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Seeds of the castor bean plant, Ricinus communis. Chan et al. report a draft genome of this oilseed crop, the first for a member of the Euphorbiaceae (p 951). Credit: Pablo Rabinowicz
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision to approve a generic heparin derivative without clinical safety or efficacy data raises the possibility that clinical trials might not always be required for the approval of follow-on biologics.
Surging interest in cancer bioenergetics has brought drug developers into the fray, but the field awaits a clinical success. Ken Garber explores the extent to which the concept is entering the mainstream.
Orienting cancer drug discovery to the patient requires relating the genetic features of tumors to acquired gene and pathway dependencies and identifying small-molecule therapeutics that target them.
As health biotech enterprises in emerging economies move from imitation to innovation, will they become less relevant to local global health priorities?
Over the past four years, several new types of experimental biologic treatment have received commercial registration, but the emergence of biosimilars represents the biggest shift in the biologic approval landscape.
Incompatible data storage formats have hindered the sharing and analyses of digital representations of biological pathways. BioPAX is a standardized language supported by >40 databases and software tools for exchanging pathway data.
Label-free methods for assaying GPCR signaling promise to illuminate the effects of drugs in therapeutically relevant primary cells. Kostenis and colleagues demonstrate the utility of one such method, dynamic mass redistribution, in comparison with traditional second messenger–based assays.
Castor beans are best known as a source of industrial lubricants and the toxic bioterror threat, ricin, and they have potential to provide biofuel. Chan et al. present the draft sequence of the Ricinus communis genome, the first for a member of the Euphorbiaceae.
Much remains to be learned about the biology of mushrooms, which are an important source of food as well as secondary metabolites and enzymes of biotechnological importance. Ohm et al. report the sequence of the genetically tractable species Schizophyllum commune and identify genes involved in the formation of fruiting bodies and the degradation of lignocellulose.
Isolation of antigen-specific antibodies or antibody fragments, whether through B-cell immortalization or recombinant libraries, generally requires laborious screening. Reddy et al. circumvent this step using high-throughput sequencing of plasma cells and bioinformatic analysis of the variable-gene repertoire.
Fordyce et al. measure the sequence specificity and affinity of DNA-binding proteins using an improved microfluidic device. They characterize binding of 28 yeast transcription factors, several of which had proved intractable to previous approaches.
Reconstructing a metabolic model from the genome sequence of an organism is a useful but arduous approach for predicting phenotypes. Henry et al. describe a resource that automates most of this process and apply it to create >100 new metabolic models of microbes.
Cleantech can offer biotech professionals the same mission, means of support and use of talents and skills they can have in drug discovery and development.
