New Transgenic Sporozoite Vaccination to Completely Eradicate Human Malaria

Image taken from https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/3/4/894/htm

Malaria, a human disease caused the Plasmodium parasite, kills almost half a million people around the world. The spread disease has been increasing over the years due to climate change favoring the multiplication of mosquitoes, the carrier of the parasite. Despite the heavy expenditure by governments on public health preventive strategies, malaria continues to spread and kill many people especially in resource limited states. Hence, there is still need for research to find out effective vaccines for prevention of malaria as well as safe and efficacious drugs for treatment.

To develop an effective vaccine, there is need to understand the life cycle of the plasmodium and the pathobiology of the disease. In this manner research studies have found out vaccines which against the early pre-erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium parasites are effective in preventing the disease. Subunit vaccines targeting the circumsporozoite (CS) protein (major surface antigen on sporozoites) has been developed and offer promising results. However, whole sporozoite (WSp) vaccines offer a more pronounced immunity against the early pre-erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium parasites. In a study published by npj Vaccines and titled, ‘A Plasmodium berghei sporozoite-based vaccination platform against human malaria’ Researchers have developed a whole sporozoite vaccine that is safe and more efficacious.

A group of researchers including Miguel Prudêncio of the department of Molecular Medicine in University of Lisboa, Portugal, claim that their WSp malaria vaccine has the potential to wipe out Malaria completely due to its high sterilizing immunity. In making their vaccine, Miguel Prudêncio and co-researchers used transgenic sporozoites of rodent Plasmodium berghei (Pb) parasites as the WSp immunizing agents which act as a platform for expression and delivery of specific immunogens such as PfCS (PbVac). Prudencio et al, then assessed the potential of Pb to elicit cross-species immune responses against Pf by a comprehensive, in silico prediction of CD8+ T cell epitopes in the proteomes of Pf and Pb in human hepatocytes.

The study found out that while the Plasmodium berghei (Pb) infected and fully developed in the human hepatocytes, they did were not able to cause any infection in human red blood cells. The WSp Plasmodium berghei vaccine induced cross-species immunity not only in rabbit and mice but also in human hepatocytes hence implying its effectiveness and great potential to prevent malaria in humans. Based on their findings, researchers have concluded that the Pb vaccines is effective, safe hence need to be considered for further clinical studies.

Read full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-018-0068-2

Reference: Mendes A.M, Machado M, Gonçalves-Rosa N, Reuling I.J, Foquet L, Marques C. A Plasmodium berghei sporozoite-based vaccination platform against human malaria. npj Vaccines (2018) 3:33; doi:10.1038/s41541-018-0068-2.

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Scientists map out how prolonged exercise and fasting cause acute liver metabolic regulation

Image taken from:http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/8/5/150 

In a recent study titled ‘PGC-1α in exercise and fasting-induced regulation of hepatic UPR in mice’ published by the Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology, researchers have discovered that prolonged exercise and fasting cause endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and autophagy in the liver without the need for transcriptional coactivator peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma coactivator 1alpha (PGC- 1α).

Exercise and fasting have been long known to regulate metabolism especially in the liver.  This include regulation of glucose homeostasis through the enhanced glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis within liver cells.  Scientific evidence shows that the expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and glucose-6-phosphatase, and their enzymatic activity significantly increase during exercising. It has also been established that prolonged exercise and fasting impose metabolic challenges characterized by endoplasmic reticulum stress and autophagy in the liver. This ER stress characterized by hepatic Unfolded protein response (UPR) is an attempt to revert to normal homeostasis after the challenges imposed by exercise and fasting.

To determine if PGC-1α is involved in the regulation of hepatic UPR and autophagy in response to both exercise and fasting in mice, researchers including Henriette Pilegaard of Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen in Denmark conducted a study using liver-specific PGC-1α knockout mice. From the liver and plasma samples of the fasted mice and 1-hour treadmill-exercised mice, they determined the hepatic eIF2α phosphorylation, citrate synthase (CS) and hepatic L-3- hydroxy-CoA dehydrogenase (HAD) activity. Real time PCR was used to determine the hepatic mRNA content of selected genes such as sXBP1.

From their study, Pilegaard and Co-researchers found out that fasting reduced hepatic IRE1α phosphorylation and protein content as well as PERK protein and sXBP1 mRNA content as opposed to exercising where an increase was rather observed. In this regard, it was evident that exercising and fasting regulates liver metabolism differently. While fasting induce downregulation of the UPR, exercising on the other hand induced the activation of UPR. Having collated all the results, the researchers concluded that PGC-1α may not be necessarily needed for the fasting and exercise-induced regulation of UPR and autophagy.

Read full study here: https://rdcu.be/7B7u

Reference: Kristensen C.M, Olsen M.A, Jessen H, Brandt N, Meldgaard J.N & Pilegaard H. PGC-1α in exercise and fasting-induced regulation of hepatic UPR in mice. Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology (2018) 470:1431–1447.

Rights and Permissions: http:/ /creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

SANBio LabHack: Calling all innovators, problem solvers and designers!

 A lack of laboratory equipment and often makes teaching science and technology difficult. Technological solutions for everyday challenges can also be developed with a bit of ingenuity, even when the resources available are not always cutting edge. Join a global community of creative problem solvers and put your creativity to test with real challenges.

The challenge

To design low-cost laboratory equipment and practical solutions rooted in frugal innovation that work and can be built locally. During the event, each team will develop and build a practical solution to address a specific challenge in low resource environments. Materials for building the solutions will be provided at the event. Mentors will be allocated to assist the teams.

What can you work on?

-        Laminar flow closet or tissue culture hood
-        Magnetic hotplate stirrer
-        PCR machine
-        High school microscope
-        Desktop centrifuge
-        Open category: medical devices (you can suggest any innovative medical device which you believe you could build a prototype of at the event)

Why participate?

You will show off your design, get feedback from other academics and industry sponsors, network with other engaged students, attend talks on Open Hardware, Responsible Design & Innovation, Intellectual Property and more!

Who is invited?

SANBio LabHack is open to undergraduate students from all 13 SANBio member states* who are registered in a university or college and studying ICT, Engineering, Agriculture, Biotechnology, Statistics, Law, Medicine and Business. Graduate students may also be considered under special circumstances. Local high school students will also be called on to attend.

Applicants are expected to form and apply for the Hackathon as teams of 3-4 people from different disciplines (e.g. Engineering, ICT, Life sciences or any other). Teams with duplicated disciplines will not be considered. Team members do not need to be from the same country or institutions. A limited number of teams will be selected to participate; SANBio will be able to cover the travel and accommodation costs for a limited amount of participants.

SANBio reserves the right of final decision in all matters related to participant selection.

For enquiries, please contact us at training@nepadsanbio.org

* SANBio member states: Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Namibia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Madagascar and Zambia

Application deadline: 7 October 2018

For instructions and to apply, visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SANBioLabHack

For more information: http://nepadsanbio.org/press-room-media/events/sanbio-labhack

Researchers have developed a New and Ultra-sensitive diagnostic test for Infectious Bronchitis Virus.

Image taken from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145305X99000725 

In a recent article published by BMC Veterinary Research, researchers including Lipping Yan of the Institute of Immunology and College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University in China have developed two specific, sensitive and rapid indirect microarray diagnostic tests for Infectious Bronchitis Virus.

Infectious bronchitis is a viral disease that causes significant damage to infected chickens across the globe. It is caused by the Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) which is a single stranded, positive sense RNA virus. The pathogenic virus causes acute respiratory damages to chickens resulting in high mortality and huge economic losses. To reduce economic losses, chickens are usually vaccinated with an inactivated vaccine which enables them to produce less or no antibodies against the viral non-structural proteins hence preventing virus infection and replication.

Diagnosis of the Infectious Bronchitis Virus is largely done using ELISA. However, due to mutations and evolution of new serotypes undetectable by the conventional test, there is need for alternative rapid and sensitive diagnostic tests. Other diagnostic tests like Hemagglutination inhibition assay and the virus neutralization test have also been used but are also affected with the same limitation. To solve the problem, ELISAs based on purified recombinant protein offer a promising solution. Hence, Lipping Yan and fellow researchers developed a rapid and highly sensitive microarray detection test based on non-structural proteins (nps) especially nps5. The tests detect antibodies against nps5.

The two tests; a chemiluminescent immunoassay test (CIT) and a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) were tested against nps5 expressed in E. coli. The researchers found out that specificity and sensitivity of RDT and CIT were 91.67% and 98.88% respectively. The two tests were highly reproducible and done in about 15 minutes. There was no cross reaction with other avian respiratory viruses like New castle disease virus, Influenza virus and Mareks virus hence implying the specificity of the microarray nps5 tests. The article concludes that use of microarray chips for detection of antibodies against IBV non-structural proteins offers a faster, rapid, sensitive and specific diagnosis of IBV for both research and epidemiology.

Read full article: https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-018-1586-x

Reference: Yan L, Hu J, Lei J, Shi Z, Xiao Q, Bi Z, Yao L, Li Y, Chen Y, Fang A, Li H, Song S, Liao M and Zhou J. Novel protein chip for the detection of antibodies against infectious bronchitis virus. BMC Veterinary Research (2018) 14:284.

Rights and Permissions: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

International Conference on Chemical, Biological and Biomolecular Engineering in Hong Kong, 2018

2018 International Conference on Chemical, Biological and Biomolecular Engineering (CBBE 2018) aim to bring together researchers, engineers, developers and practitioners from academia and industry working in all major areas and interdisciplinary areas of Chemical, Biological and Biomolecular Engineering. The conference which is organized by International Association of Applied Science and Engineering (IAASE) will feature original research and application papers on the theory, design, and implementation of Chemical, Biological and Biomolecular Engineering, etc.

Venue

CBBE 2018 will be held at Panda Hotel, Hong Kong on November 23-25, 2018.

Paper Submission Guidelines

Submitting An Abstract

If you just want to make a presentation in CBBE 2018, please submit your abstract only. Abstracts should be 300-350 words.

 Submitting A Paper
Prospective authors are kindly invited to submit full-text papers including results, tables, figures, and references if the publication is requested.

All submitted articles should report original, previously unpublished research results, experimental or theoretical. Articles submitted to the Conference should meet these criteria and must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts should follow the conference template and are subject to both review and editing.

Earlier submission is encouraged as it helps us to manage the review process in a timely manner. This is of particular importance if you will need a visa to attend the conference.

Only PDF files will be accepted for the review process and all submissions can be done through the online submission system.

Or you can send your submission directly to cbbe@aiase.net

All submissions should be written in English with a minimum paper length of 5-6 printed pages.

Submitting A Poster

You are also welcome to send us a poster to present your research of Chemical, Biological, and Biomolecular Engineering.

Improtant Dates

Paper Submission Deadline : Spetember 20, 2018 
Abstract Submission Deadline : Spetember 30, 2018 
Paper Status Notification : October 10, 2018
Paper Registration Due : October 20, 2018

Topics

General areas of interest to CBBE 2018 include but are not limited to:

Chemical engineering fundamentals
Physical, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
Chemical engineering educational challenges and development
Chemical reaction engineering
Chemical engineering equipment design and process design

Chemical Materials, Thermodynamics
Catalysis & reaction engineering
Particulate systems, Rheology, Multiphase Flows
Interfacial & colloidal phenomena
Transport phenomena in porous/granular media
Membranes and membrane science
Crystallization, Distillation, absorption, and extraction
Ionic liquids/electrolyte solutions
Biological Pesticides, Biofertilizers, Biosecurity & Biosafety, Biodiversity
Genetic engineering, Biological Pest control
Biochemistry, Reproduction Biology
Microbiology, Cell Biology, Evolution, Biological engineering

Bionanotechnology, Bioprocessing
Synthetic Biology, Bioenergy
Biosensors / Devices, Metabolic Engineering
Biomaterials, Food, Molecular evolution
Industrial Biotechnology

For more information: https://conferencemonkey.org/conference/2018-international-conference-on-chemical-biological-and-biomolecular-engineering-1308356  

The Bio Investor Forum: Business Development Opportunities In Life Sciences.

Image taken from: http://www.mdtechcouncil.com/membership/events/calendar/bio-investor-forum/ 

 Date: 17 – 18 October 2018

Place: San Francisco, California

About the Forum

An investor forum to explore investment trends and opportunities in life sciences, with a focus on venture-stage growth and emerging public companies as well as those poised to join the growth “watch list” in 2019. Because our mission is to support industry-wide success, we strive to present a broad and unbiased view of investment opportunities.

The BIO Investor Forum delivers a rich program that features corporate presentations and panel debates on the sweet spots and growth challenges facing the industry.  The BIO Investor Forum features:

• ·         Public and venture-stage company presentations.
• ·         Expert-led panel discussions on the latest market and investment opportunities with the emphasis on drug and technology development.
• ·         BIO One-on-One Partnering™ meetings between biopharma executives and investors
• ·         Premier the opportunity to network with industry executives and investors focused exclusively on life sciences.

Some of the Key topics on the agenda

• ·         Navigating Checkpoint Inhibitors’ Clinical Results: Lessons for CEOs and Investors.
• ·         Learning from Translational Research Successes to Attract Investment.
• ·         Using Microbiome-Based Therapies to Improve Patient Outcomes.
• ·         Expanding the Toolbox of Neurodegeneration Therapies.
• ·         “Digiceuticals” as a New Class of FDA-Approved Therapeutics: Investment & Partnering Opportunities.

Who should attend?

The forum is open for private equity and public investors, research analysts, and industry executives focused on investment and business development opportunities in the life sciences.

Why you should not miss this event!

• ·         Hear from and meet with executives at the top life sciences growth companies.
• ·         Evaluate fresh investment opportunities including compatible, complementary and competitive companies.
• ·         Benefit from candid panel discussions with leading clinical experts and investigators with insights on pipeline research and clinical practice.
• ·         Get a ‘big picture’ overview of the industry and the issues affecting product innovation, capitalization, and commercialization
• ·         Meet one-on-one with new and current investors, analysts, and partnering companies.
• ·         Get the pulse on the latest life sciences investment trends from sophisticated investment and company executives.
• ·         Showcase your company story in presentations to qualified investors.
• ·         Network with peers, investors and potential partners.

For more information and registration: https://www.bio.org/events/bio-investor-forum

See also: The Bio+ Tech18 Conference: Innovation with Global Impact

African Scientists find fungi and bacteria that degrades plastics

Image credit: https://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/m/science/news/bacterial-degradation-of-synthetic-plastics/ 

In a recent paper published by PLOS ONE, Researchers from Kenya have isolated and identified fungal and bacterial species capable of degrading plastics. The microorganisms were isolated from the Dandora dumpsite in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.

Tons of plastics are produced and used around the world. They are used as packaging materials for chemicals, food and carrying groceries almost in all countries.  Plastics are also used in covering and insulating electrical and electronic appliances. The use of plastics in the construction industries is not negligible as plastic is used for seals, floor coverings cables, and pipes. The extensive application of plastics is because plastics are cost-effective, resistant to water and microorganisms, durable and corrosion resistant.

Commonly used plastics include polyethylene, polystyrene, and polypropylene. These plastics are non-biodegradable hence cause environmental pollution with great interference in the ecosystem. 

The plastic pollution is of global concern for many nations and environmental agencies calling for the finding of better measures to curb the plastic menace. One promising solution is the use of certain microorganisms with the capability of degrading such plastics. In this study, researchers including Christabel Ndahebwa Muhonja of the Pan African University Institute of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Nairobi, Kenya have isolated and identified bacteria and fundi with the capability of degrading the type of plastic called low-density polyethylene (LDPE) which is known for its non-biodegradability.

According to the paper, the researchers incubated LDPE sheets with fungal and bacterial inoculums isolated from the Dandora dumpsite. The incubations were made at two different temperatures (28 & 37 ⁰C for sixteen weeks after which the extent of degradation was evaluated based on weight loss, spectroscopy, and chromatographic techniques. The isolates were also identified by the use of 16S and 18S ribosomal DNA for bacteria and fungi, respectively.

The findings of the study show that after sixteen weeks of incubation, weight loss of samples was recorded, and new functional groups which have been previously attributed to hydrocarbon degradation were identified, implying that LDPE was degraded. Bacteria were identified to be from the genera Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Brevibacillus, Cellulosimicrobium, Lysinibacillus while fungi were of the genus Aspergillus. The study also found out isolates of the genera Bacillus and Aspergillus showed better degrading ability on LDPE.

While the use of microorganisms to degrade plastics seems promising, there is the need for more research to identify better degraders and or find ways of enhancing them to degrade plastics in an effective and efficient manner.

Read full paper here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198446

Journal Article Reference: Muhonja CN, Makonde H, Magoma G, ImbugaM (2018) Biodegradability of polyethylene by bacteria and fungi from Dandora dumpsite Nairobi-Kenya. PLoS ONE 13(7): e0198446. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198446

Copyrights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/