FREDERICK, Md. (PRWEB)
April 09, 2020

Hood College is the lead on an $860,000 multi-institutional collaboration with the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, the University of New England, and the Maine Department of Marine Resources, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Eric Annis, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at Hood and lead scientist on the project, will take two undergraduate summer interns to study lobsters in the Gulf of Maine in each year of the project. Hood will receive $290,000 to support this project, covering instrumentation for measuring the oxygen consumption by individual lobster larvae and temperature control for seawater tanks that will enhance their ability to conduct research related to climate change.

Lobsters start their life as larvae that are drifting in the water and then they settle on the ocean floor to grow into adults. Where lobster larvae settle and how many survive is determined in part by the temperature of the water. Water that is too cold or too hot can reduce survival or drive them away. Researchers don’t know much about the temperature range that the larvae can tolerate. The research conducted by Annis and company will help define the thermal range and will link temperature sensitivity to where the larvae settle. The success of the larvae determines the number of harvestable adult lobsters, and this research will improve the understanding of how climate change will impact this economically and ecologically important species.

“This lobster fishery is one of the most valuable in North America with an estimated value that typically exceeds $500 million per year,” said Annis. “Due to their large size and abundance in the Gulf of Maine, lobsters also play an important role in food web of the ecosystem.”

This NSF grant is a direct result of the research Annis completed in spring 2019 through a grant from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, which laid the groundwork for this new study. Annis developed the NSF grant proposal for the new research with support from a Hood College Board of Associates’ McCardell Professional Development Grant in 2019.

“I’m really excited about this project because we have a talented group of researchers from two undergraduate colleges, a leading marine research institution and a state agency collaborating to answer fundamental questions about how lobster larvae will respond to climate change,” said Annis. “This collaborative atmosphere, coupled with exciting travel and hands-on research, will generate truly transformative experiences for our students. This will provide fantastic opportunities to engage our undergraduate students in high-caliber scientific research in coastal Maine.”

Hood College is an independent, liberal arts college, offering more than 25 bachelor’s degrees, four pre-professional programs, 19 master’s degrees programs, two doctorates and 10 post-baccalaureate certificates. Located in historic Frederick, near Washington, D.C., Baltimore and the I-270 technology corridor, Hood gives students access to countless internships and research opportunities.

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SneakPeek Early Gender At-Home DNA Test

In the current environment of physical distancing, SneakPeek At-Home provides families with an alternative way to learn their baby’s gender that’s perfectly suited to staying home and staying safe.

LA JOLLA, Calif. (PRWEB)
April 06, 2020

Gateway Genomics, leading developer of direct-to-consumer genetic tests that give families insight into their future children, reached 200,000 SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Tests sold in March, just months after attaining the 150,000-test landmark in late 2019.

“SneakPeek was launched as an ecommerce product, where a mom could order her kit online, collect a DNA sample from her home, mail it back for analysis at our lab, and receive her emailed boy-or-girl result, all in days,” says Gateway Genomics CEO, Chris Jacob. “Direct-to-consumer is where the expertise of our company lies, and over the years we’ve optimized our product to be convenient and easy to use right at home. In the current environment of physical distancing, we’re grateful to be able to provide families with an alternative solution to learn the gender of their babies that’s perfectly suited to staying home and staying safe.”

The SneakPeek Test by Gateway Genomics analyzes cell-free fetal DNA found in mom’s blood to return just one answer – the gender of her unborn baby. This enables the test to use a very small amount of blood that can be collected at home. Results are emailed as fast as 72 hours after an order is placed online, with 99.1% accuracy for women who are at least 8 weeks into pregnancy, based on peer-reviewed studies.

“We understand this is a difficult situation and time, and not all families will want to or be able to visit their doctors to learn the fetal sex of their baby,” continues Mr. Jacob. “Our goal is to ensure that DNA-based prenatal information is accessible and affordable. In these uncertain times, we’re proud to deliver a product that gives parents the information they need to make plans, under their control. The SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test provides a laboratory-proven at-home option to learn a baby’s gender and share the joy with family and friends.”

This year, Gateway Genomics was ranked #236 in the 38th annual Inc. 500|5000 list of fastest-growing private companies, #23 in the Health sector, in recognition of achieving 1,786% revenue growth in the last three years. The company’s principal product, SneakPeek, is an easy-to-use DNA test that lets parents know the gender of their babies as early as 8 weeks into pregnancy, with 99.1% 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 200,000 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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“We are thrilled to launch our YWIB Ambassador Program at a time when an increasing number of girls see a future for themselves as leaders in STEM”

SEA ISLAND, Ga. (PRWEB)
April 01, 2020

Young Women In Bio (YWIB) is pleased to announce the launch of its YWIB Ambassador Program. YWIB developed this new initiative for high school girls who are interested in championing and supporting YWIB’s efforts to create educational and leadership opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for young girls, both locally and nationally.

YWIB invites high school girls to apply to become a Young Women In Bio (YWIB) Ambassador among its 13 chapters across the United States and in Canada. A YWIB Ambassador is a female student leader with a passion for STEM who demonstrates leadership among her peers by promoting STEM within her school, local community, and online and encouraging other girls in their quests to make a difference.

YWIB is excited to select YWIB Ambassadors for its inaugural program to launch during the 2020-2021 school year. YWIB Ambassadors will attend events and programs hosted by their local YWIB chapter and be actively engaged with YWIB to develop educational and other opportunities to fuel the passion for pursuing careers in STEM among young girls in their community, across the country, and in Canada. At the end of the school year, YWIB Ambassadors will be invited to apply for a scholarship that YWIB will award to the YWIB Ambassador who best exemplifies YWIB’s mission to empower today’s girls to become tomorrow’s leaders, helping them affect positive change in the worlds of science, technology,

engineering, and math.

“We are thrilled to launch our YWIB Ambassador Program at a time when an increasing number of girls see a future for themselves as leaders in STEM,” said Lily Wound, National Chair of YWIB. “We want to work directly with these high school girls to showcase their energy, enthusiasm, and creativity and to help them make a difference through their interest in STEM.”

Starting on May 1, 2020, YWIB will make YWIB Ambassador applications available on its webpage (womeninbio.org/YWIBAmbassadors) and provide guidelines for high school girls who are interested in applying to this program. Completed applications must be submitted to YWIB by June 15, 2020. Each of the 13 YWIB Chapters will then review applications from their local students and appoint one YWIB Ambassador for their region by August 15, 2020. Girls who are selected as YWIB Ambassadors will kick-off the program by Oct 15, 2020 and will continue their ambassadorship until the earlier of June 15, 2021, or through the end of their school year. YWIB will select a total of 13 Ambassadors (one for each chapter) for this inaugural year.

YWIB was originally going to launch its YWIB Ambassador Program during its annual Spring Into STEM™ Festival, now in its fourth year, which takes place from the first day of spring in March through the beginning of May. During the Spring Into STEM™ Festival, YWIB chapters and participating organizations across the United States and Canada invite girls from elementary school through high schools to a wide range of free events and activities, including company tours, panel discussions, and participation at major STEM festivals and conferences. However, given the growing number of social distancing mandates and restrictions on large events and other gatherings across the United States and Canada due to concerns regarding the spread of coronavirus, YWIB has decided to postpone its fourth annual Spring Into Festival™ and hopes to reschedule it for Fall 2020.

ABOUT YOUNG WOMEN IN BIO (YWIB)

Young Women In Bio (YWIB) gives girls today the inspiration and support they need to become tomorrow’s leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). We strive to provide education and hands-on experience in STEM, as well as share our passion for all scientific fields. Through 13 chapters across the United States and Canada, YWIB partners with leading companies, universities, hospitals, and other organizations to host highly engaging, educational, and motivational programs for young girls interested in STEM. To learn more, visit: http://www.womeninbio.org/ywib.

ABOUT WOMEN IN BIO (WIB)

Founded in 2002 to support women employed in the field of life sciences from the classroom to the boardroom, Women In Bio (WIB) is a multifaceted organization with 13 chapters in North America. It offers an array of professional educational programs, peer to peer learning, mentoring and networking opportunities, and is the only organization for women that integrates all career levels and life sciences fields. WIB is funded by sponsors and partners dedicated to supporting women of all ages in their lifelong journey; in the life sciences and beyond. Please visit http://www.womeninbio.org.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Marsha Morgenstern

Women In Bio (WIB) Communication and Marketing Administrator

mmorgenstern@womeninbio.org

412-223-7855

http://www.womeninbio.org

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TOPIQ Quick Webinars by Rigaku

The TOPIQ series of webinars will feature short presentations on a variety of topics related to X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and protein and small molecule X-ray crystallography, and include programs focusing on different applications and techniques.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (PRWEB)
April 01, 2020

Rigaku Corporation, a global leader in X-ray analytical instrumentation, is launching a new webinar series in the response to the extensive postponements and cancelations of global meetings and conferences resulting from the increasing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The series is designed to accommodate those who are currently unable to attend live events, and offer alternative opportunities to access to information on the latest development in X-ray based analytical applications and technology.

The TOPIQ series of webinars will feature short presentations on a variety of topics related to X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and protein and small molecule X-ray crystallography, and include programs focusing on different applications and techniques. The series will offer presentations on several different subjects throughout the coming months.

The first TOPIQ webinar, Processing a PX Data Set With CrysAlisᴾʳᵒ, will take place on Friday, April 3, 2020 at 10:00 AM Central Standard Time. The presentation will focus on familiarizing users who are new to the CrysAlisᴾʳᵒ package with processing a protein crystallography data set using the software.

A schedule of upcoming webinars, with links to topic descriptions and event registration, is available at http://www.rigaku.com/webinars. More details on the webinar series will be released as new events are added.

About Rigaku

Since its inception in Japan in 1951, Rigaku has been at the forefront of analytical and industrial instrumentation technology. Rigaku and its subsidiaries form a global group focused on general-purpose analytical instrumentation and the life sciences. With hundreds of major innovations to their credit, Rigaku companies are world leaders in X-ray spectrometry, diffraction, and optics, as well as small molecule and protein crystallography and semiconductor metrology. Today, Rigaku employs over 1,400 people in the manufacturing and support of its analytical equipment, which is used in more than 90 countries around the world supporting research, development, and quality assurance activities. Throughout the world, Rigaku continuously promotes partnerships, dialog, and innovation within the global scientific and industrial communities.

For further information, contact:

Michael Nelson

Global Marketing Coordinator

Rigaku Corporation

michael.nelson@rigaku.com

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DANBURY, Conn. (PRWEB)
March 31, 2020

Bedoukian Research, Inc. (BRI) and P2 Science, Inc. (P2) announce the signing of a Joint Development Agreement that builds on each company’s expertise in developing efficient routes to synthesize insect pheromones.

Bedoukian Research, Inc. is a global leader in the supply of high-quality insect pheromones as well as flavors and fragrances. P2 has developed a suite of patented green chemistry process technologies that convert renewable feedstocks into high-value specialty chemicals. Under the terms of the JDA, the companies will bring these and other strengths together with the aim of developing business opportunities in the growing pheromone market utilizing plant-based, renewable chemicals.

“Bedoukian Research, Inc. has been manufacturing insect pheromones since 1975, obtaining numerous global technical pheromone active ingredient registrations, concentrated mainly in the United States, Canada and Europe,” said Robert Bedoukian, CEO of Bedoukian. “BRI is dedicated to innovative solutions for challenging market segments and advocates these issues as an active member of both the Biological Products Industry Alliance (BPIA) as well as the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (IBMA). Bedoukian Research, Inc. and P2 Science together support safe, effective, and more economical solutions for pest management and crop protection, as well as the development of novel, renewable chemical ingredients.

“P2 was founded on the principle of minimizing harm to the planet and its people, while at the same time providing the highest performing chemical products to our customers,” said Neil Burns, CEO of P2. “Our partnership with BRI brings together two like-minded companies with complementary skills and abilities. We are really excited to be launching this new intiative with them.

About Insect Pheromones:

Pheromones act as chemical messages that affect the behavior of an individual or group of individuals within the same species and can be used as a method of communication between members of the same or the opposite sex. Insect pheromones are essential components of monitoring and management tools targeting pests of agricultural crops. Mating disruption, mass trapping, “attract-and-kill”, and “push-pull” are some of the direct pest control strategies that have utilized the use of pheromones for over three decades.

About Bedoukian Research, Inc.:

Bedoukian Research was founded in 1972 by Dr. Paul Bedoukian to fill a niche as a supplier of high-quality specialty aroma and flavor ingredients. Paul Bedoukian’s son, Dr. Robert Bedoukian, joined the company in 1975. At that time, the company began manufacturing insect pheromones, which are chemically similar to flavor and fragrance ingredients. Today, Bedoukian Research offers more than 450 Aroma Chemicals and 50 Insect Pheromones, while also providing custom manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and specialty chemical industries. For more information, see http://www.bedoukianbio.com.

About P2 Science, Inc.:

P2 Science is renewable chemistry company. The co-founders of P2, Professor Paul Anastas and Dr. Patrick Foley, worked together at the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. P2 has developed and patented green chemistry technologies for converting renewable feedstocks into high-value specialty products. Investors in P2 include BASF Venture Capital, Xeraya Capital, Elm Street Ventures, Connecticut Innovations, Ironwood Capital, HG Ventures and Chanel. The company started up its first manufacturing plant in September of 2018 which produces novel renewable aroma chemicals and cosmetics ingredients. For more information, see http://www.p2science.com

Media Contact:

Neil Burns

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COVID-19

The world is in need of a solution to COVID-19. We’re honored to be the provider of high-throughput antibody screening and characterization data to CoVIC. They have the most ambitious research goals and aggressive timelines. The Carterra LSA is the right tool at the right time.

SALT LAKE CITY, and LA JOLLA, Calif. (PRWEB)
March 31, 2020

Carterra® Inc., the world leader in high-throughput antibody screening and characterization tools, and La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), announced today that they will use Carterra’s proprietary LSA™ platform to screen hundreds of antibodies in just a few days allowing CoVIC to move therapeutic candidates to the clinic as early as this summer.

La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) has been awarded a $1.73 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a Coronavirus Immunotherapy Consortium (CoVIC) as part of the foundation’s global efforts to stem the tide of the current coronavirus outbreak, the Institute announced yesterday. Antibody therapies are often the first novel therapies advanced for an emerging infectious disease.

Headquartered at LJI, CoVIC will serve as a clearinghouse to understand which antibodies are most effective against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and to accelerate the research pipeline to provide immunotherapeutics in order to protect vulnerable individuals from severe manifestations of COVID-19 in all parts of the world including low-resource settings.

This effort is being funded as part of the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator launched in early March by the Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard. The Accelerator provides fast and flexible funding at key stages of the development process to de-risk the pathway for drugs and biologics to prevent and treat COVID-19.

The effort is led by Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., a professor in LJI’s Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, who draws on her broad research experience guiding the development of antibody drugs and galvanizing a global research coalition that helped define which therapeutic antibodies effectively combat disease in humans infected with Ebola virus.

“We are thrilled that Carterra will provide full antibody characterization data using affinity measurements and, potentially more importantly, ultra-high resolution information of the epitopes,” says Dr. Ollmann Saphire. “Knowing how well these antibodies bind to the target is important but understanding their mechanism of action and how different antibodies can complement each other will determine what ends up in the clinic.”

Traditional antibody discovery requires a primary screen of ever-expanding antibody libraries. Only a small group of candidate antibodies are then characterized on traditional, low-throughput, low-resolution biosensor tools which provide real-time readout of the binding profile. This workflow runs the risk that potential drug candidates could be missed or that the process of candidate selection could be exceedingly long.

Carterra’s LSA is turning that model on its head by enabling the high-resolution analysis of entire libraries, combining screening and characterization into one seamless step, thereby minimizing the risk of missing a potent therapeutic candidate. The LSA’s dramatic throughput condenses months of work into days. Infectious diseases are ideal for leveraging the power of the LSA platform as evidenced in recent studies of Yellow Fever and Ebola where the LSA helped elucidate the immunity of survivors.

Additionally, the LSA platform offers investigators the most resolved view of the epitope – the location an antibody binds to its target. An epitope is an innate property that cannot be changed and must be discovered empirically. The LSA is the only technology that enables characterization of epitope binding at the full library level.

“The world is in need of a solution to COVID-19,” says Josh Eckman, Carterra’s Chief Executive Officer. “We’re honored to be the provider of high-throughput antibody screening and characterization data to CoVIC. They have the most ambitious research goals and aggressive timelines. The Carterra LSA is the right tool at the right time.”

About Carterra, Inc.

Carterra® is the leading provider of high throughput technologies designed to accelerate and improve the discovery of novel therapeutic candidates. Carterra’s LSA™ instrument, software, and consumables for monoclonal antibody (mAb) characterization deliver up to 100 times the throughput of existing platforms in 10% of the time while using only 1% of the sample required by other systems. The LSA combines patented microfluidics technology with real-time high throughput Surface Plasmon Resonance (HT-SPR) and industry-leading data analysis and visualization software to revolutionize mAb screening. Carterra, Inc. is based in Salt Lake City Utah, and has Customer Experience Centers in Dublin, California, Boston, Massachusetts, and Munich, Germany. For additional information, please visit: http://www.carterra-bio.com

About La Jolla Institute for Immunology

La Jolla Institute for Immunology is dedicated to understanding the intricacies and power of the immune system so that we may apply that knowledge to promote human health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Since its founding in 1988 as an independent, nonprofit research organization, the Institute has made numerous advances leading towards its goal: life without disease®.

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