One of the challenges in R&D is to find robust technologies to develop diagnostic tests. Notably, it could be within a context of asymptomatic infections for which reliable detection of positive specimens is crucial.

Jordi Landiera et al. have just published an article in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology (doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00565-18) using a combination of PCR and immunoassays to reveal the benefit of an HRP2-based ultrasensitive rapid diagnostic test that was developed to improve the detection of Plasmodium falciparum low density infections.

Whether you wish to perform protein expression profiling for biomarker validation, are deciphering a disease physio-pathology, are looking for the right target to study the effect of your compounds or keen to check what its mechanism of action may be, it’s not always easy to decide on the best tool to choose. I have selected a few solutions below that may bring some quick answers to these questions, and help you move faster to the next step of your biomarker project: they’re either quick to implement in your own lab or easily outsourced at a reasonable cost in a European partner platform.

Plasmid preps are to science what salt is to cooking. They’re so common that nobody notices, but nothing can be done without them. There is no mention of this step in any published paper, nobody mentions them in any activity report, no comments are made on how much time is actually spent on it.

But let’s face it: it takes time, as simple and as usual as it may be. A couple of days, spent here and there. It’s so well planned in your weekly agenda, it’s such a habit, that you don’t even think about it. It’s just routine. When you’ve done a plasmid prep a couple of times, there’s nothing new to learn about it. It’s like riding a bike, once you know how, you don’t even notice any more.

But it takes time…

In this post, I’d like to introduce the Human liver Lysosomes developed by Sekisui-Xenotech, which have opened up a new era in catabolism models. Read on to learn more, and also to download a case study demonstrating the use of lysosomes for catabolism of human IgG.