Allele Biotechnology Announces New advance in production of human stem cells

This week in the journal Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) scientists from Allele Biotechnology describe an important advance in the generation of stem cells capable of producing all the different tissues of the human body. In an article entitled “Feeder-Free Derivation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells with Messenger RNA,” Allele’s scientists present the fastest and safest method yet for converting ordinary human skin cells into “induced pluripotent stem cells” (iPSCs).

The scientific efforts were led by Dr. Luigi Warren, whose pioneering work on “footprint-free” reprogramming using messenger RNA was the foundation for Allele’s breakthrough. Through the united efforts of Dr. Warren and the scientists at Allele Biotechnology, his technique was re-engineered to increase cell conversion efficiency and eliminate any use of potentially unsafe reagents, while substantially reducing the time and effort needed to make stem cells. Dr. Warren believes that because of its advantages this technology “should become the method of choice for iPSC cell banking.”

According to Dr. Jiwu Wang, corresponding author on the paper and CEO of Allele Biotechnology, “This advance in stem cell derivation will enable both fundamental scientific research and clinical applications which has been the mission of Allele Biotechnology from its inception.”

Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a San Diego-based biotechnology company that was established in 1999 by Dr. Jiwu Wang and colleagues. A research based company specializing in the fields of RNAi, stem cells, viral expression, camelid antibodies and fluorescent proteins; Allele Biotechnology has always striven to offer products and services at the cutting edge of research.

Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Jiwu Wang, Ph.D., 858-587-6645 Ext 3
President and CEO
iPS@allelebiotech.com
fax: 858-587-6692
www.allelebiotech.com
Press release by BusinessWire. Also see Yahoo!News, Reuters, The Herald, etc.

Tags: flourescent proteins, human fibroblasts, iPS, iPSC, iPSCs, Lin28, MO3, mRNA reprogrammin, Myc, Nanog, Oct4, reprogrammin, Sox2, stem cells

Opportunities for business with Allele Biotech

Allele Biotech is known for staying on the edge of biological research fronts when it comes to developing new technologies into useful tools. Our research also has far-reaching implications and potential applications outside of the traditional biomedical research reagent field. Some of these technologies were the results of researchers interacting with the Allele scientific team, who wanted Allele to help realize their potentials. If you are interested in investing, co-developing, or trading in our areas of expertise, please email us at oligo@allelebiotech.com.

1) A novel method of discriminating and/or detecting mismatched polynucleotide populations in a sample, or determining the relative abundance of the species contained in the sample based on the changes in the relative ratios following a critical treatment. This technology, subject of a current patent application, can provide great benefits in polynucleotide-based diagnosis.

2) A technology on how to utilize the light-absorbing capabilities of certain light-absorbing proteins against damaging lights, or in cosmetic or beauty products. It is also a subject of a filed full patent.

3) Products that relate to detecting swine flu with novel antibodies of high specificity and stability. The antibodies have been tested in academic molecular biology labs in ELISA and strip formats.

4) Nanotechnology products that can be immediately applied to prevent citrus diseases on farms.

5) Enzymes as additives to animal feeds that help farm animals digest. The product is already being sold in certain regions.

Tags: beauty products, chicken feed, cosmetic, diagnosis, farm animals, skin care, swine flu

Top 10 List of Most Viewed AlleleBlogs in 2011

The ballot is in—among the “usual suspect” hot topics, iPS takes the top honor and most entries; Camelid antibodies, although not really presented as a typical AlleleBlog in 2011, made it to the top 3. shRNA cloning and RNAi screening are still on a lot of people’s minds, so it seems.

Method: total visits to each blog since our new webpage was launched in July was counted.

1) Fusion of the Transcription Domain to iPS Factors Radically Enhances Reprogramming
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/10/fusion-of-the-transcription-domain-to-ips-factors-radically-enhances-reprogramming/

2) Methods of iPSC Generation Update
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/08/methods-of-ipsc-generation-update/

3) About 50 Papers Cited the Use of GFP-Trap Camelid Antibody So Far in 2011
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/09/about-50-papers-cited-the-use-of-gfp-trap-camelid-antibody-so-far-in-2011/

4) Big Potential in Using Protozoans for Producing Mammalian Proteins
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/09/big-potential-in-using-protozoans-for-producing-mammalian-proteins/

5) How do you make shRNA-expressing viruses for function screening?
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/11/how-do-you-make-shrna-expressing-viruses-for-function-screening/

6) Creating ground-state human iPSCs
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/10/creating-ground-state-human-ipsc/

7) Recombinase-Mediated Cassette Exchange (RMCE) and Integrase Swappable in vivo Targeting Element (InSITE)
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/03/recombinase-mediated-cassette-exchange-rmce-and-integrase-swappable-in-vivo-targeting-element-insite/

8) Development of Cell Lines from iPSCs for Bioassays
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2011/11/development-of-cell-lines-from-ipscs-for-bioassays/

9) Choosing siRNA, shRNA, and miRNA for Gene Silencing
blog.allelebiotech.com/2010/02/choosing-sirna-shrna-and-mirna-for-gene-silencing/

10) Allele Biotech’s Box Swap Program
http://blog.allelebiotech.com/2009/07/allele-biotechs-box-swap-program/

Have a successful 2012!

Tags: camelid antibodies, environment friendly research, GFP-Trap, iPS, mRNA iPS, RiPSC, RNAi screening, shRNA lentivirus packaging

About 50 Papers Cited the Use of GFP-Trap Camelid Antibody So Far in 2011

With their ability to quantitatively pulldown GFP-tagged proteins, GFP-Trap (or RFP-Trap for DsRed-derived fluorescent proteins) beads have gained ground in becoming the reagent of choice for immuno-coprecipitation. The complexes isolated from GFP-Trap agarose or magnetic beads can be easily analyzed without interference from light or heavy IgG chains typically present after monoclonal or polyclonal antibody precipitation. Since the market launch of GFP-Trap, in each of the past 3 years, the number of publications citing GFP-Trap more has than doubled and there is no sign of that rate slowing down any time soon.

In 2011 alone, 48 research groups have published their results with data generated through use of GFP-Trap (not including other related products such as GFP-Booster, GFP-MultiTrap). Research topics in these recent publications include identification of domains of the zinc finger protein 638 (ZNF638) that interacts with C/EBPb when promoting adipocyte differentiation [1]; identification of phosphorylation site on Cdc42-associated kinase (Ack) by LC-MS/MS after immunoprecipitation [2]; and analysis of the activities of myosin heavy-chain kinases (MHCKs) in wild-type vs Htt mutant Dictyostelium discoideum, a cellular model for studying the Huntingon disease [3].

The use of GFP-Trap beads is a simple bind-wash-elute procedure that involves just one antibody already immobilized on either agarose or magnetic beads. Camelid antibodies, especially their VHH single domain fragments such as those used in GFP-Trap or RFP-Trap, are very stable (they can be shipped and temporarily stored at room temperature). The consistency of performance is very high; as a matter of fact, this line of products requires the lowest amount of technical support among all of our products. If you are still using tags like FLAG, V5, HA, etc., you should consider trying GFP as both a fluorescence and co-IP tag in your future experiments for obtaining results you previously could not obtain.

New Product of the Week: Non-Integrating iPSC Generation Kits. First of its kind on the market. Click to read more about mRNA-based reprogramming.

Promotion of the Week: Save 15% to save the environment by using EcoCulture Dishes at 30% less plastic for better imaging. Code: 091911DISH when call or email us.

Blog References:
[1] Meruvu, S. et al. “Regulation of Adipocyte Differentiation by the Zinc Finger Protein ZNF638” JBC 2011
[2] Shen, H. et al. “Constitutive activated Cdc42-associated kinase (Ack) phosphorylation at arrested endocytic clathrin-coated pits of cells that lack dynamin” Molecular Biology of the Cell 2011
[3] Wang, Y. et al. “Dictyostelium huntingtin controls chemotaxis and cytokinesis through the regulation of myosin II phosphorylation” Molecular Biology of the Cell 2011

Tags: anti-GFP, camelid antibodies, Chromotek, Co-IP, GFP-Trap, GFPTrap, immunoprecipitation, nAb: Camelid Antibodies, Nanobodies, VHH, pulldown, RFPTrap, VHH

Recap from the San Diego Entrepreneur Exchange March Event on Green Energy

With the recent concerns about the safety of nuclear power originated from the Japan earthquake and Tsunami, it should be beneficial for us to recap what we have learned at the latest SDEE conference two days before the natural disaster hit Japan.

Ron Pitt, CEO of EcoDog:
Solar energy is a great source of energy but it’s limited by the supply of silicon. Furthermore solar panels have a life of about 20 years, at which point they need to be replaced. It’s important that we take steps to alleviate our dependence on oil and deal with the current crisis, but it is also imperative that we employ forward thinking, and expand the time scale so our fix doesn’t last 20 years, or even 200 years but much longer.

Barry Toyonaga, CBO of Kent BioEnergy:
Algea is probably the most efficient way of removing waste material in waters and to entice nutrition to soil. Even the biomass after use has been shown for making bricks in a recent conference in Japan. It is important to use every aspect of our raw material, we must be so efficient to the point where no useless waste is generated by the end of our process.

Steve Mayfield, Director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, UCSD:
The energy generated from petroleum-derived fuels as well as chemicals are used for high efficiency production of food. The emission of CO2 peaked by many magnitudes in recent centuries and coincided with human population explosion. The fast depletion of oil will soon reduce humans’ abilities to produce food at such high efficiency, and unavoidably will lead to famine and population reduction. The recent unrest in Africa is not a fight for democracy but a fight for food (which we can’t agree).

The green industry is young and needs supporting roles even after high rollers like Sapphire Energy, a company spun out by Mayfield and recently received major equity investment from Monsanto, take all the spotlight. There are engineering work to be done to process the oil produced by algae, to manage production and transportation, etc.

Sandy Madigan, CEO of Strategic Enzyme Applications:
Lignin is a naturally present macromolecule in wood and other plants, it is very carbon rich and one of the few natural sources aromatic compounds can be derived from. If broken down effectively lignin can serve as an alternative source of carbon compounds, with the current source being petroleum. Furthermore, as a source of aromatics, it has the potential to provide an exact fuel replacement, as opposed to most current research looking for fuel alternatives.

New Product of the Week 031411-032111: iPSC generating lentivirus combination: 4-In-1 (2 vials) with nlCre-GFP (2 vials) and loxP-RFP (1 vials)

Promotion of the week 031411-032111: Promotion of the week: 10% off AlleleBalanced Luciferase Assay Kit. Email samajram@allelebiotech.com along with promocode: LIGHT.

Tags: biofuel, green energy, Japan earthquake, melt down, nuclear power plant, renewable energy, tsunami, US West coast