists to leverage the full potential of each cell and drive the next era of functional cell biology that will advance human health. We enable scientists to reveal the most complete insights on cell function and obtain a full view of the behavior of each cell. Our unique suite of proven high-throughput tools and services offer unparalleled resolution and speed, accelerating the insights that are key to advancing discoveries that can profoundly improve the prevention and treatment of disease. Our award-winning platforms are used by researchers across the globe, including those at the top 15 global pharmaceutical companies and approximately 85% of leading U.S. comprehensive cancer centers.
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MEDTECH, MEDICAL
Businesswire | May 23, 2023
Twist Bioscience Corporation a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced the launch of a portfolio of RNA sequencing tools, which includes the Twist RNA Exome, Twist RNA Library Prep Kit and the Twist Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) & Hemoglobin (Globin) Depletion Kit, as well as custom target enrichment capabilities for RNA and whole transcriptome sequencing. This comprehensive suite of RNA tools can enable targeted or whole transcriptome research across fields including precision medicine, biomarker discovery and immuno-oncology research.
“Twist’s RNA sequencing portfolio builds on our established NGS capabilities in genomic sequencing and methylation detection and expands into gene expression analysis, opening a new and significant market for Twist,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “This offering allows our customers to leverage Twist’s leading target enrichment platform to discover and resolve low abundance RNA transcripts in the human transcriptome. Our RNA sequencing workflows are designed specifically for challenging samples. By enriching relevant transcripts, we can enable researchers to get high-quality data from a range of sample types, including damaged RNA.”
Unlike the genome, which is relatively static, the transcriptome changes over time in response to varying disease states and drug therapies. Gene expression levels also differ across tissues and cell types. To fully understand this dynamic quality of RNA, researchers often sequence RNA samples from the same source at multiple time points, incurring additional costs and resource burdens. Each component of the Twist RNA sequencing portfolio is purpose-built to maximize data quality, minimize workflow inefficiency, decrease wasted sequencing reads, and support comprehensive transcriptomic profiling across even low-quality and low-input samples common in oncology.
The Twist RNA sequencing portfolio provides end-to-end workflows that can be used to study total RNA and measure the whole transcriptome, protein coding sequences of messenger RNA (mRNA) or custom targets. These products can also be integrated into customers’ existing workflows. Twist RNA sequencing tools enable minimal hands-on time and increase the scale of samples sequenced through utilizing automation. They are compatible with a wide range of sample inputs, including difficult or low-quality samples. RNA panel designs can also now incorporate Twist’s new exon-aware design algorithm, which reduces bias in detection and can provide an important tool for researchers studying rare gene transcripts that drive tumor biology.
Twist Targeted RNA Sequencing Workflow
Twist target enrichment for RNA leverages the performance, efficiency and sensitivity of Twist target enrichment for sequencing of RNA transcripts of interest across samples and species. It can be used to enrich relevant transcripts with the RNA Exome or in custom RNA panels.
Twist RNA Exome
The Twist RNA Exome with Twist’s exon-aware design algorithm enables targeted sequencing of the protein coding regions of the human transcriptome without bias toward specific combinations of exons. The Twist RNA Exome covers up to 99.9% of protein coding sequencing in Gencode and RefSeq databases. This coverage, along with the exon-aware design approach, could enable researchers to capture important transcripts including those in low input and degraded samples from formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) sections.
Twist Whole Transcriptome Sequencing Workflow
Twist Whole Transcriptome Sequencing can be used to discover novel transcripts, including low expressing genes and novel isoforms. It can be used with a variety of samples including whole blood, fresh and frozen tissue samples and low quality samples, such as FFPE samples. The Twist rRNA & Globin Depletion Kit can be used with this workflow to deplete rRNA and hemoglobin targets so that researchers can study the rest of the transcriptome. The full workflow can be completed in less than five hours with minimal hands-on time.
About Twist Bioscience Corporation
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.
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INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
PRNewswire | May 22, 2023
Menarini Silicon Biosystems (MSB), a pioneer of liquid biopsy and single cell technologies, announced today its partnership with Alivio Health. This new agreement opens the door to preferred access for Alivio Health clients and providers to the valuable information offered by the CELLSEARCH CTC tests, which allow longitudinal monitoring of cancer patients at any time during the course of the disease. Starting from a simple blood draw, CELLSEARCH CTC tests provide valuable information on a patient's cancer at diagnosis and during therapy, which enables doctors to make more informed and timely decisions to optimize their therapeutic strategy.
According to Daryl Spinner Vice President, Market Access and Reimbursement at Menarini Group "we are delighted by this new partnership that makes it easier for Alivio Health's members to access and their physicians to order our tests. All members of Alivio Health can now benefit with preferred access and pricing from the improved and more rapid diagnostic information and therapeutic approaches these tests inform". Indeed, MSB's Gold Standard CELLSEARCH® CTC test is the first and only clinically validated, FDA-cleared test for capturing and enumerating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer patients with metastatic breast, prostate and colorectal cancer to help inform clinical decision-making. New CELLSEARCH LDTs (Laboratory Developed Tests) are also available to clinicians for CTC enumeration and HER2 and PD-L1 targeted therapy-associated biomarker analysis in patients with various solid tumors, as well as for patients with melanoma and multiple myeloma. The minimally invasive nature of the CELLSEARCH tests makes them convenient to monitor patients with serial CTC testing for real-time clinical information at any time during the course of their disease.
The new partnership will benefit the members of Alivio Health whose main mission is to facilitate access to the right test at the right time. Specifically, among the over 200,000 members of Alivio Health's participating health plans, patients with cancer will now have access to more accurate, timely, affordable and reimbursable MSB liquid biopsy tests, so that they may benefit from a more informed therapeutic strategy.
For Fabio Piazzalunga, President and CEO of MSB, "we are particularly excited by this opportunity to reach out to a broader pool of professionals and patients thanks to this new partnership. As we pursue our relentless endeavors to advance liquid biopsy tests that can aid in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of patients, we are also eager to ensure that our technology is accessible to the clinicians who can prescribe them". For both MSB and Alivio Health, this partnership will contribute to their common and primary ambition, which is to expand access to innovative testing approaches that allow providers to better understand the disease dynamics of their patients and therefore offer improved care to patients.
About Menarini Silicon Biosystems (MSB)
MSB offers unique rare-cell technologies and solutions that provide clinical researchers with access to unparalleled resolution in the study of cells and their molecular characterization.
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