This week’s biotechnology news headlines include, Congress working on $1.1 billion to fight Zika, scientists find form of CRISPR with new capabilities, job growth in in US biotech industry, Novartis opens $1 billion research center in China, FDA asks companies to select 10 suffixes for biosimilar names, and Kite Pharma and Cell Design Labs partner on CAR T-Cell immunotherapies.

Cell Culture Events

Conferences:

June

Cell Line Development & Engineering – June 13-15, 2016 – Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco, CA

http://www.ibclifesciences.com/CellLine/overview.xml

Co-located with

Bioconjugates: From Targets to Therapeutics – http://www.ibclifesciences.com/Bioconjugates/overview.xml

Next Generation Protein Therapeutics Summit – http://www.ibclifesciences.com/ProteinSummit/overview.xml

Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research – June 22-25, 2016, San Francisco, CA

http://www.isscr.org/home/annual-meeting/san-francisco-2016

Progress in Continuous Biomanufacturing – June 27-28, 2016 – Robinson College, Cambridge, UK

The conference is enhanced by the participation of several leading industrial technologists, scientific, vendors and also leading academics from Europe and USA. They have come forward to share their experience and knowledge to provide a better understanding of the current technologies and their application in continuous biomanufacturing. There is also a plenary lecture by a distinguished professor in the field of bioprocessing, and you will also benefit from access to unpublished data. This meeting will address several advancements and their successful application with data in the Technology both Upstream and downstream and also on Initiatives to process developments and project to the future direction of the industry. By joining with us you can benefit from the current state of-the-art advancements in continuous manufacturing and also learn about the successful organisations that are developing and applying these methods in-house.

http://www.subramanian.org.uk/

Viral Safety and Raw Materials – June 2016, Vienna, Austria

http://www.informa-ls.com/event/empoweredantibodies15

Headlines

“Congress Will Work on $1.1 Billion Measure to Fight Zika, McConnell Says,” The New York Times

“With public health officials warning of a fast-spreading emergency, House and Senate negotiators will work to reconcile legislation aimed at providing up to $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus and the mosquitoes that carry it, Senator Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cool Tool – Residual Enzyme Testing – All in one Assay Kits for Liberase and Trypsin”

“Scientists Find Form of Crispr Gene Editing With New Capabilities,” The New York Times

“Just a few years ago, Crispr was a cipher — something that sounded to most ears like a device for keeping lettuce fresh. Today, Crispr-Cas9 is widely known as a powerful way to edit genes. Scientists are deploying it in promising experiments, and a number of companies are already using it to develop drugs to treat conditions ranging from cancer to sickle-cell anemia.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “The CRISPR/Cas9 System and its Applications”

“Report Sees Job Growth, R&D Challenges in U.S. Bioscience Industry,” Genetic Engineering News

“The U.S. bioscience industry grew to nearly 1.66 million jobs in 2014—up 2.2% from 2012, and nearly 10% since 2001, according to a report released today at the 2016 Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) International Convention.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Gene Therapy Strengthened by Recent Successes”

“Novartis Cements China Plans as $1 Billion Research Center Opens,” Bloomberg

“Novartis AG employees in Shanghai have a new $1 billion home. The seven-building campus on the outskirts of Shanghai is accented by bamboo staircases and tree-lined courtyards. The company said the 1,300-person facility will be its third major research center, after Basel, Switzerland, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Poster: Purpose-designed Protein A resins for Improved Downstream Process and Cost Efficiency in MAb purification”

“FDA Calls on Companies to Select 10 Suffixes for Biosimilar, Biologic Names,” Regulatory Focus

“The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday announced a new tweak to its guidance on the non-proprietary names for biosimilars and will allow companies to propose 10 suffixes for each new biosimilar and biologic, as opposed to the previous proposal of having each company select one random suffix.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cool Tool – Off the Shelf Optimized CHO Media and Feed”

“GSK seeks lead in triple lung drug market with 2016 filing plan,” Reuters

“GlaxoSmithKline moved to consolidate its lead in a new class of three-in-one inhaled lung drugs on Thursday with plans to file its product for U.S. approval by the end of 2016, rather than the first half of 2018 as previously expected.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “New Poster: Proving Clonality – A Documented Clonality Report for Regulatory Submission”

“Kite Pharma, Cell Design Labs Partner on CAR T-Cell Immunotherapies,” Genetic Engineering News

“Kite Pharma and Cell Design Labs said today they will partner to develop next-generation, precision-controlled chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy candidates using Cell Design Labs’ molecular “on/off switch” technology.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Cell Culture and Single Cell Passaging of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Without the Need for ROCK Inhibitor”