The Synthetic Biology mashup is a weekly review of articles and pieces of news related to synthetic biology. While we share most of this on our twitter feed, if you need to catch up on this week’s headlines just read on!
Intrexon to Acquire Medistem for its Stem Cell Technology platform
This week Intrexon Corporation announced that it had agreed with Medistem Inc., a producer of endometrial regenerative cells (ERCs), to acquire it for $26 million. ERCs are adult stem cells capable of generating different tissues such as heart, brain, liver, bone and lung, proven to be safe and superior to other stem cells. Within Intrexon’s synthetic biology platform these cells could be engineered to produce specific therapeutic proteins and bioactive RNAs to treat cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
Nobel Laureate Ramakrishnan Defends Genetic Engineering
In the recent debate over GM food, the Nobel laureate and fellow of the Royal Society,Venkataraman Ramakrishnan, spoke in favor of genetic modifications of agricultural crops. While observing the need for regulation, he believes in the benefit in developing drought resistant varieties, crops with more nutrients and with greater shelf life which could help reduce hunger.
New Protein Quantification Platform Published
The Maerkl Lab from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne published a paper this week presenting a new platform that combines microarrays and microfluidic techniques to quantify protein biomarkers in serum samples. The technique is significantly cheaper than currently available ELISA, while also providing higher throughput.
SynBio axlr8r partnering with Hello Tomorrow challenge
SynBio axlr8r a venture fund focusing on synthetic biology entrepreneurs is partnering with Hello Tomorrow challenge, a large European startup competition. SynBio axlr8r offers $30,000 in seed funding lab space as well as mentorship to help take an idea to a product. The new partnership should foster a new wave of synthetic biology startups.
That’s it for this week’s Synthetic Biology Mashup! A suggestion or a question? Shoot us an email.
