Jennifer Meade

Also in This Issue: The single-drop pan-diagnostic is back (for real this time) Early Cancer Detection tests - ready for prime time? Adding liquid bx to standard tumor staging acronym Bird flu update #sensitiveandspecific #diagnostics #genetics #genomics #personalizedmedicine #infraredspectroscopy #proteomics #biomarkers #diseasedetection #birdflu #H5N1 #MCED #MCEDtest #earlydetection #liquidbiopsy #olympics #wastewatersurveillance

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Congratulations to convEyXO on being the latest addition to the "Global Database of Exosome Companies, 2024": https://lnkd.in/ezHg2Pc ConvEyXO, a Belgian biotech company, targets inflammatory and degenerative diseases with unmet medical needs by reducing inflammation and repairing tissue damages from cellular senescence with its Therapeutic Platform based on small Extracellular Vesicles (sEV or exosomes) secreted by Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs), with their intrinsic immuno-modulatory and regenerative properties, amplified by loaded miRNA. ConvEyXO resolves sEV industrialization key challenges with a proprietary Technology Platform, making their therapies triple A with (1) homogenous industrial manufacturing from single cell line sourcing, with robust isolation, purification and characterization processes, (2) cost-efficient scalable production with patented process and proprietary 3D custom fixed-bed bioreactor and (3) Amplified sEV native properties by loading miRNA with a breakthrough microfluidic technology. #exosomes #extracellularvesicles #advancedtherapies Frédéric Tonglet

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Some proteins are just difficult to express. They have their own acronym (DTEPs). If you have a challenging protein - consider Culture Bioscience's fleet of over 200 cloud connected bioreactors to run your DoEs. We can speed up your research and help execute your strategy with totally transparent data. #processdevelopment #DTEPs #MAbs #recombinantproteins https://lnkd.in/eJH9Z5ab

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#Bedbugs are not confined to neglected or unclean spaces—they can be found anywhere, even in renowned establishments like Disneyland Paris. As they say, bed bugs don’t discriminate. https://bit.ly/DLPBB This serves as a critical reminder that bed bug infestations can affect any property, regardless of its reputation or cleanliness standards. As a hospitality professional, safeguarding your guests and maintaining your property’s integrity requires constant vigilance and proactive, preventive measures. Ensure you are prepared with Allergy Technologies’ advanced solution, 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦Guard®, and protect your guests with the only product labeled for two-year prevention of bed bugs.

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The grass may always seem greener, but focus is everything. This is truer than ever when building a bootstrapped company like we’re doing with TripleChecker. Every hour of every day either brings us closer to or further from our mission to eradicate the world of typos and errors. Even at Machinio (my previous company), which had the advantage of funding and the flexibility to explore more opportunities, if I had to pinpoint one area where our team excelled, it was staying focused. -Saying "no" is never easy. -Staying focused is never easy. -Getting distracted by shiny new objects is always easy. Throughout our years building Machinio, we encountered dozens of exciting opportunities—some from within, others requested by customers or external partners. Having a co-founder was critical; it meant that some of my own ideas were kept in check by my partner. To be candid, we did get distracted a few times. Luckily, these were infrequent, and we always arrived at a quick decision on whether to double down or move on. Each of these turned out to be major distractions and mistakes, not because the experiments failed, but because investing less than 5% of our resources wasn’t enough to draw meaningful conclusions. What we learned, besides the fact that every minor opportunity becomes a major distraction, was that dedicating only a small fraction of our resources to an idea just doesn’t work. Could those have worked with 25% or 50%? We never found out. It was only after 5+ years of focusing on the core business (aside from those few hiccups) that we seriously explored a second product. And when we did, we committed enough resources to make it a success as well.

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What a thrill for us to be recognized as a finalist in the Transformational Therapy Category at the Biotech Week Boston Awards gala last night!   Our team at Indaptus Therapeutics, Inc. is passionate about re-thinking cancer treatment by developing innovative therapies that challenge conventional precision and targeted approaches. We're pushing boundaries, and it’s exciting to see our efforts acknowledged alongside some of the industry’s top innovators. Chaunte Lowe, OLY, a 4-time Olympian and cancer survivor, set an inspiring tone as host. Her resilience and story of overcoming adversity resonated with everyone in the room, and served as a powerful reminder of the perseverance it takes to innovate and save lives. It was also great to reconnect with a legend in the field of immunotherapy, Arthur Krieg from Zola Therapeutics, and talk about his latest work.  It’s fascinating to listen to someone who has been at the forefront of innovation for so many years, and I always learn something new every time we speak. And a special shoutout to Adam Thomas (he/him) from MOMA Therapeutics. Besides being a fantastic presenter, he surely should have won a "best dressed" award for his sharp kilt! Though we didn’t bring home the award this time, it was a privilege to be a finalist and celebrate the accomplishments of everyone attending.  Congratulations to all the winners, and here’s to continuing our shared mission to drive forward life-saving innovation.   #BWBAWARDS #IndaptusTherapeutics #Biotech #LifeSciences #CancerResearch #NeverGiveUp

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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a comment from our CTO Jamie Richards, PhD regarding pesticide drift. Specifically, how Aanika Biosciences, Inc.'s biological tags can provide much needed data regarding the off-target detection of chemicals such as dicamba. The ability to detect chemical drift using our tags is a revolutionary idea. #agriculture #pesticides #chemicaltresspass https://lnkd.in/eyrU8SKm

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Book recommendation time: Less Is More by Jason Hickel 📚 I was caught off guard by this one—a right hook to my understanding of how the world works! 🥊 In Less Is More, Jason Hickel challenges the deeply ingrained belief that perpetual economic growth equals progress. He argues that this relentless pursuit is not just unsustainable but actively harmful, driving environmental destruction and deepening inequality. Hickel advocates for a "degrowth" economy where the focus shifts from GDP to the well-being of people and the planet. 🌍 This theme of extraction versus sustainability resonates strongly with experience having worked at the intersections of drug development, life sciences, and ag tech industries. In these fields, there’s a pervasive tendency to extract value from nature—isolating the "drug" or "chemical" while often dismissing the very natural sources that inspired these therapies. It’s a paradoxical approach where nature is both a treasure trove and an afterthought, revered for its potential yet undervalued for its inherent worth. 🌿 Despite this, I’ve been fortunate to work alongside many individuals who see the bigger picture—those who respect and understand the intricate relationship between nature and medicine. However, a significant segment still views nature as something to be exploited for profit rather than a partner in the healing process. Less Is More challenges us to rethink this mindset, urging us to honor and preserve the natural world that so generously provides for us. It’s a timely read for anyone in life sciences or any industry where the balance between profit and planetary health is in question. Have you read this one (or listened to it in audiobook form, as I did)? I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially on René Descartes' and John Locke's influence in shaping our modern capitalist growth mindset. To whomever recommended this book in my network a few months ago—thank you! 🙏💯 #LessIsMore #Sustainability #DrugDevelopment #LifeSciences #NatureAndScience

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SPOT Imaging introduced the first color DIGITAL camera for microscopes in late 1990's. Transforming documentation of microscopic imaging. Part of this development was understanding RGB Bayer Pattern and applying it to our software color correction algorithm. Learn More: https://lnkd.in/efqcraKF #Microscopy #RGB #Digitalimaging #digitalpathology

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A fungi that degrades fungicides. 🍄☠ Well, it's more complicated than that. A 2018 study from the Jung Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst discovered a way for fungi to transform a fungicide into another compound. The team showed a pathway for Clarireedia sp. (the fungi that causes dollar spot disease on turfgrass) to transform chlorothalonil (the fungicide) into 4-hydroxy-2,5,6-trichlorophosphonitrile. 3 Main Takeaways: 1️⃣ The study discovered that the dollar spot fungus can degrade chlorothalonil using cytochrome P450 enzymes. This is the first time such a pathway has been identified in fungi. Specifically, CYP561 and CYP65 were found to biotransform chlorothalonil into 4-hydroxy-2,5,6-trichloroisophthalonitrile, a more toxic and persistent metabolite 2️⃣ Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes, which play a role in detoxifying xenobiotics, are common in many organisms, including humans, plants, and fungi. In this study, CYP450 enzymes in Clarireedia spp.(formerly Sclerotinia homoeocarpa) were found to modify chlorothalonil. This discovery highlights the universal nature of CYP450 systems and their importance in metabolic processes across different species. 3️⃣ The biotransformation product, 4-hydroxy-2,5,6-trichloroisophthalonitrile, is more water-soluble, persistent, and toxic than chlorothalonil. This raises significant environmental and health concerns, as this compound can persist longer in the environment and spread more easily through water systems. This is a concern because chlorothalonil is used in fungicide rotation programs to help prevent resistance development to other fungicides. 👉 TLDR: a study from UMass Amherst found that fungi can degrade an important fungicide known to have no resistance. It also further transforms it into a compound that is more toxic, more easily soluble in water, and more persistent in the environment. It is a concern since chlorothalonil is used in fungicide rotation programs to prevent resistance development.

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How is the weather in Boston warmer than Los Angeles right now? Headed to the plenary session at #BIOIT - if you're here, let's connect! I'm here through Wednesday. #BioIt #Bioinformatics #PrecisionMedicine

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Today we announced a new line of closed system GMP cytokines (IL-7 and IL-15) for CAR-T and TCR-T cell manufacturing that are tailormade for use with closed system G-Rex bioreactors. Why is this a big deal? Most CGT manufacturers buy bulk vials (~1mg) of lyophilized cytokines because of a misperception that it is more cost efficient. However, these cost analyses are myopic and fail to account for the totality of costs associated with this practice. What are the hidden costs with buying bulk vials of reagents not suited for your bioreactor? 🚫 A technician must gown up, access the biosafety cabinet, reconstitute the bulk vial, and aliquot into "process sized" vials. 🚫 This requires a batch record, environmental monitoring, new labels and new vials, which all have to have corresponding inspection/inventory documentation 🚫 Reconstituted aliquots typically have shorter stability/shelf-life which means more waste and a less stable supply chain. 🚫 The risk of sterility breaches increase and those sterility breaches are unlikely to be noticed until after manufacturing has occurred. A formal investigation into a sterility breach will cost you hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars. If you are a G-Rex user and are interested in evaluating these new closed system GMP cytokines, please reach out! #cellandgenetherapy https://lnkd.in/gvSqJAsh

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🤔 What are the core competencies of Twist Bioscience and Illumina? 🤓 In 1990, Prahalad and Hamel introduced the concept of a business’s "core competency“. It is quite intuitive, so suffice to say that it represents a company's unique ability or expertise that provides a competitive advantage and is central to its ability to deliver value to customers. At Sequentify, for instance, I consider our core competency to be the development of innovative molecular biology techniques and the rethinking of assay protocols. 📈 Recently, while reviewing the earnings of Twist and Illumina, I began thinking about Prahalad and Hamel's concept. I had always seen Twist as a leader in oligonucleotide synthesis and Illumina as a hardware powerhouse—clearly their core competencies. Both companies have also excelled by offering complementary products to drive their growth. 🔬 Judging by their sources of revenue, perhaps they are actually sample-prep companies? Approximately 50% of their revenue comes from sample preparation (though it's more challenging to pinpoint this for Illumina, as they do not separately disclose sample prep and sequencing reagent sales). 🗻 A company of Illumina's size can decide to make partnerships and acquisitions a core competency, and it seems they have adopted an acquisition-driven approach to maintain their foothold in library preparation segment. E.g., Nextera, (Epicentre Biotechnologies, acquired 2011), AmpliSeq (from Thermo Fisher Scientific), and more recently Fluent BioSciences Inc.. 🤞 While diversification is great, can a company the size of Twist overcome the operational challenges and potential dilution of focus that their revenue streams entail? #CoreCompetency #BusinessStrategy #Innovation #MolecularBiology #SamplePrep #Biotech #NGS #Sequentify #Illumina #TwistBioscience #Acquisitions #Diversification #GrowthStrategy #Biotechnology #Genomics #RethinkingAssays #Sequentify

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Here it is Folks! 🥳😎🧠🎙️🔬 AmaTea Max Nootropic Caffeine on the Human Upgrade Podcast with Dave Asprey feat. CSO Chris Fields. We were proud to sponsor this conversation about Guayusa, AFS’s sustainability, ethics, and highlight all of our brand partners using AmaTea & AmaTea Max! You can find our consumer landing page link in the podcast details! Please like, subscribe, & comment! #CognitivePerformance #NootropicCaffiene #SponsoredbyAFS #Biohacking

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Our recent projects represent a good cross-section of the services we provide at Nucleus Automation Partners – 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 for liquid handling instruments, custom code development for 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, and 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. Last week, we worked with two different public health labs in different regions of the country on 𝐍𝐆𝐒 workflows. One lab was seeing 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐬. We identified the root cause and adjusted several liquid classes to significantly improve the results. They also desired greater 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 in their quant & norm process, and we set them up with code specific to their process that allows 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 on how to handle edge cases, and 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 as to how the calculations are being made. We incorporated a workflow previously handled with an internal spreadsheet into the automated code. The other lab was seeking to make some custom modifications to their script, and had a number of 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 needed in the way their robot was taught – a series of small, individually relatively minor issues but when stacked up presented troublesome problems during longer runs. In one case it was consistently transporting the lid when it should have been transporting the lid + plate together, which clearly leads to downstream problems! In addition to find-tuning these aspects, we adjusted the worktable to better fit the needs of their application. This week, we are heading to the Carolinas. As part of our 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬, we previously helped this customer identify options for 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. With the hardware ordered and now on-site, we will get this application setup for them and train their team. And since they work with a number of different liquid handling platforms, we are able to take care of several other automation projects during our visit as well, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆. If your liquid handler isn’t doing exactly what you want it to do, reach out to us and we’ll get you taken care of. Nucleus Automation Partners Mike Mueller Kelly Tracy #labautomation #liquidhandling #ngs #colonypicking #biopharma #publichealth

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"Large-scale single cell perturbation datasets are exactly what the field needs to build and train models to help us better predict outcomes in both health and disease,” said Dr. Fabian Theis, developer of Scanpy said. He adds, “The speed and scale by which Parse is able to deliver these datasets is truly amazing and will accelerate the pace of discovery.” Look at this rich dataset built in a few weeks. I don't say this loosely. Our #GigaLab will revolutionize #singlecell discoveries for everyone. Imagine building a 100M #cellatlas in weeks. What would that do for your research? How much more quickly could you train your AI models, discover pathways, identify rare cell populations, and find new targets? #Parse can process 10M cells using our proven #Evercode technology in days, quickly & with precision. Are you ready to #ditchdroplet? Visit our website to learn more about Parse.

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Meeting on the Mesa was incredible. Dozens of conversations packed into a few days. In the aftermath, 5 takeaways stand out for me: 1. Large focus on reducing AAV immunogenicity Sure, costs and quality get a lot of attention. But the ability to redose is a major factor in the long-term viability of AAV gene therapy.  All eyes will be on Elevidys and other systemic neuromuscular gene therapies, as young patients start to grow up. 2. Rare and ultra-rare diseases aren’t forgotten It’s a challenging situation.  The industry doesn’t want to leave rare disease patients out.  Yet commercial viability needs to be considered.  The strategy to include them has 3 main components: Clarity from payers Regulatory convergence Reduced COGs 3. Seriously impressive automation in cell therapy One of the biggest challenges in CGT is manufacturing cost. Automation is one of the biggest levers for reducing that.  Cellares and Cellino showcased some truly impressive technology that is going to make this a reality.  Very excited to watch this space.  You should too. 4. Cloaking and capsid development in AAV Immunogenicity has already been mentioned - what if you covered it up with EV? It’s a fascinating approach that gained traction at Mesa.  But then AI/ML gets added in.  Not only can it help develop less immunogenic capsids, but is also finding immense success in precise tissue target delivery.  However, there are some missed opportunities with AI/ML that I noted at Mesa. Which leads me to point #5… 5. Critical Gap: Machine learning in process development This might be controversial.  But there is a huge opportunity here. And not enough people are doing it (from what I could tell).  Those who invest in process analytics (across a wide range of parameters) will have incredible datasets for machine learning to make optimizations with.  It’ll define the winners. Looking forward to Mesa next year! Thoughts on these points? --------- Or --------- Other takeaways from Mesa? Drop them in the comments.

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