This week’s headlines include, the IPO market, stem cells for drug delivery, worries about the future of science, FDA will be funded past shutdown, three Nobel Winners, HHS rule regarding sale of blood cells, and gene scans for mystery disease.

Check Out the New Posters from BPI on the Dish

Cell Culture Events:

Introduction to Cell Culture – October 1-4, 2013 and December 10-13, 2013

This 4-day cell culture workshop is designed for those with no or extensive cell culture experience. Topics include an introduction to cell and tissue culture, serum containing and serum-free media, adaptation to serum-free media, cell counting and viability staining, growth curve development, growth of suspension and adherent cells, transfection technologies, cryopreservation methods, cell cloning and primary culture.

Scheduled workshops take place in Baltimore, Maryland. All of our workshops can be conducted at your location if needed. If you have questions or want more specific course content please contact our website, www.biosciconcepts.com or call us at 410-752-4224.

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Tell Us Your WAVE Story Contest

To Enter:

Share a brief write-up on how you used the WAVE Bioreactor to solve a problem, increase productivity, improve efficiency or improve your cell culture results.

Four Winners will have their stories featured on The Cell Culture Dish Blog.

One Grand Prize Winner will be selected to receive a special winner’s plaque and an exclusive opportunity to get the results published in a well-known forum.

Enter here – //

Don’t miss the chance to tell your success story!

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Headlines:

“The IPO Market: Is This a Revival or Just a Bubble?” BioWorld

“After years of watching and waiting, biotechs are seizing the opportunity to jump into the public markets while investors are eager and interested. The initial public offering (IPO) market is a topic of keen interest at the annual BIO Investor Forum in San Francisco, where representatives from five major banks and investment groups set the stage Tuesday with a discussion of market trends and whether companies can expect more of the same in the months and years to come.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Bioprocess International Conference – Thursday’s Talks”

“Hit and Run Action of Stem Cells Exploited for Targeted Drug Delivery,” Genetic Engineering News

“Scientists have inserted mRNA into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to produce a drug delivery vehicle. Following systemic administration, the modified MSCs targeted and adhered to sites of inflammation, then released interleukin-10 that significantly reduced local swelling. Historically, MSC-based treatments have had mixed results. MSCs exert their therapeutic effects in hit-and-run style. That is, MSCs are rapidly cleared after entering the bloodstream, typically within a few hours or days. Yet, despite the transience of MSC therapeutic action, a team of scientists reports that it has engineered MSCs that rapidly localized at a distant site of inflammation in an in vivo model, and delivered therapeutically relevant concentrations of the drug. The MSCs had been engineered enhanced homing and the expression of interleukin-10, which is not inherently produced by MSCs.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Moving Your Cell Therapy from Concept to Product – A discussion about navigating funding and grant writing, partnering with organizations and the regulatory process”

“U.S. Nobel Laureate Worry About the Future of Basic Science,” Reuters

“The kind of basic science that helped Randy Schekman win the coveted Nobel medicine prize might never have been funded if he had applied today. Schekman, along with two other U.S.-based winners of the 2013 medicine prize, Thomas Suedhof and James Rothman, slammed recent spending cuts at the National Institutes of Health, the biggest funder of scientific research in the world. The budget curbs were undermining the chances of breakthroughs and the next generation of basic research, they said.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Navigating the Single-use space – How to find the right cell culture bioreactor ”

“House Votes to Fund FDA Past Shutdown,” MassDevice.com

“The U.S. House of Representatives votes to fund the FDA until the federal shutdown ends, or until Dec. 15, whichever comes first. The U.S. House of Representatives voted tonight to fund the FDA until the federal shutdown ends or until Dec. 15, whichever comes first. The lower chamber approved on a 235-162 vote a joint resolution by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) that restores funding to the level established by sequestration, which is about $200 million less than originally authorized.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Developability: Smart Ways of Avoiding the “Death of the Brave” During Biotherapeutic Development”

“For 3 Nobel Winners, A Molecular Mystery Solved,” The New York Times

“Three Americans won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for discovering the machinery that regulates how cells transport major molecules in a cargo system that delivers them to the right place at the right time. The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced the winners: James E. Rothman, 62, of Yale University; Randy W. Schekman, 64, of the University of California, Berkeley; and Dr. Thomas C. Südhof, 57, of Stanford University. Their basic research solved the mystery of how cells, which are factories producing molecules, organize a system to transport the molecules within cells and export them outside.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Single-Use Stirred Bioreactors – Enabling Flexible Biomanufacturing”

“New HHS Rule: Blood Stem Cells Aren’t for Sale,” Med Page Today

“The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a proposed rule that would include hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) acquired by apheresis under the definition of “human organ,” precluding payment for them. The agency says its aim is to make sure no one can profit from the sale of HSCs obtained by this method — particularly so that no one can exploit patients or force them into a donation — and to “encourage altruistic donations,” according to the proposed rule, which was published online in the Federal Register.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Innovative Products Featured at the Bioprocess International Conference – Part I”

“Gene Scans Solve Mystery Disease in Kids, Adults,” Yahoo News

“They were mystery diseases that had stumped doctors for years — adults with strange symptoms and children with neurological problems, mental slowness or muscles too weak to let them stand. Now scientists say they were able to crack a quarter of these cases by decoding the patients’ genes. Their study is the first large-scale effort to move gene sequencing out of the lab and into ordinary medical care, and it shows that high hopes for this technology are finally paying off.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Advances in Adherent Cell Culture Approaches Abound – Promoting Progress in Production Performance for Attachment Dependant Processes”