The Dolcera Blog

What’s Organ printing? What’s Bioprinting? Does organ printing really mean what it says in itself?? Pr-in-ting organs?  What do these technologies have to offer? What would the implications of these technologies be on the state of the industry, the general public and the entire humanity? Let’s just break the fourth wall here.  Who’s asking??

Well…To clarify, we are asking these questions in the interest of and to interest the general public and if the latter isn’t lost already (we earnestly hope that is the case) please read up…

Creating living tissue in complex geometries is a challenging issue facing the tissue engineering community.  Traditional tissue engineering techniques result in living tissue of simple, often 2D geometries.  By harnessing the capabilities of Solid-Freeform Fabrication (SFF) – also known as Rapid Prototyping (RP) –living tissue of arbitrary 3D shapes can be created directly from computer-aided design (CAD) data.

Bio-printing is a variant of 3D printing and can be defined as computer-aided, automatic, layer-by-layer deposition, transfer, and patterning of biologically relevant materials.  It is also known by other names such as “computer aided tissue engineering” and “biofabrication”.  In simpler words, bioprinting involves printing devices that deposit biological material.

Organ printing is a variant of bio-printing aiming at producing 3D organs. This is among the most promising advances of regenerative medicine. The 3D- Bioprinter was listed among the TIME magazine’s 50 best inventions of 2010. Most of the 3D printers use a modified version of inkjet printers to deposit dots of “bio ink” (cell suspension with 10 to 30 thousand cells per drop) that coalesce to form layers of organ interrupted by layers of biopaper (hydrogel mimicking the microenvironment of tissue) which is water-soluble.

Fig1:- Step-by-Step process of Organ Printing [1]

 

 

Roadmap to Bioprinting

Fig 2:- Roadmap to Bioprinting [2]

The 3D bioprinters currently in the market are produced by envisionTEC, Organovo, Tengion, Sciperio, Neatco, etc.

The NovoGen MMX 3D Bioprinter, priced at $200,000, has been developed by Organovo, a company in San Diego that specializes in regenerative medicine, and Invetech, engineering and automation firm in Melbourne, Australia. One of the founders of Organovo, Gabor Forgacs from the University of Missouri, Columbia, says the logic behind applying 3D printing for producing biological organs is “Although morphogenetic processes are under strict genetic control, genes do not create shapes and forms: physical mechanisms and processes do.” Organovo announced the production of first fully bioprinted blood vessels in Dec 2010. [3]

Organovo’s only real competitor, Tengion, holds most of the patents and legal rights to exploit the technology developed by the most successful bio printing scientist to date, Dr. Anthony Atala. Dr. Atala’s lab has grown a variety of human parts including blood vessels, heart valves and bladders, all using bio printing. Based on the same 3D print technology that Organovo uses, Tengion’s prototype printer has already produced several bladders which have been successfully transplanted into humans.

The 3D Bioplotter is produced by German company envisionTEC is a German company producing a range of 3D bioprinters such as 3D Bioplotter, E-Dent (Digital Dental printer), etc.  The 3D Bioplotter is priced at $188,000 and currently used in various laboratories to create various tissue scaffolds. [4]

Work of other research groups on Bioprinting:-

Boland and his coworkers from Clemson University have been producing Bioprinters since 2004.

VAXDesign of Sciperio Inc has a pressure operated 3D Bioprinter with four nozzles in the market.

Roland, Fishman, and Neatco collaboratively produce a pressure operated 3D Bioprinter with two nozzles. [1]

Professor Nakamura from the University of Toyama is currently working with Epson to produce 3D Bioprinters.

Sangeeta Bhatia from MIT together with Jennifer West from Rice University bioprinted living 3D liver constructs using stereolithography.

Tsinghua University group in China also printed liver construct using chitosan-collagen hydrogel.

A research group at Cornell University bioprinted living cartilage construct. [6]

The Bioprinting community meets annually at the International Conference on Bioprinting and Biofabrication. The next conference (the sixth) is to be held in Toyama, Japan in October 2011.

Future and Implications:-

Professor Vladimir Mironov, Director of Medical University of South Carolina(MUSC) , Bioprinting Center says that it would probably take an investment of  $1 billion to print living human organ suitable for clinical implantation.

Also, Dr. Atala says in vivo bioprinting i.e.; bioprinting right into a patient on the site of injury is very much feasible.

As Chair of The Department of Surgery of Stanford University and a leading expert in surgical innovation, Krummel recently wrote: “There is no such thing as a science fiction. There is only science eventuality”. [1]

Here’s to a future when Organ transplantation is hassle-free, affordable, automated, and customized.

Sources:-

1.       http://accessscience.com/content/Tissue-and-organ-printing/YB060455

2.       http://organprint.missouri.edu/PDF/HowToPrintOrgan-slides.pdf

3.       http://www.economist.com/node/15543683?story_id=15543683&subjectID=526354&fsrc=nwl

4.       http://www.envisiontec.de/index.php?id=8

5.       http://www.rapidtoday.com/future.html

Written by:

 Ajay S and Jnanasiddhy

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A simple blood test and there you go….your complete health profile!

Or are you worried about a family cancer history?

The benefit of early diagnosis of such a deadly disease is obvious. The answer is the Wellness Chip®.

Researchers at Somalogic, Inc. have developed a diagnostic technology with high sensitivity and specificity. The Wellness Chip, the brainchild of Larry Gold and his colleagues at Somalogic, will bring together diagnostic tests for various diseases in a single, simple blood test. Currently, Somalogic has licensed its technology to Quest Diagnostics for launching a lung cancer blood test before the end of this year.

What is the Wellness Chip?

The underlying principle is nucleic acid-aptamer based proteomic technology. Somalogic’s proprietary reagents called SOMAmers (Slow Off-rate Modified Aptamers) are single strand stretches of modified nucleic acids generated by a highly selective process called SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment). SOMAmers are capable of binding specifically to a target of interest, e.g., a marker for a particular disease. SOMAmers to various targets are fabricated on a chip at distinct positions and simultaneously detect several proteins in micro-liter scale samples. This data will then be analyzed by bioinformatics tools.

Contrary to conventional antibodies based diagnostic procedures, SOMAmers are more sensitive and specific and can be made rapidly in weeks rather than months as is the case with antibodies. It will also be economically priced -$100’s not $1000’s.

Why blood test?

Proteins present in the blood are immediate indicators of a person’s state of health.  Diseased tissues secrete proteins in the blood and their identification is essential to early and accurate therapeutic and preventative measures. The total number of blood proteins is about 4000 and the Wellness Chip can detect 1100 of these blood proteins. This protein profile will be analyzed to determine the health status of the individual. Currently available methods detect only about 20 to 30 proteins at a time.

From the laboratory to the market-

The SOMAmer technology has already found its clients in the pharma industry. In 2008, Somalogic entered into research collaboration with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. for the development of diagnostic tools and to further Otsuka’s research in pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, the task of making the Wellness Chip a reality is entrusted with Quest Diagnostics.

Sources:

1.      http://www.somalogic.com/

2.      Bio.IT World.com. Turning blood into gold: The Wellness Chip

3.      http://www.colorado.edu/mcdb/goldlab/Slide%20Decks/8.%20Steve%20Williams%20slides.pdf

4.      U.S. Patent No. 7709192

5.      Gold L, Ayers D, Bertino J, Bock C, Bock A, et al. (2010) Aptamer-Based Multiplexed Proteomic Technology for Biomarker Discovery. PLoS ONE 5(12): e15004

6.      Ostroff RM, Bigbee WL, Franklin W, Gold L, Mehan M, et al. (2010) Unlocking Biomarker Discovery: Large Scale Application of Aptamer Proteomic Technology for Early Detection of Lung Cancer. PLoS ONE 5(12): e15003.

 

Written by:

Shweta Kumari

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Mosquitoes are deadly little creatures troubling mankind since time immemorial. These are carriers of a deadly parasite responsible for the spread of Malaria- claiming millions of deaths worldwide. Despite enormous efforts to curb this disease, not much has been achieved and scientific communities are striving to come up with an effective defense mechanism. A new study led by Dr Flaminia Catteruccia from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, focuses on exploiting the reproductive mechanism of mosquitoes- a new dimension in malaria research.Interestingly, Anopheles gambiae, a species primarily responsible for transmission of malaria in Africa, mates only once in its lifetime. Scientists believe that interfering with mosquito reproduction could be a potential defense against malaria.  “In the fight against malaria, many hope that the ability to genetically control the mosquito vector will one day be a key part of our armory,” said Flaminia Catteruccia.

This could be achieved either by inhibiting the reproduction process or sterilizing the male mosquitoes by genetically modifying them to neutralize a gene required for sperm production.

In 2009 , research led by Flaminia demonstrated that knocking off a key enzyme called Transglutaminase results in an impaired mating plug, a coagulate of seminal fluid and proteins required to seal the male sperm inside female, and thus disrupts the reproductive process thereby providing a potential means to combat malaria.

Dr Catteruccia concludes: “If in the future we can develop an inhibitor that prevents the coagulating enzyme doing its job inside male A. gambiae mosquitoes in such a way that can be deployed easily in the field — for example in the form of a spray as it is done with insecticides — then we could effectively induce sterility in female mosquitoes in the wild. This could provide a new way of limiting the population of this species of mosquito, and could be one more weapon in the arsenal against malaria.”

Recently, a path breaking study (published in PNAS journal) reveals that genetically modified mosquitoes with inability to produce sperms mate successfully with the females as compared to the normal counterpart and crucially, this modification did not interfere with any other sexual function or behavior in either the female or the male, they explained in their study.

“Spermless males behave exactly like those with sperm,” Catteruccia says. “We saw no difference in their ability to compete.” She further added that releasing genetically modified, spermless male mosquitoes into the wild could in future help to prevent malaria transmission and reduce the chances of large outbreaks of the killer disease.

Furthermore, Elena Levashina who studies malaria carrying mosquitoes, a leading scientist at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Strasbourg comments that “this is a crucial scientific demonstration and a huge step forward.”

This seemingly promising strategy to deal with outbreak of malaria is undoubtedly a major advancement and a potential weapon against malaria. However, these studies are in their initial stage and have been tested in field trials only and further experiments have to be done to use it on a large scale.

SOURCES:

Imperial College London. “Meddling in mosquitoes’ sex lives could help stop the spread of malaria.” ScienceDaily, 22 Dec. 2009. Web. 12 Aug. 2011.

Imperial College London. “Mosquitoes can’t spot a spermless mate.” ScienceDaily, 10 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Aug. 2011.

Nature NEWS. “Female mosquitoes tricked by spermless males.” Published online 8 August 2011 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2011.467

Journal References:

1. Thailayil J, Magnusson K, Godfray HCJ, Crisanti A, Catteruccia F. Spermless males elicit large-scale female responses to mating in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. PNAS, 2011.

1. Rogers DW, Baldini F, Battaglia F, Panico M, Dell A, Morris HR, Catteruccia F. Transglutaminase-mediated semen coagulation controls sperm storage in the malaria mosquito. PLoS Biol. 2009.

Written by:

Abu Rafay

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Ranking makes life easier. Be it top 10 companies, top 10 universities to study technology or to choose amongst top 10 sci-fi movies you want to watch on the weekends; ranking allow us to choose the best amongst the available. Time saver, decision influencer and extremely helpful are the ranked material.

At Dolcera, we thought of applying the ranking methodology to patents. We have ranked patents based on a variety of parameters. First factor amongst all remains the client focus, second, sufficiency of disclosed information in patents and third credibility of a patent to perform the same process/art with higher efficiency than any other patent with similar focus.

Let us consider an example, the first table in the image below show patents with similar focus of decreasing tumor volume using RNA interference (RNAi). The patent one has disclosed maximum information in this area and in addition to the desired data, it has also published a lot more supporting information derived from other experiments. Further, as the rank goes down the percentage decrease in tumor volume decreases. Some may argue that patent 2 has disclosed more decrease in tumor volume than patent 1 but then patent 1 has disclosed more supporting data, taking its overall weighted score higher. Of course, if the client is still interested only in comparing tumor volume, patent at rank 2 will come at rank 1. Hence the ranking is customized to suit the client requirements.

The ranking of patents is not that simple as it may sound. The analysis team has to encounter challenges and figure out the ways to overcome them. Graphs, charts, instrumental outputs etc. will not give you data in percentages which can be just copy-pasted to compare. They have to be calculated first using mathematical tools which may vary from calculating areas under the graphs or applying differentiation & integration on instrumental outputs, to allow the reader to compare results before making the final decision. It’s considered an absolute value add to the decision making process by the clients who have sought such a service from us.

Not all experimental data will be quantitative. For people familiar with biotechnology would know that there are experiments (such as gel electrophoresis, staining etc.) that give qualitative or quasi-quantitative results. I am sure, the same will hold true with other technology fields too. Second part of the figure above summarizes few patents which can not be ranked as there is no data yield from such experiments and hence comparison is not possible. But then why miss them? We provide a Dolcera summary table which will give reader an idea as these experiments were atleast conducted and disclosed in patents. This comparison will thus strengthen the decision to be taken from ranking matrices discussed above.

This systemic approach of collecting, sorting, analyzing, and finally ranking the data has the following advantages:

1. Saves time!
2. Easy comparative analysis.
3. Helps in competitive watch
4. Decision on in-and-out licensing can be made.
5. Strong baseline for future scientific investigations.

Who will be benefited?

Scientific community: Extensive experimental data, comparison matrix of data from different patents with same focus is a feast to researchers and scientists as it helps them to choose best technologies.

Patent attorneys: Allows competitor watch, supports their decision on in and out licensing.

Venture capitalists / investors: Patent ranking based on disclosed information helps investors to decide patents to further invest upon.

Which technology fields are covered?

Patents in all the technological fields can be ranked. You just need to tell us the focus area and we will rank the patents for you. The ranking and weighing scores can be customized to suit user’s requirements.

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The discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) is one of the transforming events in biology. Gene silencing agents such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), micro RNA (miRNA) and small synthetic oligo-nucleotides (DNA, RNA or DNA-RNA complex) lead to target specific RNAi. We aim at building a one-stop comprehensive database of RNAi agents patented or described in scientific literature.Dolcera has provision to customize the database against the target gene suiting client’s requirement. Till now, RNAi agents against some of the important cancer target genes are updated to the database and the trial access is available on request. These genes include bcl2, myc (c-myc, n-myc), ras (k-ras, h-ras, n-ras), VEGF, STAT3 etc. RNAi agents can be extracted and added to the database based on client’s interest.

Dolcera RNAi database can prove helpful:

• For scientific community: RNAi agent sequences aligned to target genes, extensive experimental data and comparison matrix of data from different patents with same focus.  
• For patent attorneys: Competitor watch, assignee vs. number of publications graphs, timeline based on application and publication dates.
• For venture capitalists/ Investors: Patent ranking based on disclosed information, data useful for decision making.

Salient features of the database:

1. Interactive maps of taxonomy: 4 levels of in depth classification of patents and scientific literature allow both “bird’s-eye view” and “in-depth views” of technologies.
2. Patent and non patent dashboard: Grouping specific elements into more general categories is conceptually easier and cleaner than entertaining hundreds of specific elements separately. Dolcera dashboard has a friendly user interface. It groups the patents according to the taxonomy, patent numbers, publications and application dates at the click of a button.
3. Sequence Dashboard: The tool not only aligns all patented/ non patented siRNA/ miRNA sequences to the target gene but allow user to see the sequence related information on a simple click of the mouse.
4. Experimental matrix: Experimental data be it quantitative (eg. % inhibition of target mRNA expression) or qualitative (eg. gel blots) are compared amongst patent document with similar focuses. This allows users to compare literature with same focus. The ranking of documents can also be done based on scoring matrices, which allows user to read the most relevant patent first.

 For database related inquiries or free demo call us at, Phone: +1-650-269-7952 (US) and  +91-40-6451-0832 (India). You can also email us at info@dolcera.com

To read more about RNAi database click here

To visit Dolcera’s website and to explore more patent/ IP related services click here

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Continuing from the previosuly published study on India Close Second to China in Clinical trial registered to be conducted in Asia: A Dolcera Study, we analysed 4 other important Asian countries and the trend of clinical trials there, these were: Philippenes, Russian Federation, Korea and Japan. The numbers of trials, as registered with clinicaltrials.gov by companies all across the world were considered in both of these studies. 

1. Clinical trials in Asia on a rise (Part-II) 

As in the case of India and China (discussed in part-I of this study) Philippenes, Russian Federation, Korea and Japan also showed whopping growth in number of clinical trials registered to be taking place in these countries.

2. Growth curve for clinical trials in Asian countires (Part-II) 

As can be seen, number of clinical trials registered to be in Japan took a dip down in year 2005 which was  recovered in subsequent years. Also, number of clinical trials registered was found to be plateatued for the period between 2005 to 2007 for Russian Federation. Republic of Korea on the other hand has aggresively accelerated on this front keeping it at the top in this four nation clinical trials study.

- Harit Mohan, Dolcera

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Last week, we’d reported the results from the success of Rapamycin in increasing mice longevity.

Assuming the life expectancy improvements continue at the rate of three months per year, here are some estimates of how long one can expect to live given the year of birth. The expected life expectancy in the US today, for example, is somewhere of the order of 78 years. But by the time the person born today is 78, the life expectancy would have gone well past 110. Here is some math on expected life expectancy at birth and the actual life expectancy:

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Follow-on Biologics or Biosimilars are generic versions of Biopharmaceutical products. The vastly increased complexity of Biosimilars as compared to common traditional small-molecule drugs and the complex means for the production of Biologics (Molecular cloning, fermentation and purification processes etc.) makes it all the more difficult to ensure that an imitator product is biologically and functionally equivalent to the original. Though the generic version uses the same mechanism of action and performs essentially the same role as the original version, it is difficult to create an exactly similar copy of the original version due to complex manufacturing processes and hence the name “Follow-on Biologics”.

With many Biopharmaceutical product patents nearing expiry in the US, the government has realized the importance of regulation at the level of approval to ensure safety and efficacy of Biosimilar products.

The Hatch–Waxman Act, 1984 was the conception point for regulation of the use of follow-on biopharmaceuticals. It provided incentives to generic manufacturers by lowering the cost of approval of Biosimilars as they have to demonstrate bioequivalence but not repeat the human trials for proving efficacy and safety of the product. The act also established minimum periods of market exclusivity for brand-name products.

The European Union has established a special approval procedure which is more stringent than required for chemical generics and also requires much more comprehensive information.

Other issue involving Follow-on biologics is the period of market exclusivity for brand-name biopharmaceuticals. A period of market exclusivity would provide the incentive for investment in research and development for newer Biopharmaceuticals but also hinder the price competition from Biosimilars which lower the cost of medicine and make it affordable to the general public.

While the debate is still on, White House believes a 7-year data exclusivity period “strikes the appropriate balance between innovation and competition.” Previously, PO Board adopted a resolution in September 2008 supporting legislation that “promotes continued innovation by providing at least 14 years of data exclusivity for an innovator’s biological product with additional periods of exclusivity available for new indications and/or for approval for use in the pediatric population. We can hope that to ensure safety and efficacy of Biosimilar products US Govt. will come up with a solution appeasing both companies and consumers.

Source 1

Source 2

Priyanka Goyal
Knowledge Scientist
Dolcera

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(Via In the Pipeline) A study reported in Nature magazine concludes that Rapamycin can increase the longevity of mice. The effect seems to be better than that of Resveratrol, which has also shown anti-aging effects in several organisms.

According to a 2002 paper in the journal Science, the longevity of women has been increasing linearly at the rate of 3 months per year. We may even see that rate accelerate within our lifetime. So get ready to live well past 100.

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Clinical trials are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for new drugs or devices. We did a comparative study for key Asian countries (India, China, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka) to better understand the trend of clinical trials in Asian countries. The numbers of trials, as registered with clinicaltrials.gov by companies all across the world were considered in this study.

1. India’s second largest pie share

India is close second to China (~41%) with 36% clinical trials being registered from 2002 to 2008, to be conducted in India. Singapore and Pakistan holds third and fourth position respectively in 5 nations comparison study. Sri Lanka has only 0.3% share in the pie.

2. Clinical trials in Asia on a rise

India has shown a whopping 463.33% growth from 2002 to 2008 in terms of clinical trials registered to be conducted in India. China follows close second with 365.56% rise in the same period. However, overall statistics showed that China remains number 1 for clinical trial destination amongst 5 countries.

3. Growth curve for clinical trials in top 3 Asian Countries

As apparent from our results India and China were head to head till the year 2006, following that China started getting lead from India. On the other hand, Singapore started losing to India and China following 2004.

Read Part-II of this study at : http://blogs.dolcera.com/blog/2009/07/21/clinical-tiral-in-asia-a-dolcera-study-part-ii/ 

- Harit Mohan
Knowledge Scientist
Dolcera

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