Solving the Big Problems of the World

Science, by nature, is something you do without knowing for sure that it will work. By doing an experiment, testing a theory, or tabulating large data sets to find statistical significance, researchers make small discoveries or incremental improvements on technologies. It is easy for any researcher to get buried under the enormous amount of experimental details while trying to complete a project that lasts for months and years. For a team or an organization, however, it is critical to create a level of alertness of the big questions we try to answer – why are we doing this line of research? Is the technology or theory being developed going to be disruptive in terms of changing the ways of thinking in its field or solving a big challenge that faces the world?

The world does not lack for challenges: there may not be any ice left at the North Pole as early as 2015, there are still a billion people who need reliable electric energy while the carbon fuels may run out on all of us in just a few decades, during which time usable land may not be able to provide enough food for the growing population, cancer or dementia will strike almost everybody if we all live long enough. Well, we have sent humans to the moon; we have completely eradicated smallpox and almost done with polio, can technologies once again enable us to do big things if we all aim high and pull together?

The success stories of future technology companies should not be only the types of Facebook or Twitter, which are nice stories on their own values, but success stories should also include those that deal with big, material, and imminent challenges, provide tools that help people in desperate need. Examples in our biomedical field could include diagnostic kits based on genomic information that will one day be put into each household, so that everybody will be able to decide and receive the most suitable treatment when having an ailment. New businesses will merge because of the technology advancements of deep sequencing, information storage and analysis, biosensors, and stem cell-derived assays and delivery vehicles.

Technologies will continue to develop at a faster pace than most people’s imagination as long as there is a culture that encourages it and a system that allows those with the extraordinary ambition and brains to take their risks. As an example in one of our specific fields, the barriers to making induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been dramatically lowered through several generations of method revolution only 6 years after the Nobel Prize-winning discovery was first published in 2006 because researchers believe that there will be new opportunities if reprogramming can be done more efficiently and “cleanly”. We have contributed our share of innovation in 2012 and our ambition is to provide everybody with his or her own pluripotent stem cells ready for medical use and to find a solution to most diseases with each individual’s own tissue-derived cells, in another term, point-of-care autologous treatment. It’s unproven, it’s futuristic, but it’s exciting and feasible and we will put every effort to make it happen. Theodore Roosevelt once said that “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” We are the lucky few.

Tags: Allele Biotechnology, Facebook, genome sequencing, Google, iPSCs, mission statement, science, stem cells, technologies, world problems

New Publication by Allele Biotech Researchers on Adipogenesis

Title:

A Novel pro-adipogenesis factor abundant in adipose tissues and over-expressed in obesity acts upstream of PPARg and C/EBPa

Authors:

Yuhui Ni, Chenbo Ji, Bin Wang, Jie Qiu, Jiwu Wang, Xirong Guo

Abstract:

An important question about adipogenesis is how master adipogenesis factors (defined as being able to initiate adipogenesis when expressed alone) peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) initiate adipogenesis only in differentiating preadipocytes. The objective of our research was to find previously unidentified factors that are unique or highly enriched in cells of the adipocyte lineage during adipogenesis that may provide functional tissue specificity to preadipocytes. We reasoned that such factors may alter expression profile specifically in obese individuals. Omental adipose tissues were obtained from obese and non-obese male patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. mRNAs extracted from either group were used for suppression subtraction hybridization (SSH). Genes corresponding to mRNAs enriched in obese versus non-obese patients were identified through sequencing and further analyzed for tissue distribution. Out of ~20 genes, we found several that showed clear fat cell specific expression patterns. In this study, we functionally studied one of these genes, previously designated as open reading frame C10orf116. Our data demonstrated that C10orf116 is highly expressed in adipose tissue and is localized primarily within the nucleus. Over-expression studies in 3T3-L1 cells indicated that it up-regulates the levels of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein a (C/EBPa) and PPARg and promotes adipogenic differentiation starting from the early stage of adipogenesis. Over-expressed in omental tissues from obese patients, C10orf16 manifested the characteristics of an adipocyte lineage-specific nuclear factor that can modulate the master adipogenesis transcription factors early during differentiation. Further studies of this factor should help reveal tissue-specific events leading to fat cell development at the transcriptional level.

Link to the original publication: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10863-012-9492-6
Here is Allele Biotech’s webpage showing relevant cell and development biology products: www.allelebiotech.com

Tags: adipocyte, adipogenesis, AFRO, C/EBP, C10orf116, development, PPAR

American CryoStem Corporation (OTCQB:CRYO), announced the launch of its newest adult stem cell and adipose tissue collection center in Bellevue, Washington

A public company doing business of preparing and providing adipose (fat) tissue and adipose derived adult stem cells, American CryoStem Corporation (OTCQB:CRYO), announced the launch of its newest adult stem cell and adipose tissue collection center in Bellevue, Washington. Dr. Fredric Stern will officially launch the new Stern Center Stem Cell Collection Service as the first to provide Adult Stem Cell and Tissue Banking services to the general public in the Seattle, Washington area.

“Having successfully worked with American CryoStem in the past we are truly excited about the official launch of these adipose tissue based services to the general public in Washington. I look forward to working with American CryoStem on educating my patients about the Regenerative Medicine benefits of “bio-banking” and the latest fat transfer cosmetic services now available at the center. I chose to affiliate my practice with American Cryostem because of their thorough scientific approach to stem cell banking and strict adherence to aseptic technique and FDA guidelines,” said Dr. Fredric Stern, the founder of The Stern Center and a plastic surgeon.

John S. Arnone, CEO said, according to a company news release, “We are excited to have a surgeon with Dr. Stern’s abilities and reputation associated with American CryoStem in the Seattle, WA area and look forward to a productive relationship with the entire Stern Center team. We remain committed to our “Gold Standard” clinical laboratory processing and storage reputation and strive to provide the best physician and patient services in the U.S. The newest stem cell collection center in our network represents our commitment to associate with leading physicians in the Regenerative Medicine Industry.”

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are typically the products of adipose tissue-isolated stem cells for regenerative medicine or, in this case cosmetic surgeries. The mesenchymal stem cells can also be isolated from bone marrow or embryos. They secret hormones once introduced into human bodies and help balance cytokines in the blood. It is reported that MSCs help reduce several disease symptoms and, in some countries, are used as “youth fountains” in anti-aging treatment. MSCs can be produced fairly easily, in our hands at least, from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). iPSCs, like embryonic stem cells, can be expanded indefinitely, differentiated into MSCs and all other cell types, and are being tested in various cell therapies including those that are mediated through the MSC stage.

Tags: Cosmetics, iPSC, MSC, stem cell plastic surgeon, stem cells

NIDA Branch Chief, Jonathan D. Pollock, Ph.D., Encourages SBIR/STTR Grants on Reagent Kits Including iPSC

“We’re interested in areas of genetics, in terms of smoking cessation, pharmacogenomics, treatment of substance abuse, and particularly right now, issues related to prescription substance abuse,” Jonathan D. Pollock, Ph.D., chief of the Genetics and Molecular Neurobiology Research Branch at NIDA’s Division of Basic Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, told GEN.

In addition to that solicitation, Dr. Pollock said, the branch is interested in supporting commercialization and development of products, resources, and services through SBIR/STTR relevant to brain research. They include protein capture reagents, proteomics, genomics, pharmacogenomics, molecular diagnostics, nanotechnology, gene delivery and viral vectors, identification of RNA and DNA sequences in formalin fixed nervous tissue, shRNA, microfluidics, epigenetics diagnostics, therapeutics, and tools to detect epigenetic modifications.

The branch is also looking to support commercialization and development of biomarkers, optogenetics, reagents for iPS and neural stem cells, technologies to uniquely barcode cell types, improved super resolution microscopy methods, in vivo gene expression imaging, automated sectioning, image acquisition and 3D reconstruction of electron micrographic sections, genetically encoded markers for electron microscopy, and “big” genomic and proteomic data, including data visualization, data contextualization, and data analysis.

“What we’re really looking for is products that you could basically commercialize coming out of research. These can be things that are either products or services. I think that there are opportunities, particularly for groups of individuals that have an idea, IP, and want to have a startup company.”

SBIR/STTR grants account for 2.8% of NIDA’s roughly $1 billion annual budget. NIDA spent $26.679 million on SBIR and STTR in fiscal year 2012, which ended September 30—up from $26.497 million in FY 2011. The number of SBIR/STTR research projects grants rose to 56 in FY 2012 from 44 a year earlier, according to the GEN article.

Allele Biotech’s CEO, Jiwu Wang, Ph.D., has worked with Dr. Pollock on a previous, VHH nanobody-related project under the NIDA SBIR program. He has just submitted a SBIR grant application based on Allele’s recently published mRNA-based reprogramming technology, after discussion with Dr. Pollock.

Tags: capture regent, iPSC, NIDA, RNAi, shRNA