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Acting and reacting in life science biotechnologies

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Find high performing monoclonal antibodies for your Renin-specific ELISA tests

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Released by the kidneys, Renin is an enzyme which belongs to the Renin-Angiotensin system (RAS) and is involved in blood pressure homeostasis.

In healthcare, Renin assay blood tests can be performed to find the cause of high blood pressure (hypertension). When tested alongside with Aldosterone measurements, one can obtain a complete understanding of an individual’s hormone balance.

Aldosterone Regulatory Hormone. Souce Arbor Assay

Aldosterone Regulatory Hormone Signalling pathway. Souce Arbor Assay

In preclinical and fundamental research, a Renin ELISA test therefore becomes of interest to monitor this biomarker in various disease states particularly when analyzed together with other biomarkers like Aldosterone and Cortisol. Different disorders can then be differentiated such as Primary and Secondary Hyperaldosteronism, Cushing syndrome, and Addison’s disease (adrenal insufficiency)… [Read more…]

Tips and Tricks – Protein purification and production for LC-MS characterization

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Mass spectrometry is a technology which is widely used in most scientific disciplines that require accurate and precise measurement of elemental and molecular components. Its use in the pharmaceutical sector is often associated with the Drug Discovery and Development process. The primordial step to analyze a sample is to perform a sample treatment to enable its study. It really requires know-how to obtain good quality results. The following tips and tricks can help you to rapidly select a protein purification strategy and to anticipate some possible problems.

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Renal injury biomarkers

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Renal injury can sometimes be induced by drugs. Some examples of renal damage-inducing drugs include some widespread treatments, such as ß-Lactam antibiotics, bisphosphonates, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, diuretics, aminoglycoside antibiotics, antineoplastic agents and radiocontrast agents.

Since 2008, both the FDA and the EMEA indicated that additional tests may be necessary to assess new drug safety and prevent from renal toxicity. Though these recommendations are voluntary, many pharmaceutical companies have started gathering data on nephrotoxicity biomarkers. [Read more…]

Biomarkers of stemness

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Stem Cells: a great tool for biomedical research! From the embryo at a very early stage of development, stem cells have two important capabilities: to multiply to infinity by simple division and to give rise to all kind of cells of the organism. These properties offer many opportunities, not only for the regenerative medicine but also for the study of genetic diseases and development of new treatments.

One of the first thing to do when you’re working on this kind of cells is to check if they are really stem cells, i.e their stemness. It can be highlighted by different markers by IF, WB, etc…

Today, I invite you to look at a popular antibody allowing you to monitor the level of differentiation of your cellular model as well as an innovation related to antibody array and stem cell research.

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10 Mitochondrial marker antibodies

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There is a high demand for selective fluorescent probes for the imaging of particular organelles and biomarkers in living cells. This is particularly the case for mitochondrial research. In this post, we will focus on another type of powerful research tools (ie. primary antibodies) that have been proven to be very useful for studying mitochondria. The 10 antibodies highlighted here have been successfully used by our clients for immunoblotting of mitochondrial proteins and are all covered by tebu-bio’s Satisfaction Guaranteed.

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Melanoma cell lines: Bridge the gap between patient and lab samples

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Tumour modelling facilitates the study of tumour growth in the tumour microenvironment (TME). Therapies that affect the tumour microenvironment are critical for advancing the fight against cancer as emerging therapies target the network of signaling pathways essential for tumour growth, Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition and metastasis (ex. Wnt/ß-Catenin pathway). Patient derived tumour models, including melanoma cell lines, are invaluable tools to study normal and malignant cells, tumour formation and drug resistance.

Rockland Immunochemicals Inc. has partnered with the Wistar Research Institute, to produce and validate a diverse panel of low passage melanoma cell lines from freshly excised metastases. More than 100 melanoma cell lines are grouped for BRAF, N-RAS, KIT, PTEN and CDK4 mutations.  These pre-clinical tumour cell lines models can be used to identify the critical target genes and pathways enacted by genomic alterations and lead to more accurately prediction of the effectiveness of novel cancer therapeutics and facilitate cancer research. [Read more…]

Eotaxin-1 as a biomarker of prostate cancer

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PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) has been (and still is) the biomarker of choice for the diagnosis and follow up of patients having a Prostate Cancer (PCa). However, even if it has been used for quite some time now, it is not too specific and its levels may be high for other physiological situations, and not only cancer. Therefore, the need for more specific biomarkers for the correct management of PCa patients is mandatory. A recent publication by Heidegger et al. suggests that Eotaxin-1 (CCL11) could be a more specific biomarker. [Read more…]

miRNA modulates immune response to Mycobacterium

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Source: Kumar M. et al. (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2015.01.007).

The outcome of the interaction between Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and a macrophage depends on the interplay between host defense and bacterial immune subversion mechanisms. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) critically regulate several host defense pathways, but their role in the Mtb-macrophage interplay remains unclear.

Recently, Kumar et al. performed a miRNA profiling, and investigated the downregulation of miR-let-7f in a manner dependent on the Mtb secreted effector ESAT-6. [Read more…]

What the datasheet of an antibody really means

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Today, I’d like to give some tips & tricks on how to select an antibody… by reading its datasheet.

Obvious as it may seem, the datasheet is in fact contractual. It states the characteristics and guaranteed performance of a given product in general, or an antibody in particular. So it should be read carefully before taking a purchasing decision. No matter if you saw a great antibody detecting protein X in polar bear in some publication. If polar bear is not one of the validated species in the datasheet, the antibody is not guaranteed and you won’t get a replacement or refund. [Read more…]