Here’s a roundup of some stories that we have noticed recently in the world of Biotech and Cell Therapies…

It has been an exciting couple of weeks in cell therapies and Biotech with a wealth of amazing developments occurring. We’ve decided to round up our favourite stories that have got us talking.

Good luck to those of you who received their A Levels and are entering the world of engineering through either apprenticeships or university. Congratulations also to Team GB for coming an amazing 2nd place in the Olympic medal table! We can’t wait for the Paralympics to begin…

The South Tees Bio-Incubator launched at the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough in partnership with the CPI, NHSA and NHS Foundation Trust this month. It’s great to see so many incubators popping up around the UK, promoting innovation in biotech and life sciences. Talking of incubators, have you seen our interview with David Browning of Medicity?

“CPI and the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) are strategic partners in the initiative, which is being led by the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The Bio-incubator provides access to specialist facilities, expert advice, and shared laboratory space that can be used by companies within the bio-medical sector to develop technologies and ideas that could potentially benefit the healthcare industry. The first tenants to use the Bio-Incubator space are GlycoSeLect Ltd, a spin out of Dublin City University, who specialize in the development of glycoprotein separation technology for analysis and manufacturing used in biopharmaceutical production…”

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The trailer for Hidden Figures has been released. This is a film which explores the role African- American women had in sending astronauts into space and is set to be released in January 2017.

“Although mathematician Katherine Johnson was honoured last year with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, few know just how integral she was to the U.S. space race.

Fortunately, many more soon will. Her story is being made into the movie “Hidden Figures,” which tells the tale of how Johnson and several other black women played a pivotal role in helping the U.S. send men into space and bring them back safely.

Johnson, who worked at NASA and its predecessor agency from 1953 until 1986, was responsible for calculating flight plans for astronauts from Alan Shepard and the Mercury Project through the Space Shuttle. In the process, she broke down all manner of barriers and stereotypes about the role black women in particular could play in math and science…”

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Scientists hope to create a portable device which makes biotech drugs on demand. This would be an amazing piece of kit for those most in need as it reduces the transportation and storage issues of large- scale production.

“A portable system that produces tiny batches of biotech drugs might one day help get crucial medicines and vaccines to remote villages and war-torn regions where they’re desperately needed, scientists hope.

“While the manufacturing process is still experimental and may not be cheap, it could provide a way to produce single doses of medicines and vaccines on demand — even in places where biotech drugs are often unavailable because they are difficult to transport and store.

“They typically require refrigerated trucks transporting drugs across borders, which is an expensive and sometimes dangerous process,” said senior study author Timothy Lu, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Similarly, in war zones or in case of natural disasters, the transport routes may be compromised for long periods of time,” Lu added by email. “Additionally, after transporting drugs, refrigeration may be needed to preserve the drug until it’s used.”

The solution might be a portable production system that can make a single dose of liquid medicine from a machine containing programmable yeast cells, researchers report in Nature Communications…”

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Please let us know about any stories that you have been inspired by!

This blog first appeared on the Donaldson Solutions website in August 2016. For more articles and blogs please click below.