Paul Grayson of BGV explained “… We are excited at the opportunity to support Frederick’s strong biotech community, which includes some of the most advanced biomedical research labs in the world

FREDERICK, Md. (PRWEB)
July 15, 2021

Beckham Gumbin Ventures (BGV), a commercial real estate investor and developer, is beginning construction on brand new R&D laboratory spec suites and amenities at Ballenger Bio (321 Ballenger Center Drive) in Frederick, Maryland. Ballenger Bio will offer several 3,000 to 7,000 SF R&D laboratory spec suites, with the ability to combine up to 37,000 SF of contiguous space on a single floor. Building such spec labs will allow for growing biotech companies to focus on their business as opposed to construction costs and timelines.

The life sciences industry in Suburban Maryland remains robust with a vacancy rate of less than 4%. Many smaller and early stage life sciences companies have nowhere to plant their flag considering the high demand and low supply of real estate to accommodate their specialized needs. This is especially true in Frederick County, where move-in ready BSL-2 lab space is extremely limited.

BGV, an experienced life sciences developer who recently converted a 285,000 SF complex in Rockville, Maryland, recognized the growing needs of life science companies in Frederick. Paul Grayson of BGV explained, “While there are other developers bringing a speed to market concept for larger biotechnology manufacturing needs, Ballenger Bio will be the solution for the smaller and mid-sized, R&D bio and chemistry labs that are needed in the market. We are excited at the opportunity to support Frederick’s strong biotech community, which includes some of the most advanced biomedical research labs in the world.”

The City of Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor shared, “The Frederick region is now one of the largest clusters of life science companies in the nation. By providing speculative laboratory space in Frederick, Ballenger Bio will expand opportunities for companies to grow beside world renowned public research facilities like Fort Detrick and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and join our 80 plus biotech companies in Frederick. The City appreciates BGV’s investment in Ballenger Bio and we look forward to working with these new ventures in Frederick!”

The City of Frederick’s Department of Economic Development works closely with companies considering new operations in Frederick and provides connectivity to resources and programs. Director of Economic Development, Richard Griffin stated, “The life science ecosystem here has garnered much attention due to Frederick’s quality of life and highly educated workforce. Amenities such as a hip and historic downtown, a thriving arts and entertainment scene, and 80+ state, county and municipal parks help to position Frederick as a great place to live and work. We look forward to welcoming future companies to join our nearly 3,700 businesses within the City.”

BGV has hired Cushman & Wakefield to spearhead its leasing efforts and plans to deliver these labs by early 2022.

About Beckham Gumbin Ventures:

Beckham Gumbin Ventures, LLC (BGV) is a commercial real estate investment and development company that pursues real estate investments primarily in the greater Washington, DC and Phoenix, AZ metropolitan areas. With more than 75 years in combined experience, the principals of BGV have been active investors, owners, and developers of properties throughout North America. The BGV team’s experience spans nearly all commercial real estate property types and all levels of the capital structure.

About Cushman & Wakefield:

Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 51,000 employees in 400 offices and 70 countries. In 2018, the firm had revenue of $8.2 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, valuation and other services. To learn more, visit http://www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.

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FARMINGTON, Conn. (PRWEB)
July 01, 2021

Shoreline Biome, a leading microbiome company that develops complete solutions for characterizing microbiome populations down to the strain level, has entered into a partnership with AH diagnostics A/S for product distribution. Shoreline Biome’s complete suite of products for use on the industry-leading, next-generation sequencing platforms, Illumina, PacBio, and Oxford Nanopore, will now be available for purchase in Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

AH diagnostics is a leading supplier of innovative products and full workflow solutions to customers within life science and diagnostics in the Nordics with over 30 years of experience in providing specialized knowledge and support. Founded in 1986 in Aarhus, Denmark, the company now has subsidiaries in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as a sales office in Copenhagen, offering products that are at the forefront of scientific and technological development and knowledge.

“We truly appreciate that we have been selected as the sole Nordic distributor for Shoreline Biome, “ said Niels Stampe Rüdiger, Managing Director, CEO. “Shoreline Biome’s products comply with our strategy of bringing products to the market of the highest standard. The company’s easy, end-to-end workflow provides significant improvements to many of the standard protocols of which data misses the microbial strain-level resolution which is often required. The Shoreline Biome solution fits perfectly within the industry-leading long-read sequencing platforms from PacBio, as well as the Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing platforms, and the short-read Illumina sequencing platforms.”

“We are proud to partner with AH diagnostics, a leading life sciences distributor, to provide broad access to all of our solutions in the fast-growing microbiome market in the Nordics,” said Thomas Jarvie, Shoreline Biome’s Cofounder and CEO. “Shoreline Biome accelerates microbiome research through the characterization of complex microbiome populations and enabling the discovery of never before seen strains of microbes that play an important role in human health and the environment.

A detailed list of Shoreline Biome’s international distributors and ordering information by country can be accessed at shorelinebiome.com/international-distributors.

For more information about AH diagnostics, visit https://www.ahdiagnostics.dk/

About Shoreline Biome:

Characterizing the human microbiome and analyzing its role in human health and disease are priority goals for researchers around the world. Shoreline Biome accelerates breakthroughs in microbiome research by developing transformative discovery tools that characterize microbiome populations down to the strain level. With Shoreline Biome products, all it takes is three easy steps: lyse, purify, and amplify. Shoreline Biome’s easy-to-use companion analysis software and comprehensive reference database enables straightforward strain-level identification and quantitation of all bacteria in the sample. To learn more, visit http://www.shorelinebiome.com.

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WESTMINSTER, Colo. (PRWEB)
June 28, 2021

Members of the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) are among those leading presentations during in the upcoming 61st annual meeting of the Aquatic Plant Management Society (APMS), an event that will include both face-to-face and online sessions.

The face-to-face portion will be held July 12-14 in New Orleans, Louisiana, followed by a one-day virtual session on July 29. All in-person talks will be recorded and will be made available on demand. In addition, those registering for the face-to-face session will have access to presentations delivered online during the virtual meeting.

Several WSSA members are among those scheduled to make presentations on the latest research and best practices in aquatic weed management. Examples of those presenting during the face-to-face general sessions include:

• 
  Mark A. Heilman, Ph.D., of SePRO Corporation will make a presentation on “Management strategies utilizing florpyrauxifen-benzyl for control of yellow floating heart in an Oklahoma drinking water reservoir.”
• James Leary, Ph.D., of the University of Florida will make a presentation on “Evaluating subsurface field applications of florpyrauxifen-benzyl for suppressing hydrilla.”
• Christopher Mudge, Ph.D., of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will make a presentation on “Herbicide Spray Loss and Retention: Influence of Floating Plant Density, Carrier Volume and Adjuvants.”
• Benjamin P. Sperry, Ph.D., of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will make a presentation on “Herbicide activity dynamics of foliar applications to waterhyacinth.”
• Ryan A. Thum, Ph.D., of Montana State University will make two presentations – one on “Genetic diversity and geographic origins of invasive yellow floating heart in the United States” and another on “Building a centralized database of watermilfoil strain geographic distribution and herbicide response for use in management decision making.”
• Ryan M. Wersal, Ph.D., of Minnesota State University will make a presentation on “Lab to field: developing chemical control recommendations for starry stonewort.”

WSSA member Erika Haug, Ph.D., of North Carolina State University is among those presenting during the virtual session. She will speak on “Small-scale efficacy screenings of florpyrauxifen-benzyl in combination with either chelated copper or endothall for the control Monoecious Hydrilla.”

Further information on both the face-to-face and virtual meetings are available online.

About the Aquatic Plant Management Society

The Aquatic Plant Management Society is an international organization of scientists, educators, students, commercial pesticide applicators, administrators and concerned individuals interested in the management and study of aquatic plants. The objectives of the Society are to assist in promoting the management of nuisance aquatic plants, to provide for the scientific advancement of members of the society, to encourage scientific research, to promote university scholarship, and to extend and develop public interest in the aquatic plant science discipline. For more information, visit http://www.apms.org.

About the Weed Science Society of America

The Weed Science Society of America, a nonprofit scientific society, was founded in 1956 to encourage and promote the development of knowledge concerning weeds and their impact on the environment. The Society promotes research, education and extension outreach activities related to weeds, provides science-based information to the public and policy makers, fosters awareness of weeds and their impact on managed and natural ecosystems, and promotes cooperation among weed science organizations across the nation and around the world. For more information, visit http://www.wssa.net.

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Using the breakthrough SneakPeek Snap

For the first time, parents can learn their baby’s gender without fingersticks.

LA JOLLA, Calif. (PRWEB)
June 28, 2021

Gateway Genomics, leading provider of direct-to-consumer genetic tests focused on prenatal and pediatric information, announces the launch of the new SneakPeek Snap. SneakPeek Snap is a self-administered device that collects capillary blood through the upper arm rather than the sensitive fingertip, thereby reducing pain from 78% to 10% as noted in a recent clinical study. The automated, self-contained nature of SneakPeek Snap also made it easier to use, reducing difficulty from 60% to 10%.

“We’re thrilled to offer parents a way to learn the gender of their babies without fingersticks,” says Gateway Genomics CEO, Chris Jacob. “It removes one worry for moms during pregnancy, knowing they now have a pain-free, easy way to discover if they’re having a boy or girl, all from the comfort and convenience of home.”

The traditional lancet method often used in at-home blood collection kits requires puncturing the fingertip with a lancet blade, then manually squeezing blood from the finger into a tube. This physical manipulation can sometimes cause blood cell lysis, or DNA contamination if the finger and nails aren’t completely clean. SneakPeek Snap mitigates these issues with push-button functionality and a tube that’s already attached to the device to collect blood automatically.

“Using SneakPeek Snap is as easy as place, push, wait, and remove,” continues Mr. Jacob. “Rather than trying to squeeze blood from the finger into a tube, moms can relax while the device collects blood for them, then remove the tube and send it back for analysis. SneakPeek Snap blood collection takes less than 4 minutes for most of our customers.”

Developed in partnership with Seventh Sense Biosystems, SneakPeek Snap uses microneedles that are 1/5 the width of the lancet blade and only go into the top layer of skin where there are fewer nerve endings, enabling the device to be virtually painless. SneakPeek Snap is used by placing it on the upper arm and pushing a button, and the device collects the blood sample in 1 to 4 minutes. The user can let arms hang comfortably, as SneakPeek Snap stays on with an adhesive. When SneakPeek Snap is removed from the arm, the tube is easily separated from the device and can be capped and readied for mailing.

SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test with Snap is now available through the SneakPeek website and will soon be launched in the company’s over 1,000 participating clinical locations.

In 2020, Gateway Genomics ranked #296 in the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., #22 in the Health sector. In 2021’s Inc. 5000 California list, the company was ranked the 56th fastest-growing private company in the state, and #6 in the Health sector. Gateway Genomics’ principal product, SneakPeek Gender, is an easy-to-use DNA test that lets parents know the fetal sex of their babies as early as 8 weeks into pregnancy, with 99.9% accuracy.

About Gateway Genomics

Gateway Genomics is a personal genomics company with the mission to develop leading-edge genetic tests that give families a new level of understanding about their future children. Since inception, more than 450,000 SneakPeek Early Gender DNA tests have been provided to help new parents bond with their babies, make plans, and connect with friends and family around them. Gateway Genomics is located in La Jolla, CA.

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In a first for science, a team of researchers used wildtype SARS-CoV-2 to infect and replicate the disease on human tissue in an organ-on-a-chip device. Image: Shutterstock.

“The door is now open for using naturally circulating viruses to develop and screen therapies for COVID-19 using the best method available—organ-on-a-chip,” said Ashley Gard, Draper scientist and corresponding author for a research paper by Draper and Massachusetts General Hospital.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (PRWEB)
June 23, 2021

A new Draper-led study has demonstrated the first SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral replication using a wildtype virus in a human tissue lung-on-a-chip. The findings, posted as a preprint article on bioRxiv, represent a breakthrough in SARS-CoV-2 research and a promising path forward for therapy development.

“In SARS-CoV-2 research, organ-on-chip is emerging as a powerful method for scientists to assess the potential effects of drugs in humans. In this research, we advance the science with the first successful demonstration of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human primary airway epithelial cells derived from a living donor,” said Ashley Gard, the paper’s corresponding author and scientist at Draper. “The door is now open for using naturally circulating viruses to develop and screen therapies for COVID-19 using the best method available—organ-on-a-chip.”

This research collaborative, led by Gard, a senior member of the technical staff at Draper, includes experts in synthetic biology, molecular biology, cell and tissue engineering, molecular microbiology, biotechnology and biomedical engineering. The lung-on-a-chip at the heart of the study simulates the human lung’s own airway-liquid interface (ALI), an achievement that promises to give a boost to COVID-19 therapy development.

In the study, the researchers investigated viral infection kinetics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the PREDICT96-ALI platform in a BSL-3 laboratory environment. They measured RNA levels increasing 600-fold during the experiment, a validation of the model’s capacity to support SARS-CoV-2 viral infection and replication. They also detected the presence of large multi-cell clusters, further confirming SARS-CoV-2 replication and spread to neighboring cells.

The findings indicate a promising advance beyond the use of pseudoviruses in SARS-CoV-2 research studies. Compared to a naturally occurring virus, pseudoviruses contain only fragments of host-cell DNA without containing any of the nucleic acid components of the infectious virus to which they are related. The lack of DNA prevents the pseudoviruses from producing viral surface proteins on their own. Results with naturally occurring, or wildtype, virus are more relevant to the infection and replication process that causes disease in humans.

The paper advances the case for ALI tissue models by identifying additional applications, including chronic pulmonary conditions, acute respiratory infections and toxic exposures to the lung. But it also describes the limitations of traditional membrane insert-based systems, such as challenges with high resolution imaging, large media volumes and a lack of dynamic media circulation and real-time sensing, all of which highlight the advantages of this high throughput organ-on-chip approach.

Co-author Benjamin Medoff, MD, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care at Massachusetts General Hospital, said, “This study offers a detailed description of how the airway-on-a-chip model can be used to evaluate mechanisms of infection for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The demonstration of PREDICT96-ALI for use in high-throughput assays is quite important and highlights its utility in drug discovery and therapeutic screening applications.”

Co-author Jeff Borenstein added, “PREDICT96-ALI has the demonstrated capacity for use in high-throughput assays, a critical capability for practical drug discovery and therapeutic screening applications. Leveraging all of its features, this model will facilitate high-throughput, preclinical evaluation of therapeutic candidates in a dynamic tissue microenvironment that supports real-time, non-invasive sensing and imaging.”

Gard added that one reason researchers have been unable to demonstrate SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication in human tissue models in organ-on-chip systems is that most systems are configured as laboratory research tools, and operation in the BSL-3 environment requires an instrumented well plate designed to fit pharmaceutical industry standard tools. “Preparing for a pandemic requires tools that rapidly integrate with pharma infrastructure and are instrumented for the remote monitoring and operation necessary to operate in a BSL-3 environment. Draper’s tool fits that description,” Gard said.

Co-authors from Draper include Christine Fisher, Felix Mba Medie, Rebeccah Luu, Robert Gaibler, Caitlin Miller, Thomas Mulhern, Vidhya Vijayakumar, Elizabeth Marr, Jeffrey Borenstein and Ashley Gard. Co-authors from MGH include Jehan Alladina and Benjamin Medoff.

Draper has contributed to organ-on-chip programs for a number of government agencies, academic institutions and commercial customers.

Draper

At Draper, we believe exciting things happen when new capabilities are imagined and created. Whether formulating a concept and developing each component to achieve a field-ready prototype or combining existing technologies in new ways, Draper engineers apply multidisciplinary approaches that deliver new capabilities to customers. As a nonprofit engineering innovation company, Draper focuses on the design, development and deployment of advanced technological solutions for the world’s most challenging and important problems. We provide engineering solutions directly to government, industry and academia; work on teams as prime contractor or subcontractor; and participate as a collaborator in consortia. We provide unbiased assessments of technology or systems designed or recommended by other organizations—custom designed, as well as commercial-off-the-shelf. http://www.draper.com

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Adding a barcode to a laboratory sample label makes it possible to retrieve all the information about the sample that cannot be printed on the label.

Every sample deserves its own barcode

Fort Collins, Colorado (PRWEB)
June 22, 2021

Properly labeling laboratory specimens is the most effective way to increase the productivity of research teams. GenoFAB and LabTAG have joined forces to make it easier for any laboratory to use barcode technologies to identify and track their valuable samples.

It is estimated that, in the US alone, $28bn per year are wasted in preclinical research that fails to deliver reproducible results. Sample and reagent identification explains 36.1% of the problems and represents the main source of irreproducibility.

Many laboratories are still relying on handwritten labels to identify their samples because printing labels is surprisingly challenging in a laboratory environment. Many samples in the life sciences are very small and exposed to very harsh conditions. A working labeling solution requires assembling specialized labels that can withstand the most extreme conditions from ultra-low to ultra-high temperatures. It also requires a label printer compatible with the labels and software to control the printer.

GenoFAB provides a web-based software solution allowing users to document their samples and generate barcode labels that make it possible to retrieve the sample documentation. Unlike other label printing solutions that only print labels but lack a data management system, GenoFAB users can attach as much data they need to document their samples. Furthermore, GenoFAB’s label design and printing solution is completely web-based. It does not require users to use a specific type of computer and install third party software on their computer to design and print their labels.

“Every sample deserves its own barcode,” said Jean Peccoud, CEO of GenoFAB. “Printing labels should be the first step of any experiment”.

LabTAG manufactures specialty labels for the life science industry. Their unmatched expertise and reputation in this market made them a natural partner to develop an integrated sample labeling solution that will meet the needs of the most demanding laboratories. GenoFAB users will find in LabTAG, a trusted partner that will help them select the labeling solution that will meet their needs and requirements.

“GenoFAB label printing solution removes a lot of friction that many users find difficult to overcome,” said George Ambartsoumian, CEO of LabTAG. “We are looking forward to providing GenoFAB users with the specialized labels they need in their harsh laboratory environments to identify their specimens, track their samples, and manage their inventory”.

About GenoFAB: GenoFAB’s web-based laboratory information management system (LIMS) allowing research organizations to increase the quantity and quality of data they can produce with their existing resources. It reduces the probability of project failure by extracting actionable information from raw data in real time.

LabTAG, a division of GA International Inc., is a full-scale research and development company that manufactures specialty labels and tapes including cryogenic, xylene and autoclave resistant, wrap-around (self-laminating) labels and much more.

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