When a nanoparticle is introduced into a physical medium such as human plasma, its surface becomes coated by a layer of proteins, yielding a protein corona whose composition greatly influences the way the nanoparticle interacts with tissues and cells, as well as its ultimate biological fate. Different factors, including protein concentration, post-translational modifications, structure, and solubility, all play a role in determining the corona’s make-up. Any circumstance that impacts these factors, such as disease or genetic background, is therefore also likely to impact the composition of the protein corona.
Sorting cells from a heterogeneous population enables the study of the different isolated types, but also allows for the introduction of enriched cell populations to a patient. The use of highly selective separation procedures is also critical to improve cell-based treatments on stem cell therapy, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Two draft maps of the human proteome have been published in the latest issue of Nature. The drafts were produced by two separate international research teams working independently of one another. Using mass-spectrometry to analyze tissue, body fluids, and cells, the teams have catalogued the proteins that are found in a non-diseased state and identified novel proteins expressed from what was previously thought to be non-coding or junk DNA.
Biomagnetic cell separation is an alternative to centrifugation, columns, filtration and precipitation. It eliminates undue cell-stress and reduces the risk of negative impact on cell function and phenotype.
A few days ago I was invited by Merck Millipore to contribute to the Forum they organized in Shanghai. Besides being one of the speakers –more details below-, SEPMAG has also been involved as sponsor. We believed the direct contact with IVD-magnetic beads users in China, as well as with the technical worldwide contributors, is the only way to still push forward this technology.
The business value of potentially large production capacities coupled to lower capital expenditures (CapEx) requirements and manufacturing costs may reduce the gap between production volumes and patient needs for potentially life-saving drugs. This is the reason because pharmaceutical companies are continuously seeking for new technologies. An economically efficient alternative to bioreactor-based technologies is the use of living biofactories such as transgenic animals, plants or insects.
Devising a safe and efficient protocol for using magnetic nanoparticles to target drug delivery is an ongoing challenge whose study has yielded promising results. While the majority of these studies have been focused on delivering cytotoxic drugs to cancer cells, there is a range of possible applications for which targeted delivery could prove invaluable.
A need for rapid, reproducible, small-scale purification
For many recombinant protein applications, such as expression clone screening and for optimizing expression conditions, there is a crucial need for a rapid, reproducible, small-scale purification process. Traditionally, protein purification from E. coli consists of four distinct phases: harvest, bacterial cell lysis, lysate clarification and protein purification. You will find the whole process explained step by step in our protein purification handbook.
