December, 2022 | Monthly Newsletter
Hi everyone.?
It's the end of that weird week between Christmas and New Years Eve, and we're here with our final newsletter of 2022, an equally weird year full of ups and downs.
We're wrapping up a lot of projects here at Excedr, as I'm sure many of you are. Those things that you couldn't get done? You'll get them done next year. Too bad next year is next week...
The last newsletter of the year includes a wide range of topics, from proteins and CRISPR to contract research and common biotech founder mistakes. Here’s a quick snapshot:
You can also read the article descriptions below.?See you next month with December’s batch of science- and business-based articles and resources.
Articles, Blog Posts, & Resources
Core labs are specialized facilities that provide a range of services and resources to support life science research. These labs may be found within academic institutions, research organizations, or biotech companies, and they typically offer access to state-of-the-art equipment, expertise, and technologies that would otherwise be unavailable to individual researchers.
Core labs play a critical role in supporting life science research by providing researchers with the tools and resources they need to make significant advances in their fields.?Continue reading.
Launching a startup or small business is a serious exercise in risk-taking and risk management. Startups often fail for all different types of reasons. Many of these reasons can involve a mistake or several mistakes the startup’s founder or co-founders made.
As a first-time entrepreneur and startup founder, learning about the past common mistakes other founders and founding teams have made can be a good practice in preparing for your journey.
Further, with all the technical, regulatory, and legal issues involved with creating a drug or therapeutic, it can be even more challenging to run a biotech startup successfully. The risks you face in the biotechnology industry can be, and often are, higher than what many entrepreneurs face in other sectors.?Continue reading.
Histones are a type of protein that plays a critical role in the structure and regulation of DNA in eukaryotic cells. They work by winding and unwinding around the DNA molecule, helping to package it into a compact and organized structure called chromatin. This allows the cell to fit a large amount of genetic material into a small space, and also helps to regulate which genes are expressed and when.?
Histones are often used in research as a way to study gene expression and regulation. For example, scientists can use techniques such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to study how histones and other proteins interact with DNA and regulate gene expression. They are also frequently used in studies of epigenetics, which is the study of how environmental and other non-genetic factors can influence gene expression.
Understanding the role of histones in gene regulation is important for a wide range of applications, including the development of new therapies for diseases such as cancer.?Continue reading.
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Contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) provide manufacturing services to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Biotech companies often turn to CMOs to help with manufacturing, particularly when they do not have the resources or expertise to produce them in-house.
CMOs can typically handle a wide range of tasks, from process development and scale-up to commercial manufacturing. They are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment to handle the complex and often highly regulated processes involved in biotech manufacturing.
By outsourcing manufacturing to CMOs, biotech companies can focus on their core competencies and leverage the specialized expertise and resources that CMOs can provide. This can help biotechs bring products to market more efficiently and cost-effectively, and can ensure that the products meet the highest quality standards.?Continue reading.?
CRISPR-Cas13a is a type of RNA-guided enzyme that is used in the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) gene editing system. It is part of a family of enzymes known as CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins that play a critical role in the CRISPR system's ability to cut and edit DNA by using a short RNA molecule as a guide to locate a specific sequence of DNA in the genome.
Once it has located the target DNA, CRISPR-Cas13a cuts the DNA at a specific location, which can disrupt the function of a gene or allow researchers to make specific changes to the DNA sequence.
CRISPR-Cas13a has a number of potential applications in research and medicine, including the development of new therapies for genetic diseases and the study of gene function. It has also been used in a variety of other applications, such as the detection of pathogens and the analysis of gene expression.?Continue reading.
CRISPR-Cas12a (also known as Cpf1) is an enzyme used in the CRISPR gene editing system. Like other CRISPR-associated enzymes, CRISPR-Cas12a uses a short RNA molecule as a guide to locate a specific sequence of DNA in the genome.
CRISPR-Cas12a has a number of unique features that make it an attractive tool for gene editing, including its ability to cut DNA at a variety of locations and its ability to generate double-stranded breaks in the DNA.
Like Cas13a, there are several potential applications of CRISPR-Cas12a in research and medicine, including detection and identification of viral DNA combined with other high-throughput workflows, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA).?Continue reading.
Early-stage biotechs might need to pivot for a variety of reasons, including changes in market conditions, the emergence of new technologies, or shifts in the regulatory environment.
Pivoting a business model typically involves making significant changes to the company's strategy, target market, or product offerings in order to adapt to changing circumstances. All these moving parts can create a complex and challenging process, but it can also be an important way for the company to adapt to changing circumstances and achieve long-term success.?Continue reading.
In the life sciences industry, the name of the game is often getting through preclinical studies and clinical trials. However, this feat is easier said than done. Many biotech, biopharma, pharma, and medical device companies need support to successfully conduct studies and trials.
Not every organization has the in-house capabilities, resources, and time to perform every trials-related task effectively and efficiently. When this is the case, businesses can rely on contract research organizations (CROs) for support with different stages of research and development.
Knowing what to look for in an contract research partner can help biotechs select the right contract research organization.?Continue reading.
That's it! Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the newsletter. If you want to ask us anything or have feedback, reach out and let us know!