Sven Bocklandt, Ph.D. Species Director and Anthony Mastracci IV, Associate Researcher from Colossal Biosciences recently joined Cell Microsystems for a webinar titled “Reviving the past, safeguarding the future: challenges and innovations in cell culture.” In many labs across the world, fluorescence-activated cell sorters (FACS) have remained the gold standard instrumentation for cell line development and […]
As my mother, a seasoned scientist and lab veteran who has trained countless students and post-docs, likes to say, “They don’t call it RE-search for nothing. It’s because we RE-do experiments over and over again until it works.” So, it should come as no surprise that she cautioned me to think long and hard about […]
The satisfaction that comes from seeing a carefully designed experiment unfold and coalesce into a clue, an answer, or a new tool is what makes research and development so gratifying. But every scientist knows that this process is not always seamless. When the goal is big, like Kite Pharma’s ultimate goal of curing cancer, there […]
Long-term health effects of smoking According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. An estimated 28.3 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, and about 2.8 million U.S. middle and high school students use at least one tobacco product, including […]
Mechanical forces have been shown to impact cell phenotype and function in vivo. The most prolific of these forces is shear stress, induced by fluid movement throughout the body. Shear stress has been demonstrated to impact polarization, alignment, differentiation, and function of various cell types, including endothelial cells, leukocytes, and stem cells. Despite the impact […]
Manual Patch Clamping: An Art Form In the 1990s, if you wanted to study the activity of ionotropic receptors across the membrane of cells, your best bet was learning how to patch clamp. This technique requires careful positioning of a glass pipette filled with a saline solution that mimics the internal ionic concentration in the […]
Bacterial biofilms are found throughout nature, in places such as ponds, the human body, and food. Although humans peacefully co-exist and even benefit from many types of bacteria, some strains, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, can form pathogenic biofilms. To combat these harmful biofilms, many researchers are engaged in investigations aimed at determining the mechanisms of […]
Many infections in humans, including medical device infections, chronic wounds, staph skin infections, and endocarditis, involve biofilms (1). Troublingly, due to their protective matrix, many biofilms can evade the immune system and may have an inadequate response to antibiotic treatment. This can lead to chronic infections and antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, the development of effective prevention […]
