CRISPR Introduction CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, found in nature as a bacterial immune defence mechanism, was first harnessed by scientists as a laboratory tool in 2012 to knock out or mutate genes of interest.(1,2,3) This ground-breaking technique is now commonly used on cell lines to monitor the effects of specific mutations or the function of a specific … Read more
Introduction There have been growing concerns over the amount of plastic waste being released into the environment, especially into our oceans. This is because of the untold harm to aquatic life and contamination of the food chain. In fact, plastics can enter the food chain through tiny plastic particles, known as microplastics, that can be … Read more
What are Phages? A phage (an abbreviated term for a bacteriophage) is a virus that infects bacteria. They are made up of of a nucleic acid molecule that is surrounded by a protein structure. Phages produce viral components by first hijacking the cellular machinery of a bacterium. These viral components are then assembled to form … Read more
M&A In the Research Reagents Market The market in research reagents and diagnostics has been very active in the latter part of 2018 and early 2019 with a large number of M&A transactions undertaken. Most of these appear to have been by private equity expanding their platform approach either in specific product groups or across … Read more
The curtain has closed on Pivotal Links UK for another year, and what a networking event it was. Pivotal Scientific are so grateful and humbled by the outcome, and how far some attendees travel. It really is a wonderful occasion to meet with many fellow PSL Alliance members, Recommended Distributors and also welcome new attendees. … Read more
The use of antibodies in research is well established with an estimated research reagent market size of $1.4 billion. Furthermore, the value of the therapeutic antibody market is considerably larger, with antibody-based drugs in clinical use to treat conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease. In addition, the recent growth of the antibody … Read more
Reliable antibodies are essential for reproducibility. Likewise, reproducibility is key whether you are planning to publish a ground-breaking research, or are carrying out routine assays. Therefore, reliable antibodies is a topic that is is frequently visited and discussed by the scientific community. Initially, there was a greater onus on the researcher to check an antibody … Read more
Novel fully murine knob-into-hole antibodies for immunotherapy research and drug development Oxford, UK, May 7, 2019. Absolute Antibody Ltd., an industry-leading provider of recombinant antibodies products and services, today announced the launch of the first commercially available mouse knob-into-hole (KIH) bispecific antibody reagents. Bispecific antibodies, which permit simultaneous engagement of two different protein targets, are an … Read more
What are ‘Google Ads’? Google Ads is a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) platform which allows you to design and create adverts for your products, services or other promotions. They are displayed either on the Google search results page, YouTube, Gmail or other affiliate marketing sites. And therefore, as the name suggests, you only pay when someone clicks … Read more
Introduction Scientific research has been revolutionized by the use of antibodies in basic research, diagnostics and as biopharmaceuticals. Antibodies were first described by Emil von Behring and Kitasato Shibasaburō in 1890. This is when they developed a serum called “antitoxin” after injecting diptheria and tetanus toxins into animals. However, it was the seminal work by Milstein … Read more