wjs018

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/1133527

Paywall-free link: http://archive.today/oPjro

Breakthrough here is the ability to image embryos comprised of living cells as opposed to post-mortem embryos.

original doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.06.003

This piece resonated with me as I also did not really envision myself working in industry when I started grad school; figuring that I would just stay in academia in one form or another. However, when I started to look outside academia (after seeing lab mates stuck in endless post-doc loops), I was surprised at the breadth of opportunities that were available.

Even though my degree was in physics, I was doing stuff relevant to several different industries. I interviewed for roles in data science, materials science, petrochemicals, food science, and pharma. Ultimately, I ended up in pharma and the very first program I worked on was an immunotherapy to target the type of cancer that caused the death of my grandfather. It wasn't some grand design on my part, just a coincidence that echoes some of what this author experienced.

The issue seems to be how the data was collected in the Phase 3 trial:

Clinical trials of most drugs and vaccines supporting FDA approval are mainly conducted in the U.S. and Europe, where clinical trial protocols are well recognized. The phase 3 TIDES trial used for Qdenga’s application was run in several less well-off, dengue-endemic regions in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

However, it should be noted that Takeda's drug, Qdenga, is already approved by the EMA in the EU and a couple other agencies. It is just the FDA that is holding things up in the US.

Continued fallout from the explosion of the Centaur upper stage on ULA's test stand as Vulcan's launch continues to slip.

In a statement, ULA described the work needed on the Centaur V upper stage as “minor reinforcement at the top of the forward dome,” or the uppermost section of the liquid hydrogen tank. The changes will add strength to the tank, which contains super-flammable fuel chilled to minus 423° Fahrenheit (minus 253° Celsius).

The pressure is on as the DOD is eagerly waiting for Vulcan.

The US Space Force is eager for the Vulcan rocket to enter service. The Pentagon selected ULA and SpaceX in 2020 to launch around 40 of the military’s most critical surveillance, communications, and navigation satellites from 2022 through 2028. ULA won the rights to launch about 60 percent of the missions, primarily using the new Vulcan rocket, with SpaceX taking the remaining 40 percent with its Falcon rocket family.

"The postponement is motivated by obligatory compliance with the prevention of forest fires... as well as the high temperatures" in southern Spain "to ensure the safety of the area where the launch is carried out".

First time I have seen this cited as a reason for a launch delay.

I haven't editorialized the title, but I don't like it since the desired protein structure was thought up by the grad student and the "digitally designed" piece just seems to be some MD modelling to confirm the desired outcome before synthesis.

That being said, I thought this was interesting since freeze/thaw (F/T) stress is ubiquitous in the life sciences and something that is especially important to the emerging field of cell therapy. Typically, excipients like sucrose, trehalose, or glycerol are used to preserve biological molecules during F/T, but they are not protective in every case. Developing alternative means to protect during F/T gives people like me that develop therapeutic formulations more options to turn to in the case of difficult molecules.

doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220380120

This is about a recent study looking at the rheology of fondant. Essentially, fondant is created from a supersaturated solution of sucrose that is agitated (kneaded). This causes the fondant to experience a sequence of events:

1. First, the agitation induces crystal nucleation and growth. In the early stages of crystal formation, the surrounding solution is depleted of sucrose, reducing the bulk viscosity.
2. However, as the crystals grow in size, they are large enough to push against one another in hard sphere-like interactions. This causes a sharp increase in viscosity at this critical crystal size.
3. As agitation continues, sucrose crystals fracture and the system reaches an equilibrium crystal size distribution, causing the viscosity to decrease from its peak. This is the final state of a smooth, pliable fondant.

There is a doi provided by the article, but as of my posting this, the doi hasn't been activated yet.

This is a summary of a Phase 1/2 trial of a cell therapy meant to stimulate insulin production in diabetes patients. The top line is that it met its clinical endpoints and several of the patients no longer require external insulin dosing at all and their blood sugar is well managed. Vertex also has a number of follow-up therapies in the pipeline meant to improve upon this therapy.

I personally don't have much experience in cell therapy, but the potential of a treatment like this is clear. We will see what the data looks like as this goes through the clinical trial pipeline and expands the patient population in Phase 3.

Not sure if TIL-type posts are allowed here, but thought that the story of the history of this event is interesting in a "history of science" type of way. If you want a narrative style of telling, you can check out this Smithsonian piece.

Story time! I watched Jurassic Park again recently and there is a bit in the movie where there is a discussion about competing theories for how the dinosaurs met their end. I didn't realize that back in the early 90's the impact theory was just one of a competing number of theories, so I did some reading.

Turns out that while doing readings to explore for gas/oil in the Caribbean, the Mexican state oil company, Pemex, had found evidence for the Chicxulub crater way back in the 1940's, but dismissed it as volcanic activity and moved on since volcanic regions are not great for oil extraction.

Fast forward to the late 70's and geophysicists are making additional measurements for Pemex and correctly ID the ring structure of these readings as a likely impact crater. The company is not really interested but consent to allow them to present their findings.

The cruel irony is that the conference at which the findings were presented occurred the same week that there was a special, separate conference with impact crater experts to discuss the impact theory of the end of the dinosaurs. So, there were no experts in attendance to learn about Chicxulub crater's existence from the Pemex scientists or recognize it's importance.

It took another 9 years, 1990, before the two worlds connected and further action was taken to ID Chicxulub as the impact crater that corresponded to the exact time period scientists were looking for.

Then, finally, it was 2010 before scientific consensus was (generally) reached that Chicxulub is the impact that ended the dinosaurs.

doi for the original Science piece: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh3104