Streamlining Process Monitoring in Cell Culture Analysis & Spectrometry

We are all keenly aware that viruses can negatively impact our lives, but what about viruses that shape our existence and even improve some of its outcomes? In the past several decades, advances in cell and gene therapies have exploded due to innovations with adeno-associated virus (AAV). Yet, given its small genomic size, the life cycle of AAV is surprisingly complex. Understanding this life cycle will be pivotal to developing new and improved methods of AAV vector manufacture that can meet the industry’s increasing needs. Interestingly, in nature, AAV co-exists with adenovirus, with the latter providing help during the AAV life cycle. Thus, taking cues from nature, investigators have developed a novel tetracycline enhanced self-silencing adenoviral (TESSA) helper system that allows for contaminant-free AAV manufacture.

The discovery and development of immune checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment of certain cancers, with the 2018 Nobel Prize in medicine/physiology recognizing these therapies as a "landmark in our fight against cancer." Yet, despite these advances, putative biomarker identification, efficacy, and drug resistance still pose significant therapeutic challenges. In this webinar, leaders in immuno-oncology — Elaine Mardis (The Ohio State University) and Jedd Wolchok (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) — survey the landscape of research, revealing new approaches for harnessing the potential of this transformative therapeutic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global awareness to the dangers of emerging pathogens to human health and welfare. Common molecular tools used at scale, such as PCR, are best suited for detecting known pathogens. Preparing humanity against future zoonotic pandemics requires unbiased surveillance tools, such as next generation sequencing (NGS). This approach enables the unbiased detection of viral sequences (known and unknown), identifies possible co-infections, and provides insights into host transcriptional response. This webinar will introduce a CRISPR-based strategy improving sequence complexity and discovery in libraries prepared from complex biological samples. The critical component enabling this approach is Jumpcode Genomics’ CRISPRclean technology which removes abundant mammalian and bacterial ribosomal RNA sequences from NGS libraries. We will review data from >40 nasopharyngeal samples collected from SARS-CoV-2 testing, demonstrating >90% depletion of all human and bacterial ribosomal sequences, 3-to-7-fold increase in viral and bacterial transcriptome coverage and 5-to-10-fold increase in coverage of mid to low expressing host transcripts.

In developing and manufacturing mRNA vaccines and therapeutics, selecting and using the appropriate quality or grade of mRNA raw materials can help you meet critical process, scale, quality, and regulatory needs.