Top 8 Innovation Picks – Bringing Hidden Innovation to the Surface
Guru Singh
on
November 4, 2016
The challenging nature of drug discovery drives researchers to leave no stone unturned in their pursuit of new scientific findings. Quite literally, in fact, as some researchers are exploring caves, jungles, and the sea to find new drug sources and ‘CRISPR-like’ enzymes potentially undiscovered in our natural world. There are also others who are studying the potential of our own immune system, microbiome, and genome to find untapped treatments for diseases.
Drug scientists have their work cut out for them, but Scientist.com aims to lessen their burden by providing them with various research tools, technologies, and external expertise. As new scientific breakthroughs surface, we’ll be there to cover them. Here are our top 8 picks this month.
1. ‘Organ-In-A-Well’ Platform - OcellO
This high content screening platform could be used to measure over 500 different features, such as number, shape, and size of organoids, cells, and nuclei, to create a phenotypic profile of drug responses to classify and discriminate different drug responses.
2. Proximal Tubule Cell (PTC) Model - Solvo Biotechnology
This is a unique in vitro approach for investigating renal drug handling, identifying drug – transporter interactions, potential nephrotoxicity, and transporter mediated drug – drug interactions.
3. Hep-I-Spheres: 3D In Vitro Liver Test System - In Vitro ADMET Laboratories
These liver-like cultures allow better simulation of in vivo drug exposure conditions, making it a useful tool for preclinical drug efficacy and safety studies.
4. PerfusionPal 3D Testing Platform - Lena Biosciences
This platform facilitates long-term survival of 3D cultures and significantly improves cellular metabolic function.
5. 16S MetaVx™ Metagenomics Sequencing - Genewiz
This next generation sequencing assay could be used to determine the type and relative abundance of bacterial and archaeal species in heterogeneous samples.
6. XRpro Label-free Technology - Icagen
This technology leverages the unique capabilities of X-ray fluorescence for high-throughput analysis of plasma membrane ion channels and transporters, including nonelectrogenic symporters and antiporters.
7. Simplicon RNA Reprogramming Technology - EMD Millipore
This technology could be used to generate high numbers of human iPSCs with a single transfection step utilizing a single, polycistronic, synthetic, self-replicating RNA strand.
8. CRISPR RCas9 System - UC Berkeley
This RNA-targeted Cas9 system allows alteration and imaging of endogenous RNA transcripts analogous to CRISPR/Cas-based genomic tools, without any exogenous tags.
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