BioTechniques News
Maddy Chapman
This edition of the biotech bi-weekly highlights five innovative new products supporting preclinical drug safety, improved protein production in CHO cells, human cell-based drug discovery, genetic medicine development and next-generation cortical organoids. Plus, a new maternal health research challenge recruitment phase is now open.
Products
Preclinical drug safety testing platform launched
Tagomics (Cambridge, UK), a precision medicine company, has announced the launch of LiquiPathTM, a cross-species, multi-organ ‘liquid pathology’ platform for non-invasive drug safety monitoring. Developed for use across preclinical studies, clinical development and on-market surveillance, LiquiPath aims to give drug developers earlier and clearer insights into patient safety, with an early access program now open.
Read the full release here >>>
Expanded synthetic promoter library unveiled
SynGenSys (Sheffield, UK), a biotechnology company designing synthetic gene promoter systems to address critical bottlenecks in biopharma manufacturing and enhance cell and gene therapy development, has announced the introduction of CHO.SET® 2.0. The expanded library of novel and patentable synthetic promoters is designed to improve protein production in CHO cells.
Read the full release here >>>
Human cell-based drug discovery accelerated
bit.bio (Cambridge, UK), the human cell programming company, has announced the launch of the ioScreen platform, a new CRISPR screening service designed to accelerate human cell-based drug discovery, alongside a major expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of its first Chief Technology Officer to lead the company’s next phase of technology growth and commercial expansion.
Read the full release here >>>
More effective genetic medicines developed
Broken String Biosciences (Cambridge, UK), a biotechnology company enabling gene editing teams to accelerate development of safer, more effective genetic medicines, has announced the launch of BaseMap™ ABE. Built on the Company’s INDUCE-seq® technology, BaseMap ABE extends the platform’s capabilities to support adenine base editing (ABE) applications.
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Next-generation cortical organoids revealed
28bio (LA, USA) has launched CNS-3D Plasticity Organoids, enabling human functional endpoints of learning and memory before drug candidates enter clinical testing. CNS-3D Plasticity Organoids pair two human iPSC-derived cortical organoids in a custom electrode array plate, forming a connected neural network that can be trained via closed-loop electrical stimulation. Training and measuring a human neural network in this way is the basis of organoid intelligence.
Read the full release here >>>
CHO, HeLa and HEK293: Comparing key cell lines for drug discovery and biologic development
Here, we compare these three lines, exploring how and when they were developed, their pros and cons, and the biomedical innovations they have pioneered.
People & publications
The launch of a virtual cell model
GenBio AI (CA, USA), co-founded by Nobel Laureate David Baker, has launched AIDO Cell, the first representative virtual cell model: a working simulation of a human cell that researchers can run experiments on. Switch off a gene, turn another up, add a drug – the consequences play out through the whole cell, from DNA to the proteins that do the work to the cell’s shape and behavior.
Read more about AIDO Cell here >>>
New CEO appointed at PacBio
Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (PacBio; CA, USA), a developer of high-quality, highly accurate sequencing solutions, has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Mark Van Oene as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective 5 August 2026. Van Oene, who has served as Chief Operating Officer, succeeds Christian Henry, who has stepped down as President and Chief Executive Officer after 6 years leading PacBio. Van Oene has also been appointed to serve on PacBio’s Board of Directors. Henry will continue to serve on PacBio’s Board of Directors and has agreed to serve as a business advisor to the company at least through the end of 2026, to facilitate an orderly transition.
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Using chondrocyte spheroids to treat degenerative joints
FibroBiologics (TX, USA), a biotechnology company with 270+ patents issued and pending with a focus on the development of therapeutics and potential cures for chronic diseases using fibroblasts and fibroblast-derived materials, has announced a breakthrough in its orthopedics laboratory using chondrocyte spheroids to treat degenerative joints. Animal trials showed cartilage repair within 4 weeks following a single injection of chondrocyte spheroids.
Read the full release here >>>
Some broken bones fail to heal – now a key molecular mechanism is revealed
Researchers uncover a redox-regulated mechanism that determines whether bone fractures heal or progress to non-union.
Prize
The maternal health challenge: new NIH challenge recruitment phase open
More than one-third of US counties are considered maternity care deserts, meaning they have no hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers. To help strengthen community-led solutions in these areas, the National Institutes of Health (MD, USA) launched the Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge 2.0: Research Capacity Building in Maternity Care Deserts. The challenge is facilitated by HeroX, a platform and open marketplace for crowdsourced solutions.
Read the full release here >>>
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The post The biotech bi-weekly: NIH maternal health research prizes, a virtual human cell model and chondrocyte spheroids to treat joint degeneration appeared first on BioTechniques.
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