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Startup’s biosensor makes drug development and manufacturing cheaper

In the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, ELISA tests provide critical quality control during drug development and manufacturing. The tests can precisely quantify protein levels, but they also require hours of work by trained technicians and specialized equipment. That makes them prohibitively expensive, driving up the costs of drugs and putting research testing out of reach for many.

Now the Advanced Silicon Group (ASG), founded by Marcie Black ’94, MEng ’95, PhD ’03 and Bill Rever, is commercializing a new technology that could dramatically lower the time and costs associated with protein sensing. ASG’s proprietary sensor combines silicon nanowires with antibodies that can bind to different proteins to create a highly sensitive measurement of their concentration in a given solution.

The tests can measure the concentration of many different proteins and other molecules at once, with results typically available in less than 15 minutes. Users simply place a tiny amount of solution on the sensor, rinse the sensor, and then insert it into ASG’s handheld testing system.

“We’re making it 15 times faster and 15 times lower cost to test for proteins,” Black says. “That’s on the drug development side. This could also make the manufacturing of drugs significantly faster and more cost-effective. It could revolutionize how we create drugs in this country and around the world.”

Advanced Silicon Group, founded by MIT alumna Marcie Black, developed a protein sensor that could make drug development and manufacturing much faster and less expensive.

Stir stick that detects spiked drinks developed by UBC researchers

Researchers at the University of British Columbia say they have developed a new tool to detect common drink-spiking drugs.

They say they plan to test the device, known as Spikeless, in the hopes it will one day be used widely to combat drugs being added to drinks and to prevent sexual assaults.

The university said in a news release that the “seemingly ordinary stir stick” can detect drugs such as GHB and ketamine within 30 seconds, changing colour if a beverage is contaminated.

Sasha Santos, an anti-violence activist working with the researchers on the project, says the technology has the potential to be a game-changer, adding that other drug testing tools are marketed to customers in a problematic way.

An anti-violence activist says the invention, which can detect drugs within 30 seconds, aims to make the stir sticks ubiquitous in bars, clubs and pubs, so every single drink served comes with a safety test.

Creating the World’s First CRISPR Medicine, for Sickle Cell Disease

When Vijay Sankaran was an MD-PhD student at Harvard Medical School in the mid-2000s, one of his first clinical encounters was with a 24-year-old patient whose sickle cell disease left them with almost weekly pain episodes.

“The encounter made me wonder, couldn’t we do more for these patients?” said Sankaran, who is now the HMS Jan Ellen Paradise, MD Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital.

In 2008, Orkin, Sankaran, and colleagues achieved their vision by identifying a new therapeutic target for sickle cell disease.

In December 2023, through the development efforts of CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, their decades-long endeavor reached fruition in the form of a new treatment, CASGEVY, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The decision has ushered in a new era for sickle cell disease treatment — and marked the world’s first approval of a medicine based on CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology.

How a genetic insight paired with gene editing technology led to a life-changing new therapy.

Continue reading “Creating the World’s First CRISPR Medicine, for Sickle Cell Disease” | >

The Redox Activity of Protein Disulphide Isomerase Functions in Non‐Homologous End‐Joining Repair to Prevent DNA Damage

Schematic diagram illustrating the protective role of protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) against DNA damage via non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), which repairs double stranded DNA breaks (DSBs). Ind…

Escaping cosmic strings: How dark photons could finally work as dark matter

Researchers, in a recent Physical Review Letters paper, introduce a new mechanism that may finally allow ultralight dark photons to be considered serious candidates for dark matter, with promising implications for detection efforts.

Around 85% of all matter is believed to be dark matter, yet this elusive substance continues to puzzle scientists because it cannot be observed directly.

One of the candidates for is dark photons. These hypothetical particles are similar to regular photons but have mass and interact only weakly with normal matter.